Bierley Childcare Early Years Funded Places

It is our job to ensure that your child’s time in our care is happy and productive. We offer all the benefits of a nursery in a safe, child-centered home environment, with the added benefit of outings to the nearby park and woods and visits to Asda where the children help to pick the items from the picture list and also help to scan at the checkout.

One of the requirements of being a childminder (Maria Kitchen) is to have completed a local authority-approved training course to help us to understand and implement the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in our setting.

Children need to:

• play and explore – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
• be active learners – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy their achievements
• create and think critically – children need to have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things

In terms of your child’s early education, we offer activities, enabling environments, and learning opportunities in the seven areas of learning and development: communication and language, physical development, personal and social development, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, and expressive arts and design.  These areas of learning and development are each important and are often interconnected.

Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and activities, we plan to take this into consideration. We try to plan challenging and enjoyable experiences for each child in all areas of learning and development.

For children, whose home language is not English, we will try to provide opportunities for them to develop and use their home language in play and learning, supporting their language development at home. However, we will also ensure that children have opportunities to learn and reach a good standard in the English language during their time in our care.

Leaving your child with a childminder is a big step for both of you. It will take time to adjust, so settling in the period is very important. We encourage at least one week settling in period for a couple of hours a day before you leave your child, for the first full day with us. This will also allow you and your child, a chance to see how it all works and, for us to learn about each other.

On your first visit, we would ask that you stay for the entire time. For subsequent visits you can start leaving your child for short stretches, thus slowly settling them in.  Talk to your child about what will happen.  Always say goodbye when you leave and tell your child that you will be coming back. Gradually you can increase the length of time you are away until your child is more comfortable in my care.

All children are different and some children settle without any difficulties.

In the setting, we offer a mixture of adult-led planned activities and child-initiated ‘free play’ that can be adapted to suit babies, toddlers, and preschool children. I provide play activities and learning experiences that are suitable for each child’s age and development as they progress towards the Early Learning Goals outlined by the EYFS.

We try to build learning into everyday activities such as cooking and going to the shops. We do lots of art and craft activities including painting, finger painting, junk modeling, collage work, play dough, and cutting, play corn crafts, and sensory foil play.  We dance and sing, imaginative play, water, sand, number rhymes, and make-believe. Activities are designed to allow the child to explore and discover their own interests and take into consideration the attention spans of different age groups.

Playing outdoors is also important and, we have a fully enclosed back garden that your child can access.  We also visit the local parks so that we can get plenty of fresh air.  We have a large playhouse for the older children where they can chill out on the large bean bags with access to books, games, role-play activities, and a smaller playhouse for the toddlers where they have access to a role-play kitchen with tables and chairs.

 For school-age children, we can discuss your child’s settling-in period, your child’s requirements for homework supervision, after-school playtime, rest, or TV time.

 If we have happy children having fun being stimulated, learning, and challenged at the same time in our care, then we feel happy that we are providing the best possible care for your child.

Nappies are checked regularly throughout the day and changed as necessary. Every staff member wears disposable gloves for nappy changes that are discarded after each nappy change then,  the mat is wiped thereafter with antibacterial spray between children. Older children can be helped with potty training and toilet visits.

 In the morning and after lunch we have quiet times for naps or quiet play depending on how much sleep your child requires. The amount of sleep your child requires will be something to discuss with us during the settling-in period.  We check sleeping babies or children at regular intervals. You may also want to bring a comfort item such as a stuffed animal or blanket that the child is familiar with, to sleep with.

 If your child doesn’t want to sleep they can engage in other activities in the large playroom so as not to disturb the other children/babies sleeping.

 School or nursery pick-up times can be worked into this schedule as required and, you can discuss with us during your settling-in period, your child’s requirements for homework supervision, after-school playtime, rest, or TV time.

 The really great thing about being a childminder is adaptability.  An unexpected sunny day is a great excuse to go out.  And if your child is feeling under the weather or tired, they can curl up and take it easy just like they would if they were at home.