Absolutely, we welcome people to come and see us and we can arrange a suitable time for you; We prefer to do our visits first thing in the morning whilst the children are playing rather than when they are having snack or lunch. This minimises disruption to the children whilst ensuring you get a true picture of what the children get up to in playschool. This is flexible however so please get in touch to arrange a day and time to visit and please bring along your little one.

Due to safeguarding issues we need to know who is on the premises at all times and we must ensure that visitors are always fully supervised, so we ask you to call or email us before hand to book a time. You can ask as many questions as you like when you pay us a visit and bring someone along to support you during your stay. You are very welcome to pay us a second visit and even a third if needed!

We would firstly suggest you come to visit us to ensure we are the right place for you and your little one. Whilst we usually have some spaces available this may be subject to flexibility of days/sessions and the time of year as some days and terms are busier than others. Please email us or call for a chat. We will then send out the relevant paperwork or add your little one to our waiting list.

We take children from two years old up until they go to school.

No, we are open term time only. The good news is, this means your child’s free funding 15 or 30 hours covers your childcare. This means there are no additional top up fee’s.

We are open from 9.00 am until 3.30 pm.  Our morning session runs from 9:00 am until 12:00 pm, our lunch club runs from 12.00pm – 1.00pm and our afternoon session runs from 1:00 pm until 3.30 pm.

A change of clothing (including underwear), nappies and wipes, a sun hat in summer, coat, gloves etc in winter, an apron and small towel for craft and a water bottle. Please ensure all items are clearly named. Please ensure names are on the outside of bags and lunch bags/boxes to avoid confusion and upset.

Whilst at playschool your child needs to be comfortable. Trousers or leggings are ideal with t-shirts and sweatshirts. Aprons will be used for messy activities however we still advise against the children wearing their best clothes for playschool. We have lots of sensory/messy play and encourage the children to get involved if they choose to. We love nothing more than when a child goes home looking like they’ve had a great day!

During wet weather wellies are ideal but please ensure you also send indoor footwear as wellies are not suitable for dancing, climbing and balancing.

You can also purchase playschool uniform for your child; we have t-shirts, polo shirts, sweat-cardi’s, sweatshirts and fleeces available in red or royal blue. Please refrain from sending your child in Crocs or open toed sandals, these are not suitable for running and climbing and often cause accidents.

Please ensure your child brings a coat/ warm clothing as we try to get outside when we can.

We understand that leaving your child is one of the hardest things to do. We work closely with you to ensure we know your child as well as possible ready for their big day.

We progress at your pace and will not move faster than you are ready for. We pride ourselves in being very adaptable to any situation so we will try new strategies to help children settle and get to love playschool as quickly as possible.

Comforters can be brought to playschool as this will help a child through any difficult transitions, however as you can imagine a busy childcare setting things can go missing. We will try our best to keep comforters safe and will take time to put this safe when the child is not using it but things of great expense or of a sentimental value should be kept at home just in case. Children often settle very quickly within the playschool setting and have a tendency of putting their treasured possessions in the most unlikely of places e.g. inside a toy picnic hamper! Please ensure personal items are clearly labelled as many children own identical/similar items and this can be extremely upsetting for all involved.

E.Y.F.S. stands for Early Years Foundation Stage. EYFS statutory framework for group and school-based providers The EYFS is a curriculum set up by the Government that states how we as early years practitioners do things. The EYFS is split into 7 areas in total.

3 prime areas: Communication and language, Personal social and emotional, Physical and 4 specific areas: Mathematics, Understanding the world, Literacy and Expressive art and design.

Within these areas we must ensure children are making progress in each area.

The child’s key person will keep an up-to-date record on your child’s progress they will share this information with you regularly through stay and play/consultation sessions. At the end of each day the room lead is always available should you have any questions.

We also use ‘Class Dojo’ an online platform that enables us to share the children’s learning and be easily contactable should you need to get in touch. Parents are invited into playschool for stay and play/ parent consultations however you are always to come into playschool.

The learning journal is a profile which showcases your child’s achievements, next steps and general fun things they have achieved. This will contain photographs, observations, links to the curriculum and goals that we set to work on with the children. This will also include home link observations where you, as parents and carers can add observations and pictures from home which will help us at playschool for individual planning. Alongside the learning journal we also complete a school transition profile which will go to school with each child to ensure school knows a brief background of each child to help school continue where we left off.

