Welcome to Top Place Preschool

Welcome to Top Place Preschool and thank you for registering your child with us. 

We know how important your child is and aim to deliver the highest quality of care and support to help them achieve and reach their potential. 

This prospectus aims to provide you with an introduction to Top Place Preschool, our routines, our approach to supporting your child’s learning and development and how we aim to work together with you to meet your child’s individual needs.

 

 

Top Place Preschool aims to:

• Put the children at the heart of everything we do.

• Help each child to develop social skills, to learn through play and to consider others. Each child is valued as an individual without racial or gender stereotyping. 

• Encourage children to grow in confidence and self-esteem, to become more independent and learn to take responsibility.

• Encourage curiosity, creative thinking and questioning mind.

• Create a happy, safe, secure and stimulating environment. 

• Support parents and carers in their roles as educators and value their contribution. 

• Value everyone and celebrate all achievements.

•  Add to the life and well-being of the local community; and

•  Offer children and their parents a service that promotes equality and values diversity. 

 

Children's development and learning

We aim to ensure that each child: 

• is in a safe and stimulating environment; 
• is given generous care and attention, because of our high ratio of qualified staff to children, as well as volunteer helpers; 
• has the chance to join in with other children and adults to live, play, work and learn together; 
• is helped to scaffold her/his learning and development by being helped to build on what she/he already knows and can do; 
• has a personal key person who makes sure each child makes satisfying progress 

 

 

The Early Years Foundation Stage

• The early years foundation stage (EYFS) is the statutory framework that sets the standard that early years providers must meet. This framework covers children from birth to 5 years.  Our pre-school reflects the four overarching principles of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (DfE 2014): 

  • A Unique Child
    Every child is a unique child who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
  • Positive Relationships
    Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships. 
  • Enabling Environments
    Children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners, parents and carers. 
  • Learning and Development
    Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years’ provision including children with special educational needs and disabilities. 

 

Curriculum

 

Within the group, all children are supported in developing their potential at their own pace. Our key worker system enables us to ensure a planned curriculum tailored to the needs of each individual child. By means of developmentally appropriate play activities and a high level of individual adult input, we offer a curriculum which leads to nationally approved learning outcomes and prepares children to progress with confidence to the National Curriculum at the age of five years.

We follow the early Years Foundation Stage Framework which has the following 7 areas of learning and development.

 

1. Communication & language developmentwhich involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment, to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves and to speak and listen in a range of situations.
2. Physical developmentInvolves providing opportunities for children to be active and interactive and to develop their co-ordination, control and movement. Children are helped to understand the importance of physical activity and to make healthy choices in relation to food. 
3. Personal social & and emotional developmenthelps children to develop a positive sense of themselves and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; develop social skills, learn how to manage their feelings, understand appropriate behaviour in groups and have confidence in their own abilities. 
4. Literacyinvolves encouraging children to learn sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children are given access to a wide range of reading material to ignite their interest. 
5. Mathematicsprovides children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems and to describe shapes, spaces and measures. 
6. Understanding the worldinvolves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their communities through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment. 
7. Expressive arts & designinvolves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music interest, dance, role play and technology.

2-Year-Old Progress Check

The Early Years Foundation Stage requires that we supply parents and carers with a short written summary of their child’s development in the three prime areas of learning and development - personal, social and emotional development; physical development; and communication and language when a child is 2 years. Your child’s key person is responsible for completing the check using information from ongoing observational assessments carried out as part of our everyday practice, taking account of the views and contributions of parents and other professionals. 

Assessment

We assess children’s learning and development regularly by observing and recording their achievements.  We use information that we gain from observations, as well as from photographs of the children to document their progress in a learning journal. We believe that parents know their children best and we will ask you to contribute to assessment by sharing information about what your child likes to do at home and how you, as parents, are supporting development. 

We complete a learning journal with your child which you can view at the end of each term. We also have a parent evening once a term where you can meet one on one with your child’s key person.

We have good contact with local schools and we prepare transition documents, which are sent to your child’s next educational establishment and encourage those establishments to visit us to view their prospective pupils in their current environment.

 We provide a daily diary to let you know what your child has done during each session, and in which you can write information or ask any questions you may have.

 

How parents take part in the setting

We recognise parents as the first and most important educators of their children. Our staff members see themselves as partners with parents in providing care and education for their children. We encourage parent’s participation in various ways like: 

Sharing information about their child’s needs

• Contribution to their child’s next step
• Volunteering/helping at sessions of the preschool; 
• Supporting /taking part in all preschool events, outings etc

 

Snacks and meals

We make snacks and meals a social time at which children and adults eat together. We plan the menus for snacks so that they provide the children with healthy and nutritious food. Please tell us about your child's dietary needs and we will plan accordingly. We always welcome any healthy snacks/fruits that are donated by parents.  

Lunch

Children staying for lunch or the whole day are to come with their packed lunch. All food must be nut free and no chocolates and sweets allowed.

