The Rooms: Overview
Settling
The aim of nursery staff is to ensure that children feel happy, comfortable, welcome and secure at all times. To ensure this, we suggest that parents and their children visit and spend some time at the nursery prior to commencement of their placement. We do not charge you for these sessions.
This time will allow you as a parent to:
- Chat to staff informally
- Watch staff at work
- Voice concerns you may have
- Ask questions which you may not have thought to ask at enrolment
It will allow your child to:
- Explore new toys, new surroundings, in the comfort of your presence
- Become familiar with new faces – e.g. staff, children.
- Help establish a feeling of security and trust – remember your feelings/vibes will be transferred to your child
We suggest that you never leave your child at the nursery without saying you are going and without reassuring them you will be back. This should be done quickly and confidently.
Induction
On your child’s first day you will be shown everything relevant for the care of your child and a member of staff will complete the induction form contained within the centre section. We will then ask you to sign that you have received all of that information to ensure that you have complete confidence in our records and information that we need to care for your child.
Collection Procedure
On admission to the nursery all parents are given the security code to the main door. On the placement details form they must clearly state any other persons authorised to collect their child. It may be grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends or childminders. None of these are entitled to the security code. They must ring the doorbell and identify themselves (we should have been introduced already prior to the collection of the child.)
Transitions
As children in the baby room approach 18 months of age they will be provided with opportunities to visit the Toddler Room. These transition periods will gradually increase from a few hours to full days over a number of weeks and will enable your child to mix with the staff and children in the Toddler Room.
Children are moved at a time that suits them in their development and never based on just an age criteria. Our staff, who have over 100 combined years of child care between them, will assess the children and discuss with you when it is appropriate to move your child into the next room.
This procedure is repeated when children move from the Toddler Room to the Pre School Room as well. Children in the Pre School Room may well be offered the chance to mix with the older children in the After School and Holiday club in the last month before they go to school for the first time to allow them to mix with children of a school age.
