Overview
Babies
Our BABY ROOM welcomes children from 5 months up to 2 years and offers a warm friendly environment to transition from home to nursery care. We offer a homely environment and the Babies space is spread across 3 rooms. The downstairs front room has views onto the front garden and street which all the children enjoy, either in the arms of a familiar adult or from the step installed to enable them to stand and look out independently. A second downstairs room across the hall for messy play and dining and a sperate Sleep Room located on the first floor.
Throughout the day up to 4 members of staff work in the BABY ROOM and it has a capacity of 12 children. The children have the opportunity to engage in lots of play and activities that will encourage their all-round learning and development where they are cared for by a warm friendly team who offer all the encouragement and support the individuals need to grow into confident toddlers within the nursery setting.
Activities and learning opportunities are available throughout the day and planned to ensure varied experiences reflect the children's interests. We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage and Development Matters and provide a blended learning approach that celebrates the skill and competence of babies and young children and highlights the relationship between growth, learning, development and the environment in which they are being cared for.
The babies at Angel Day Nursery enjoy an abundance of fun and exciting activities from singing, stories, painting and sticking to water play, body painting, messy play (we are talking sitting in custard, baked beans and shaving foam!) even cooking! They enjoy garden time in their dedicated garden and take outings into the local community with favourites being the parks and fire station.
Sleep times
For young babies and young children, sleep and rest times are equally as important as the activities through which they learn. We have a separate sleep room with individual cots for our babies to ensure that they have good quality sleep times. We follow the children's routines from home and encourage parents to bring in familiar comforters and sleeping bags to help enhance their sleeping/rest experiences. The sleep room is a safe, calm and quiet room with baby monitors and regular room checks carried out by the staff in line with our Safer Sleep Policy and guidance from The Lullaby Trust
Partnership with Parents
With three children of my own, I know how important a good parent partnership is with nursery. The staff in BABY ROOM quickly build up strong positive relationships with the parents of the children in their care. This helps them to get to know the children, their needs and routines, better and to ensure parents have every confidence in us to be able to look after their children away from home.
There is a great deal of important daily information to pass to parents of children in the BABY ROOM and we do this through our dedicated FAMLY APP where we record the meals, nappy changes, drinks and sleep patterns of each child, and by talking to the parents when they drop off and collect their children. We complete an online Learning Journey on FAMLY so you can see how your child is learning and developing. We send home children’s artwork and have a wide range of photos displayed throughout the nursery to show parents what their children get up to when they are not around and for the children to see and feel PROUD of what they do here.
In addition to the personal feedback above, we post regularly on our FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM Pages (with parental permission).
Toddlers
Our TODDLER ROOM operates from the first floor of the house, across two rooms, where the children can safely free-flow between. There are also toilets and basins available for the children on this level.
Throughout the day up to 4 members of staff work in the TODDLER ROOM and children will enter between 22 months and 2 years. This age is only a guideline and it really depends on the development of the individual child. Some may join at 22 months, others may benefit from a little longer in our BABY ROOM.
In the TODDLER ROOM our aim is that the children continue to learn through play and exploration. The children have the opportunity to engage in lots of fun and exciting activities that combine play and learning to ensure that children's interests are followed, developed and extended. We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage, Development Matters and incorporate our TOPIC BASED LEARNING to provide a blended learning approach that celebrates diversity and the skill and competence of young children and highlights the relationship between growth, learning, development and the environment in which they are being cared for.
Daily OUTDOOR PLAY and exploration can be in the enclosed garden at the rear of the house, in the front garden or out and about in the community on walks which everyone loves, no matter what the weather!
Partnership with Parents
As with our baby room, the staff in our TODDLER ROOM build good relationships with the parents and families of the children. This helps when we work together with toilet training or the arrival of a new sibling etc...
Parents of the toddler children are always welcome to speak to any member of staff in the TODDLER ROOM. We pride ourselves on good communication with parents and whilst the majority of communication with parents is done verbally at drop-off and collection times, we use the FAMLY App to record meals, sleep and nappy changes.
As with the babies, we complete an online Learning Journey on FAMLY so you can see how your child is learning and developing. We send home children’s artwork and have a wide range of photos displayed throughout the nursery so that children can show their parents their friends and activities and feel PROUD of what they do here.
In addition to the personal feedback above, we post regularly on our FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM Pages (with parental permission).
Toilet Training
We encourage toilet training for children between 2-2 ½ years. Working with the parents we decide the best time to start and method for each child. All children are different so how quickly they are toilet trained depends on the individual child.
Pre-school
The PRE-SCHOOL at Angel Day Nursery operates from the Ground Floor at the rear of the house and enjoys a separate entrance. The Pre-School space is light and airy with patio doors giving direct access to the enclosed garden at the back of the house.
Children will enter our PRE–SCHOOL at around 3 years, where they continue their journey of learning and development in readiness for the transition to school.
Play underpins children's learning and development and we encourage independent play and learning in pre-school. We aim to provide all children with a broad and balanced range of experiences and build on our CHIRPY Values of Confident, Happy, Independent, and Proud Youngsters. Staff, therefore, provide a balance of planned and unplanned opportunities using our topics and the children's interests, indoors, outdoors and in the local community, to enable positive learning across all the areas of the EYFS and Development Matters.
Liaison with schools
Our policy is to have a strong link with the primary school which your child will be attending to ensure that the transition from nursery to school is a smooth one. This involves visiting the school, inviting the teacher to Pre-School to meet your child and working together to ensure we support the skills and competencies required to make a positive transition into Reception.
Partnership with Parents
We pride ourselves on good communication with parents throughout the nursery and when your children get to Pre-School they will often be excited to tell you about their day and we encourage this positive communication. We continue to use the FAMLY APP to record meals, sleep, and the online Learning Journey and encourage parents into the setting at collection time for verbal feedback.
In addition to the personal feedback above, we post regularly on our FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM Pages (with parental permission).
Assessments and Record Keeping
All children are OBSERVED and ASSESSED on a daily basis and regular observations are posted on the Famly App, to the children’s individual Learning Journey and twice a year a written progress report is sent out to parents. Bi-Annual PARENTS EVENINGS are very popular, allowing us to get together for an informal chat and allowing parents to explore the nursery at leisure – admiring the creative and fun exploits that the children enjoy.