Nursery Policies
SAFETY & SECURITY
When your child is at one of our nurseries you can rest in the knowledge theat they will be dafe and seccure in our care.
Our nurseries are secure at all times which means only registered staff, parents and visitors have access. All visitors are monitored, helping to keep the children safe.
All staff at our nurseries undergo identity checks, reference checks and DBS checks. Staff complete inductions to enable them to understand their role, responsibilities and policies and procedures within the daily routines of the nursery.
It is not possible to detail here all the health and safety matters that come up on a day to day basis. Therefore, management and staff are constantly mindful of their responsibilities, individually and collectively for the safety of the children, themselves and colleagues. We ensure that all Health and Safety assessments, fire procedures, control of infections diseases and ALL our staff complete FIRST AID TRAINING.
SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN PROCEDURES
Our nurseries will provide safe and secure environments where the children are valued, respected, cared for and listened to by the staff. Staff training is ongoing to promote awareness of safeguarding children. The nursery will work alongside all agencies that are concerned over welfare and well-being of the child. Our more in-depth Safeguarding Children policy is available at parents/carers/guardians request.
INCLUSION AND EQUALITY
At our nurseries we take great care to treat each individual as a person in their own right, with equal rights and responsibilities to any other individual, whether they are an adult or a child. We are committed to providing equality of opportunity and anti-discrimination on the grounds of gender, age, race, religion or belief, marriage or civil partnership, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, pregnancy or maternity, ethnic or national origin, or political belief has no place within our nursery.
SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS & DISABILITY POLICY
At our nurseries we are committed to the inclusion of all children including children with additional needs. All children have the right to be cared for and educated to develop to their full potential alongside each other through positive experiences, to enable them to share opportunities and experiences and develop and learn from each other. We provide a positive ans welcoming environment where children are supported according to their individual needs and we work hard to ensure no children are discriminated against or put at a disadvantage as a consequence of their needs.
NURSERY FEES
To reserve a nursery place we require a £20 registration fee and a deposit/holding fee (deposit refundable at end of contract).
Once your child starts nursery the fees are due and payable on the 1st day of each month. One month's written notice must be given on the 1st ot the month for a child leaving nursery, or one month's fee's in lieu of such notice.
SETTLING IN PROCEDURE
It is important that your child feels safe and happy at our nurseries. To help achieve this we ask you allow a settling in period to allow your child to get to know us and us you.
We recommend two short pre-visits prior to the start date. These visits are free of charge. As each child is different some may require longer settling in periods and others less.
DAILY REPORTS
Staff complete daily observation reports for each child and this includes meals, nappy changes, sleep times, activities/observations from throughout the day and any additional information. Staff also give verbal feedback about each child at their collection time.
MEALTIMES / RESTIMES
At our nurseries we believe that mealtimes should be happy, social occasions for children and staff alike. We promote shared, enjoyable positive interactions at these times.
We are committed to offering children healthy, nutritious and balanced meals. We ensure the children receive a balanced and healthy breakfast, a hot lunchtime meal and an afternoon snack/tea for children attending a full day at nursery. Fresh drinking water is always available and accessible.
All food is prepared and served by our nursery cook. Our latest environmental health report shows that we acheived a 5-star rating, which is the highest standard.
We recognise parents' knowledge of their child with regard to sleep routines and will, where possible, work together to ensure each child's individual sleep routines and well'being continues to be met.
However, staff will not force a child to sleep or keep them awake against his or her will. Thet will also not usually wake children from their sleep. We are sometimes asked by parents to wake their child after a certain time. We are reluctant to do this as children generally develop their own sleep pattern and waking can cause more problems than letting them sleep.
Children under 3 years are encouraged to have a rest during the day as nursery is a busy day and will often tire children out. Sleep is essential for healthy growth. We want children to enjoy theor day and feeling tired, fretful and unhappy makes for an unenjoyable day for the child.
PROMOTING POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR
At our nurseries we believe that children flourish best when they know how they and others are ecxpected to behave. Children gain respect through interaction with caring adults who act as good role models, show them respect and value their individual personalities. The nursery actively promotes British values and encourages and praises positive, caring and polite behaviour at all times and provides an environment where children learn to respect themselves, other people and their surroundings.
Children need to have set boundaries of behaviour for their own safety and the safety of their peers. Within the nursery we aim to set these boundaries in a way which helps the child develop a sense of the significance of their own behaviour, both in their own environment and that of others around them. Restrictions on the child's natural desire to explore and develop their own ideas and concept are kept to a minimum.
We aim to offer a calm, relaxed and caring environment to all children in our care. Physical punishment of any kind is forbidden.
IF MY CHILD IS UNWELL
At our nurseries we promote the good health of all children attending. To help keep children healthy and minimise infection, we do not expect children to attend nursery if they are unwell. If a child is unwell it is in their best interest to be in a home environment with adults they know well rather than at nursery with their peers. We ask you to keep your child at home if they have a high temperature, sickness and/or diarrhoea (48 hours exclusion), unidentified rashes or spots and if they are generally too unwell to be at nursery. Please see our full policy for further guidelines. We also ask that you keep us informed and let us know of any medicines that have been given to your child. It is also important for us to know if your child is off nursery whether it is due to illness or holiday.
PARENT PARTNERSHIPS
At our nurseries we believe that parents and staff need to work together in a close partnership in order for children to receive the quality of care and early learning to meet their individual needs. Parents know their child better than anyone. We welcome parents as partners and support a two-way sharing of information that helps establish trust and understanding. We are committed to supporting parents in an open and sensitive manner to include them as an integral part of the care and early learning team within the nursery.
Our key person system supports engagement with all parents and will use strategies to ensure that all parents can contribute to initial assessments of children's progress. Parents are encouraged to support and share information about their children's learning and development at home. The key person system ensure all practitioners use effective, targeted strategies and interventions to support learning that match most children's individual needs.
We have an extensive parent information notice borad to keep you up to date on nursery happenings and fundraising/charity events and we produce regular newsletters.
We also hold annual parent drop in sessions and a Christmas family fun day.
CONFIDENTIALITY
At our nurseries we recognise that we hold sensitive/confidential information about children and their families and the staff we employ. This information is used to meet children’s needs, for registers, invoices and emergency contacts. We store all records in a locked cabinet or on the office computer. Any information shared with the staff team is done on a ‘need to know’ basis and treated in confidence. In the case of child protection issues the needs of the child come first and we will follow our procedures and inform necessary outside agencies.
We follow the legal requirements set out in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) 2017 and accompanying regulations about the information we must hold about registered children and their families and the staff working at the nursery.
We follow the requirements of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 with regard to the storage of data and access to it.
COMPLAINTS
We welcome any suggestions from parents on how we can improve our services, and will give prompt and serious attention to any concerns that parents may have. Any concerns will be dealt with professionally and promptly to ensure that any issues arising from them are handled effectively and to ensure the welfare of all children, enable ongoing cooperative partnership with parents and to continually improve the quality of the nursery.
Any complaints or concerns should be discussed with the Nursery Manager - Susan Cawthorne or Deputy Managers who will try to resolve the situation and prevent reoccurrence.
If you cannot resolve the matter in this way or if you have a safeguarding concern please contact OFSTED on 03001234666
