At Sparkling Angels Nursery, our aim is to establish positive relationships with the child and Parent/Carer, and the nursery’s procedures are designed to support this. To help them and their parents/carers settle into nursery life, children will be offered few visits to the day setting before their start date. The purpose of the visits is to enable the child and Parent/Carer to familiarise themselves with the setting, staff, and other children.
PLAY TO LEARN
Play is how children learn and socialise. When children play they are testing things out and exploring the world around them; they are expressing themselves, learning to communicate and developing social skills; they are developing their imagination, independence and creativity.
At Sparkling Angels Nurseries, we encourage children to play at their own pace with things they are interested in, always supported by our highly trained staff. A wide variety of equipment, activities and resources is available in each room, suitable for the age group and within easy reach of the children so that they can select what they want to play with and when.
We offer a balanced mixture of child-initiated play, where the child takes the lead and follows their own path, and more structured, adult-led activities such as story time, craft sessions and regular music, dance and drama sessions.
Sensory play is important and our children are given plenty of opportunity to get messy with sand, water, mud, paint and play dough. Our sensory room is a fun and favourite place with the children especially the babies and toddlers and those with special needs.
All our children get plenty of fresh air and exercise, playing in our outdoor learning areas which are all fitted with safety surfaces. We have a free-flow use of outdoor and children regularly use the outdoor space
We teach our children to learn and understand boundaries, to share and to respect each other but also to gain self-esteem so they are well-equipped and confident when the time comes to leave nursery and start school.
CHILDREN’S MONITORING AND PROGRESS REVIEW
Once your child is registered with us, we will assign a key person to your child, who is a member of staff with lead responsibility for the child. It is the responsibility of the senior of each room to allocate a Key person to each child. It is important that the Key persons ensure that all staff working in each room are aware of all the children in their care so that Parents/Carers can be fully informed about their child at the beginning and end of each day.
Key Persons are responsible for ensuring suitable activities are planned for each individual child to support and encourage all areas of their development. They will plan, carry out and also evaluate the activities to make sure the child has challenging and achievable targets to work towards.
Key person will record observations on a child’s development in various ways – snap-shot observations, which are short recordings of something the child may have said or done, long observations which provide more detail of how the child reacts in situations or during activities and photographs recording activities and achievements. These form part of the child’s development folder and shared with parents on a regular basis.
We use Tapestry online platform to record child’s assessment and observations. Parents and carers are invited to add their own observations and experiences on tapestry. They will be sent an invitation to create secure logging details.
If a child leaves us to move to another setting or to school, we transfer the child assessment record to their new setting.
HEALTHY EATING
At sparkling Angels, We provide healthy and nutritious meals. Our day nursery setting prepare freshly cooked meals daily.
The preschool settings do not cook but encourage parents to provide their children with healthy packed lunch.
We provide a mid-morning snack, a two-course lunch and high tea in the afternoon, all served in a neat environment under the close supervision of our staff.
Special dietary requirements are catered for and care taken to protect those with allergies and intolerance from harm. In cases of extreme intolerance, parents are invited to provide food from home.
Mealtimes are happy and sociable, with plenty of lively chatter around the tables. Staff sit with the children, acting as role models and providing any assistance needed. Independence is promoted and the children help with clearing away afterwards.
For more details see our Food and food hygiene policy and to see our current menu, visit our Downloads section.