Future Einsteins

High quality childcare for children 0-5 years of age

Curriculum

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Above image: Exploring Books.

For our younger children we support the family by offering a routine which parents’ request. This covers individual feeding times and sleeping requirements. We have a separate sleeping room to ensure babies have the quiet and peaceful sleeping time they need. We work very closely with parents ensuring that we offer a service they want for their child.

As soon as children start nursery we begin to encourage a wide range of experiences from tactile such as jelly, blancmange, spaghetti, corn flour, etc to investigative skills through sand and water play. Singing, music and movement, reading and one to one encouragement eg learning to crawl, walk etc are all incorporated in our nursery day.

As children progress through the nursery we allow children to explore their environment freely and encourage their skills from hands on experiences. Children are involved in gardening, recycling, composting and learning from an early age how to care for their surroundings.

We have an excellent outdoor play area which is mainly grassed but includes decking, sand and water area, mini beast area, construction, baby decking, music area, sensory garden, vegetable patches and a scarecrow ! We believe children should be outside as much as possible, with consideration in hot weather ( sun hats and sun cream are always used ) but also able to be outside in the rain and the snow. ( we have suitable protective suits and Wellington boots ) It is these experiences that are important to their learning.

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Above image: Fun with role play.

Within the guidelines of the national foundation stage curriculum our qualified and enthusiastic staff offer a syllabus of experiences covering the six major areas of learning:

• Knowledge and understanding of the world
• Mathematics
• Personal, social and emotional development
• Communication language and literacy
• Physical development
• Creative development

These are delivered through a balance of child initiated and adult led experiences. Enhanced through personal tuition from “music for minors” who extend our children’s learning through musical experience and “ La Jolie Ronde” who provide French tuition for our pre-school children.

All activities in each area are developed around topics relevant to the experiences and interests of young people. These themes such as mini-beasts, weather, holidays etc allow them to learn by building on their own understanding of the world.

Nutrition

Underneath the umbrella of care we offer, we are one of few nurseries who can truly say they offer an all round healthy environment for young children.

Our fully qualified chef Stephen has through experience encouraged children to eat a diverse range of healthy meals avoiding chips, waffles, smiley faces and processed foods. Our promotion of healthy eating recently won us the five a day award and the Gold award from the environmental health department.

A typical menu would be:

All our produce is locally sourced and wherever possible organic. We are moving to try to locate a local grower who would be willing to work alongside us to deliver organic fruit and vegetables directly from the supplier. All dietary requirements or allergies are catered for and meals can be tailor made to embrace the child’s needs.

Working with parents

Parents have helped us to provide a service that they want to have through ideas and consultations at our parent committee meetings. These are always well attended and have had topics such as “moving towards accreditation”, “garden restyling”, “curriculum planning” and most recently “French and German in pre-school”

For those who cannot attend parent committee meetings, ideas are sought through questionnaires and comments. We also have gardening days where parents have assisted in building sensory areas and vegetable patches for children’s use. We hold both Spring and Autumn parents’ evenings where parents come together and discuss their child’s development and progression not forgetting our fun sports day.