All about Shorncliffe Nursery, Childcare For Children From 2-5 Years

Welcome to Shorncliffe Nursery

we would like to give you some information all about us, as your child starts their journey within the nursery. At Shorncliffe Nursery we will work in partnership with every family to provide the highest quality childcare in a safe, stimulating, and nurturing environment.

The nursery has three playrooms. The caterpillar room is for children from 2- 3 years; we have a group up to 12 children in this playroom, with access to the garden. The Ladybird and Butterfly Rooms are for children from 3 years until they go to school. The Ladybird room offers a smaller and calmer environment with up to 15 children, whilst the butterfly room is larger and faster paced room with up to 24 children.

The nursery has two gardens, a smaller garden to the front of the building where the nursery promotes outdoor play and learning during all weathers. The big nursery garden is at the rear of the building, with large physical climbing and balancing equipment. A large sand and water table, also seasonal vegetable growing. Children can access the outdoor forest school activities, learning through new and exciting challenges.

Ofsted Grading in November 2022 - An Outstanding Childcare Provider!

Your Child's Keyworker

Your child’s key person will work hard to build a relationship with your child and ensure your child become familiar with the nursery and feels safe and secure. They will ensure that every child’s care is tailored to meet their individual needs.

Parent Partnership

At Shorncliffe we recognise the importance to make parents feel as comfortable as possible with the childcare they choose. We operate an open door policy and are happy for parents or potential parents to visit us when they wish too. We see the importance to discuss every aspect of their child’s care on a regular daily basis either with a member of staff or the manager.

We hold termly parents afternoons, where you are invited to come and talk to your child’s key person and look through their special “learning journeys” which your child’s key person updates weekly. This is a lovely time to share stories, engage in your child’s development. The nursery also offers events such as termly stay and play sessions, sports day, graduation, end of term parities and Christmas parties. The nursery has an active internet safety policy and we encourage parents and the local community to work together to safeguard our children and families when using the internet.

Activities on Offer

The nursery enjoys being outside and we are very lucky to have two outdoor spaces that we use daily, the nursery staff promote the children to be able to undertake activities of their interest. These activities are fun and exciting and engage the children in lots of new skills and building on what the children already know. The nursery believes in taking safe risks, and showing children how they can keep safe, for example crossing the road, stranger danger and activities such as hammer and nails sewing and cutting up our fruit at snack time and making things ourselves. All these activities have lower staff ratio and more supervision. All are risk assessed, and kept safely out of the way. We use this as a learning tool to show how important safety is.

Painting, Drawing, Reading stories, Rhymes and Songs, Dancing and music and movement, Outside Nature Play, Water Play, Role Play, Building, Sand Play, Play dough Table, Paint station, Investigation, Risk Taking, Cooking, Art and Craft, Messy play, Group Games, Experiments, Physical play.

Special Educational Needs

The nursery Special educational needs and disabilities coordinator is Lisa (SENDCo) Lisa works very closely with families and your child’s key worker and offers support when needed. Lisa ensures that the nursery delivers quality care that is needed in conjunction with outside agencies. The nursery works closely with parents to provide detailed individual plans for your family and child to help your child reach their full potential and next steps.

The nursery can offer one to one support for children, when needed who have been accepted through outside agencies as requiring this level of support. All children regardless of their needs are treated equally within the setting; activities on offer will be adapted to maintain independence and equality. Lisa runs a drop in session each term, inviting any nursery parents to attend who have any worries or concerns regarding their child’s development.

Learning at Home

The nursery has a toy library, situated in our quiet room, as well as a lending library at the nursery front door. These both have different resources available for you to borrow, being able to spent time together and explore new resources and materials at home. These are available to all families and hope that they are able to start some fun and exciting thinking and projects at home.

The nursery mascot is “George the bear” he visits family homes with his special book. Each child gets a chance to take him home and have an adventure, whatever the weather. We ask parents to write down what they have done, draw a picture or stick in photos. We use this as a language tool and start some great conversations with it. Also we can plan more in-depth for each child.

The nursery would like you to share in the children’s learning at home, staff will provide you with what your child has been enjoying and learning during their sessions, please do send us photos of this at home too, we would love to look and talk to your child about it in the nursery.

Our Routine

Each nursery room has their own routine, which is flexible as the children enjoy their chosen activities, it can be extended and no child has to rush to get onto the next thing.

Our basic routine is:

Caterpillar Room

Morning session	Afternoon Session
9:00. Welcome free play	12.10. Lunch Time
9:15. Adult lead activity begins & free play Outside activities & free play	12:30. Free play - Outside activities & free play
10:15. Snack bar starts. Toys changed and refreshed	1:15. Adult lead activities to run alongside free play
11:00. Group activity begins./ free play continues	2:15. Drink Timey
11:50. Tidy up time and washing hands	2:25. Free play - Outside activities & free play
12:00. Home Time	2:50. Tidy up & helping hands time Quiet time in the book corner- what a star
	3:00. Home time

Butterfly Room

Morning session	Afternoon Session
9:00. Welcome free play	12.10. Lunch Time & quiet activities on offer
9:30. Adult lead activity begins & free play Outside activities & free play	12:50. Circle time if they would like to join in
10:20. Snack bar starts. Toys changed and refreshed	1:15. Group activity begins. Change of activities if required , Outside activities & free play
11:00. Small groups- letters and sounds- key person time- free play if the children prefer	2:00. Small groups- letters and sounds- key person time- free play if the children prefer
11:50. Quiet time in the book corner if they would like to join in	2:25. Free play - Outside activities & free play
12:00. Home Time	2:50. Quiet time in the book corner
	3:00. Home time

Snack Time

At snack time the children enjoy a variety of foods each day, each snack is a fresh fruit snack. The children self-pouring their own milk or water. Each day children can choose a snack to go with their fruit. We encourage the children to cut up their own snacks and be independent with a practitioner on hand at all times. An example of some of our snacks-

Toast, Bread sticks, Crumpets, Pancakes, Cheese twists, Brioche and pastries, Vegetable sticks, Dips, Rice Cakes, Fruit, Cheese, Crackers and spreads, Cereal, Sandwiches, Soap, Yoghurts.

Policies and Procedures.

The nursery has a policy folder which is situated in the main nursery hallway next to the front door; this is always available for you to read. Alternatively all polices can be emailed to you on request.

These polices Include – Safeguarding – E-Safety-Behaviour-Complaints-EYFS-Equality and many more.