For minor illness or injuries at nursery, after giving first aid (if appropriate), a team member will call you to let you know of the situation. You will not be required to collect your child if you do not wish to, unless it is an infectious disease as described in our ‘Illness and Injury Policy’.
If, in the opinion of the team, your child is ill and requires medical treatment or diagnosis, you will be contacted and requested to collect your child as soon as possible.
For more serious accidents or illnesses, where the team feel that hospital treatment is required, you will be contacted straight away, and either asked to meet the team and your child at hospital, or collect them from nursery to take them yourself if you are nearby.
For any illnesses or accidents that occur at nursery, you will be asked to read and sign an ‘Accident/Medication’ book at the end of the day.
The short answer is ‘yes!’ We have children that sleep in both the Baby Room and the Tweenie Room. If Pre-Schoolers require a sleep, they sleep on bed mats in the Tweenie Room. When registering your child, you will be asked to fill out an ‘All About Me’ form which asks you all about your child’s sleeping habits and favourite comforters. As much as possible we try to stick to children’s normal routines, taking our cue from parents about what would usually happen at home.
We understand that things out of your control can sometimes make you late. If you know you are going to be delayed, we ask that you give us a call to let the team know what time you are likely to be arriving.
- If your child remains at nursery beyond opening hours, their Key Person or a familiar team member would stay behind with them until they were collected.
- If you are going to be significantly late, we advise that you ask a friend or family member who you trust to pick up your child on your behalf. If this person is not someone who usually collects your child you will need to contact us and let us know who will be collecting and ensure that the person has the security password (that you would have set when your child started at the setting as per your Parent Pack)
Unfortunately if you are frequently late, we may have to charge a ‘late pickup fee’, at £10 per 10 minutes late (or part thereof). This is to compensate for the overtime that would be paid to the team who would have to stay behind with your child.
We are able to accept payment through all Childcare Voucher providers. If you wish to pay via vouchers, please email whitbythewoodenhorse@outlook.com to let us know. Please ensure that if you are paying through childcare vouchers, that you order the vouchers to come to the nursery account by the 7th of the month, so that the payment is credited to your account and you don’t incur a late payment fee.
As per the contract that is part of your Parent Pack, you need to give a months notice if you wish your child to leave the setting.
We can administer most prescribed medication at nursery – please see the ‘Medicines Policy’ for more information. If your child develops a temperature during their session they must have been in our care for 4 hours before we can administer child paracetamol (we will always attempt to contact parents when we need to give your child paracetamol).
Fees are based on the reservation of a place for your child, not on actual attendance. Therefore, all fees are payable even if your child does not attend nursery for all their booked sessions.
At The Wooden Horse our fees are calculated according to the sessions that your child is booked in for. Monthly fees are due a month in advance and should be paid before the 7th of the month to avoid ‘late payment fees’
Invoices are put into pouches on the 25th of the month prior so that you can check for any discrepancies, payment is then due by 7th of the month.
We aim at The Wooden Horse to encourage and promote a healthy and hygienic environment and to minimise the spread of infection for all the children in our care. Therefore, if a child is ill, especially with an ‘infectious disease’ it is sometimes appropriate for them to stay at home.
A common example of such illness is vomiting and/or diarrhoea. In this case it is our policy for children to stay at home for 48 hours after the last episode of vomiting/diarrhoea, returning to nursery only when they are back to full health.
You can find more information about how long to keep your child off nursery for in our ‘Illness and Injury Policy’. If you are unsure as to whether your child should attend nursery or not, please do give us a call and the team can advise further.
The Wooden Horse operates a Key Person system, whereby each child and their family have a designated team member who will take lead responsibility for the relationship between the family and the nursery.
You know your child best and we are committed to working with you to make sure your child settles into nursery life as quickly and as easily as possible. In order to help your child settle in when they first join the nursery The Wooden Horse offers;
Settling In Visits – Prior to the first full day of attendance, arrangements will be made for three ‘settling in’ visits at the nursery, so that the child and parent can meet the team and visit the room in which the child will be based.
◾The first settling in visit lasts around half an hour and requires the parent to remain with the child.
◾During the second settling in visit, we encourage the parent to leave the child in the room on their own. This visit usually lasts 1 hour.
◾Third and subsequent visits may be made prior to full attendance commencing. These can be either made in advance or agreed at the time if felt necessary.
The minimum number of sessions that your child can attend is a three hour slot; 9am -12 pm or 1pm – 4pm. Ideally your child would attend more than one session per week as we have found this also helps children settle into nursery as it becomes a regular routine of their week, but this is completely up to you as parents.
The Wooden Horse Nursery aims to be a welcoming environment for children and families, the safety and security of the children, team members, parents and all other visitors to the nursery is paramount. We ensure the nursery is safe and secure using a variety of methods including ‘safe’ passwords, door entry systems and daily registers, where the team sign children in and out of their base room. Please see our ‘Security, Arrivals and Departures Policy’ for more details.
The children in our Pre-School room have free-flow access to the outdoor area at all times in all weathers, they chose whether they want to play inside or outside.
The children in our Tweenie room have access to the outside for at least an hour every morning and every afternoon.
The children in our Baby room access the outside each day for small periods of time.
Babies will need;
◾A bag with a spare change of clothes (or two!) and any comforters
◾Coats, wellies and waterproofs in the winter
◾A sun hat in the summer
◾Own Suncream if you do not wish us to use the Suncream that we provide.
◾If breastfeeding, any expressed breast milk in bottles – we can store this at nursery. (Nursery provides formula milk which is included in your fees)
Older children will need;
◾A bag with a spare change of clothing (lots more if toilet training!)
◾Coats, wellies & waterproofs in the winter
◾Own Suncream if you do not wish us to use the Suncream that we provide.
◾A sun hat in the summer
The nursery is closed for one week over the Christmas period and no charges are made for this period.
Want more information? Register your interest? Book a viewing? Send us an email and we’ll get back to you, asap. whitbythewoodenhorse@outlook.com