Mitchell Walk Playgroup

Early years setting prospectus

Our setting aims to:

• provide high quality care and education for children aged between 2 and 4½ ;

• work in partnership with parents to help children to learn and develop;

• add to the life and well-being of its local community; and

• offer children and their parents a service that promotes equality and values diversity.

Parents

In a community based setting such as Mitchell Walk Playgroup, all parents are regarded as members who have full participatory rights. These include a right to be:

• valued and respected;

• kept informed;

• consulted;

• involved; and

• included at all levels.

Because we are a voluntary managed setting, we also depend on the good will of parents and their involvement to keep going. Membership of the setting also carries expectations on parents for their on-going support and commitment. This is the basis of the 'mutuality' that characterises a Pre-school Learning Alliance member setting.

We aim to ensure that each child:

• is in a safe and stimulating environment;

• is given generous care and attention, because of our ratio of qualified staff to children, as well as volunteer parent helpers;

• has the chance to join with other children and adults to live, play, work and learn together;

• is helped to take forward her/his learning and development by being helped to build on what she/he already knows and can do;

• has a personal key person who makes sure each child makes satisfying progress;

• is in a setting that sees parents as partners in helping each child to learn and develop; and

• is in a setting in which parents help to shape the service it offers.

Children's development and learning

The provision for children's development and learning is guided by two frameworks issued by the Sure Start Unit of the Department for Education and Skills.

For children from birth to three years, we give regard to the 'Birth to Three Matters' framework which sets out four key entitlements for young children. This framework informs practice in settings where babies and toddlers are cared for. It also informs practice in settings working across the age range with two to five year olds.

Birth to Three Matters

Our setting supports and promotes the entitlement of every baby and young child to be and become:

A strong child

A strong child is about babies and young children being strong, confident, capable and self-assured. To do this they need to be secure within loving relationships at home and within the nurturing care of their key person in their early years setting. Babies and young children are getting to know themselves and what they can do; the respect, care, love and emotional support they receive helps them develop trust and positive self image. The way we acknowledge and affirm babies and young children leads them to gain confidence and inner strength. Having close relationships with them promotes self assurance and a sense of belonging in our setting as a secure base to learn and try new experiences.

A skilful communicator

Through being with people who love them at home, and through their key persons who care for them in the nursery, babies and young children will become skilful communicators. They will make friendships where they will learn about other people, communicating and sharing their feelings and experiences. They will learn they have a voice, that they are listened to and responded to in a way that supports their understanding and search for meaning, helping them to learn the skills they will need for communicating with others. Through opportunities for talk with adults and peers, through sustained interactions, through stories, songs, mime and gesture, children will learn to become skilful communicators.

A competent learner

Children are learners from birth. They are actively involved in exploring their environment, using their senses to build up their knowledge about the world. Our provision offers babies and young children the opportunity to take part in planned and unplanned activities that will help them to make connections with what they already know and build new understandings to help them form more complex ideas about the world. They will have opportunity to be imaginative and creative; to express their ideas and represent them.

A healthy child

The healthy child is one who is emotionally secure and knows that he or she can depend on carers to meet his or her needs. Through our key person approach we aim to provide babies and young children with secure relationships as a firm foundation for them to gradually learn to become independent at their own pace. Babies and young children will have their needs for good nutrition, play and rest met so that their growth and development are assured. We provide an environment that protects children from harm and abuse; we minimise risk to children, but at the same time provide a safe structure in which they can learn to take their own risks, such as climbing or riding a bike. We provide boundaries within which they learn about being with others in a social group.

The Foundation Stage curriculum for children three to five years

Children start to learn about the world around them from the moment they are born. The care and education offered by our setting helps children to continue to do this by providing all of the children with interesting activities that are appropriate for their age and stage of development.

For children between the ages of three and five years, the setting provides a curriculum for the foundation stage of education. This curriculum is set out in a document, published by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and the Department for Education and Skills, called Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage. We follow this guidance.

The guidance divides children's learning and development into six areas:

• personal, social and emotional development;

• communication, language and literacy development;

• mathematical development;

• knowledge and understanding of the world;

• physical development; and

• creative development.

For each area, the guidance sets out early learning goals. These goals state what it is expected that children will know and be able to do by the end of the reception year of their education.

The Foundation Stage curriculum complements Birth to Three Matters, building on each of the four entitlements, as described above, to further promote children's learning and development.

For each early learning goal, the guidance sets out stepping stones, which describe the stages through which children are likely to pass as they move to achievement of the goal. Our setting uses the stepping stones that lead to the early learning goals to help us to trace each child's progress and to enable us to provide the right activities to help all of the children to achieve and progress.