We ensure that an adult with whom your child has a good relationship with who knows their routine is with the child throughout the transition. We keep parents and carers up to date with potential changes timescales etc. Because many children stay for lunch and our groups mix in the playground / courtyard etc. this transition is rarely a difficult one. The children in playschool are familiar with all the adults in the setting.

Playschool accept two and three/four-year-old funding. We ask for proof of eligibility for two-year-olds. All three-year-olds will gain funding automatically the term after they turn three. We will print a form off each term and ask you to complete and return it to us.

Working parents of 2-year-olds may be eligible for FEE2W – This may entitle you to 15 hours free childcare.

Working parents of three and four-year-olds may be entitled to 30 hrs childcare.

Check out childcare choices on the government website to find out more and apply

We accept all forms of childcare vouchers.

You may need some information from us to set these up, such as Ofsted registration numbers.

If you are not yet eligible for funding or your hours exceed your funded entitlement you can pay for your childcare in many ways including cash, cheque, BACS and childcare vouchers. We invoice you prior to the new term starting with payments due by the first week of term. When joining playschool we may ask for a holding deposit of £50, refundable against your first term’s fees.

We ask that you have emergency contacts on record when registering your child however if someone else needs to collect for you then this is not a problem; Please inform us as soon as possible. A password system is in place to help with this.

We understand this can happen as some things are out of our control such as traffic or appointments running over. We ask for you to let us know if this is going to happen as soon as you are aware. It is not a problem once or twice but if this becomes regular you will be charged a late pick-up charge.

Please let us know as soon as you can about your holiday dates or family days out. This helps us to know everyone is safe.

As part of our safeguarding rulings playschool is duty bound to follow up on unexpected absences, this means we will give you a call if we haven’t heard from you.

Yes, no problem you may collect your child whenever you wish, however when possible, it is best to let us know of early collections in order to prepare the child as some children don’t always enjoy changes in routine and to enable us to have your child ready for an earlier collection.

Please ensure you let us know if you are going on holiday during term time or if your child is unwell. The Department of Education requires settings to follow up on absences as part of our safeguarding duty of care.

Snack time approx. 10.30am and 2.45pm. Children will be provided with milk or water and a nutritious and healthy snack each session, this may be fruit, veg, toast, crackers, breadsticks, cereal etc

Children are often involved in making their own snacks e.g. sandwiches, fruit salad, fruit skewers, pizza’s, scones etc.

We ask for voluntary contributions towards the cost of snack; we know some families may be more able to contribute than others so strive to ensure this is kept on a voluntary contribution basis to ensure we are inclusive to all.

Lunch club sessions are held from 12.00 – 1.00pm Monday to Thursday with parents providing their own lunch. Lunch club helps children to become accustomed to eating in a large group. It helps to promote healthy eating, good hygiene and table manners in a relaxed and happy atmosphere. The children are encouraged to build on their independence, self-help skills and social skills.

We have a ‘No Nut policy’ in playschool, this includes chocolate spreads (please read our food and drink policy) . Please do not include sweets, chocolate or fizzy drinks.

Playschool should be informed of any allergies so contingency plans can be made to keep these allergens away from your child. We strive to ensure that every child is safe while at playschool so we will ensure snacks are planned accordingly. Playschool has a strict ‘No Nut’ policy, this also includes no chocolate spreads and similar to enable us to better monitor contents within foods.

If your child is ill, we will give you a call to notify you if this is required (for things such as colds or sniffles this may not be needed). We may however suggest an early collection with a possible doctor’s appointment. We will always do what we feel is in the best interests of the child/children in the setting.

No, at playschool we have a strict policy on exclusion periods. For sickness and diarrhoea children must be away from nursery for 48 hours after last symptom to help reduce the spread.

If in doubt it’s often worth checking the NHS website for guidance although playschool recommendations may sometimes differ slightly e.g. If your child has a nasty cold and feels poorly they are best kept in the comfort of their own home.

We can administer medication that is prescribed by a doctor. Medication must be in it’s original packaging with the label displaying the child’s name, date, and dosage clearly readable.

If your child is well enough to attend playschool but is taking antibiotics, we can administer these on completion of a ‘permission to administer medication’ form. We will complete the form daily and ask you to sign at the end of each day.

We use health care plans for long term medication e.g. EpiPens, epilepsy medication etc. All staff are first aid trained. Only level 3 qualified staff are able to administer medication and administration of medication is always overseen by a second staff member.

Our staff will apply sunscreen on completion of a permission slip, for the children attending all day.

