Welcome to Grove Pre-school and thank you for registering your child with us.

Grove Pre-school

Grove Sports Centre, St Mary’s Grove, Nailsea, BS48 4NQ

07749240004/ 07722326993

info@grovepreschoolnailsea.co.uk

Welcome to Grove Pre-school

We know how important your child is and aim to deliver the highest quality of care and education to help them to achieve their best.

This prospectus aims to provide you with an introduction to Grove Pre-school, our routines, our approach to supporting your child’s learning and development and how We aim to work together with you to best meet your child’s individual needs. This should be read alongside Our Childcare Terms and Conditions for a full description of our services.

Our setting aims to:

ª Our aim is to provide a stimulating, safe environment for all children, staff and families to be fully included and welcomed.

ª We aim to promote achievement for all at an individual, appropriate level. We want children to enjoy their time with us and develop an awareness of the needs and feelings of all and be considerate to all.

ª We aim to offer exciting new challenges with excellent staff and family support and make sure that we are always aware of the interests of each child .

ª We aim to encourage the partnership between home, other settings, agencies involved with the child's care and needs and the greater community. We hope to encourage understanding of the needs, faiths, beliefs and culture of those attending the pre-school and those in the community.

ª Our aim is for the very best for all.

Parents/Carers

We are committed to working in partnership with all parents/carers. You are regarded as members of our setting who have full participatory rights. These include a right to be:

ª valued and respected;

ª kept informed;

ª consulted;

ª involved; and

ª included at all levels.

Children's development and learning

We aim to ensure that each child:

ª is in a safe and stimulating environment;

ª is given generous care and attention, because of Our ratio of qualified staff to children, as well as volunteer helpers;

ª has the chance to join in with other children and adults to live, play, work and learn together;

ª is helped to take forward her/his learning and development by being helped to build on what she/he already knows and can do;

ª 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; in a setting in which parents help to shape the service it offers.

The Early Years Foundation Stage

We follow the Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage that sets the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five Published: 31 March 2021 Effective from 1 September 2021. It states:

Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

The EYFS seeks to provide:

• quality and consistency in all early years settings, so that every child makes good progress and no child gets left behind

• a secure foundation through planning for the learning and development of each individual child, and assessing and reviewing what they have learned regularly

• partnership working between practitioners and with parents and/or carers

• equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported

The EYFS specifies requirements for learning and development and for safeguarding children and promoting their welfare. The learning and development requirements cover:

• the areas of learning and development which must shape activities and experiences (educational programmes) for children in all early years settings

• the early learning goals that providers must help children work towards (the knowledge, skills and understanding children should have at the end of the academic year in which they turn five)

• assessment arrangements for measuring progress (and requirements for reporting to parents and/or carers)

The safeguarding and welfare requirements cover the steps that providers must take to keep children safe and promote their welfare.

Four guiding principles should shape practice in early years settings.

These are:

• every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured

• children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships

• children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them to build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.

• importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND.

How we provide for development and learning

The EYFS learning and development requirements for early years settings comprise of seven areas of learning and development and the educational programmes.

The seven areas are:

Three areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships and thriving. These are the three prime areas:

• communication and language

• physical development

• personal, social and emotional development

We must also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied.

The four specific areas are:

• literacy

• mathematics

• understanding the world

• expressive arts and design

Our approach to learning and development and assessment

Learning through play

Being active and playing supports young children’s learning and development through doing and talking. This is how children learn to think about and understand the world around them. We/I use the EYFS statutory guidance on education programmes to plan and provide opportunities which will help children to make progress in all areas of learning. This programme is made up of a mixture of activities that children plan and organise for themselves and activities planned and led by practitioners.

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 the Early Years Foundation Stage as:

ª playing and exploring - engagement;

ª active learning - motivation; and

ª 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 child 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 will ask you to contribute to assessment by sharing information about what your child likes to do at home and how you, as parents, are supporting development.

