| OaklandsNurseries.com | Telephone: 01732 353486 |  |
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Internet address: www.OaklandsNurseries.com
Excellent care and pre-school education in a homely atmosphere.
| Brook Street: | 7:45am to 6:15pm |
We do not open on Bank Holidays.
We close from 1pm on Christmas Eve until January 2nd.
We are closed for the 5 days during the schools' Easter holidays for essential
maintenance.
Our Brook Street nursery is a few minutes' walk from Tonbridge main line station, 40 minutes to Charing Cross and Cannon Street, making it a popular choice for commuters.
www.OaklandsNurseries.com
Contact details |
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Oaklands Day Nursery |
Telephone: 01732 353486 |
Oaklands Day Nursery is run by a family for families and our children are helped to settle quickly and happily in the secure and homely atmosphere we strive to achieve.
There is no such thing as an "average child" and we respect and value each child as an individual with individual needs and abilities. Our primary aim is that every child at Oaklands should progress to school with a positive self-image, equipped with the necessary skills, social, emotional, physical and intellectual, to ensure a happy transition to school life and beyond.
We welcome children from a variety of backgrounds and different nationalities. We have several children from French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish speaking homes and the children enjoy learning about different cultures and languages. Our Manager is bilingual and aims to give our Pre School children a basic knowledge of French through nursery rhymes and games.
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The majority of our staff have been with us for many years and are highly experienced and qualified. 95% of our staff hold recognised Early Years qualifications, and over 70% hold a level 3 qualification or above. This is a much higher level of qualified staff than is required by The National Standards (a minimum of 50% of staff in a Nursery, by law, must be qualified to a level 2 or above.
We prioritise providing consistency of care for our children and each child has a designated ‘key worker’, although we feel that it is important for staff to take an interest in all the children.
Key workers form strong bonds with their children and their role is to ensure that they feel secure and valued. They also make observations on their key children and maintain their development records. They are able to identify areas in which a child may need extra help or attention, or detect possible problems. The Key Worker is also the first point of contact for parents wishing to ask any questions specific to their child’s development or progress.
Our staff receive regular training so that they remain up-to-date in their methods of teaching and care, record-keeping etc. The majority of our staff hold current paediatric first aid qualifications, and are confident in dealing with children with ongoing medical conditions such as asthma, severe allergies etc. We have a designated Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator, who, along with our Manager, has received training in adapting care and teaching methods to suit children with special or additional educational needs and / or physical disabilities. Newly appointed staff are thoroughly vetted and their references checked. Regardless of qualifications and experience, new staff are supervised at all times until satisfactory completion of a probationary period and clearance from the Criminal Records Bureau has been received. We insist that all our staff meet our high standards with regards to the level of care that we provide for our children, as well as our commitment to the parents / carers.
We are lucky enough to have parent from many different professions and we welcome visits from parents who wish to come into the Nursery to talk to the children about a particular interest or their profession, or to accompany us on walks or outings.
We encourage parents to be involved in their children’s learning and activities at nursery. We provide monthly Activity Sheets for parents, detailing the current topic, number, letter and shape etc about which their child is learning. The Activity Sheets include suggestions on how the themes can be extended upon at home, ideas for games and recipes, and interesting web sites for extra information.
As many of our parents are busy working people, we fully appreciate their need for reliable child care. Our parents go to work confident that their children are happy and well-cared for, and during the 18 years that we have been open, we have never had to close the Nursery (eg for bad weather conditions, illness etc).
Parents are welcome to make an appointment at any time to come into the nursery to speak with a member of staff. We also hold a number of events throughout the year to give families the opportunity to come into the Nursery and talk to the staff about their children’s progress and development, see the children’s work displayed and find out more about the activities in which their children engage throughout the day. Examples of these fixtures are:
Parents are their children’s first and primary educators and we place great importance on developing a positive relationship with our parents, welcoming their input and involvement in nursery life.
We find it very helpful to work in partnership with parents, agreeing upon strategies to provide a consistent approach for dealing with potty / toilet training, eating / feeding, and sleep routines etc.
Many of our parents now opt to pay nursery fees, either partially or in their entirety, using vouchers paid directly by their employers. We accept nursery vouchers from a variety of schemes in order to maximise the tax relief possible for our working parents (Busy Bees, Care-4, Sodexho Pass, Childcare Pass etc)
Our Nursery and Pre School operate under one roof, so when your child approaches three years old, he or she will automatically access our Pre School. We complete the vast majority of the paperwork on your behalf to enable you to access the
Pre School government funding to which your child is eligible. We let you know your entitlement, and when it starts – you can leave it all to us!
Nursery and Pre School Education is based upon the principle that children learn through play, and that they learn the most when they are interested, stimulated, and having fun.
The children enjoy a combination of planned, structured activities with their Key Worker and free play, or ‘child-initiated’ play sessions. We use child observations, indicating areas of particular interest, or weaker areas that require more practice, to plan activities, often based on, or linked to, the current topic.
Plans are always flexible and can be changed to accommodate suggestions from children and parents, for example if a child is excited after a trip to the Aquarium, or if there has been a snowfall and the children want to go outside to build a snowman etc.
