Prospectus

Bright Sparks Nursery Prospectus

We are a fun and friendly nursery situated within St Peters Church Hall, Stoke Park Drive.

We cater for children from 2 to school age. We have highly qualified staff that plans varied activities based upon ‘The Early Years Foundation Stage’. We work closely with parents and are available to discuss your individual child’s development and needs.

Parents are invited to get involved in their child’s education and our staff work hard to establish strong links between the nursery and home.

We provide a family atmosphere and an adult ratio of 1:4 for 2 year olds and 1:8 for 3 and 4 year olds.

We focus on learning through play and we are able to carefully monitor your child’s individual needs through our ‘Key-Person’ system.

Over the years our local community has supported us. This has enabled the group to provide a wide range of equipment, and resources and good quality storage.

Bright Sparks has strong links with the local primary schools, and works hard to create effective transitions when your child moves on to school. Halifax primary school is the nursery’s main catchment school; we are fortunate to have good links with the school.

We invite you to take a visit to our website:

www.brightsparksnursery.org

Our aim is:

We aim to provide a safe, secure and stimulating environment in which children will feel happy and develop confidence. We cater for individual needs of the children and ensure equality of opportunity through carefully planned activities. Through close links to Halifax primary school and the primary schools of your choosing we hope to help your child progress to the next stage in their education.

Our nursery aims to:

Provide high quality care and education for children below statutory school age;
Work in partnership with parents to help children to learn and develop;
Add to the life and well-being of the local community;
Offer children and their parents a service that promotes equality and values diversity.

We offer your child:

A range of activities that help children to achieve their potential.
Individual care and attention made possible by a high ratio of adults to children.
Fun and friendship with children and other adults.
The support of a ‘Key –person’.
The opportunities for you and your family to be directly involved, in the activities of the group and in your child’s progress.

Our nursery meets at the following times:

8:30am- 9:00am (early club)
9:00am – 12:00pm (morning session)
12:00pm – 12:30pm (lunch club)
12:30pm – 15:30pm (afternoon session)
15:30pm – 16:00pm (late club)

Our nursery offers education and care for children 2 years to 5 years; we offer 15 or 30 hours for those who are eligible.

Admissions policy:

We arrange our waiting list in order that the application is received, and by birth dates.

We give priority in the following order :-

Emergency /social care services.
Existing 2 and 3 year olds in receipt of their early education funding.
Existing children with fees.
3 – 4 year olds, funded returning siblings.
2 year funding with priority to siblings.
Fee paying, priority to siblings.

Children who are funded (from the term after the child’s third birthday) can claim up to 15 hours funding per week. Parents are asked to request what sessions they would like prior to half term so that we are able to schedule sessions for the next term. We do try to satisfy everyone’s needs but unfortunately we cannot always give the preferred session times.

Parents:

Parents are regarded as members of our setting who have full participatory rights. These include a right to be:

Valued and respected;
Kept informed;
Includes at all levels.

As a voluntary managed setting, we also depend on the good will of parents and their involvement to keep going. Membership of the setting carries expectations on parents for their support and commitment.

Children’s development and learning:

We aim to ensure that each child;

Is in a safe and stimulating environment;
Is given generous care and attention, because of our ratio of qualified staff to children.
Have the chance to join in with other children and adults to live, play, work and learn together;
Is helped to take forward her/his learning and development by being helped to build on what she/he already knows and can do;
Has a personal ‘Key-Person’ who makes sure each child makes satisfying progress;
Is in a setting that sees parents as partners in helping each child to learn and develop;
And is in a setting in which parents help to shape the service it offers.

The Early Years Foundation Stage:

The provision for children’s development and learning is guided by the Early Years Foundations stage. How we provide for development and learning:

Children start to learn about the world around them from the moment they are born. The care and education offered by our setting helps children to children to continue to do this by providing all of the children with interesting activities that are appropriate for this age and stage of development.

Our approach to learning and development and assessment

Learning through play:

Play helps young children to learn and develop through doing and talking, which research has shown to be the means by which young children learn to think. Our setting uses the ‘development matters’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage guidance to plan and provide a range of play activities, which help children to make progress in each of the areas of learning and development. In some of these activities, children decide how they will use the activity and, in others, an adult takes the lead in helping the children to take part in the activity. In all activities, information from ‘development matters’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage has been used to decide what equipment to provide and how to provide it.

Characteristics of effective learning:

We understand that all children engage with other people and their environment through the characteristics of effective learning that are described in ‘development matters’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage guidance as:

Playing and exploring – engagement;
Active learning – motivation;
Creating and thinking critically – thinking.

We aim to provide for the characteristics of effective learning by observing how a child is learning and being clear about what we can do and provide in order to support each other to remain an effective and motivated learner.

Assessment:

We assess how young children are learning and developing by observing them frequently. We use information that we gain from observations, as well as from photographs or videos of the children, to document their progress and where this may be leading them. We believe that parents know their children best and we ask them to contribute to assessment by sharing information about what their children like to do at home and how they, as parents, are supporting development. We make periodic assessment summaries of children’s achievement based on our ongoing development records. These form part of children’s records of achievement. We undertake these assessment summaries at regular intervals, as well as times of transition, such as when a child moves on to school.

Progress check at age 2:

The Early Years Foundation stage requires that we supply parents and carers with a short written summary of their child’s development in the 3 prime areas of learning and development: personal, social and emotional development; physical development and communication and language when a child is aged between 24-36 months. The ‘Key-Person’ is responsible for completing the check using information from ongoing observational assessments carried out as part of our everyday practice, taking account of the views and contributions of parents and other professionals.