We make periodic assessment summaries of children’s achievement based on Our on-going 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 into a different group or when they go on to school.

The progress check at age two

The Early Years Foundation Stage requires that We supply parents and carers with a short-written summary of their child’s development in the three 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. Your child’s key person is responsible for completing the check using information from on-going 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

We keep a 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 her/his 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. Together, we will then decide on how to help your child to move on to the next stage. Working together for your children

We maintain the ratio of adults to children in the setting that is set by the Safeguarding and Welfare

Requirements. We also have volunteer parent helpers, where possible, to complement these ratios. This helps us to:

ª give time and attention to each child;

ª talk with the children about their interests and activities;

ª help children to experience and benefit from the activities We provide; and allow the children to explore and be adventurous in safety.

Staff

Name Job Title

Caroline Reynolds Leader, INCCO, Safeguarding in DSL absence

Lorna Bradbury Assistant Leader

Nicola Brierley Assistant Leader, Designated Safeguarding Lead

Sarah Robbins Senior Assistant,

Nikki Ferguson Assistant

Lou Luffman Assistant, Safeguarding in DSL Absence

Laura Bartlett Assistant

We are open for 38 weeks each year.

We are closed on weekends, school holidays, Bank holidays.

We are open for 5 days each week.

The times we are open are 9.00 - 15.00.

Early start from 8.30 a.m. by arrangement

We provide care and education for young children between the ages of 2 and 5 years

How parents take part in the setting

Our setting recognises parents as the first and most important educators of their children. All our staff see themselves as partners with parents in providing care and education for their children. There are many ways in which parents take part in making Our setting a welcoming and stimulating place for children and parents, such as:

ª exchanging knowledge about their children's needs, activities, interests and progress with our staff

ª contributing to the progress check at age two;

ª helping at sessions of the setting;

ª sharing their own special interests with the children;

ª helping to provide and look after the equipment and materials used in the children's play activities;

ª taking part in events and informal discussions about the activities and curriculum provided by the setting;

ª joining in community activities, in which the setting takes part; and building friendships with other parents in the setting.

The parents' rota

Our setting has a dated rota which parents can sign if they would like to help at a particular session or sessions of the setting. Helping at the session enables parents to see what the day-to-day life of Our setting is like and to join in helping the children to get the best out of their activities.

Joining in

Joining the rota is not the only means of taking part in the life of the setting. Parents can offer to take part in a session by sharing their own interests and skills with the children. Parents have visited the setting to play an instrument for the children, talk about their jobs, and show the children their pets help with the garden, share their religion or culture.

We welcome parents to drop into the setting to see it at work or to speak with the staff.

Key person and your child

Our setting uses a key person approach. This means that each member of staff has a group of children for whom she/he is particularly responsible. Your child's key person will be the person who works with you to make sure that the childcare that we provide is right for your child's needs and interests. When your child first starts at the setting, she/he will help your child to settle and throughout your child's time at the setting, she/he will help your child to benefit from Our activities.

Learning opportunities for adults

As well as gaining childcare qualifications, our staff take part in further training to help them to keep up-to date with thinking about early years care and education. We also keep up to date with best practice, as a member of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, through Under 5 magazine and other publications produced by the Alliance. The current copy of Under 5 is available for you to read. From time to time We hold learning events for parents. These usually look at how adults can help children to learn and develop in their early years.

The setting's timetable and routines

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

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

ª help each child to feel that she/he is a valued member of the setting;

ª ensure the safety of each child;

ª help children to gain from the social experience of being part of a group; and ª 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 to gain new skills, as well as helping them to learn to work with others. Outdoor 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 and meals

We make snacks and meals a social time at which children and adults eat together. We plan for our snacks ls so that they provide the children with healthy and nutritious food. On several days of the week the setting operates a snack table which enables the children to choose when they would like their snack. They choose milk or water and are offered the snack and fruit of the day. After eating they are encouraged to wash and dry their cup and plate. The children bring in, in a named bottle, a drink of water (no juice please) to be placed in the crate by the door for access at any time. Please provide at least one piece of fruit a week for snack time.

