As the children arrive in the morning, emphasis is put on settling them into the nursery environment. Because children often arrive at different times, activities are arranged so that they can join in freely as they wish.
At 8.00am children are offered a choice for breakfast of cereal, toast, fruit and milk or water. It is inevitable that not all children will always want to eat but they are all encouraged to sit at the table during breakfast time.
At 9.00am children will go into their rooms for their planned activities. Staff are trained to realise the potential learning opportunities of each child’s chosen activity and are therefore able to help achieve the desirable learning outcomes.
We believe that it is important to include outside play in the nursery’s daily plan. Fresh air and natural light are vital to everyone’s health and for this reason, weather permitting; the children are encouraged to play outside or are taken for a walk. We try to bring the children into contact with nature as much as possible to increase their understanding of the environment. We ask all parents to provide us with a pair of named wellington boots, which are kept at the nursery. In our Toddler and Pre-school Room we are able to offer a free-flow access into our fully enclosed garden where children are able to move freely between indoors and outdoors throughout the day.
Dinnertime is around 12.00 noon. All meal times are used as an opportunity to encourage the development of a child’s social skills. Meal times are also used to teach the children polite table manners. We expect children arriving at the nursery after this time to have had lunch at home. After lunch, some children, especially the younger ones, will need to have a sleep to recuperate for the afternoon activities.
Teatime is at 4.00pm and is followed by short structured activities. This allows children to be easily removed from their activities at their going home time.
When parents/carers collect their children, they are given a small written report on their child’s day. They have an opportunity to talk with the staff about their child’s day at the nursery if they so wish. A member of the management team is always available if needed.
We prefer not to impose a rigid structure on the daily activities within our nursery. Although it is obviously important to us to have planned activities to ensure that we are providing a strong comprehensive curriculum. We aim to make each child feel that learning is fun and exciting, that he/she is confident, clever and can learn. By implementing our curriculum along with a child’s willingness to learn and their natural ability to experiment, we feel this will enable each child to develop self-confidence and a positive attitude towards education and life.