Frogs Room

What do you need to bring to nursery?

Children need to be dressed appropriately so that they can participate in all activities. As our learning environment is both indoors and outdoors, we ask that you make sure your child is equipped for these areas at all times of the year. Please ensure their clothing is practical and suitable for the seasonal changes. Waterproof jackets and winter clothing for cold weather, sun hats and protective clothing in the summer months and wellies for our well known wet weather. Footwear must be suitable for activities in and outside, crocs and flip flops are not suitable please. The only jewellery permitted is studs or sleepers for pierced ears. We ask that sun cream is applied before the children get to school so that they are ready for the day, this can be put in children’s bags to top up during the day.

We also ask that you provide your child with spare clothes, for any messy play or toileting accidents.

Teddy Bears

During the first few weeks of your child starting, we understand the importance of them feeling comfortable,settled and most importantly happy. We are happy for them to bring in a snuggle or a comforter to play alongside them and make new friends to make their settling easier.

In Frogs room, we use tapestry as a means of communication with parents to share with you your child’s learning and experiences throughout the day. Please feel free to message us on this as a means of communication between you and us with any information you may need to let us know.

We also feed back verbally each day to inform parents of eating, sleeping and toileting habits.

Parents as Partners

We recognise the importance of parents and carers in a child’s developing stages. Parents are the child’s first educators and we greatly value any input, opinions and information you can share with us about your child’s learning and progress.

In Early Years, we are constantly observing and assessing the children. We take photographs and videos as evidence of the children’s experiences and achievements and we assess and monitor the children’s progress and highlight any areas for development. At the Hundred of Hoo Nursery we use Tapestry, which provides each individual child with an online Learning Journal where all of these observations can be recorded.

Once added to Tapestry, an email is automatically generated to parents/carers set up to that child’s account and they are informed that an observation has been added so they can have a look and add any of their own comments to it. Parents/carers can also add their own observations of their child to share progress and milestones at home. We would love for you to upload photos, drawings, writing or mark making that they can proudly share with the class.

We also encourage you to contribute to these by making small observations at home. (For example if your child’s target is to identify numbers to 10, you may notice him or her using the remote control to change the channel correctly to channel 3. This is showing us that your child can recognise the number three independently.)

HOW SECURE IS IT? Tapestry is hosted in the UK on dedicated, secure servers. These servers conform to very high safety standards and are proactively managed by a central security team. A copy of Tapestry’s Privacy Policy is available on their website.

WHO CAN ACCESS MY CHILD’S LEARNING JOURNAL? The Hundred of Hoo Nursery staff have access to the children’s Learning Journals. You will only have access to your child’s journal and this cannot be seen by other parents. However, children in the class will sometimes be photographed with others as they work together. For this reason, we will ask permission for your child to appear in photographs within other children’s Learning Journals. It is crucial that you DO NOT share photos or videos from your child’s journal on social media or through other online platforms. All parents/carers will be requested to sign a consent form and if there are any incidents where confidentiality is broken, these will result in access to the system being withdrawn.

HOW DO I LOG ON? Once you have signed and returned your consent form, you will be given your account login details. Further instructions can be found in the information packs.

All policies are available to parents; please ask a member of staff if you wish to see these.

The EYFS Curriculum

In Frogs room our children follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework (EYFS). This curriculum is based upon four themes and principles.

The Unique Child – We understand that every child is an individual child who is capable in their own right.

Positive Relationships – Social interaction is key to children’s development. Children become strong, independent learners; as well as scaffolding their learning through positive social interaction.

Enabling Environments – Providing a safe, secure and stimulating base for your children is key to their development. The framework allows for experiences that respond to the child’s individual needs/interests; as well as developing a strong partnership between practitioners, parents and carers.

Learning and Development – Children develop and learn in different ways. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Early Years Foundation Stage

Within `Development Matters’ there are 3 prime areas of learning and 4 specific areas. This framework provides the basis of how we structure the setting, the activities and opportunities we provide; as well as how we assess your child’s development.

• Prime Areas
• Communication and language
• Personal, social and emotional development
• Physical development

These are the areas we focus on the most within Squirrel and Frog Room.

Specific Areas

• Literacy
• Problem solving,
• Numeracy and reasoning
• Understanding the World
• Expressive arts and design

Characteristics of Effective Learning

• Playing and exploring
• Active learning
• Creating and thinking critically

Phone numbers: Please ring 01634 252334 then extension numbers as below.

Squirrel Room- 482

Frogs Room – waiting for phone

Hayley Clark Manager: 479

Mo Gregory – Office: 01634 252334 (Monday – Thursday 8am – 3pm)

If you have any questions or concerns do feel free to speak to the room supervisor or your child’s key worker.

We hope your child’s time here is a happy and exciting time at nursery.

We look forward to watching your child grow and learn.

Thank you,

Frogs Room Staff