PICCADILLY ROOM - ABOUT US

The Piccadilly room is for children aged from 3 - 5 years and, after school, for children up to the age of 11. There can be up to 24 children in the room at any one time and the adult to child ratio in the room is 1 adult: 8 children.

The members of staff work as a team by running the room together to ensure that the children receive the best experience possible from the Railway Nursery. We prepare the children for school by teaching them phonological sounds, counting skills, personal hygiene and independence skills. All of the staff are trained throughout the nursery in every room and know the children well. At the Railway Nursery we implement a key person system where each member of staff forms a close relationship with a small group of children; this gives them the reassurance to feel safe and cared for.

We hold a few open mornings a year so that you the parents/carers have the chance to come and play and see what we get up to. In December we do a nativity play which all of the children are involved in. Parents evening is twice a year and is an adult only evening where there are drinks and nibbles available and a chance to meet other parents. You will get together with your child's key person and discuss their progress.

We plan, observe and evaluate all of the activities using the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. Children are assessed using a tracker book that helps us to monitor their continuous learning through the six areas of development: Personal, Social and Emotional development; Communication, Language and Literacy; Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy; Knowledge and Understanding of the World; Physical development and Creative development. These are passed on to school with their transition sheets so your child's new teacher will get to know a little bit about them before they start school.

The children's work and photographs are stuck into work books and scrapbooks that will become a nice keepsake of their experience at nursery. Once a week Jeni comes in to teach the children music, she brings in various musical instruments which the children get to use to explore different sounds.

We encourage all of the children to participate in all the activities such as sticking, colouring, painting etc. We also have a variety of textures available for the children to explore each day for example corn flour, rice, pasta etc. The children thoroughly enjoy getting messy!

We have close links to Lavendon combined school and are invited to watch sports days, country dancing and their nativity plays and summer plays. We have easy access to the school from the back gate which is useful in the school holidays to use the field for outside play. The school children are taken to school and collected at the end of the day.

When your child starts nursery they will need:

• Slippers to wear inside to keep the classroom clean and incase of a fire drill.
• Wellington boots for rain.
• Rain Coat.
• Sun hat and sun cream in summer months.
• Swimming costume or shorts for paddling pool.
• A nursery bag to keep a spare change of clothes in.
• Calpol (to keep in the fridge at nursery).

Please ensure that every item of clothing is clearly labelled and that clothes/shoes/coats are suitable to wear for all types of play inside and outside.

The outside area is used in all weathers; there is no unsuitable weather just unsuitable clothing.

Before your child starts we shall have an hour visit with your child and yourself to have a chat and get to know you and your child better, it will also give your child the chance to have a little play. The second visit will be a 2 hour leave visit for your child to come and play on their own to get to know the room and the routine a little bit better.