Policies

Pre-School Policy

This policy represents the agreed principles for Jack in the Box Nursery. All Nursery staff, representing Jack in the Box Nursery have agreed this policy.

Our Aims:

• To provide the best care we possibly can in a safe, secure and stimulating environment.
• To offer equal opportunities for each child.
• To encourage independence develop self-esteem, a sense of achievement and self-confidence.
• To foster in children a caring and respectful attitude towards peers and adults.
• To encourage response to significant experiences, showing a range of feelings when appropriate.
• To develop awareness of the needs of others.
• To provide a regular two way flow of information with parents and between providers. All staff are aware of the need to maintain privacy and confidentiality.

Introduction

Children joining our Nursery have already learnt a great deal. Many have been learning in one of the various educational settings that exist in our community. At Jack in the Box we offer our children the following principles:

• Building on what our children already know and can do;
• Ensure that no child is excluded or disadvantaged;
  
• Offer a structure for learning that has a range of starting points, content that matches the needs of young children, and activities that provide opportunities for learning both indoors and outdoors;
  
• Provide a rich and stimulating environment.

Aims of Jack In the Box

The curriculum of the Foundation Stage underpins all future learning by promoting and developing:

• personal, social and emotional well-being;
  
• positive attitudes and dispositions towards learning;
  
• social skills;
  
• attention skills and persistence;
  
• language and communication;
  
• problem solving, reasoning and numbering
  
• knowledge and understanding of the world;
  
• physical development;
  
• creative development.
  
• Records relating to individual children are retained for a reasonable period of time after the child has left the provision (3 years).
  
• Secure area is used for the storage of confidential information, records on staff and children are only accessible who have a right or professional need to see them.

Teaching and learning style

The more general features that relate to good practice are:

• good partnerships between staff and parents help children to feel secure at nursery, and to develop a sense of well-being and achievement;
  
• the understanding that staff know how children develop and learn, and how this must be reflected in their teaching;
  
• the range of approaches that provide first-hand experiences, give clear explanations, make appropriate interventions, and extend and develop the children’s play, talk or other means of communication;
  
• the carefully planned curriculum that helps children achieve the Early Learning Goals.
  
• the provision for children to take part in activities that build on and extend their interests, and develop their intellectual, physical, social and emotional abilities;
  
• the encouragement for children to communicate and talk about their learning, and to develop independence and personal organisation;
  
• the support for learning, with appropriate and accessible space, facilities and equipment, both indoors and outdoors;
  
• the identification, through observations, of children’s progress and future learning needs, which are regularly shared with parents;
  
• the clear aims of our work, and the regular monitoring of our work to evaluate and improve it;
  
• the regular identification of training needs for all adults working at the nursery
  Induction training provided for all new staff which includes evacuation procedures, child protection and health and safety issues.
  
• If a child has a rest time they will be checked frequently.
  
• Every child is allocated a key person to support their child within the setting.

Play in the Foundation Stage

Through play our children explore and develop the learning experiences that help them make sense of the world. They practise and build up their ideas, learn how to control themselves, and begin to understand the need for rules. They have the opportunity to think creatively both alongside other children and on their own. They communicate with others as they investigate and solve problems. They express fears, or re-live anxious experiences, in controlled and safe situations.

Inclusion in the Foundation Stage

We believe that all our children matter. We give our children every opportunity to achieve their best. We do this by taking account of our children’s range of life experiences when we are planning for their learning (see inclusion policy)

At Jack in the Box we set realistic and challenging expectations to meet the needs of our children, so that children achieve the Early Learning Goals. We help them do this by planning to meet the needs of both boys and girls, of children with special educational needs, of children who are more able, of children with disabilities, of children from all social and cultural backgrounds, of children from different ethnic groups, and of those from diverse linguistic backgrounds.

We meet the needs of all our children through:

• planning opportunities that build on and extend the children’s knowledge, experience and interests, and develop their self-esteem and confidence;
  
• using a variety of teaching strategies that are based on children’s learning needs;
  providing a wide range of opportunities to motivate and support children, and to help them to learn effectively;
  
• offering a safe and supportive learning environment, in which the contribution of all children is valued;
  
• Providing resources that reflect diversity, and that avoid discrimination and stereotyping;
  planning challenging activities for children whose ability and understanding are in advance of their language and communication skills;
  
• monitoring children’s progress, and providing support (such as speech therapy) as necessary.

The Foundation Stage curriculum

The curriculum for the Foundation Stage reflects the areas of learning identified in the Early Learning Goals. Our children’s learning experiences enable them to develop competency and skill across a number of learning areas.

The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage provides the basis for planning throughout the Nursery. Medium-term planning is completed every six weeks and identifies the intended learning, with outcomes, for children working towards the Early Learning Goals

Assessment

The Nursery Learning Record is the nationally employed assessment tool that enables teachers to record their observations at the end of nursery, and to summarise their pupils’ progress towards the Early Learning Goals. It covers each of the six areas of learning contained in The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. We make regular assessments of children’s learning, and we use this information to ensure that future planning reflects identified needs. Assessment in the nursery takes the form of observation, and this involves all members of staff.

Resources

We plan a learning environment, both indoors and outdoors, that encourages a positive attitude to learning. We use materials and equipment that reflect both the community that the children come from and the wider world. We encourage the children to make their own selection of the activities on offer, as we believe that this encourages independent learning.

This policy was adopted by the managers and staff in September 2010
Signed on behalf of Jack in the Box