Personal, social and emotional development

This area of children's development covers:

• having a positive approach to learning and finding out about the world around them;

• having confidence in themselves and their ability to do things, and valuing their own achievements;

• being able to get on, work and make friendships with other people, both children and adults;

• becoming aware of - and being able to keep to - the rules which we all need to help us to look after ourselves, other people and our environment;

• being able to dress and undress themselves, and look after their personal hygiene needs; and

• being able to expect to have their ways of doing things respected and to respect other people's ways of doing things.

Communication, language and literacy:

This area of children's development covers:

• being able to use conversation with one other person, in small groups and in large groups to talk with and listen to others;

• adding to their vocabulary by learning the meaning of - and being able to use - new words;

• being able to use words to describe their experiences;

• getting to know the sounds and letters that make up the words we use;

• listening to - and talking about - stories;

• knowing how to handle books and that they can be a source of stories and information;

• knowing the purposes for which we use writing; and

• making their own attempts at writing.

• Mathematical development

• This area of children's development covers:

• building up ideas about how many, how much, how far and how big;

• building up ideas about patterns, the shape of objects and parts of objects, and the amount of space taken up by objects;

• starting to understand that numbers help us to answer questions about how many, how much, how far and how big;

• building up ideas about how to use counting to find out how many; and

• being introduced to finding the result of adding more or taking away from the amount we already have.

Knowledge and understanding of the world

This area of children's development covers:

• finding out about the natural world and how it works;

• finding out about the made world and how it works;

• learning how to choose - and use - the right tool for a task;

• learning about computers, how to use them and what they can help us to do;

• starting to put together ideas about past and present and the links between them;

• beginning to learn about their locality and its special features; and

• learning about their own and other cultures.

Physical development

This area of children's development covers:

• gaining control over the large movements that they can make with their arms, legs and bodies, so that they can run, jump, hop, skip, roll, climb, balance and lift;

• gaining control over the small movements they can make with their arms, wrists and hands, so that they can pick up and use objects, tools and materials; and

• learning about the importance of - and how to look after - their bodies.

Creative development

This area of children's development covers:

• using paint, materials, music, dance, words, stories and role-play to express their ideas and feelings; and

• becoming interested in the way that paint, materials, music, dance, words, stories and role-play can be used to express ideas and feelings.

Play helps young children to learn and develop through doing and talking, which research has shown to be the means by which young children think. Our setting uses the stepping stones leading to the early learning goals to plan and provide a range of play activities which help children to make progress in each of the areas of learning and development. In some of these activities children decide how they will use the activity and, in others, an adult takes the lead in helping the children to take part in the activity. In all activities information from the stepping stones and the early learning goals has been used to decide what equipment to provide and how to provide it.

Working together for your children

In our setting we maintain the ratio of adults to children in the setting that is set though the National Standards for Day Care. We also have volunteer parent helpers where possible to complement these ratios. This helps us to:

• give time and attention to each child;

• talk with the children about their interests and activities;

• help children to experience and benefit from the activities we provide; and

• allow the children to explore and be adventurous in safety.

The staff who work at our setting are:

Karen Hazell Playgroup Supervisor

Sarah Cato Deputy Playgroup Supervisor

Amy Brown Playgroup Assistant

Francesca Warner Playgroup Assistant

Jade Stubbs Playgroup Assistant

We are open five days a week during Buckinghamshire school term times. The playgroup operates from 1.15 – 4.15PM daily.

How parents take part in the setting

As a member of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, Mitchell Walk Playgroup recognises parents as the first and most important educators of their children. All of the staff see themselves as partners with parents in providing care and education for their children. There are many ways in which parents take part in making the setting a welcoming and stimulating place for children and parents, such as:

• exchanging knowledge about their children's needs, activities, interests and progress with the staff;

• helping at sessions of the setting;

• sharing their own special interests with the children;

• helping to provide, make and look after the equipment and materials used in the children's play activities;

• being part of the management of the setting;

• taking part in events and informal discussions about the activities and curriculum provided by the setting;

• joining in community activities in which the setting takes part; and

• building friendships with other parents in the setting.

The parents' rota

The setting has a dated rota which parents can sign if they would like to help at a particular session or sessions of the setting. Helping at the session enables parents to see what the day-to-day life of the setting is like and to join in helping the children to get the best out of their activities.

Joining in

Joining the rota is not the only means of taking part in the life of the setting. Parents can offer to take part in a session by sharing their own interests and skills with the children. We welcome parents to drop into the setting to see it at work or to speak with the staff.