The children are encouraged to choose for themselves the activities they wish to pursue and, helping to develop their independence and ability to make choices. Our experienced and well-qualified staff are present in free play sessions to observe and unobtrusively help to extend and develop children's skills.
The activities provided include cooking, painting, scissor work, modelling, drawing, singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, phonics, letter number work, sand and water play, construction toys, building blocks, imaginative play, role play, messy play, domestic play, climbing and balancing, running and jumping, and gardening. The list is not exhaustive!
Pre School activities are carefully planned to enable children to make progress towards the Early Learning Goals, as set out in the Foundation Stage of the National Curriculum. These are as follows:
Progress reports and developmental records on each child maintained and up-to-date and are available for parents to see.
When the children move on to school, their Key Worker completes a Record of Transfer which is discussed with the parents before being passed on to the child’s Reception class teacher.
Play is a child's work through which they learn. The children enjoy a combination of planned and structured activities with their Key Worker and daily free play sessions which develop their independence and ability to make choices. The children are encouraged to choose for themselves the activities they wish to pursue. Well-trained adults are present in free play sessions to observe and unobtrusively help to extend and develop children's skills.
The activities provided include cooking, painting, scissor work, modelling, drawing, sand and water play, construction toys, building blocks, imaginative play, role play, messy play, domestic play, climbing and balancing, running and jumping, and gardening. The list is not exhaustive!
Nursery activities are carefully planned to guide a child towards achievement of Ofsted's Desirable Learning Outcomes in:
Personal and social developmentParnership with parents is vital and there is a daily exchange of information. Progress reports and developmental records are readily available for parents who also receive regular newsletters and suggestions of activities to do at home to enrich the work being done in the Nursery. We live in a multi-cultural society and the children learn about events and festivals of different cultures, for example the Hindu festival of Divali and the Chinese New Year.
Outdoor play is essential for good health and physical development: Our big garden is well-equipped with climbing frames, slides and play houses. Nature provides a constantly changing scene and children enjoy harvesting and storing apples, planting seeds, caring for them while they grow and harvesting the produce.
Consistency of care by one 'mother' or 'father' figure is essential for small children. For this reason our children are grouped in 'families' in the care of a Key Worker. Parents know who is responsible for the care of their child and to whom they should refer to give and receive information concerning their child. A Key Worker is responsible for 3 'Under Twos,' 4 'Two to Threes' and 8 'Over Threes'
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The children have access to computers and some parents and staff lag behind them in computer skills!
The children go out regularly for walks and organised outings enliven the work we do in the Nursery. The most recent outing was to the Sea Life Centre in Hastings and we enjoyed the help of several parents. A popular visit by train is to Gatwick Airport. The children enjoy meeting check-in staff, a flight purser, watching the take-offs and landings, a film, exploring an aircraft, riding on the monorail and the travelators.
Sports Day is a very happy occasion always well supported by parents, grandparents and friends. Each year we are all surprised by the children's abilities and even the tiny children take part enthusiastically with their push-along toys.
In order for all parents to have the opportunity to join us, our Christmas Presentation takes place on a Saturday morning in December. All our staff suffer with apprehension, even a sleepless night or two, as the only thing we can be certain of is that we cannot be certain what will happen… the children do strange things when they see an army of parents sitting in front of them!
Meal times are an important part of a child's social development and an opportunity
to develop manipulative skills by handling cutlery. Children sit with their
Key Workers, and in a happy atmosphere, talk together, learn good table manners
and concern for others. Children see -- and smell -- their food being cooked
by Paul in our kitchens and they are encouraged to thank him for their meal.
Lunch is a freshly cooked two-course meal. The menu is available to parents
and favourite meals include roast meats with fresh vegetables, casseroles, pasta
bakes, and spaghetti bolognese. We cater for all dietary requirements as
advised by parents.
To ensure nutritious food is cooked to a high standard a record book is kept in which staff comment on the daily meal and how popular it was with the children.
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A good routine contributes to a child's security and our day is organised so
that children enjoy a calm atmosphere and know what to expect and what is expected
of them.
| 0745 | Children arrive |
| 0800-0845 | Breakfast |
| 0900 | Assembly/children's news time, special events, e.g., birthdays |
| 0930 | Small group time: structured activities with Key Worker |
| 1030 | Mid-morning milk or water or squash and biscuits |
| 1045 | Garden play / music / singing / story time |
| 1145 | Lunch time. Followed by toileting, washing, teeth cleaning, story. |
| Rest time according to individual needs. Quiet activities for children who do not need to sleep. |
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| 1430 | Afternoon drink, biscuits and fruit. |
| Free activities | |
| 15.30-1600 | Tea |
| Music / story / carefully- chosen video or short children's T.V. programme | |
| 1800 or 1815 | Parents pickup children |
We hope we have given you a good idea of what we are striving to achieve but the only way to judge a children's Nursery and its staff is to see it for yourself. Please telephone 01732 353486 to arrange a convenient time to visit. We look forward to meeting you.
www.OaklandsNurseries.com
>> click here to take our internet tour, with pictures of the nursery <<