Please tell us about your child's dietary needs and we will plan accordingly.

Where the children attend all day or an afternoon session, they can bring in a packed lunch. The children all sit down together and are encouraged to be independent, by opening tubs and packets or peeling their fruit. Please remember to cut grapes and cherry tomatoes as these can cause choking in young children. We also ask that peanut butter or nuts are not included in the lunch box. Do tell us about your child’s dietary needs and we will make sure that these are met. A maximum of four items should be included in the lunch box, no sweets or chocolate please. An ice pack should be included.

Clothing

We provide protective clothing for the children when they play with messy activities. We encourage children to gain the skills that help them to be independent and look after themselves. These include taking themselves to the toilet and taking off, and putting on, outdoor clothes.

Clothing that is easy for them to manage will help them to do this.

Please provide appropriate clothing for the weather sun hats, covered shoulders in the summer, coat and wellies in the winter. Please make sure that all clothing/footwear is named

We do have a uniform but it is not mandatory, it is available to order at Grove Pre School | Gould Garments

Policies

Our staff can explain our policies and procedures to you. Copies of which are available to take home to read. Our policies help us to make sure that the service provided by our 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.

Our staff and parents work together to adopt the policies and they all can take part in the year-round review of the policies. This review helps us to make sure that the policies are enabling our setting to provide a quality service for its members and the local community. Information we hold about you and your child

We have procedures in place for the recording and sharing of information [data] about you and your child that is compliant with the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (2018) as follows:

The data is we collect is

Processed fairly, lawfully and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject [you and your family]
Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed for other purposes incompatible with those purposes.
Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which data is processed.
Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
Kept in a form that permits identification of data subjects [you and your family] for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data is processed.
Processed in a way that ensures appropriate security of the personal data including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.

When you register your child with us, we will provide you with a privacy notice that gives you further details of how we fulfil our obligations regarding your data. Safeguarding children

Our setting has a duty under the law to help safeguard children against suspected or actual ‘significant harm’. Our employment practices ensure 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 that 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 Educational Needs

To make sure that our provision meets the needs of each individual child, we take account of any special needs a child may have. We work to the requirements of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (2015).

Our Inclusion Co-ordinator (INCCO) is Caroline Reynolds

The management of our setting

The setting is owned and managed by Caroline Reynolds

Fees

The basic fees are £24.00 per 3-hour session payable

[monthly/weekly/daily/half-termly/termly] in advance. Fees continue to be payable if a child is absent. In cases of prolonged absence, e.g. holidays or sickness, parents should consult the staff about fee payment. Each child’s attendance at the group is conditional upon continued payment of any necessary fees and/or nursery funding. We expect children who are eligible for funding to use funding for all their sessions at pre-school or to pay fees to the value of the funding.

Notice of any change in sessions required is one term. Fees are payable for sessions during the notice period, unless taken up by another child. Notice also applies to sessions requested for the spring and summer terms.

Resource Fee

A £11.00 fee every term (six times per year) or £66.00, 1 - 15 hours and £16.00 or £96.00, £96.00 for the year is payable. We use this towards little extras such as Mother’s, Father’s Day, Christmas and Easter gifts plus tissues, wipes, snacks.

Bank Details

The details for Pre-school are:

Grove Preschool Nailsea Limited

Account number: 19949720

Sort code: 04-06-05

Starting at our setting

The first days

We want your child to feel happy and safe with us. To make sure that this is the case, our staff will work with you to decide on how to help your child to settle into the setting. Our policy on the Role of the Key Person and

Settling-in is enclosed with this prospectus or is available from Sarah Robbins

We hope that you and your child enjoy being members of our setting and that you both find taking part in our activities interesting and stimulating. our staff are always ready and willing to talk with you about your ideas, views or questions.