Scallywags
home from home
Prospectus
2013
ChilChil
Childcare that makes you happy
Scallywags Philosophy
1.
Create an excellent environment – a ‘home from home’
2.
Make the children happy
3.
Communicate well with parents
4.
Look after our staff
5.
Strive to be Outstanding
6.
Encourage our children to learn and explore
7.
Listen to your views and the needs of your child
8.
Work with our families for the benefit of the children
9.
Keep your child safe through staff checks, door entry
systems and CCTV monitoring
We think that by concentrating on these things the children will get
the best possible start at Scallywags, and get them confident and ready
for school.
Day Nursery guidance notes available @ www.ofsted.gov.uk
The Early Years Foundation Stage – and how it
relates to your child within a nursery
The Early Years Foundation Stage is the model upon which all childcare facilities
must base their care, facilities and monitoring of children’s development, which is
recorded in a journal to monitor development against guidance benchmarks. This
helps the staff and parents to further stimulate a child’s learning needs and
provide appropriate resources for their age group. Within each of our rooms the
layout, toys, pictures and space is laid out to support these guidelines, which will
be explained to you whilst you are shown round each room.
There are four themes to this :
‘A Unique Child’
‘Positive Relationships’
‘Enabling Environments’
Which all together contribute to ‘Learning & Development’
Further information available at www.education.gov.uk
Caterpillars
(Baby Room)
As your little one starts a new adventure with us, we want to ensure your child
benefits from our ‘home from home’ feel. We will work with our parents closely,
and incorporate your home routine with your child into their nursery day. This
keeps their routine consistent and will help your child settle quickly into nursery.
They will have a ‘Key Worker’, which is a staff member (also known as a
practitioner), usually this would be the person your child feels most comfortable
with. Their Key Worker will be responsible for monitoring your child’s
development throughout their time in Caterpillars and with whom you will meet
on parent’s evenings.
Our practitioners will be at the baby’s level, involving them with plenty of eye to
eye contact, singing and talking to them. Along with this they will have plenty of
different resources to encourage your baby to learn through his/her play. All our
practitioners will have a high level of experience professionally, personally or
both, giving you the peace of mind your baby is in the highest level of care.
Planned out with our youngest members in mind, there is plenty of space to
explore and learn. Staff will be kept constant in this room to allow the children to
form bonds with us, allowing their confidence to grow and take part in all the fun
activities available, such as craft, reading, singing, heuristic (how things look and
feel), climbing and relaxing. Separate changing and sleeping rooms ensure all our
space is just for playing and learning. All Caterpillar children will have access to
the garden every day, along with buggy walks with our practitioners.
OFSTED child ratios for under 2’s are one staff member per 3 children, and we
will always be in accordance with this.
Age range – Birth to fast and confident walker
Cost £44.00 per full day
Saturdays £50.00
Chrysalis
(Toddler Room)
And they’re off! Once the children are confident walkers, they can move into
Chrysalis room. Here the resources and space are stepped up a gear to encourage
mobile and inquisitive little people to explore, learn and play. Toys and furniture
are bigger and allow your child to choose stimulating activities that either they or
a member of staff choose. Free flow access into the garden means they have
almost constant choice about where and how they want to play, always with
constant supervision.
Within this age band we are looking to further support your child in a range of
areas, such as self confidence, making relationships, language development, ICT,
health and body awareness and being creative. Observations from the
practitioners will go into your child’s Learning Story book, and appropriate
further activities can be planned to encourage your child to go one step further as
they grow.
Should you have any concerns with your child’s development in any particular
area, we will be able to monitor this and work with you, to ensure that as they
move from toddler to little person they are fully supported, before the additional
excitement of Butterflies (Pre School).
OFSTED child ratios for under 2’s are one staff member per 3 children, for 2 to 3
year olds one staff member per 4 children, and we will always be in accordance
with this.
Age range – fast and confident walker to pre-school
Cost £44.00 per day
Saturdays £50.00
Butterflies
(Pre School)
In Butterflies we can now start preparing your child for school. We can do this by
providing the right environment and well trained staff to guide their play and
encourage them to think and be independent. Through play, literacy, numeracy
and guidance, we can give them the foundation and tools they will need to
prepare them for reception class.
Within this room we will be further supporting your child’s development
through encouraging them to enjoy reading and writing (of sorts!), number
recognition, calculating, shapes and sizes and developing their imaginative play.
Scallywags children are nurtured, so they have a sense of community both with us
and in the world around them. Visits from people such as the Police, Fire Brigade,
Lollipop person, will help their knowledge and understanding of the world, and
we will work closely with local schools (including independents) to make the
transition from us to school is a smooth and happy one.
Scallywags Butterflies will be taken on outings too, to see people who we may be
talking about at Nursery, to further encourage their thoughts and questions and
be creative at nursery on their subjects. Cookery lessons will move on to things
they can bring home to eat! And nutritional education will be part of their daily
life with us. Children will also have ‘free flow’ access into the back garden all day.
