2016
Open Monday to Friday
8am to 6pm
52 weeks a year
exc. Bank Hols
7.30am to 8am on request
Website – astepaheadnursery.co.uk
Index
Page 3 – About us
Page 4 – Nursery Staff
Page 5 – Aims and Objectives
Page 6 - Principles
Page 7 – Key Workers/Learning
Page 8-9 – The Curriculum
Page 10 – Parental involvement/ Daily routine
Page 11 – Session times/Nursery prices
Page 12 – Healthy Eating and Drinking
Page 14 – Absence/Holidays/Health and Hygiene/Snack
Page 15 – What to provide
Page 16 - What to wear
Page 17 – Welcome Policy/Settling in Policy
Page 18 – Farewell Policy
Page 19 - Registration Form and Consent Forms (information)
Page 20 – Registration Form
Page 21 - Consent Forms
Page 22 – Child Medical History Form
A Step Ahead Children’s Nursery
About us
We provide childcare 8am to 6pm, five days a weeks, 51 weeks of the year. The nursery is a 54 place setting that cares for children aged 3months- 5 years.
We are an ‘outstanding’ nursery!
We are very proud of the standard of care we provide for children and are very proud of our ‘‘outstanding” status that was awarded to us by Ofsted in March 2014. The report highlighted our strong team and awarded us outstanding in all areas of the nursery. We pride ourselves on being a friendly, fun loving and well qualified staff team who strive to provide outstanding care for your child. The children are our main priority and we strive to ensure that all children have their individual needs met, are supported in meeting their full learning potential and are happy in our care. We understand that children learn through play and as such we use child initiated play and games to provide learning opportunities for the children as well as adult planned activities.
We believe the nursery environment which we provide is safe, welcoming and well facilitated with a large variety of exciting and purposeful furniture, toys and resources. Our nursery has been purpose built and is situated in the beautiful country village of Lower Beeding, which is just 3 miles from Horsham. We have 4 main play rooms which were named by the children themselves. 'Zebra Room' and 'Giraffe Room' (for children 3-5yrs) and the ‘Bumblebee Room’ and 'Ladybird Room' (for children aged 3 months- 3 years) which also has a separate sleeping room. All rooms are spacious, vibrant and full of toys and resources. The ages of the children in each room are estimated as each child is transitioned from one room to another based on their own personal development. This ensures that we challenge and engage with the children at the correct level.
We boast a fabulous outdoor area which has been designed to allow fun and safe play all year round, whatever the weather. The garden is also well equipped with a variety of resources which includes climbing frames, slides, a castle, veggie patch and a range of little houses and cars/trikes etc
We also have a kitchen onsite with our own cook. This means we can provide fresh and home-made meals for the children and can cater for all allergies and special requirements. Breakfast, snacks, lunch, tea and puddings are all included in the sessions prices.
We are hugely proud of the care and environment we provide for the children - please come and visit us and see for yourself.
Nursery Team
We endeavour to ensure all our team are first aid trained
Nursery Manager
Kim Goodfellow
Kim has extensive experience as a Childcare Practitioner in senior management positions but also as a childcare assessor, so her skills learnt in assessing will support her mentoring role within the nursery team for continuous professional development.
Ladybirds (Babies)
Room Leader - Helen Rayner – L3
Isabelle Hill – Nursery Assistant
Hannah Whitehead L3
Bumblebees (Toddlers)
Room Leader– Amy Beswetherick L3
Martha Pointing NVQ Level 2
Rob Light L3
Giraffe (Toddlers rising 3’s)
Room Leader – Ellen Cole L3 – Deputy Manager
Jane Lloyd L3
Connor Fletcher - training
Ana Padilla – Graduate
Zebra – Pre School Room starting school in the September
Sharon Fletcher L3 – Pre School Lead
Laura Maddison L2 – Pre School Lead
Emily Godsell – L3 – works across all rooms Tuesday and Wednesday
Amy Etheridge – works across all rooms Thursday and Friday
Sue Curran – Cook
Our Full Time staff team work 4 long days to ensure continuity across the day for the children and parents. We have found that communication is more effective as no break down of information throughout the day as the team you drop your children off to in the morning are the team you will collect from in the evening. You will be given a full handover at the end of each day to understand how you child has been and what activities they have undertaken that day.
We are also supported by a management team
Nursery Owner/Business Manager
Antonia Ogden-Meade RGN, MSc, Early Years Professional
Antonia Ogden-Meade has worked in Quality and Performance for over 20 years. She started her career in the NHS as a Nurse and worked in Children's health services for a number of years before going into performance and operational management. Having been an Executive Director of Performance and Operations for 4 years, Antonia left the NHS to set up her own Nursery in 2006 and has since expanded her successful business to 7 settings. Antonia achieved Ofsted Inspection status and carries out Ofsted Inspections as part of her ongoing professional development.
Head of Operations - Started Feb 2012
Lorraine Brown – NVQ 3 /ILM Dip in Leadership and Management
Lorraine Brown formally worked in the NHS as a Family and Childcare coordinator for 10 years, project managing the build of nurseries and overseeing the business and operational aspects. Since being in our organisation she has successfully project managed and implemented the start up of 4 new settings and acts as Mentor and coach to the other settings managers. She believes you are only as good as your team and time and ongoing reviews to support them provides for a happy team and happy children.
