Health and well being

Safety

We have a devised set of policies and procedures to ensure the safety of the children, staff, parents and visitors who attend our setting.

These include procedures for:

• fire and electrical safety;
• risk assessments of all activities undertaken by staff;
• children or contractors;
• COSHH (control of substances hazardous to health);
• dietary procedures and food allergy management;
• procedures for the collection and non collection of children;
• policy for safeguarding children (child protection);
• administration of medicines;
• sickness and exclusion for illness and notification of infectious illness; and
• the furniture and equipment we purchase is sourced from recognised suppliers and conforms to British safety standards.

In addition we have a strict NO mobile phone policy, camera policy, use of IT,  security of visitors  and many more.

Our nursery prospectus talks in more detail of each policy. Alternatively you can contact the manager if you require further information.

Staff training

Almost all staff our trained level 3 or working towards attaining a level 3 qualification in Early Years childcare.

All staff hold a full pediatric first aid certificate, including allergy awareness training.

Safeguarding, Health and safety, and Food Hygiene are also mandatory training which all staff will hold certificates in.

Our staff are expected to refresh and update current knowledge and qualifications, and to further their knowledge by accessing courses for higher education and recognising the importance for their CPD. Training requirements are also requested or recommended through staff supervision ensuring staff are well trained and knowledgeable across the nursery in all areas of children’s learning and development.

Food and nutrition

Good, safe and well balanced food is integral to a child’s overall development. It gives children the nutrition they need to grow and learn.

We ensure children who attend a full day are introduced to the following food groups each day:

• Bread, cereals and potatoes;
• Fruit and vegetables;
• Milk, cheese and yogurt;
• Meat, fish and vegetarian alternatives; and
• Only we allow SOME foods which are high in fat or sugar. These are served as a pudding to the main meal and most of our puddings are homemade. (Sometimes by the children themselves). Milk or water are served with the two sittings of fruit at snack time each day, and we encourage regular hydration throughout the day with water always being accessible.

All our food is cooked fresh on the day by our on-site chefs. Our chefs plan and prepare all of the menus in partnership with the nursery team and parents, who offer knowledgeable feedback. As such we able to meet the most varied of diets for example we provide meals for children who only eat “Halal” meat and vegetarians. We can manage food for children who have allergies to products and have a management system to further support this.

During your childs induction to the nursery you are most welcome to discuss your child’s stage of weaning or diet with our chefs.

Our summer and winter menus are rotated every 4 weeks ensuring that children who only part time are also given a varied option when in the setting. Each parent will be given a copy of our menu when they have registered, so they can equally plan meals at home alongside ours.

Meal times

At Enchanted Nursery meal times are a special time of the day and a pleasant social occasion.

Staff sit with their key children, providing a family atmosphere, nurturing opportunities to learn about the food they eating and promote good manners.

Our children are encouraged to be independent, when practicable, by feeding themselves – we start by offering finger foods and special cutlery for babies. Older children are given child sized cutlery and taught how to use it. Older children are also encouraged to self serve their meal and support other children with this.

Providing meal time in this way enables the children to learn necessary skills for eating together, including taking equal portions and good manners.

Children are encouraged to eat at their own pace, are never rushed and encouraged to try new foods, but are not expected to eat any food they do not like.

In the baby room we may have babies from as young as 3 months old, as such at this stage will still be on a diet of purely milk, so their meal times are dictated by their routine at home. We will feed babies with the milk, which you provide. They will be held and cuddled while they are fed just like they would be at home.

Once a baby has weaned we will feed them in a low/floor chair, to encourage social mealtimes alongside their friends around a table together. The food will be freshly made and pureed and we will provide you with a written record of what they ate and how much. Again we will follow your child’s routine from home.

Children will be given cow’s milk once they are old enough and ONLY when it has been tried at home.

Weaning

Weaning is the process of introducing “solid” or pureed solid food to a baby’s diet, in addition to his or her milk feeds.

Weaning should only be introduced after a number of considerations including the child’s age, health, development and growth rate.  Weaning should start from 6 as this is the age at which milk alone becomes insufficient to provide all the nutrients babies need to grow and develop.

Weaning is supported at the nursery BUT we will only provide foods that have been previously tried at home and no signs of any allergic reaction were observed. We will not give your baby their first taste of any food at nursery, unless you have previously agreed it alongside our ingredients list.

Upon commencement of introducing weaning to your child, we will complete a weening agreement, in partnership with you. All foods once tried at home must be updated on the nursery diet information.

Physical development – outdoors

We have a dedicated outdoor space for children and we aim to access the outdoors for each child at least twice per day.

The outdoors not only provides us with a large space for large motor skill development such as running, climbing, jumping etc but can also be an extension of the indoor classroom and allows us to explore our environment, science, knowledge and understanding of the world in further detail.

At Enchanted Nursery we provide children with equipment and resources both indoor and outdoor that are sufficient, challenging, and interesting and build children’s confidence to take manageable risks in their play.

Our planning will show how we observe children’s natural and spontaneous movements and how they are finding out about their bodies – for example if they run they get our of breath, and we promote their knowledge of why they need sun cream example.

On the reverse of this we also need to plan opportunities to provide children with sleep and rest. You will find in all of our age groups, opportunities will be provided to allow children to sleep and we have created quiet areas for children who want to relax and rest for a period of time.