Welcome to the Pre-School Room

The Pre-School Room

Our Pre-school room is the largest of all four areas of the Nursery. We have 2 large play rooms, one for quieter, focused activities and one for the messier, creative activities.  In our “Quiet Room” we have many different areas these include: - Home-Corner, Book-Area, Mark-Making Area, Construction Area and I.C.T. Area.
These areas are readily available to the children at all times. We encourage the children to be independent in making decisions as to which area they spend their time, we observe the children on a daily basis and “follow their lead” to ensure we plan activities that the children will extend upon their individual learning and therefore make their learning more effective and enjoyable.

The “Messy Room” is where the children can be messy and creative! Again, like our Quiet Room we have a variety of activities readily available to the children. Some of these include: - Sand-Play, Water-Play, Junk Modeling, Painting and Play-Dough. This area also doubles up as our dining room. The children have access to the toilets (which are adjoined to both play-rooms) and we encourage them to become independent in using them themselves,  teaching them good hygiene practices in preparation for Infant School.

Key-Person

Your child is allocated a Key Person when they start in the Pre-School room. They are responsible for keeping up to date your child’s observation and assessment paperwork and is also your 1st point of contact should you need to speak to anyone regarding your child’s care or learning area.

They will monitor and assess your child’s individual development and will provide appropriate stimulation for his/her every need.  Here at Into-Play we have an open door policy whereby we welcome parents into the nursery at any time during the nursery day. Some parents often like time to sit down with their child’s Key-Person once every few months or so, on a more formal basis – this can be arranged directly with your child’s Key-Person.

Karen

Sam

Sarah

Food provision

We have a varied balanced menu which is available for you to look at on our parent’s notice board in our Main Entrance. Below is an example of how our food is spread out through the day.

8.30–8.45 Breakfast
10.15-11.00 "Rolling" Snack
12.00-12.30 Lunch
15.30-16.00 Supper

Milk and water are supplied to the children during the above mealtimes. We also provide sports water bottles for every child – this is a constant supply of fresh drinking water for the children – they have access to these bottles AT ALL TIMES throughout their Nursery day. No child is ever refused food, and if they do not like a certain type of food/meal, we will do our utmost to make sure a substitute is made available. We cater for individual dietary needs or preferences.

We strive to encourage the Pre-School children to be good conversationalists and at mealtimes we see this as a very interactive time, where we can encourage good dialogue with the children discussing what they are eating, where it comes from, how it was made etc. The children also actively help prepare snack and supper as well as serving themselves lunch; again we stress the importance of hygiene during these times and the staff act as good role models to ensure the children become habitual in washing their hands before handling food.

Toileting/Potty Training

Hygiene is a very important issue when beginning to use the toilet independently. Therefore, we have two little hand-basins in the children’s toilets, along with anti-bacterial hand soaps and hand towels, and we teach and encourage the children to use every time they visit the toilet.

We also have a door chime in the toilet at child-height, the children are encouraged to use this if they need any assistance from a member of staff, for example flushing toilets or help with pulling up trousers/tights etc.

The children’s toilets are deep cleaned every 40 minutes to ensure optimum hygiene for the children at all times.

Supplies

If your child is not yet potty-trained when they start in Pre-School we will ask that you provide us with nappies/pull-up pants and a spare change of clothes until they are fully potty-trained.  We do provide aprons during messy activities and try in vain to prevent the children from getting too messy, but inevitably they still manage to!  Therefore, we request that children are not sent to nursery in their "Sunday Best"!  As the children are allowed to "free-flow" outside all day in all weathers we ask that scarves, gloves, coats, wellies,  hats etc are clearly labelled with your childs name where possible.  We provide sun-cream during the summer months and calpol, should your child need it at any time, however we will need permission to apply/adminster medication, in line with the EYFS Statutory Guidance.  Should the case arise whereby a child is prescribed medicine (antibiotics etc) by their G.P. we do ask you provide us with this medicine enabling us to administer it here at the nursery – a medicine form provided by Into-Play will need to be completed by the parent/guardian for this purpose. All of the children’s food is provided by the nursery and included in the price of the fees, we also cater for special dietary requirements

'Free-Flow'

We are very privileged to have access to a large, secure, outside play area, and being single-storey it is very easy for us to allow the children to have access outside at all times during their nursery day.  This enables us to provide a rich, varied and stimulating environment in order to support the children's learning and development, so they "free-flow" from inside to outside the whole day, come rain, shine or (if we're lucky) snow!  We protect the children from the sun and rain with the use of 4 large parasols which shade the entire play area, this also allows us to sometimes enjoy morning snack or afternoon tea underneath our large parasols whilst enjoying the fresh air!

E.Y.F.S & Nursery Education Funding

We follow The Early Years Foundation Stage and each member of staff takes responsibility to tailor/plan activities for their own Key-Child, in both group and one-to-one activities.  We often invite visitors in to give talks to the children to widen their knowledge of the community.  For example, we have visits from police, fire officers and road safety people, to name but a few.  We have a wide range of resources available to us in the Pre-School area's, if you have any questions regarding the E.Y.F.S. please feel free to ask your childs Key-Person. 

A term after their 3rd birthday all children are entitled to 15 hours of free Early Education per week for 38 weeks of the year (term-time only).  For more information regarding this funding please speak to a member of the Admin Team.

We hope you and your child will be very happy and enjoy your time at Into-Play, and also feel secure in the thought that we are here for you and welcome any questions or concerns that you may have.