We will use hypoallergenic SPF 50 Sunscreen, suitable for young children, it will be applied to exposed arms and legs, cheeks, nose and neck as required. We suggest a contribution of £2 towards the cost for the Summer term. We ask that parents apply suncream to their child in the morning before playschool.

Yes, we strive to help in all areas of your child’s development, we take this at your child’s pace.

We follow your routine from home as close as possible and keep you in touch with how things are progressing.

Accidents do happen but of course we try our best to prevent them. If your child has an accident, we will let you know upon collection or beforehand depending on the severity of the accident. If your child has a bump to the head, we will always call home to inform you of this; if we feel you need to collect we will let you know but please don’t be alarmed if we call as this is part of our playschool procedures. We will fill in an accident form to outline the incident (causes, treatments, outcomes etc). We will provide any first aid needed (all qualified staff members are trained in paediatric first aid ). For any bigger incidents that we cannot deal with we will consult professional advice through 999 or 101. We will of course, contact you throughout this process or if we cannot get hold of you we will contact your emergency contacts.

We fill out paperwork to log all accidents.

If your child enters playschool with an injury we will ask you to complete a ‘pre-existing’ injury form.

All qualified members of our team hold a valid paediatric first aid certificate. Many staff have also received epilepsy and epi-pen training. If a child joins our setting with a pre-existing condition, we will ensure we know all we need to know in advance of their start date and acquire training if required. In some cases this may mean postponing their start date to ensure training is undertaken prior to their start.

We have a mixture of staff qualifications ranging from Level 6 QTS, level 5, level 3’s and a Level 2.

All members of staff receive level 2 Safeguarding Training and a mixture of age specific courses to help them in the day-to-day care of children.

We have two staff members Level 3 safeguarding trained, all staff are paediatric first aid trained.

Yes, all members of full time and part time staff, hold a current enhanced DBS check. Any people visiting playschool to deliver extra-curricular activities also have DBS checks in place.

A key person is a member of staff within your child’s room who personally will be observing your child’s progress. The key person will write observations and monitor your child’s development.

The key person will most likely change throughout the child’s transition through playschool, this is to ensure the key person is in attendance at the same times as your child. We do however ensure all our staff to build close bonds with all the children in our setting to ensure the children feel safe and happy throughout their time with us even if their key person is absent

We play outside every morning and afternoon (weather permitting) We are extremely lucky to have two large enclosed outdoor spaces.

We use the outside area for many different activities including bikes, scooters, team games, role play, sand pit, mud kitchen, physical challenges, free play, water play. Outside is an extension to our provision and offers lots of learning experiences.

Other outdoor activities include:

• Building shelters, dens and obstacles courses
• Playing in the mud
• Foraging for leaves, sticks and wild flowers
• Various social games such as hide and seek
• Using nature for arts and crafts
• Mini beast hunting
• Planting and growing

Initially we may take the younger children for a walk to the church, as they grow in confidence and become settled, we visit the church regularly for story sessions and for our termly church services which parents and carers are invited to attend. We may also visit Great Baddow Library, the Fire station and Baddow Hall infant school.

At playschool the children are encouraged to follow our playschool rules, these are:

• We have kind hands and feet
• We share and take turns
• We use indoor feet (walking feet)
• We use indoor voices
• We have listening ears
• We use kind words

We use these rules to help the children understand boundaries and expectations at playschool these enforce life lessons which will hopefully aid in the child’s transitions through school life.

There are a few rules that we ask parents and carers to abide to these are in the interest of safeguarding and keeping the children safe.

• We ask that anyone collecting your child remains patient with the staff; we may need to check your details against those held on file. Whilst we know it can be extremely frustrating for a father/grandparent/friend who is in a rush, please remember we have a lot of parents and carers to familiarise ourselves with and safeguarding is and must remain, our top priority.
• We also ask that you do not use your mobile phone whilst inside the playschool building.
• Dogs must always remain outside the playschool premises and on a lead.
• Strictly no smoking or vaping on the premises.
• Please ensure you let us know if you are going on holiday during term time or if your child is unwell. The Department of Education requires settings to follow up on absences as part of our safeguarding duty of care.

Please come and talk to us straight away. The playschool team are very approachable, just request a time and we will set aside some time to talk through any issues you may have. We like to sort out problems before they grow into bigger problems so will be happy to talk about any issues big or small. You and your child’s happiness is our overall goal so we strive to achieve this
as best we can.

Prior to any visits you will be notified on Class Dojo and our notice boards, we also encourage and welcome parents and carers to join us. Attendance to these outings is not obligatory.