Key persons and your child

Our setting has a key person system. This means that each member of staff has a group of children for whom she/he is particularly responsible. Your child's key person will be the person who works with you to make sure that what we provide is right for your child's particular needs and interests. When your child first starts at the setting, she/he will help your child to settle and throughout your child's time at the setting, she/he will help your child to benefit from the setting's activities.

Records of achievement

The setting keeps a record of achievement for each child. Staff and parents working together on their children's records of achievement is one of the ways in which the key person and parents work in partnership. Your child's record of achievement helps us to celebrate together her/his achievements and to work together to provide what your child needs for her/his well-being and to make progress.

Your child's key person will work with you to keep this record. To do this you and she/he will collect information about your child's needs, activities, interests and achievements. This information will enable the key person to identify your child's stage of progress. You and the key person will then decide on how to help your child to move on to the next stage,

Learning opportunities for adults

As well as gaining qualifications in early years care and education, the setting staff take part in further training to help them to keep up to date with thinking about early years care and education.

The setting also keeps itself up to date with best practice in early years care and education through the Pre-school Learning Alliance's magazine Under Five and publications produced by the Pre-school Learning Alliance.

The setting's timetable and routines

Our setting believes that care and education are equally important in the experience which we offer children. The routines and activities that make up the session/day in the setting are provided in ways that:

• help each child to feel that she/he is a valued member of the setting;

• ensure the safety of each child;

• help children to gain from the social experience of being part of a group; and

• provide children with opportunities to learn and help them to value learning.

The session

We organise our sessions so that the children can choose from - and work at - a range of activities and, in doing so, build up their ability to select and work through a task to its completion. The children are also helped and encouraged to take part in adult-led small and large group activities which introduce them to new experiences and help them to gain new skills, as well as helping them to learn to work with others.

Outdoor activities contribute to children's health, their physical development and their knowledge of the world around them. The children have the opportunity - and are encouraged - to take part in outdoor child-chosen and adult-led activities, as well as those provided in the indoor playroom/s.

Snacks and meals

The setting makes snacks a social time at which children and adults eat together. We plan the menus for snacks so that they provide the children with healthy and nutritious food. Do tell us about your child's dietary needs and we will make sure that these are met.

Policies

Copies of the setting's policies are available to view upon request.

The setting's policies help us to make sure that the service provided by the setting is a high quality one and that being a member of the setting is an enjoyable and beneficial experience for each child and her/his parents.

The staff and parent led management committee of the setting work together to adopt the policies and they all have the opportunity to take part in the annual review of the policies. This review helps to make sure that the policies are enabling the setting to provide a quality service for its members and the local community.

Special needs

As part of the setting's policy to make sure that its provision meets the needs of each individual child, we take account of any special needs a child may have.

The setting works to the requirements of the 1993 Education Act and The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (2000).

Our Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator is Karen Hazell.

The management of our setting

A parent management committee - whose members are elected by the parents of the children who attend the setting - manages the setting. The elections take place at our Annual General Meeting. The committee is responsible for:

• managing the setting's finances;

• employing and managing the staff;

• making sure that the setting has - and works to - policies that help it to provide a high quality service; and

• making sure that the setting works in partnership with the children's parents.

The Annual General Meeting is open to the parents of all of the children who attend the setting. It is our shared forum for looking back over the previous year's activities and shaping the coming year's plan.

Fees

The cost of each playgroup session is £13.50, and there is an additional £4.50 charge when a child starts at the playgroup to cover the cost of the Mitchell Walk Playgroup T-Shirt. Fees are payable termly in advance. Fees must still be paid if children are absent without notice for a short period of time. If your child has to be absent over a long period of time, talk to Michelle Hatchett who is the committee chairperson, or Karen Hazell who is the playgroup supervisor.

For your child to keep her/his place at the setting, you must pay the fees within the invoice settlement period outlined in the playgroup’s terms and conditions.

We are in receipt of nursery education funding for three and four year olds; where funding is not received, then fees apply.

Starting at our setting

The first days

We want your child to feel happy and safe with us. To make sure that this is the case, the staff will work with you to decide on how to help your child to settle into the setting. The setting has a policy about helping children to settle into the setting: A copy is enclosed in this prospectus.

Clothing

We provide aprons for the children when they play with messy activities.

We encourage children to gain the skills that help them to be independent and look after themselves. These include taking themselves to the toilet and taking off - and putting on - outdoor clothes. Clothing that is easy for them to manage will help them to do this.

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We hope that you and your child enjoy being members of our setting and that you both find taking part in our activities interesting and stimulating. The staff are always ready and willing to talk with you about your ideas, views or questions.