Policies

Taster Sessions

?We hold open days once a term for pre-school children prior to children starting and offer 3 one hour free taster sessions prior to starting our day care provision.

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Late Policy

We will charge all parents/guardians our hourly rate, should you be later than 10 minutes after the collect time. (am session)

Any parent/guardian collecting their child after closing hours (6pm) will be charged a penalty (currently £20) and our applicable hourly rate. Our penalty charge goes towards payment for staff members travel by taxi home.

Our opening/closing hours are non-negotiable 8am till 6pm (7.30am Early Bird available prior booking and charge). Whilst we appreciate emergency’s arising, we encourage parents/guardians to telephone the nursery as soon as possible with regard to any emergency that has occurred. We will contact parents/guardians and third named contact person to arrange for child to be collected. Please note being delayed in traffic etc does not count as an emergency.

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Financial Policy

• A registration fee of £10 is required per child to book a place in the nursery. This is non-refundable to cover administration and information costs.
• To secure a place at the nursery parent/guardians will be asked to pay a £50 bond which will hold a place open (for up to 3 months - additional £50 bonds required for every 3 months up to start date - this bond is deducted from the final invoice). In the event of the place not being taken within the specified time scale this bond will be forfeited.
• Fees are payable on or before the due date specified on your invoice.
• Fees for confirmed days are payable irrespective of whether the child attends or not.
• Payment for any extra sessions booked is due irrespective of whether the child attends or not.
• Fees are charged per session regardless of how long the child attends within the session.
• There is a minimum attendance of two sessions per week.
• Should your child have to give up their place in the nursery, a notice period of one month is required in writing, or payment made in lieu of such notice.
• Should the fees for your child’s place be in arrears for more than one month, the manager has the right to terminate that place, and to make arrangements for payment of any arrears owing.
• A charge of £5 is made for all reminders sent to cover administrative charges.
• Any fee increases will be with a minimum of one month’s notice.
• Children eligible to receive the Early Years Grant will be able to attend our pre-school sessions for free and their fees will be adjusted accordingly
• Fees are calculated within the age bands of: 1-2/2-5 years. Changes to fees are effective from one month following the child’s birthday.

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Accidents

An accident book is kept together with the First Aid Kit. All accidents are recorded in this book. Parents are notified of any accident and both the accident book and, if necessary, any report are signed by a member of staff, the parent and if applicable, a witness.

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Child Protection

Here at St Mary’s we follow guidelines laid down by Ofsted Early years standards. It is recognised that the majority of children are well cared for within their families. However, from time to time, a child may show particular physical, emotional or behavioural signs which cause concern and raise suspicion that the child may have been abused.

Our policy here at nursery is clear in the fact that the CHILD is always taken seriously and staff are sensitive regarding such issues without casting any judgement and adhering to our confidentiality policy. The following examples are of things which may cause concern:

• Bruises or other marks which are unexplained or where the explanation is confused or inconsistent or not compatible with the injury.
• Unexplained change in the child’s emotional state e.g. fearfulness, withdrawal, sudden onset of sever behavioural difficulties.
• The child saying that someone has hurt or touched them in a way they don’t like.

This is not an exhaustive list and there may be explanations other than child abuse. Staff must always raise any concerns with the nursery manager and close monitoring and observation of the child must always be recorded. Please read the outlining procedure which Ofsted require us to implement.

We will, from time to time, have students completing practical work experience relevant to their particular childcare/education course, with us. They will have written confirmation from their course provider that they are a student. The student will be familiar with our policies, especially those regarding Health & Safety, Child Protection, Discipline and Confidentiality. They will not be allowed unsupervised access to children unless they have current evidence that they already have had the appropriate checks - police and health. They will not make the number of adults present too great, for the safety and benefit of children’s learning.

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Behavioiur

Staff here in St Mary’s Nursery are very positive at all times towards the children they are working with, towards each other and towards the nursery. Any issues or problems arising with children, other members of staff or parents should be discussed in private with the manager or in their absence a senior in charge. The passing of negative comments about parents, other staff or children is not acceptable in any other forum.

We recognise that children will pick up speech habits from their parents, and may use speech which is inappropriate (e.g. racial comments) without realising this to be the case. If this happens parents must be informed and the difficulty pointed out. The child’s parent/guardian must be requested to work with the child to show that the comments the child has made are not acceptable within the nursery.

Where a parent/guardian refuses to accept that the child has made these comments, or seeks to justify the comments on the grounds that they are valid, or just “child talk”, and that child behaving in this way, and that the justifications or excuses are not acceptable.

These incidents will be recorded in the child behaviour incident book and a copy given to the child’s parent/guardian.

If a child shows no sign of improvement in any form of unacceptable behaviour the child’s parents/guardians will be sent a written warning, explicitly stating that the child’s behaviour/language is unacceptable, and warning the parent/guardian that the child’s registration will be cancelled immediately.

Unacceptable verbal behaviour within context includes any form of racist comments, verbal bullying and swearing.

Unacceptable physical behaviour will be dealt with in the same way. Parents are required to sign our Behaviour Management Policy.

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Jewellery

Children attending day-care or pre-school sessions at St Mary’s Nursery will not be allowed to stay if they are wearing jewellery of any kind.

Should children arrive to any of the above sessions wearing jewellery parents/guardians will be asked to remove the jewellery and take it out of the building with them. Should parents/guardians not comply staff will not accept your child into any sessions.

Please help us in making our setting a safer environment.

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Food and Drink

St Mary’s Nursery has gained accreditation for a Healthy Nursery through the Healthy Pathways – July 2005.

We encourage parents/guardians to provide their children with a piece of fruit each week to share at snack time both morning and afternoon. At snack time children are offered full fat milk and water from our cooler system.

As water is recognised as one of the most important nutrients for children as well as adults, we actively encourage all our children to freely access drinks of water at any time. This is made available by these methods:

• Day-care room children 2-4yrs can freely serve themselves from lidded jugs filled with water. Staff actively encourage children to ask or access water to drink and are on hand to support.
• Under two unit 0-2yrs the baby unit staff offer regular drinks of water served from babies own cup which is stored in their named box in the fridge.
• Pre-school room 3-4yrs can freely access water from water jugs.
• Out of school clubs 5-15yrs can freely access water from water jugs.
• During warmer weather children are encouraged to drink more often.

St Mary’s Nursery includes healthy living as part of our learning for life topics and is covered across many of our activities to promote healthy lifestyles.

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No Smoking

A No Smoking policy operates throughout the nursery. Smoking is not permitted in the building, enclosed outside play areas or any of the school/church grounds.

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For more details on any of our policies please request a prospectus at the nursery.