 

Clothing 

All coats, cardigans, jumpers and wellingtons should be clearly labelled and all children arriving in wellingtons should bring a pair of shoes to change into. Please ensure that all trousers are easy to pull down (elasticated waists are best) and please do not send your child in dungarees or with a belt. Children often get very engrossed in an activity and rush to the toilet at the last minute resulting in an ‘accident’ if the children cannot pull their cloths down fast enough.     

Please do not send your child in their best clothes as children are quite likely to get paint or glue on themselves.

 

PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE, label everything clearly - shoes, coats, bags, spare clothes, water bottles etc. 

Policies 

Our staff can explain our policies and procedures to you. Copies of which are available on request or on our website www.topplace-preschool.co.uk

Our policies help us to make sure that the service provided by our preschool is a high quality one and that being a member of the pre-school is an enjoyable and beneficial experience for each child and his/her parents/carers. 

Safeguarding children 

Our preschool has a duty under the law to help safeguard children against suspected or ‘significant harm’. Our practice ensure children are protected against the likelihood of abuse in our preschool and we have a procedure for managing complaints or allegations against a member of staff. 

Our way of working with children and their parents ensures that we are aware of any problems that may emerge and can offer support, including referral to appropriate agencies when necessary, to help families in difficulty. 

Illness Policy

Please advise the nursery prior to 7:30 am if a child will not be attending due to illness. Parents agree that a child who is ill (e.g. fever, infection, diarrhoea, communicable disease, or any other type of illness that may be passed on to others, with the exception of the common cold) will be kept at home to protect the well-being of the staff and other children in our care. The parents further agree should a child become ill while in our care that immediate arrangement will be made to remove the child from the nursery. Children will not be allowed to return to nursery until they have been symptom free for at least 24 hours for a fever and 48 hours for sickness or diarrhoea. In some cases, a note from a doctor may be necessary. By signing this contract, you are agreeing to staff seeking any necessary emergency medical advice or treatment during their time at Top Place Preschool Limited. Please refer to our sickness policy for more information about this topic.

Late pick up
Please advise the preschool immediately if you will be arriving later than the pre-arranged time to pick up your child. It is the parents’ responsibility to ensure that children are picked up immediately after the session. If you are not able to pick up your child after the end of your child’s session, late payment charge of £1 per minute will apply.
Please notify the preschool if an unauthorised person will be picking up your child. Verbal or written permission must be received before we will release a child to anyone who is not authorised on the registration form. They must bring photographic I.D. plus a photograph to be kept on file and a password will be used.

COVID-19

If you, your child or anyone in your household is displaying symptoms or has been in close contact with a confirmed case of coronavirus, government advice must be followed. Your child will not be able to attend the preschool for the duration of the recommended isolation period. As per fees policy, full fees will still apply during this absence. If the preschool remains open during a lockdown, you will be expected to pay your child’s fee if decide but fee payment will not be required if the preschool is closed due to lockdown.

 

Our staff can explain all our policies and procedures to you. Copies of which are available on request or on our website www.topplace-preschool.co.uk

Special needs 

To make sure that our provision meets the needs of each individual child, we take account of any special needs a child may have. We work to the requirements of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years (2015). We have a named Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator and a deputy working within our pre-school to support all children with additional needs.

Registration

A non-refundable registration fee of £30 (per child) is required upon completion of registration to secure your child's placement in care. The registration fee is non-refundable.

Potty Training
We will work in conjunction with parents during potty training. If you have a method that has been working for you, please let us know and we will adopt it for your child. Should you discontinue potty training at home, please let us know. If a child shows no interest in potty training, we will discuss this with you and probably choose to discontinue and try again at a later date.

Sessions

Opening time          -               7.30am - 3.00pm

Breakfast Club       -               7.30am - 8.30am

Morning sessions  -               08.45am to 11.45am

Afternoon session -               12.00pm to 3.00pm

All day session available

 

Fees

Non-refundable registration fee                £30

Termly Snack Fee                                       £30

Breakfast Club                                              £6

Morning Session                                        £29

Afternoon Session                                     £29

All day                                                         £64

You will be invoiced at the start of every month (non-funded children only), snack and any extracurricular fee will be added to the first invoice of each term. Please note that snack fee applies to all children irrespective of the funding status. You may choose to pay the invoice weekly or monthly. Please talk to the manager about your payment preference.

 

Please note that late payment attracts 10% charge of total invoice.

For your child to keep his/her place at our preschool you must pay the fees, even if your child is ill or you decide to go on holiday within/during the term. 

 

FEES ARE PAYABLE EVEN IF YOUR CHILD IS ABSENT FOR ANY REASON!!!!

HALF A TERM NOTICE OR THE EQUIVALENT IN FEES IS REQUIRED OF A CHILD LEAVING TOP PLACE PRESCHOOL.

Prospective Parents

If you are a parent/carer of a child and want to find out more information about Top Place preschool, please do get in touch by emailing admin@topplace-preschool.co.uk or call us on 07842519294/ 07944402240