The funded hours are free but you pay for the special extras that we provide at YoungFriends like plant based home cooked meals, Nature Kindergarten experiences, washable nappies and wipes etc.

Early years funding policy

If you reach back to your own childhood or watch your children play now, what holds the most fascination? Cardboard boxes and gravel? Digging in dirt; sand and water play; boxes and containers; shells, pebbles and rocks; leaves, cones and conkers; building blocks, rope and string, fabric and scarves for den making? These all have one thing in common; they do not have a fixed purpose in the play context, they are open-ended, they are things that children are free to move around, combine and take apart. They are loose parts.

It does not mean free for all. It means a carefully set up environment tailored to the interests and development levels of the children attending. This allows children to flow freely whilst supported and interests extended by their key adults.

Does your child love to fill handbags, tins or pots with tiny things they have found? Are they obsessed with wheels, roundabouts or rolling things? These patterns of play are examples of schemas, behaviours that children go through when they are exploring the world and trying to find out how things work?

Researchers believe there are a number of different schemas; vertical (going up and down), enclosure (putting things inside other things), circular (going round and round), going over and under, going through. By going through these schemas, young children are equipping themselves with the knowledge and skills that lay the foundations for almost everything we do in later life, from writing to driving a car.

Two. This is so children can settle and make bonds so they have an enjoyable time with us.

By adhering to higher ratios. Children and staff wear hi vis tabards. We always have qualified staff members and first aiders on trips. We have nursery telephones and walkie talkies and keep in contact at all times. We have a strict Trip Policy that staff are trained in before leaving the premises. Full trip policy is in the parent portal

Yes. Make sure they are taking bottles for their milk easily. Leave them regularly with other known and safe adults. Practice going, telling them you will come back and when, stick to this and reinforce you did as you promised. Talk positively about what their experience at nursery will be like. Look at pictures of the setting and team with them.Spend time with other children who go to nursery–if it is Young Friends all the better!Practice self-soothing so they are used to going to sleep without cuddles from mum or dad. Maybe introduce them to a few animals so they are not scared of them!

1-3 for the under 2’s. 1-4 for 2-3’s and 1-8 for over threes.

We generally have 3 apprentices studying for their Levels 2 or 3. The rest of the team have Level 2 and above. We have a teacher in our over 2’s group and a large percentage of Level 3’s. However on top of all of this we place equal importance on hiring for attitude and dedication to childcare and our ethos.

[Emma] Our manager has a masters degree and our deputy a degree.

All meals–breakfast, lunch, dinner, morning and afternoon snack. All healthy. All made from scratch. Often home grown.

One pod is 0-2’s and one is 2-5’s. All groups are structured re. vertical groupings which means within these two age ranges children learn from and look after each other.