We hope that you and your family are still keeping safe as we progress into our second round of “lockdown” period.  The YMCA is continuing to provide childcare for the children of critical workers and for those families who require the most support at this time. This week we have been able to increase the number of settings that are able to support families, with the reopening of St Vincent Nursery in Gosport for full day care and all of our pre-schools, where we are now able to offer some sessions each week.

The current status of our nurseries and pre-schools is:

Open (for eligible families only)

Andover, Fairthorne Manor, New Milton, Whale Island, St Mary’s Hospital Newport, Woolston, Millbrook, Gosport

Partially open (our teams continue to contact eligible families directly)

Weston, Newtown, Portsea, Townhill

Closed

Winchester House, Shanklin (this nursery is currently only supporting the children in the YMCA Mother and Baby Unit)

Please remember that the Government advice on eligible families, which we are continuing to follow, remains clear.  Where children can be at home they should be, but where this is not possible, and they fall into one of the two categories below, childcare should be available:

• Children whose parents are on the critical workers list (see link) who cannot be at home
• Vulnerable Children

Don’t forget the resources page on our website https://ymca-fg.org/resources/ which is filling with lots of wonderful stories and activities to help during the “lockdown”.