WELCOME TO OUR NURSERY IN BRIDGNORTH, SHROPSHIRE
Little Green House Childcare provides childcare for children aged 4 months to 5 years. They have four rooms dedicated to the different ages of children. Each room plans specific activities for the age of children in their room, complimented with enrichment sessions such as woodland warriors, sports and yoga.
Each room follows an outline of a routine which is then adapted for the different aged children in their particular rooms, however, the youngest babies the team will follow the routine they follow at home. The one main thing they do in all rooms is that the children welcome each other every morning by singing a morning song at circle time with their nursery practitioners; from the smallest of babies to the oldest pre-schoolers. Each room has morning circle time to sit together, welcome each other, sing songs and to discuss their day ahead, to help build strong relationships with both children and adults in the room. The rooms then have morning activities which are indoors and outdoors with snack mid-morning, the children all have a cooked lunch which is followed by sleep time for the younger children. The afternoon is again full of indoor and outdoor activities followed by afternoon tea and further activities before home time.
Discoverers’ Room
The Discoverers room is for the youngest of the children in their care. The home away from home décor in Discoverers room allows children to settle and feel comforted. The dedicated team have years of experience particularly with young children and are continually developing their knowledge.
Young children explore the world around them through their senses. Therefore, they do a lot of sensory play in Discovers room. Parents are asked to dress their children in messy play clothes as they like to give the children the opportunity to explore using their whole bodies, meaning they get very messy, but they love the bath at the end of their messy play with lots of bubbles.
The staff are knowledgeable when it comes to weaning and can prepare foods depending on how your child is weaned. They are also there to support parents move onto the next stage of weaning may that be baby led weaning or just adding more texture to their food. Mealtimes in the Discoverers room are like a family mealtime at home; all children sit around the tables together and conversations are had between children and adults.
During sleep time in our Discovers room gentle relaxing music will be played whilst the children go to sleep. The children will sleep in a cot in the sleep room or on a padded mattress on the floor in a quite calm area of the room. A member of the Discoverers room team will sit with the children whilst they fall in to sleep and will continue to be within the room throughout their sleep.
The team at Little Green House Childcare understand that having a new baby can be hard, therefore, they are with you every step of the way. The team are always there to help and offer support and guidance or just to be there for a chat if you need one.
Explorers’ Room
The Explorers room is a dedicated room for children from around 18 months old. The team encourage the children to be more independent, this includes buttering their crackers at snack time and trying to pour their own drinks. Independence is an essential life skill and one that needs to be nurtured from a young age. Toddlers will thrive in a healthy environment where they feel safe and confident to do more for themselves.
Some children in the Explorers room start to take an interest in potty/ toilet training. The team will support them with this new stage in their development, taking lead from the children in how they wish to toilet/potty train, offering lots of praise and positive reinforcement.
The children in Explorers also start Woodland Warrior sessions, where children go down to the beautiful garden and orchard no matter what the weather and explore nature. The nursery moto is that it is there is never bad weather just wrong clothing, so the nursery encourages their families to ensure the children have the right clothing for all weather types, may that be puddle suits so they can splash up and down in muddy puddles or cool loose clothing during the summer months so they can go on bug hunts.
Adventurers’ Room
Children join the adventurers’ room when they are around 2.5 years of age. Children continue to develop their independence skills during their time in Adventurers room; learning how to go to the toilet unaided and wash their hands, putting their coats and shoes on themselves, so they can go and play outside in their free-flow outdoor space.
The nursery council is also introduced in Adventurers, where they vote each half term for two children to be chair of their nursery council and discuss issues which affect them. The nursery council ensures that the children’s voices are heard, and they learn to listen and respect each other’s opinions.
Learning through play is a big part of nursery life, the team ensure that all learning is made fun. When the children join the Adventurers room they will be exploring and learning more about numbers, letters, and shapes in fun and interesting ways, still including the sensory play they loved so much when they were little in the Discovers room.
Inventors’ Room
Children join the inventors’ room from around the age of 3. Ensuring children are school ready is something Little Green House Childcare believe is important. For the team, being school ready is not all about being academically ready it is about being emotionally ready. Therefore, they do a lot of activities around emotions and building positive relationships with the other children. Giving the children the opportunity to explore and talk about their emotions. This helps them to understand their different emotions and learn how best to deal with them. They also do weekly yoga and mindfulness sessions to strengthen this area of their development.
They also focus on pencil control and making marks in a variety of different medias. This allows children to gain strength and control ready for when they start school.
Children continue to gain more and more independence skills during their time in Inventors. Learning skills like dressing and undressing into PE kits and keeping their clothes together, like they would at school. They do this now so the team can help and support them, so the children know how to do this when they go to school.
The team love being a part of the children’s journey to school readiness. Watching them grow and develop through all the rooms is incredibly special to be a part of their journey.
School deferral
While most parents are happy for their child to start school in the September following their 4th birthday, some parents will have concerns about whether their child will be ready for school at this point and will consider delaying their entry until compulsory school age. Little Green House Childcare can and do work alongside parents and the county council to deem what is the best route for their child. If agreement is made and the child can defer their school start, they can stay at Little Green House Childcare where the team in the Inventors room will plan activities to develop their learning and development further.
Transitions between rooms
The time when a child is at an age for the next step into a new room in nursery, may differ for each individual child, it is a particularly important time for both child and parent and each child develops at an individual pace which is reflected in their transition to their new room. Before moving any children between rooms, the team ensure they are ready to strive in their new room. Before children move rooms, the team discuss this with the child’s parents, and ensure that they have some taster sessions. This is so they get to know the room, staff, and children before going there for their normal sessions.
Loose parts play
Throughout all rooms at Little Green House Childcare, loose parts play is a big part in the children’s learning. Loose parts are everyday items that offer children open ended of play opportunities. It can be anything from a cable reel to a pinecone. We refrain from having lots of plastic toys and one-use toys at the nursery as we believe that children can learn a lot more from items from our natural environment and everyday items that they themselves can use through play which can also be easily replicated in their own homes.
Our Village
Little Green House Childcare’s parent group is called ‘Our Village’, as it takes a village to raise a child, this is a great place to find support and advise from other parents. The nursery team wants to ensure that no parent goes without the support they need especially in the early days of being a parent. In our village we are in it together.
WHERE TO FIND US
COME AND SEE US
If you’d like to come and have a look around, call us today and we’ll arrange your visit.