0 to 18 Months zone
The years of our progressive practice has allowed us to determine the best layout and situation of our classrooms according to the children's age and abilities. Therefore our birth to 18 months old area is ideally located on the ground floor level of the main house. To ensure more individual care for each child, our numbers are kept to a minimum and staff support to a maximum.An abundance of stimulating equipment and resources are available within this area to aid in the overall development of every child.
Not only do we provide three base rooms for our 0 to 18 month olds, we also provide a sleep room, a changing room, a sensory Zone and a soft play area.
As a Sing and Sign affiliated nursery ( www.singandsign.com ), weekly sessions of ‘baby signing' take place with the staff and children, with weekend workshops available for parents to attend. Sing and Sign teaches parents how to encourage their baby's early communication and aids speech and language development. Our staff reinforce the signs by using them on a day to day basis.
Tots Tune Time also features in the weekly timetable, providing a whole package of entertainment and fun for the babies and toddlers using puppets, dance, movement, music, singing, counting and colours.
Due to our unique rural location, our children have the advantage of countryside walks, enabling them to observe nature, allowing visits to the ponies, horses, donkeys, sheep and cattle. Here at Freshfields we have our own mini farm (registered with Defra as a city farm) so the children have the opportunity to interact with our various animals that live at the nursery.
We also enjoy visits off the premises to local soft play centres, feed the ducks and visit the library to name just a few with transport provided by our own nursery vehicles.
We feel that communication and inter-action between parents and staff is very important.
An individual development file is compiled for each child. This consists of a detailed development plan, including observations, photographs and art work. Each child also has their own daily diary.