Based in our Head Office
Kathryn Belmore – HR Manager
Kathryn is on hand daily to provide support to the teams and also to ensure that our rigorous recruitment procedure is managed effectively. All new employees are recruited via Kathryn to ensure good recruitment and safeguarding practices. Kathryn started as a Nursery Nurse L3 in another setting and transferred to the HR team and has since undertaken HR Qualifications.
Alison Austin – Accounts Manager
Alison has extensive knowledge of our software system and has previously worked for a nursery on the accounts team. If our nursery manager is unable to help you Alison is available daily to help resolve any accounts problems.
Lisa Marshall
Lisa works Monday and Tuesday and is responsible for the Free Entitlement Grant claims and allocation for the nurseries. Lisa also supports collation of auditing information for the management team and supports Alison with accounts queries.
Aims and Objectives
· To provide a safe, happy environment with the appropriate adult to child ratio in accordance to OFSTED all-day care standards for under 5’s.
· To ensure children are happy and reach their full potential
· To ensure children’s individual needs are met
· To encourage parent/carer partnerships
· To enhance children’s confidence and to give children a positive sense of self
· To provide an environment where children feel safe and welcome
· To provide children with suitable resources and equipment for them to learn and play, safely and successfully with.
· To plan and provide exciting and purposeful activities for children to enhance their learning and development.
· To respect and follow child initiated play
· To encourage staff to update and further their training to ensure quality care for the children.
· To provide a Childcare setting where children are treated and respected equally regardless of gender, race, disability or religion.
Principles
Children
· To be kept safe at all times
· To come first at all times
· To be shown respect and their views heard
· To be given choices whenever possible
· To feel valued and important
· To have fun within sensible boundaries
· To be given the environment to learn naturally at their own pace
· To learn important life skills: independence, respect of themselves and the respect of others
· To be given positive encouragement and their self-esteem boosted
Parents
· To know that their children are kept safe at all times
· To know that they are important
· To know that we care about their children
· To know that they are the most important person in their child’s life
· To feel they can talk to us about anything
Staff
· To be accommodating with parent’s requirements where possible and where not possible to have an open discussion with parents with clear rationale
· To feel valued and happy
· To be flexible with their colleagues
· To be professional at all times
· To feel that they can discuss any issues/concerns with senior management
All our staff have enhanced disclosure Police checks and our recruitment process follows OFSTED guidelines. All our fulltime staff have first aid and child protection training. All staff have appraisals and a training plan to ensure we offer the best care possible for all our children using the latest resources and techniques. We have a rolling programme annually to ensure all staff are first aid trained. Please feel free to speak to the team members about their qualifications and experience.
A key person who works with your child
Our key person system gives each member of staff responsibility for just a few children. Each child in the group has one special adult to relate to, which can make settling into the group much easier. The key person maintains links with your child’s home setting, working with you the parent/carer through shared record keeping to ensure that all children are supported in reaching their full potential. Your child’s learning journal is shared with you at parents/carers update meetings but is available for you to see at any time. All progress against the Early Years Foundation Stage programme is recorded in the journal alongside the next steps identified to support ongoing progress. The journals are sent to your child’s school to support their transition as they enter Reception.
We are always happy to speak to you about your child’s progress. This can be arranged within session times, in a formal parents/carers evening meeting, or before/after sessions whichever is more convenient for you.
Learning
Planning is displayed on the ‘Parent Information Board’ in the main hall but will also be available in each of the rooms. Planning ensures we have the right resources in place to support learning and development but we are flexible in our approach so that the learning is ‘child led’ where possible. The staff will support children’s learning by tailoring activities to meet children’s individual needs and to ensure that all equipment used is appropriate to the age and developmental stage of the child. Children’s learning and development is continually observed, monitored and reviewed to ensure children are achieving their potential.
We follow the ‘Revised’ Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) programme which ensures that your child’s learning and development is fully supported and encourages them to reach their potential. The EYFS is underpinned by 4 themes – The Unique Child, Positive Relationships, Enabling Environments and Learning & Development. We develop activities and experiences, and extend opportunities which the children themselves have identified which ensure we are constantly supporting the learning and development of the children on an individual level. Through these adult and child led experiences we can also make sure that all the themes are being addressed and that your child is achieving to their potential.
The 7 areas underpinning the Learning and Development Theme are:
1. Personal, Social, Emotional Development
All children are assigned a key person who is responsible in ensuring that their key children are happy and settled into nursery life and that their physical and emotional needs are being met. Our key person system and our welcoming and nurturing environment assist us in providing an environment where children can feel confident and thrive. Children’s personal, social and emotional needs are met and are individually supported in developing a positive sense of self. Children are respected as individuals and are encouraged to express their own feelings, make their own choices and to respect the opinions and choices of others. We believe children’s time at nursery is vital in constructing positive social skills at an early age and aids children in making positive and suitable relationships with staff and peers. We provide many activities, stories and role play opportunities to support children’s understanding of appropriate relationships, what appropriate behaviour is and how to manage their feelings. Through activities, conversation and practical example, the children learn positive ways to play, share and co-operating with other children and adults.
2. Communication and Language
We value what children say and always give opportunities and assistance for children to verbally and non-verbally communicate with us. We feel it’s important that children feel heard and are given the opportunity to verbalise their feeling and needs to both staff and peers.
To encourage children’s communication and language development we provide a variety of situations, experience and activities that support children in speaking, listening and understanding across the age groups. From babbling with babies, to group games with the toddlers, to the jolly phonics songs we sing with the pre-schoolers, staff are always seeking ways to encourage children to be more vocal and help children improve their vocabulary, fluency and pronunciation.