OFSTED child ratios for over 3’s are one staff member per 8 children, and we
will always be in accordance with this – as a minimum.
Age range - 2½/3 until school
Cost £41.00 per day
Saturdays £50.00
Our Garden
Our lovely garden is another example of our ‘home from home’ ethos. The
children can come in and out as they please, always supervised and in a very
secure space. They can run, play, have toys outside, have picnics where the
weather allows and have freedom.
Giving our children the opportunity to get fresh air and explore different types of
play is very important to us at Scallywags. Chrysalis and Butterfly rooms both
have open access from the room into the garden, giving the children the
opportunity to free-flow from the room into the garden area whatever the
weather. Our garden is equipped with sand, water, dens & bikes as well as reading
area and planting area all these giving the children many learning experience
through their play as well as giving them the freedom to play inside or out.
We will be growing seasonal plants and vegetables in the garden in a vegetable
patch, so that the children can see things grow and then eat them, supporting a
healthy lifestyle and diet.
Food
We use ‘Healthy Roots’, a company that specifically supplies meals for
nurseries, here is some information about them. Weekly menus are
available from our website, www.scallywagsmedway.co.uk .
At Healthy Roots, we believe that appreciating great, nutritious food begins at
an early age, and we are passionately committed to providing tasty, innovative
and modern meals to Children’s Nurseries and schools.
We offer an exciting daily lunch service of a main meal and an accompanying
pudding. We also offer an innovative Afternoon Tea. All of our meals are
prepared fresh daily using only natural ingredients, and in complying with the
nutritional guidelines set out by the Department of Education and Skills, we use
only a minimum of salt and never processed foods. Our kitchen is nut and seed
free and we can cater for a variety of dietary and religious food requirements.
We take it as a compliment that our message is regularly replicated, however, our
product is an original. Our passion and commitment keep us constantly inspired,
which is reflected in our quality and service. We don't just talk about healthy
food, we LIVE healthy food.
FRESH AND NUTRITIOUS..
We source our fruit and vegetables as locally as possible to keep food miles and
packaging to a minimum and, all our meals are hand made; from stocks and
sauces to cakes, soups and pudding, and the menus are designed around the
Caroline Walker Trust ( http://www.cwt.org.uk ) and comply with the
nutritional guidelines set out by the Scottish Nutrition Guidelines for the Under
Five's (http://www.thpc.scot.nhs.uk/wordfiles/under5s.pdf) .
HYGIENE, HEALTH AND SAFETY..
At Healthy Roots, we set the bar very high for ourselves; all our team members
are trained in Hygiene Standards and Health & Safety. We liaise regularly with
our Environmental Health Office and we retain the services of Food Hygiene
Solutions who have designed and implemented all our HACCP and Due
Diligence procedures and practices. Food Hygiene Solutions
(http://www.foodhygienesolutions.co.uk ) audit us regularly and Healthy Roots
are fully compliant with all legal requirements for Catering in Schools.
Testimonials
My children have been under the care of this management team since
they were 8 months old. The provision was outstanding throughout
every stage of their development, right up to pre school age. The
communication between home and nursery was great – with regular
feedback on progress at parents evenings, as well as the daily verbal
feedback which was invaluable The whole team were also very
supportive and flexible during a difficult family time for us, making a
stressful time a lot more manageable. I would not hesitate to
recommend this nursery to anyone
Mrs K, Chatham
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My children went to Jo’s former nursery which was deemed outstanding
by OFSTED. The nursery and the care of my children was indeed
outstanding and I believe Jo's management of the nursery played a big
part in that. I would highly recommend any parent to a nursery of Jo's.
Mrs B, Rochester
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Nursery Education Grant
What You Are Entitled To
All three and four year olds are entitled to 15 hours of free nursery education for
38 weeks of the year. This applies until they reach compulsory school age (the
term following their fifth birthday). We can spread your entitlement over the
year to make it easier for you to plan your finances.
When Your Child Qualifies For A Free Place
The table below shows when your child will become eligible for their free early
learning place.
If your child is born between:
They are eligible for a free place from:
1 April and 31 August
1 September following their third birthday or
the beginning of the autumn* school term
1 September and 31 December 1 January following their third birthday or the
beginning of the spring* school term
1 April following their third birthday or the
beginning of the summer* school term
1 January and 31 March
* Based on a three-term school year
Tax Credits
Help For Working Parents
If you have a child, you may be able to get Child Tax Credit to help with the cost
of looking after them. If you are on a low income, you may also qualify for
Working Tax Credit. This could mean getting back up to 70 per cent of your
childcare costs - up to certain limits. The limits are £122.50 a week for one child
and £210 a week for two or more children. We are an approved childcare
provider, and registered with OFSTED.
The information provided above is taken from the government’s website of
www.direct.gov.uk , where more detailed information can be accessed