Our Rooms

Baby Room | 0-18 months | Ratio 1:3

Curious, Secure, Happy

Within the baby room, our aim is to provide a warm, caring and stimulating environment for every baby in our care. We aim to follow their home routine, ensuring continuity between home and nursery. The menu can be easily adapted to accommodate children at different stages of weaning and we sterilise/prepare all bottles in our nursery kitchen.

When your baby starts at Katie’s Kinder Care they will be allocated a key person. A key person has a special responsibility within Katie’s Kinder Care, working with a small number of children giving them the reassurance to feel safe and cared for. One of their roles is also to build a strong relationship with you as the parent/carer and to work towards a cohesive approach between home and nursery.This designated member of staff will be your main point of contact for any major changes to your little one’s life (routine etc)

From birth, children want to explore the world around them. We expand on this natural curiosity by stimulating both their physical and social needs through play, and by offering emotional security with lots of cuddles and reassurance.

We do not have a strictly structured day in the baby room, as all babies’ needs are so different. We create individual routines for our babies, together with input from the parents.

The staff in our baby room have many years of experience caring for babies and have training specifically on the care of babies. They fully understand parents’ concerns and anxieties about leaving their baby for the first time. They help to make settling into the nursery as smooth as possible and give parents detailed feedback at the end of each day.

Toddler Room | 18 months – 3 years | Ratio 1:4 / 1:5

Confident, Creative, Resilient

The Toddler Room is a bright and spacious room, and this combined with our friendly, caring and enthusiastic staff team, makes a friendly, welcoming and stimulating environment for your child.

Children need to have a sense of belonging, a feeling of being welcomed and valued if they are to contribute and participate, feel happy and thrive. Feeling included is supported by responsive care that in turn provides a very safe and welcoming environment for our toddlers. You will have noticed that by this stage, your child will have an abundance of energy and will have become very inquisitive. The amount a child learns is dependent upon the variety of different experiences they have access to. We plan these experiences around children’s individual interests and home life events. Along with our continuous provision, the activities we provide are inviting and simulating and we use a variety of open ended resources, to ensure children’s learning and thinking is not limited.

The Toddler Room supports children’s sleep patterns and provides a calm, quiet and relaxing space for them to safely sleep during the day. Children are monitored by staff every 10 to 15 minutes while they are asleep.

You will also find our staff within our Toddler Room very experienced and supportive when your child is ready to toilet train. Your child’s key person will discuss with you when you think it may be time to start toilet training and will advise you how we can support this at nursery. Children are encouraged and praised when toilet training and get their own toilet training chart at the end of each day.

Preschool Room | 3 years – 4 years | Ratio 1:8

Independent, Emotionally Intelligent, A love for learning

From the age of 3 onwards the children are warmly welcomed into our Pre-school Room at Katie’s Kinder Care. Our pre-school room provides a range of opportunities to build your child’s confidence and the basic skills to prepare them for school life. Independence is also a big focus within our preschool room and we have many ways to promote this including children’s pegs, self serving meal times, a self care station with tissues, mirrors and facewipes and access to their own toilets.

Our continuous provision is more open ended to give children chance to use their imagination and think for themselves. We also have a large outdoor space which offers lots of risky (but safe) play opportunities to help build confidence.

Throughout your child’s time with us they will take part in many events including sports day, nativities and graduation. Parents are invited to get involved in all our events (where possible) and we aim to leave you and your child talking about these days after.

Once your child comes to the end of their time with us we ensure we take the transition to school very seriously. Every year we:

  • Invite the reception teachers to visit their new pupils at our setting
  • Share information with the school about the child’s development
  • Provide role play opportunities and circle time discussions that support their move to school

Outdoors

Our outdoor areas include a front ground that is split by a fence for babies and toddlers. A rear playground that the
pre-school children use. We also have 8 acres of grassland that is solely for nursery use.

The children love running through the fields, looking for mini beasts, going on puddle or windy day walks, picking blackberries in the autumn or making snowmen and patterns in the snow in the winter.

Each year we have our fields cut for hay, the children love watching the tractors at work cutting, tossing and baling the hay.

We hold our sports day each year (for Pre-school children) on our fields when parents come along to cheer on their little ones and also take part in the highly anticipated parents race!

We have play areas to the front and rear of nursery which we operate a free flow play system, this means that children can decide if they play indoors or outdoors while still accessing our continuous provision.

The children love growing plants, fruit and vegetables in our many tubs around our play areas. They especially like is when it’s time to pick and eat what they have grown.

Starting & Transitioning

How do we support transitions?

Depending on the days your child does, they will be allocated a key person. This person will be the primary carer for your child and be responsible for their development and assessment. This gives consistency to your child. 

When your child first starts with us you will be asked to complete an ‘all about me’, and an ‘entry assessment’ form. This gives your child key person a starting point for their routines and development.

When you have completed all the paperwork we invite parents and children in for an all about me session. This allows you to get to know their key person and discuss anything important. During this we will book in some settling in sessions for you child to attend on their own. This helps them become familiar with the environment and staff without having you there.

We know how scary transitions can be for young children (and their parents!) and we do our best to make these as easy and smooth as possible. Before your child moves to the next room you will be invited to look around the new room and meet your child’s new key person. This allows you to get to know them and pass over any important information regarding your child. We also send out a transition form for you to fill out which updates routines, allergies and interests.

The transition to school is one of the biggest transitions a child can go through. We ensure our Preschool team work closely with teachers to make this an exciting adventure.

  • We invite their teachers into nursery for a stay and play session.
  • We send transition paperwork to tell the teacher everything they need to know about your child
  • We role play in the home corner using real school uniforms for dress up.