LITTLE CHESTNUTS PRESCHOOL
POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Settling into nursery
We want your child to feel happy and safe at Little Chestnuts Preschool and for the transition from home to the preschool to be simple and smooth. To make sure that this is the case, the staff will work with you to decide on how to help your child to settle into their nursery routine.
We encourage you to make visits to the preschool with your child before they start, so that they can become familiar with the surroundings and staff.
We really value the part that parents play in their child's nursery life and therefore encourage you to share information about your home life and the kinds of experiences that you and your family have already had.
Policies & Procedures
Copies of our policies are available to download on our desktop version of this website. Risk assessments are available to view at the setting and copies can be printed for you. These policies enable us to be consistent with our procedures and ensure that children are kept safe whilst at Little Chestnuts Preschool. The staff and the management work together to adapt policies as and when we feel necessary. We formally review all policies yearly to ensure that we provide a quality service for children, parents and staff. If you feel that we could improve any aspect of our policies or have ideas that we have not thought about to further improve them, then we encourage you to share your thoughts with us.
Our Curriculum
Intent
At Little Chestnuts Preschool we have clear intentions about what we want children to achieve. As we build strong partnership with parents/carers we understand what the children’s gaps are and build our curriculum around their needs. The highly qualified staff have a deep understanding of how children learn and develop and therefore understand the need to have a strong focus on developing the ‘Prime’ areas of learning first. The staff also have secure knowledge in the characteristics of learning and therefore prioritise teaching children to be resilient, think of their own ideas and have a sense of achievement about the things they can do. At Little Chestnuts we pride ourselves on helping children to understand their own emotions and teach them to self regulate.
Implementation
We value the need for knowledgeable, experienced staff to implement our intentions. Staff speak clearly to children and introduce new words and vocabulary to a high level. We have high expectations of behaviour and staff explain and model good behaviour using words and visual prompts. Higher achieving children are stretched to their full potential because staff plan activities that challenge their thinking. Similarly children who need extra support or encouragement are carefully observed and intervention is implemented where necessary. All planning is adapted to meet the needs of all of our children. Adults respond and plan based on what the children love and are interested in. We listen to our parents because you know your children best.
Impact
The observations that we make of our children show that children have embedded learning and skills. They show high levels of well-being and involvement as they play and interact. They develop strong characteristics of learning and speak clearly to adults, using more words and vocabulary. The children show a good understanding of how to manage their own safety and can make choices about what they want to do. Where age appropriate, children show good levels of comprehension and some may even be using letter sounds when reading and writing. The children are able to understand simple mathematical concepts that are appropriate to their stage of development. Children with additional needs make excellent progress because we understand their needs and give them meaningful experiences.
PARENT FEEDBACK
My Daughter has attended since it opened and has done nothing but flourish. Jodie Louise and the team are amazing and have the children at the centre of everything. It's a beautiful set up and my daughter loves going.
Laura Hall