Welcome to the Baby Room
Busy Bees (5 - 12 months)
Busy Bees have 9 babies with 3 staff assigned as their key workers where a nurturing and calm environment is created for the children.
Welcome to the Toddler Room
Happy Hoppers (1 - 2 years)
Children who have just found their feet and ready to explore their world will be found in Happy Hoppers.
Welcome to the Playgroup Room
Tiny Turtles (2 - 3 years)
Toddlers ready for more robust play and exploration are supported by an experienced staff team during this exciting stage of childhood.
Welcome to the Pre-School Rooms
The Sun, Moon and Stars
In September of each year the children transition to Preschool. Children are typically aged between 3 and 5 years.
The Willows Outdoor Preschool
In September 2018 we opened our Outdoor Preschool where children spend the preschool session outdoors all year round.
Children spend 3 hours of their preschool session entirely outdoors even in wet or cold weather. We provide each child with weather suitable outer gear so they are wrapped up and continue to play, explore and crucially, develop outside.
The benefits of outdoor play are multi-faceted and support the whole of the child’s development, that is, physical, mental, sensory, emotional and social. As they grow the outdoors provides ever changing opportunities for new experiences as their environment changes with the seasons and weather. They build up resilience through falling over or not achieving their goal right then and there.
Children in the outdoor preschool have a great deal of choice of what they do and how they play. They interact with the adults, each other and the materials to create different play. Often this can look very risky to the adults, but we have come to trust the children in that they will only attempt what they are able for. This risky play is what supports the child’s well-being and perseverance.
Balancing, falling and getting back up across different types of surfaces builds children’s motor skills. Outdoors, children’s senses are naturally stimulated through the changing environment where sights, sounds, smells, taste and touch all move and shift throughout the session. Anecdotally, Parents are reporting lower incidences of illness and staff are reporting lower incidences of illness spreading from child to child.
Service Times
We offer full and part-time places.
A full- time place is available Monday to Friday 8.00 am until 6.00 pm
A part-time morning place runs from 8.55 am until 12.30 pm
An afternoon part time place is from 1.30 pm until 5.05pm
A bit about our staff
All our staff are qualified in childcare and many have advanced qualifications. Staff regularly attend training to keep their skills up-to-date.
To support quality in the service we engage with a range of support programmes for childcare for example:
Incredible Years Dina Programme
The purpose of the Incredible Years Curriculum is to support children’s learning through the use of puppets and positive relationship building. The following skills are deliberately targeted through Incredible Years:
- Positive social skills
- Conflict and anger management skills
- Emotional literacy
- Behaviours that will support the children’s transition to school
- Reading, writing and communication skills
The purpose is to promote children’s positive self-esteem and general social, emotional, and academic competence. Sessions, using puppets, are provided in the preschool rooms each week by staff trained in the programme.
