Frequently Asked Questions

We open from 8am until 6pm. Our morning session runs from 8am until 12 noon, not including lunch, or until 1pm to include lunch. A school day is 8.30am-3.30pm or our full day is 8am-6pm.

The nursery is closed for one week at Christmas plus all bank holidays. If your child is away for any further holidays or through illness, then the full fees are payable.

Yes, we are open all year round, apart from the week between Christmas and New Year, however we do close for the eight bank holidays throughout the year. If you pay for term time only you do not attend throughout the holidays, however if we have space for your child to come in there will be an extra session charge.

The nursery team will provide a list of all items required for the first day your child starts. Items may include a comfort item, labelled bottles, formula, dummies, spare clothes, nappy creams, medication. It is important that all registration paperwork and fees are in place before starting nursery.

We require their health, medical and dietary details, as well as an ‘all about me’ document. All forms will be shared with you prior to starting.

8am is the earliest start time.

We can only store folded buggies in the nursery as large prams and mountain buggies are too bulky for us to accommodate.

Yes, we provide all sizes of nappies, baby wipes and additional creams.

This depends on the number of sessions you require for your child. For information about 2023-2024 fees, please go to our Admissions and Fees page for more information.

Each child is given a peg for personal belongings. All children are required to have a nursery bag for their belongings, all clothes should be labelled and spare clothes etc should be kept in the nursery bag on their peg. All children are required to have a spare set of clothes to change into in case of spillages/accidents etc. Whilst every effort is taken to protect your child’s clothes and belongings during the nursery activities, marks can still appear, so we do ask that play clothes are worn in nursery to avoid any upset. The nursery provides protective aprons for meals and messy play. We do ask that parents do not dress their children in wellington boots, flip flops, or crocs in the nursery. We find that children easily trip over themselves in this type of footwear. Wellington boots are not suitable indoor shoes. Children should not bring in toys to the nursery, as they can be easily lost. Play guns, swords and aggressive toys /dolls will not be allowed under any circumstances in nursery. If your child has a comfort item, which would be difficult to leave at home, then please feel free to let your child bring it to nursery. Please let your key person know when your child starts their visits.

Yes, the key person will work with parents to ensure any sleep patterns are maintained.

We always ensure that a staff member from the class helps the children “visit’ their next classroom during this transition. This is normally done in small groups, and this helps your child settle into the new routine with ease.

Parents Evenings are twice a year in November and June. This is a formal opportunity to review your child’s progress in the nursery in line with the EYFS guidelines with your child’s key person. This is also an opportunity to chat with the Manager and staff in a more leisurely manner. To enable us to focus on you as parents, it is not appropriate to have the children with you at these parents evening meetings. We ask you therefore to make alternative babysitting arrangements.

Menus are emailed to all the parents every term with our 4-week rolling menu. These include the vegetarian alternative offered each day, as well as providing alternative meals for children who are allergic to certain ingredients. We respect all religious beliefs and will offer a vegetarian or suitable alternative to the meals provided where possible. The Seedlings staff work with the parents to support and advise parents on weaning babies.

Copies of our inspection reports are available for parents to view at any time via our website link.

We work in full partnership through all the developmental milestones your child will achieve during their time with us. If your child is starting to show signs of wanting to toilet train at home then please inform your child’s Key Person and they can prepare a toilet training plan together. We will do the same if we feel that your child is ready at nursery. When this time comes, which is normally between 2 and 2 ½ years old, you will need to provide lots of spare clothes, shorts, pants, underpants, socks, tights and slippers etc. The staff will rinse out the soiled clothes and put them in a plastic bag and place them in your child’s bag. We do not launder the children’s clothes.

Yes, we strive to help in all areas of your child’s development which we take at your child’s pace. We follow your routine from home as close as possible and keep you in touch at every step. We use sticker/ reward charts to help in this area.

No. As part of our Safeguarding policy and Ofsted requirements mobile phones are not allowed to be used by parents, visitors or staff at all in the nursery.

The child’s Key Person will keep an up-to-date record on your child’s progress which they will share with you regularly using our Tapestry app, this includes daily care diaries, weekly photo uploads, adult led activities and six weekly development summaries. At the end of each session staff members will talk you through your child’s day sharing vital information such as what your child has eaten, if they have had a sleep, drink. We hold parent evenings twice a year to discuss child’s progress and next steps.

Our lunch is provided by the school cook and brought up to nursery in a hot box, for the children in Seedlings and Saplings to enjoy in their rooms. The older children all eat together in the school dining room.

E.Y.F.S. stands for Early Years Foundation Stage. The EYFS is a curriculum set up by the Government that states how we as early years practitioners do things. The EYFS is split into 7 areas in total.

3 prime areas: Communication, Personal social and emotional, Physical and 4 specific areas: Maths, Understanding the world, Literacy, Expressive art and design

Within these areas we must ensure children are making progress in each area.

You can pay for your childcare in many ways including cash, cheque, BACS, vouchers, standing order. We invoice you prior to the term so invoices go out towards the end of the term ready for the following term to be paid by the first of each month. 15 hours government funding for those eligible 3+ year olds will be taken off within the invoice so you can see how this works.