Records of Achievement:

The setting keeps record of achievement for each child. Your child’s record of achievement helps us to celebrate together her/ his achievements and to work together to provide what your child needs for his/ her well-being and to make progress.

Your child’s ‘Key-Person’ will work in partnership with you to keep this record. To do this you and she/he will collect information about your child’s needs, activities, interests and achievements. This information will enable the ‘Key-Person’ to identify your child’s stage of progress. You and the ‘Key-Person’ will then decided on how to help your child to move on to the next stage.

Working together for your children:

We maintain the ratio of children in the setting that is set by the Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements and where possible provide higher staff numbers. This helps us to…

Give time and attention to each child;
Talk with the children about their interests and activities;
Help children to experience and benefit from the activities we provide;
Allow the children to explore and be adventurous in safety.

Key-Person:

Our ‘Key-Person’ system gives each member of staff particular responsibility for a small group of children. The ‘Key-Person’s’ role is to help ensure that every child’s care is tailored to meet their individual needs, help children become familiar with the setting, offer a settled relationship for the child and build a relationship with their parents, through sharing records, and ensuring that the curriculum is tailored to their needs and interests.

Training:

The nursery supports all staff members to continue their professional development through on going training.

This maybe completing qualifications or in setting training and workshops provided by the work-forced development team (Suffolk County Council).

The nursery also offers support to the local Sixth forms and colleges for the childcare and health and social care students. We allow students to use the nursery for practical experience during their courses.

We also offer opportunity for some local high schools to gain work experience.

Staff hold food hygiene; safeguarding, prevent training and first aid certificates and these are up dated every three years.

The role of parents:

In our nursery we recognise that parents are the first most important educator of their children. All of the staff see themselves as partners with parents in providing care and education for their children. Our aim is to involve parents as much or as little as they would like, during the foundation stages of their child’s education.

Things parents can be involved in:

Exchanging knowledge about their children’s, needs, activities, interests and progress with the staff;
Contributing to the progress check at age 2;
Sharing their own special interests with the children. This can be shared onto your childs Tapestry;
To assist in the group with the children;
To assist with fundraising;
Building friendships with other parents in the setting.

Policies and procedures:

If you would like to see copies of our policies and procedures please ask a member of staff.

The settings policies help us to make sure that the service provided by the setting is a high quality one and that being a member of the setting is an enjoyable and beneficial experience for each child and her/his parents.

Safeguarding Children:

Our setting has a duty under the law to help safeguard children against suspected or actual ‘significant harm’.

Our employment practice ensures children against the likelihood of abuse in our setting and we have a procedure for managing complaints or allegations against a member of staff.

Our way of working with children and their parents ensures we are aware of any problems that may emerge and can offer support, including referral to appropriate agencies when necessary, to help families in difficulty.

Special needs:

As part of the setting’s policy to make sure that its provision meets the needs of each individual child, we take account of any special needs a child may have. The setting works to the requirements of the Special Educational needs code of practice.

Management and administration:

The nursery is run by Trustees. The Trustees are responsible for reviewing both policy and practice, and for the employment and appraisal of staff members along side the manager and deputy of the nursery.

Fees:

Fees currently are:

Three hour session = £15.00 (morning session and afternoon session)

Early Club, Lunch club and Late Club = £3

Suggested Voluntary contribution towards snack is £5 per term to the Business Manager.

Voluntary contribution towards cooking activities is £5 per term to the Business Manager.

The fees are due in the first week of a new term.

We do offer flexible payment plans please speak with the Business Manager or Nursery Manager.

Fees continue to be payable if a child is absent without notice or for a short time. In cases of prolonged absence, parents should consult the Business manager about fee payments. Each child’s attendance at the group is conditional upon continued payment of any necessary fees and regular attendance of funded children.

The Nursery timetable and routines

Our setting believes that care and education are equally important in the experience, which we offer children.

The routine and activities that make up the day in the setting are provided in ways that:

Help each child to feel that she/he is a valued member of the nursery;
Ensure the safety of each child;
Help children to gain from social experiences of being part of a group;
Provide children with opportunities to learn and help them to value learning.

The session:

We organise our sessions so that the children can choose from, and work at, a range of activities and, in doing so, build up their ability to select and work through a task to its completion. The children are also helped and encouraged to take part in adult-led small and large group activities, which introduce them to new experiences and help them gain new skills, as well as helping them learn to work with others. Outside activities contribute to children’s health, their physical development and their knowledge of the world around them. The children have the opportunity, and are encouraged, to take part in outdoor child-chosen and adult-led activities, as well as those provided in the indoor playroom.

Snacks:

Snack time is a social time. We plan the menus for snacks and meals so that they provide the children with healthy and nutritious food. Please tell us about your child’s dietary needs and we will make sure that these are met.

What to expect from nursery:

On arrival at nursery your child will self –register and then go and play.

A healthy snack will be offered mid morning with milk or water available.

If your child stays to lunch, please ensure they have a healthy packed lunch, with a drink (no glass bottles or fizzy drinks). Please avoid any foods containing nuts.

Please note that lunch boxes are not stored in a fridge but in a cool place, it maybe advisable to keep fridge packs in the lunch boxes during the warmer weather.

What to wear:

In order to feel free to explore and experiment with all kinds of materials, including messy ones, it is best to send children dressed in clothes that are easily washable or not too new.

It is good for children to practice the skills, which make them independent. Simple clothing, which they can handle themselves, will enable them to go to the toilet when they want to and to put on and take off their outdoor clothes without being too dependent on other people’s help.

What to bring: