Parent Handbook
Starting in our Nursery
Useful information for Families
Welcome to Kate Greenaway Nursery School!
We look forward to your child joining us. Please see the Guide to Settling In and Transition Policy for more information about the initial settling period and transition between rooms, and please do ask your child’s key person or another member of staff if there is anything you’d like to know more about or discuss.
What is a Key Person?
We believe that it is very important for all the children to have a closer relationship with one of the adults in the nursery, this is their Key Person.
The Key Person will have a group of children called their ‘Key Group’. They will get to know these children well, visit them at home, settle them in, greet them and say good-bye whenever possible and record their progress. They are also the first point of contact for the families of the children in their group.
A child will usually also have a ‘Co-Key Person’ who is a second adult who also gets to know the child well and can stand in for the Key person if they are not present. The Co-Key person is particularly important because most of the nursery staff work shifts and take leave throughout the year so won’t always be around to greet a child or give feedback to a parent or carer.
Please bring your child to your Key Person or Co-Key Person when you arrive at nursery.
Your child’s place
Children in the nursery have a range of different types of places depending on their age, availability of places and the needs of their families.
When you are initially offered a place, we will discuss with you what days/hours will suit you and whether the place is ‘Term Time Only’ or ‘All Year Round’. We will ask you to sign a contract with us with the details of your child’s place, including the fee if there is one. If you have any questions about your contract, please do discuss these initially with Vesna (Nursery Administrator) or with the Head or Deputy (Diana or Linda).
Once we have agreed your contract and your child is settled in, we will expect you to abide by the agreement. Please do ensure that you bring and collect your child at the agreed times, this is very important to the smooth running of the nursery and your child’s well-being. We also like to give you some information about your child’s day when you collect so, please do arrive around five minutes before your pickup time. We will only allow those people named on your admission form to collect your child, if you would like someone else to collect you must let us know.
Changing your contract
If you would like to change your contract, for example if you want your child to attend nursery more or less hours or days, please put your request in writing, kategreenaway.eyc@islington.gov.uk, and we will consider it as soon as possible.
Please be aware that it is not always possible to offer the hours or days you request immediately or in some cases, at all. We require one month’s notice (and one month’s payment) if you decide to end your child’s place with us.
Lateness
If you are forced by circumstance to arrive or collect late you must let us know by phone call or text. If you are late, we will meet with you to try to resolve the problem but failing this any family who is frequently late is at risk of losing their nursery place.
Holidays and closures
We are closed to children on all Bank holidays and for five training days each year in addition to periods of closure in the summer, at Christmas and Easter (these will vary according to the type of place your child has). We plan four Development Sessions every school year. We close the nursery for everyone earlier (at 4 pm) on those days. Please ensure that you collect your child promptly on those days as our training sessions start at 4pm.
If you pay fees, you will be charged for all Bank holidays and training days but not for holiday closures and Development Sessions. We will send you a School Calendar detailing the days we are closed throughout the year, and it is your responsibility to know when your child has a place. If you are unsure about this, please do ask staff members for information. There are copies of the school calendar in a file at reception so please do check if you think you may have missed one.
Sickness
If your child is unwell, they should not attend nursery, please call, and let us know. The exception to this is if a child has a cold virus or similar and is well enough to play as usual.
If your child has diarrhoea and/or vomiting, we ask you to keep them at home until 48 hours after the condition has cleared (for example is a child stops vomiting at 4pm on Tuesday they should not attend nursery again until Friday).
If they have head lice or conjunctivitis (a common eye infection) we ask you to please seek treatment before bringing them into nursery. This is because these conditions are very contagious. Please don’t hesitate to ask if you are unsure what to do.
Medication
If a child is well enough to attend nursery but still requires medication (either for an on-going condition such as asthma or to complete a course of medicine such as antibiotics) we will administer most medicines if they are prescribed for your child and in date. We will ask you to complete a consent form detailing how and when the medication should be given.