Nursery should be informed of any allergies so contingency plans can be made to keep these allergens away from the child. We strive to ensure that every child is safe while at nursery so we will prepare separate snacks and meals keeping in with the child’s diet. We are adaptable to most situations so just let us know and we can adapt to your child’s needs.

Comforters can be brought to nursery as this will help a child through any difficult transitions, however as you can imagine in a busy childcare setting things can go missing. We will try our hardest to keep comforters safe and will take time to put in a safe place when the child is not using it but things of great expense or of a sentimental value should be kept at home just in case.

Whilst at nursery your child needs to be comfortable. Aprons will be used for messy activities however we still advise against the children wearing their best clothes for nursery. Bibs will be provided and used within the under 2’s as well as flannels for after messy activities and eating. Although we have a small range of spare wellies, ideally you will send your child with their own wellies and waterproof clothing for use during the winter months, so they can enjoy puddle jumping and playing in the snow.

At nursery we follow simple rules, these are:

• We have kind hands and feet
• We share and take turns
• We use indoor feet (walking feet)
• We use indoor voices
• We have listening ears
  \We use kind words

We use these rules to help the children understand boundaries at nursery these enforce life lessons which will hopefully improve the child’s transitions through school life.

We report and note all minor incidents in the nursery like trips and falls, and these incidents are all classed as Accidents within the setting.
Depending on the severity of the accident, you may be called by the Room Lead and informed what has happened and if necessary asked to pick up your child from nursery. You will also be asked to sign an accident form which states what occurred and the treatment given. A copy of this form will be given to you for your records if required for further medical treatment.

All our staff are Pediatric First Aid trained

Sick children must not be brought into nursery. You need to inform the nursery that your child is off sick as early as possible. Some illnesses will require the all clear from your GP before the child can be brought in. We reserve the right to refuse admission to children we consider unwell, please see our full sickness policy on the website with list of exemptions. If your child becomes unwell during the day at the nursery, we will call you to come and collect your child immediately. It is important that parents and carers of the children are available to come and collect their child from the nursery as sick children spread infections to the other children and staff. If you are not going to be within a short distance of the nursery, or easily contactable, then it is important that you arrange suitable alternative emergency contact people to be authorized to pick up your child. The nursery staff will, in emergency situations escort your child to the hospital, but we recognize this arrangement is far from ideal for your child. It also causes disruption to the nursery and staff cover in the rooms but is actioned when necessary.

In order to ensure compliance with our legislative bodies, we are only able to administer prescribed medicines with written consent from parents. Other non-prescribed medicines will only be administered following written parental consent.

Non-prescribed medication such as ‘Piriton’ and ‘Calpol’ will be administered twice in a day before you will be called to collect your child immediately. Parents are required to sign the medicine form, informing the senior member of staff on duty, of the time and dosage that is required. To maintain our high standards of care, two members of the nursery team will administer the medicine, one of which is a senior member of the team and record the actual time of administration in the medical form. Both parties will sign this form as a true account of this action. They will try to contact the parents before such action is taken. Parents will then need to sign the medicine form when they come and collect their child.

We have coded locks on all doors and the handles are higher than the children can reach. We have finger guards on all the doors, safety glass and non-slip and soft play surfaces. As you will know, the children’s security in the nursery is of paramount importance to us all, and it is imperative that you DO NOT open the door to other parents or visitors. The door should ONLY be opened by a member of staff to other visitors. Please also ensure that you always close the internal and external gates when entering and leaving the nursery.

If you require someone, who is not noted on your child’s form, to pick up your child from nursery, we will require you to give their full name and a brief description and photo, if possible, of the person. We would also like you to organize a password for them to use.

– 0-2-year old’s – 1:3
– 2-year old’s – 1:4
– 3-year old’s – 1:8

We take our safeguarding responsibilities seriously, and we ensure that all of our staff have a suitable DBS check on employment with us. We also re-check the DBS every 3 years. No staff member is allowed to be a Lone worker, so everyone is supervised by their colleagues

We tend not to use agency staff as a rule, as we always employ more staff than is required, but on occasion it may be necessary if several staff members are off work at any one time. All Agency staff are DBS checked and First Aid trained.

We have a number of degree trained teachers and Early Years Professionals, Level 6,5,4 and 3 in Childcare and Education, as well as level 2 and our Apprentice candidates.

Safeguarding is of paramount importance to us and an aspect that is highly regulated by Ofsted and the local authorities. All staff undergo safeguarding training every year and we have a Designated Safeguarding Person and a Deputy at the setting. All of us have responsibilities in this area and the best form of safeguarding for children is combined vigilance at all times. If you have any concerns or issues then please speak with the Nursery Manager in the first instance.

You are required to give 1 months’ notice when leaving the nursery.

We do have a complaints procedure that you can follow which is listed on the website, but in the very first instance we would always want to help and support you with any issue you may have and we take all concerns no matter how minor very seriously so we would always want to know if you were unhappy in any way – or if you knew of a way that we could improve our service we would want to know that too!

The nursery has a copy of our policies and procedures for parents to view at any time. Please feel free to ask the manager to view these policies at any time.

– Complaints Procedure
– Health and Safety
– Prevent Duty & Promoting British Values
– Safeguarding & Child Protection
– Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
– Medication
– Positive Behaviour Management