Services
1. The full service available at East Green
• Our main area is delivering full pre-school educational nursery sessions.
• We have been fortunate in getting our new extension, this has opened up other areas we are now very happy to provide such as:-
Breakfast club
from 7.30am – 9am – where children can be taken to school or stay at Nursery (if pre-school age)
Morning nursery
9.00 – 11.15am (pre-school)
Wraparound care
Which bridges the lunchtime gap when Children can relax for a while and enjoy their lunch.
Afternoon nursery
12.45 – 3pm (pre-school)
Out of School Club
3.00 – 5.30ish (2½ - 13 years old)
This means that within the hours of 7.30am and 5.30pm we are in a position to offer full day care. Children can be booked into “Wraparound care” at different stages throughout the day (providing there are spaces, even if they are not in a Nursery session.
Holiday Club care
Is the other service we provide. Where before East Green closed in conjunction with the School holidays we can carry on childcare throughout the Holidays and In-service days with the exception of Christmas. This service will be run with a variety of fun activities such as crafts, sports, outings, baking etc and any other ideas from parents or children. We can only open if there is a minimum of 4 children to ensure we cover staffing costs.
2. How we follow the Curriculum for Excellence
Well, the days of coming along to Playgroup have changed a lot over the years, although we used to think “aren’t they having fun mixing and playing with their friends” we were happy because they were having fun. Today we still have all the same fun, but everything is taught within the Curriculum for Excellence framework and care commission standards. This means listening to the children and their ideas and ensuring we provide a wide variety of experiences and outcomes for all levels of learning. This ensures that your child is excited and motivated to learn through play, contributing to the setting and the overall planning of themes and topics. The eight curriculum areas of learning are:-
• Expressive Arts
• Health and Wellbeing
• Languages
• Mathematics
• Religious and Moral Education
• Sciences
• Social Studies
• Technologies
These areas cover learning goals which help them to share, play alongside others, develop independence and confidence, listen to others and express their ideas.
This is why we have experienced qualified staff in Childcare and Education and staff in training to enable us to fulfil our duties to plan, observe, assess and record your child’s development.
3. The Choices you have as Parents
Not everyone may be aware that when it comes to choosing Pre-School education, it is something you have a choice about, what we have become aware of is that a large number of parents do not know the full facts which enables them to make choices, for example, being under the impression that your child should or must attend any specific Pre-School Nursery, this is not the case, all Nurseries and Childcare settings deliver the Curriculum for Excellence and all children are given 5 funded sessions per week, parents can choose how many they wish to use and where they use them i.e. 2 within the same day, mornings or afternoons or they can split their sessions with another setting. Funded sessions are free from the term after the child’s 3rd Birthday – i.e. August, January or April.
The main things to take into consideration when making choices for your children is:
1. Are your children comfortable and happy in their environment?
2. Are they mixing well with their peers and staff?
3. Are the needs and wishes of the parents being met by the setting?
So really, nothing is compulsory, you as parents have the right to make choices on how you wish your child to receive their pre-school education.
4. Our flexibility in meeting your needs
I would like to think that whatever your need for childcare, we would try our utmost within our opening times to help with your specific wishes.
Breakfast club – available between 7.30 and 9.00am
Nursery – flexibility with your sessions of choice. How many sessions used i.e. all five or less to start with, where you use them i.e. morning or afternoons, both or mixed with another setting.
Wraparound care – gives your child a chance to relax and enjoy their lunch, outside on nice days.
Out of School club – Reassurance that your child can be safely picked up from school and looked after with the choice of doing various fun activities or just relaxing after school. Our Out of School club is part of an “Aiming High programme” with funding from the Council to help with this, staff have to attend training to ensure we are constantly aiming to improve out standards and documenting and collecting evidence of this.
I would like to say that East Green has grown tremendously over the past few years; we have a really good staff team and a few new relief staff in place. We have the continued support of a good Committee with meetings, fundraisers and updates throughout the year, without which we could not achieve our very high standards (this is shown in our Care Commission inspection report a copy is pinned on the display board in the entrance hall or can be accessed on the Care Commission website).
I feel we are very lucky with the outside support we receive, we work with and have regular visits from a great deal of Professionals such as our Curriculum development officer, Health visitor, Special Needs Officer, Dental Nurses, Speech Therapists, Primary School and many more, having access to this ensures we deliver the best care for all the children.
I hope that this has helped give you a wider picture of what is available to you and the choices you have when planning your child’s future stages.
I hope that this has helped give you a wider picture of what is available to you and the choices you have when planning your child’s future stages.
