Learning
Every child deserves the best possible start in life and support to fulfil their full potential. A child’s experiences in the Early Years has a major impact on their future life chances. A safe, secure and happy childhood is important and provides the foundation that children require to make the most of their abilities and to learn essential life skills.
‘In the moment’ is the approach we use throughout the Nursery. The idea is to capture the interest of each child or children in ‘the present moment’.
Younger children have a natural desire to learn, explore and question. We offer an environment of curiosity which enables child initiated play in order to capture a moment of engagement. We use a variety of items of curiosity to capture the children’s interest and imagination. We provide real life experiences, providing the children with ceramics, breakables, and artefacts that encourage risk taking and a deeper understanding of respect for resources. These teach the children skills for life, allowing them to negotiate problems and manage risks.
We encourage children to be independent by allowing them to put their own outdoor waterproofs on, pour their own drinks and prepare their own snack under close supervision. Independence is an essential life skill and one that needs to be nurtured from an early age.
Here at Green Lane Nursery and Childcare Centre, we place a large emphasis on our children accessing the outdoors daily, enjoying exploring the wider community and the natural environment. As a society we are spending less and less time outside. Connecting with the outdoor environment and nature has been proven to have huge health benefits in children. Children can just be themselves, explore the environment naturally and lift their self-esteem. When we go on our nature walks we go with a purpose. Looking at the season that we are we are in, noticing the changes happening around us and using what nature has given us as a learning experience. For example, in the autumn we can often be found out and about foraging for berries to come back and bake a crumble with, or collecting beautiful leaves for making collages.
We ensure children remain active whilst at Nursery. We are fully trained in ‘Ready Set Go’, a pre-school based health and wellness program designed to provide children with the knowledge and skills to live a healthy and happy life. It allows children to develop the necessary fine and gross motor skills along with many others whilst enjoying physical activities.
We have great outdoor area’s which provide children with plenty of age related learning opportunities. We have mini-beast areas to explore, planters for the children to grow plants, water and care for them, mud kitchens, water play, sand pit areas and hills with tunnels to enhance the physical development of the children. We have a wonderful sensory garden which provides a calming outdoor learning environment for small groups of children. In the future we are planning to create an outdoor eco-friendly area where children will learn about nature, grown their own produce to cook with and actively learn about recycling, including emptying our food wastes into our very own composter to create our own compost to use when growing our own vegetables.
We often go on walks around the local environment. We like to visit the Bowes Museum grounds where children have lots of open space to explore. We like to visit the local park where children enjoy finding their own ways of moving around the play equipment whilst being supported and encouraged by their carers.
Children in the Rising Star’s Room and Preschool enjoy visiting the library on a weekly basis, choosing books to bring back to Nursery and having a story read to them by the librarian whilst they are there.
We do regular baking and cooking in all rooms, children are actively involved in preparing vegetables, measuring ingredients, cutting and stirring and the most important part – eating it!
Communication with Parents
Green Lane Nursery and Childcare Centre offers an open door policy. We want to ensure that all parents/carers feel confident in leaving their child in our provision. We encourage regular communication with our team.
The Role of a Special Carer
All children will be allocated a special carer who has the special responsibility of working with a small number of children, giving them the reassurance to feel safe and cared for, and building relationships with parents/carers. The special carer will help the baby/child become familiar with the setting, and to feel confident and safe within it. They will also talk to parents/carers to make sure that the needs of the child are being met appropriately and that records of development and progress are shared with parents/carers and other professionals if necessary.
Famly App
We use an app called ‘Famly’ which allows our nursery staff to share photos, videos and instant messages with parents and parents to share information with nursery via their mobile phones, tablets or laptops. There is a news feed and the look is similar to other social media programmes that parents are familiar with such as Facebook. You can message, post and can ‘like’ items that nursery staff post and even add emoticons.
Stay and Play Sessions
We invite parents/carers to regular ‘Stay and Play’ sessions. These are themed mornings or afternoons to allow parents/carers to come into nursery and spend quality time with their child, carrying out a number of fun activities such as arts and crafts, decorating cakes, etc. This gives parents/carers to have an insight into how we operate in Nursery and to get to know the team.
