Policies
We have detailed policies and procedures that govern the way we function. Each of our nurseries has its own policies that have a similar spirit and method of operation. These are available on our website pages of each of the nurseries. These are pretty standard for a nursery setting and are shared with you for review and sign off through your personalized online access to our system.
Summary outline of our policies is below:
Inclusive setting
At our setting we aim to provide your child with a happy, safe and welcoming environment where he/she will develop and learn through planned, purposeful play and activities. The provision is registered under the Early Years Register & Childcare Register of the Office for Standards in education (Ofsted) and complies with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum.
Our primary aim is for children to be healthy, stay safe, and learn through play, discovery, and experience in a rich, stimulating, and safe environment. Children are offered fun, educational activities, and opportunities to achieve their potential, within a friendly, caring atmosphere.
Settling in
Any new place can be challenging for your little one to settle in. We seek your help in settling in sessions for your child to settle with the environment and routine at my place. The settling in sessions are short time duration in which you can leave the child and be available for coming around if required. In a short while children start to identify their name and trays and get familiar with our setting and look forward to coming in.
Outings
At The Cottage Nursery we will be making offsite trips/outings to the local areas. Such trips are recommended to help in children's development and their understanding of the world. We shall undertake a risk assessment for each such trip and undertake any trip only if we are assured of the safety and wellbeing of each of the children in our care. We will request you to confirm if you do not wish for your child to be included on such outings.
Parents & Carers
As parents you are the first carers and educators of your children. We believe in a close partnership between parents as we partner you in caring for and educating your child. Our use of an industry-leading software ensures you are up to date with your child’s information, diary, progress on a regular basis. You can contribute with information on things you have done and observed at home.
We request you to keep your contact details updated with us at all times. We request you to let us know if your child is absent from care on any day that he / she is expected here. You can communicate this by phone and email.
We shall request you to go through our policies and come back to us if you have any questions or concerns. We welcome any suggestions you have in respect of any of the policies and procedures.
We appreciate being informed of any change at home that might affect your child and will treat anything you tell us in strict confidence. This would include a house move, a cousin visiting, a pet etc. These are on a child’s mind and will help us support the child on his experiences.
We shall keep you informed of the activities and learning situations that your child will be experiencing. Themed plans for activities shall be sent home in newsletters. Please take time to read these as they will inform you of the range of activities available to your child and help you to discuss with them the things they are learning in our setting.
We shall maintain a record of your child’s learning activities in his journal. This journal shall include photos and observations.
We would like you to share with me your home events (like birthdays and anniversaries), festivals, and other special occasions from home, so that we can share them at circle time.
Fees
We expect you to plan ahead for the care needs of your child and accordingly sign the contract with us. Please understand the terms & conditions for all unplanned absences for a child including absence due to illness. Also do note that we are required to receive a clear calendar month’s notice in advance for any change in schedule or attendance, otherwise you would remain liable for charges for booked time.
The fees are to be paid monthly in advance by the 1st of each month by direct debit setup. The invoices for each month will be provided to you in 7 days' advance of the debit being done for you to raise any questions. We can be paid through childcare vouchers and tax-free childcare scheme of HMRC.
Termination notice
You may withdraw your child from care at your discretion and for any reasons. You are required to give written Termination notice via a letter or email, a clear calendar month in advance or a month’s fees in lieu of notice.
Arrival and Collection of Children
Please ensure that you arrive and collect your child on time, late collection can be very upsetting for children. Refer to the Collection policy for full details on the process we follow. There is a late collection fees applicable for each 15 minutes or part of 15 minutes that the child is collected late.
Parking and Road Safety
We have recommendations on safely and sensitive parking and you are requested to please make yourself familiar with our recommendations on safe parking and safe speed limits whilst on our premises and grounds.
Food
We shall be providing home cooked food at the setting. Please review our Food Policy for further details. We request you to please provide us any specific dietary requirements of your child in the child’s information form. You are required to keep us updated in writing by emailing the nursery on any food preferences and allergies.
Health & Safety
Our nurseries are a no-smoking environment. We follow our policies & procedures in respect of accident, illness, emergency, fire safety, safeguarding, and risk assessment to ensure that the children in our care are safe and we know the steps to undertake to ensure continued safety.
Safeguarding Children
We are responsible, under the terms of our registration, in respect of safeguarding of children which includes protecting children from maltreatment, preventing impairment of children’s health or development and ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care. We have a duty of care to refer any allegation, complaint or concern received relating to a child to Social Care or the police. Please read our ‘Safeguarding Policy’ for further details. Under the same you are requested to not to make use of your mobile phones or other electronic devices to photograph any children in our settings. ESafety is an area of specific focus for us. We shall be providing children with restricted internet access to educational websites and online materials. There shall be no access to You Tube for children to get on to. There would be specific YouTube videos selected by us such as ‘NumberJacks’ and ‘Alpha Blocks’ that would be shared under supervised access.
Illness
If your child has a temperature, is sick or has diarrhea, please do not send them until a clear 48 hours after symptoms have stopped. We also request that if you or any other member of your family is suffering from an illness with these symptoms that you or they do not come at the setting, as these infections can spread to other children in our care. Please see our Illness and Infectious Diseases policy for exclusion periods for illnesses.
Medicines
It is your responsibility to inform us immediately if your child has, or develops an allergy, asthma or a medical condition and to provide us with full information regarding the condition or medical treatment. Only medicine prescribed by child’s doctor, dentist, nurse or pharmacist will be given to a child. A copy of the prescription is required for our records in such a case. In some circumstances we may be required to give a child non-prescription medicine such as nurofen for pain relief and calpol for high fever. We need your consent to be able to administer non-prescription medicines where required. Such incidents of administration of medicines would be informed to you through the incident reporting form on the day it is done. Please refer to our Medicines Policy for more details.
Behavior
It is of paramount importance to us that every child in our setting feels valued and respected and is treated fairly and well. We encourage children to show politeness and consideration to each other and to all adults. We request you as parents to adopt the same principals whilst at our settings. We request you to review our Behavior management policy.
Record Keeping & Data Protection
We are required to keep records about each child including observations about the child’s experiences and achievements. All information you provide and we capture is kept highly confidential and shall not be shared with anyone without your specific permission. We ensure compliance to the Data Protection Act, 2010 and we are registered with the Information Commissioner Office. Please refer to our Data Protection Policy for further details.
Photography of group activities
We may have to take photograph of your children in our care for purposes of observations about the child’s experiences and development. These will form part of the child’s personal confidential record with us and shared with the parent/carer. However, there may be occasions when a number of children would be photographed together as part of a group activity. These may be used for display at the setting, it's website, it's facebook pages, and part of newsletters. In any such publication of group photographs we will not identify any particular child by name (as per DfE’s guidance on security for children). We will request you to please drop us an email if you do not wish for your child to be photographed or the photographs not to be included on our publications. If your child is old enough to express their own view, we would recommend you to consult your child before providing such consent.
Complaints
We request you to please feel free to talk to us about any complaints you have and we shall endeavor to resolve them on priority. We are registered with Ofsted and subject to periodic inspections to make an assessment of the quality of care we provide. If we am unable to resolve your complaint then you have a right to get in touch with them directly at the address and numbers below:
Ofsted, Piccadilly Gate, Store Street, Manchester M1 2WD, Complaints and Enforcements: Tel: 0300 123 1231
