Our Policies and Procedures
We have a range of essential policies and procedure that are in place to ensure your child remains safe in our care. Policies and procedures help to provide a good quality provision that is compliant with the ‘Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.’
There are printed copies of all policies within the nurseries and the managers are happy to email any policy to you. Policies and procedures can also be found on the parent communication system once you have signed up.
Safeguarding and Child Protection Procedures
Safeguarding children is a statutory requirement and is a fundamental part of our practice that is embedded throughout everything we do.
Safeguarding covers many topics such as recruitment of staff, first aid, risk assessments, children’s health and behaviours and child/adult ratios. It also covers child protection and spotting signs of abuse.
There are five main types of abuse to be aware of but wider child protection concerns can include radicalisation and FGM.
If you are worried about a child, or want more information, you can click the links below to find out how to keep children safe.
Special Educational Procedures
High quality early care and education is important for all children but particularly powerful for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and for children with delayed learning and development. We acknowledge and respect that parents are the experts on their children and promote a shared dialogue and some continuity between home and the nursery.
Children who are at earlier stages of development than would be expected are observed during play to assess where their challenges lie. Meaningful opportunities are then planned to support children to fulfil their learning potential.
Professional judgements are made about the plans for the appropriate next steps in the child’s learning and any additional support that is necessary in a timely manner. For some children it may be enough to implement next steps and some differentiated interventions to secure their development. For others the path may be more challenging, in these cases we act promptly to get other agencies involved as early intervention is key to ensuring all children are supported to fulfil their learning potential.
Our Food
Snack and mealtimes are an important part of our day. Eating represents a social time for children and adults and is a time to promote healthy eating and nutritious food.
We find out about children's dietary needs, including allergies when children start at the nursery, and we then display the information in the kitchen areas so that all staff and volunteers are fully informed.
We plan menus in advance and inform the parents/carers of the allergens that may be present. We provide nutritious food for breakfast, tea and snacks, avoiding large quantities of saturated fat, sugar and salt and artificial additives, preservatives, and colourings. We include a variety of foods from different cultures, providing children with familiar foods and introducing them to new ones.
Meal and snack times are organised so children develop independence through making choices, serving food and drink, and feeding themselves. We provide children with utensils that are appropriate for their ages and stages of development and that take account of the eating practices in their cultures.
We have fresh drinking water constantly available for the children and we provide whole pasteurised milk for children under two and semi skimmed milk for our toddlers and pre-schoolers.