Lunches and Snacks
Warm, healthy and nutritious school lunches are available on a daily basis throughout term time, provided by the school kitchen. Children are welcome to bring a packed lunch. If a child attends nursery for breakfast and/or teatime, we ask parents/carers to provide this. We offer healthy snacks during each session. These could include a variety of fruits and vegetables, wholemeal toast, breadsticks and dips. Children are encouraged to prepare their own snacks with the help of practitioners. Water and milk are available at snack time, again the children are encouraged to pour their own drink from a jug. Water is available throughout the day if children require additional drinks.
Healthy Lunch Box ideas and Oral Health for Babies and Children information can be found in our Documents section.
Sleeping Arrangements
Dedicated sleeping areas are available in Minnie’s Room and Rising Star’s Room. A Safer Sleep - a Guide for Parents can be found in our Documents section.
Changing/Toilet Facilities
All areas have age appropriate facilities. We also provide potty’s for those children who wish to use them whilst potty training.
Clothing
We ask that parents/carers send their child in named old clothes that are appropriate for the weather, ie. hats, gloves, sun hats, etc. Sun cream must be provided in warm weather.
Sacks
Every child is provided with a sack that is kept on their peg. This enables us to store a spare set of named clothing, nappies and any other items a child may need whilst at Nursery.
Enrolling Your Child
If you are interested in enrolling your child/ren into our setting, please contact us on 01833 638581 to arrange a visit with the Nursery Manager.
Prior to a child attending our setting, parents/carers are required to complete registration forms, detailing emergency contacts, existing medical conditions, etc.
> Download Registration Form Here
By signing the registration form you are agreeing to conform to all our policies and procedures. These can be found under the documents section, or a hard copy can be requested from the office.
Settling In Visits
Once the registration forms have been completed, we will contact you to arrange some settling in sessions. We also have a ‘Settling In’ form which includes information for you to fill in such as when your child sleeps (if applicable), your child’s likes and dislikes, feeding times and other information which will help us look after your child well.
We will work closely with you and your child to make the transition as smooth and stress free as possible. You are more than welcome to phone up throughout the day to seek reassurance from staff.
Forrest Bathing Sessions
We offer Forrest Bathing sessions to all of our Pre–school children, these are proven to be extremely beneficial to children. Forrest Bathing is a Japanese wellbeing programme, Shirin Yoku that enhances mental and physical health through time spent in natural spaces such as forests. Forest Bathers benefit not only from the fresh air and exercise but more deeply from the therapeutic effects of spending time in wild spaces. Time spent both relaxing in nature, and appreciating the plants and animals that live there, has been evidenced to reduce stress and enhance resilience.
Through a programme of regular visits to sites of nature, children will be able to develop a deeper appreciation of what is found there. Sensory activities, along with designated time to sit quietly in nature will encourage exploring the world at their feet in such a way as to make a personal connection with the natural world. Mindful breathing and movement exercises will help foster an awareness of self and emotions to aid resilience and self-care.
Whilst we do have a selection of wellies and waterproofs at nursery, if your child does have a set at home we would appreciate if they can be brought into nursery so that we are all dressed appropriately for the outdoors and weather conditions.
Act of Kindness
As part of our nursery curriculum, we have introduced an Act of Kindness across the setting to show our gratitude towards the various clubs that run in our local community and also special people that help and give their time for others. We hope this will promote the children’s understanding in being selfless, caring, compassionate and unconditionally kind. These acts will be recorded in our Famly App.
Dough Disco
As a nursery we have introduced dough disco into our day.
What is a Dough Disco?
Dough disco involves moulding play dough in time to music and performing different actions such as rolling it into a ball, flattening it, putting each individual finger into the dough, rolling it into a sausage and squeezing it. Our books and YouTube videos have lots of examples of all the different themed moves you can do. What are the benefits of Dough Disco?
Children and adults need to have strong muscles in their hands to enable them to write effectively. This is exercise for the fingers to improve fine motor control and gross motor skills. Doing these simple, fun exercises will help your child prepare for writing. Dough Disco can also be used to develop finger dexterity for people with health conditions or impairments.