Accidents and injuries
If a child has an accident at nursery, we will record it in the accident book and ask you to sign the book on collection. Most of the staff who work directly with the children are trained in basic paediatric first aid. If your child has an accident at home, please do tell us about it, we are obliged to ask about any injuries. If you notice an injury on your child or your child tells you about an accident that we haven’t told you about, please do let us know.
Food in Nursery
We offer breakfast, lunch, and a light tea to children throughout the day, depending on the hours they attend. The week’s menu will be forwarded to you every term and a copy can be obtain from the office.
Please note that the food is not Halal or Kosher, but we don’t use pork or pork products. We also offer a fruit-based snack twice during the day. Do let us know if your child is allergic to any foods or if there are foods that you don’t want them to eat.
Please don’t bring any food into the nursery, this is particularly important with anything containing nuts due to children’s allergies.
We are ‘nut free’ throughout the school.
What to bring to Nursery
If your child needs nappies and wipes and/or formula milk, you will need to bring these. We also ask all families to provide at least one set of spare clothes to hang on your child’s peg. Please mark all your child’s clothes with their name (an indelible marker is best, but a biro may also work). We do our best to make sure that children’s clothes don’t get lost in nursery, but this is made much easier if their clothes have their names on.
Sometimes children like to bring favourite toys to nursery. We are happy for them to bring a ‘comfort object’ from home during the time they are settling in or if they need it to help them sleep comfortably. However, at other times toys from home are at risk of getting lost or damaged at nursery so we ask you not to bring toys unless it is something special to show their key person, after which we will store it safely until the child is collected.
Birthdays
We aim to celebrate all the children’s birthdays either on the day or as close to it as possible. It’s a good idea to discuss this with your child’s Key person as the day approaches. We bake a cake with the child celebrating to share at group time with their key group. We ask families not to bring anything in for their child’s birthday, but you are warmly invited to come and join the celebration if you’re able to.
Festivals and Celebrations
We mark many of the important festival days throughout the year including Christmas, Eid, Diwali, Chinese New Year and Hanukah. The aim is to encourage all children to feel included at nursery and to help children learn about a range of cultures. If your family celebrates particular festivals do, please, let us know.
How will I find out about my child’s progress?
We will be asked to sign up for our online learning platform, Famly. Through the Famly we will receive weekly room news, learning observations and progress reports every Autumn and Summer Term.
We also invite all families to attend a review of their child’s progress three times a year (or slightly more if your child has a special educational need). Please feel free to request a meeting with your child’s Key person or another member of staff at any other time you would like to discuss any aspect of your child’s development.
Your child’s Key Person will also aim to give you frequent informal feedback on your child’s time at nursery when you collect or drop your child.
Concerns about your child
If you are worried about any aspect of your child’s development or their experience at nursery or at home, please do arrange to talk to your child’s Key Person or a senior member of staff about it. We work in close partnership with local health visitors, community psychologists, family support workers and the speech therapy service. We can usually arrange for families to get quick access to specialist advice on a wide range of parenting, health, and developmental issues. Please just ask.
We will let you know if we have any concerns about your child. Sometimes we are obliged to share any concerns with Children’s Social Care (formerly known as Social Services). When this happens, we will discuss this with you first except in exceptional circumstances.
Trips and Educational Visits
We endeavour to offer our children rich experiences and build on their cultural capital. We organise local and further afield trips and education visits, including visits to the theatre, Forest School, local library.
We invite parents or family members to join us on many of the trips, please let us know if you would like to be included in the list of chaperones.
Famly App
We use an online platform for families to collaborate, share and learn new things. Upon joining us, you will be able to subscribe to the application and receive weekly nursery updates, useful information and other communication through the app.
How can I get more involved in the Nursery?
We welcome any parents who are interested in volunteering in the nursery. We also have several family and staff social events throughout the year which you are warmly invited to attend, and we have parent representatives on the school Governing Body. Please ask Diana and Linda for more information.
Further Information
All our policies are available for families, giving you detailed information on how we do things including manage health and safety issues, manage children’s behaviour and how to make a complaint. Key policies are available in the foyer upon request. If there’s something you’d like to know more about, please, simply ask a member of staff
We wish your child and their family an exceptional journey with us!