Our baby room can cater for up to 12 babies. We welcome them from 3 months up to a maximum of 2 years, operating the room on a ratio of three babies to one practitioner. The baby room is a free flowing room offering continuous provision (providing children with the same learning opportunities throughout the week allowing them to develop skills through practise, learning and problem solving) and has a number of fantastic facilities that the babies can enjoy. Individualised and group activities are developed through observations.
Babies are greeted by qualified staff from 7.30 a.m. daily, usually by their key person or buddy who will track the child’s development focusing on the prime areas. The three prime areas are: physical development; personal, social and emotional development; and lastly communication and language. These are used to help plan next steps, however when planning for next steps practitioners realise that the baby’s interests are paramount and will always base activities based on what the babies are interested in exploring at that particular time. This is recorded using out digital observation and assessment system eyLog which gives parents immediate access to their children’s learning journey throughout the day, helping to reassure parents that their children are enjoying their time at nursery and that they have settled well. This also gives parents an insight into what activities their children take part in at nursery as well as being able to see where they are meeting their developmental milestones along with their next steps. eyLog has a parents section where parents are able to add their own observations to their child’s learning journey.
Planning is carried out weekly to support children’s next steps in development. We use our garden daily which gives babies the opportunity for outdoor play experiences which also helps us to promote physical development, as well as taking part in all weather messy and creative play and water play (inside and out) where babies learn to interact with other babies and staff helping them to build their communication and language skills as well as furthering their personal, social and emotional development.
Breakfast is served between 8.15 – 8.45 a.m., a healthy snack is offered at 10.00 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. and lunch is cooked and brought to the baby room which enables us to provide the highest level of quality care. Tea is served around 4.00 p.m.
Our room has many facilities to cater for all of our babies needs. We have a sleep room which provides plentiful cots for the babies to snuggle and have a sleep at a time which suits their individual routine; we also have a cosy area where sleep mats can be provided for our babies which are a little older. Within the baby room we also have a separate changing area and a milk kitchen. This ensures that we are able to provide babies with nappies, milk and food, we just ask you to provide a change of clothes as children often get messy as they explore the fantastic range of activities and equipment we have set out around the room. We also ask that you bring in any comforter that your child may require whilst at nursery.
Babies are free to explore our sensory and physical area and we provide plenty of opportunities for quiet, cosy time, interacting and simply having fun. Along with our own range of activities we also like to provide extracurricular activities which are tailored to suit a range of ages and stages specifically in the baby room. This is provided by ‘Little Alice Theatre’ who provides children with song and movement sessions every two weeks. Children take part in this session at no extra cost. Our babies also enjoy taking a ride in the ‘Hilary Bus’ which allows practitioners to take babies out for a walk giving them opportunities to enjoy activities relating to their knowledge and understanding of the world.
