Welcome to nursery

1. Welcome to nursery Information Booklet for Parents & Carers

2. what to expect at nursery • At Seaton Nursery we aim to create a secure, caring and stimulating learning environment in which everyone can develop his or her aptitudes and abilities to the full. • The children are encouraged to learn through play and take advantage of lots of different activities throughout the day. • The staff work hard to ensure that the children make good progress in all areas of learning and carefully plan activities to help the children develop skills and their knowledge and understanding. • The children generally work their way around the nursery and usually start off with one of their favourite activities. The staff carefully guide the children to ensure that they take advantage of all of the activities on offer and use careful questioning to extend the children's learning. • Throughout the year children will be developing and consolidating their understanding of the following areas: • Expressive Arts • Health and Wellbeing • Languages • Mathematics • Religious and Moral Education • Sciences • Social Studies • Technologies • In nursery these subjects are taught in a cross curricular way. The learning environments created will enable the children to explore and strengthen their understanding. • Nursery plans are on display so that you can see what your child will be busy with. The children are given the opportunity to make suggestions and you will see the children’s ideas clearly marked on the plan.

3. Promoting positive behaviour • At Seaton we are keen to promote positive behaviour. Children respond well to praise as it enhances self-esteem and gives them confidence. • The children from Seaton Nursery have decided these are the Nursery Rules. • Please………. • Walk inside • Be kind to our friends • Look after the toys and books • Listen to the grown ups • Have fun !!! • Praise from parents is very important in reinforcing good behaviour and we ask that you recognize your child’s achievements.

4. WHO WORKS IN NURSERY Seaton Nursery is a happy and friendly school nursery, staffed by a committed and talented team of Principal Teachers, Senior Early Years Practitioner and Early Years Practitioners. Each of our two nursery sessions will be run by four members of staff when all 40 children are present. From time to time we have students on placement from North East Scotland College. We ask students to place a little information about themselves on the notice board so that you can read about their course and what they hope to gain from being in the Nursery. Occasionally, pupils from secondary schools will come to visit the nursery if they are considering a career in Nursery Education. All students are closely monitored by the nursery staff, the nursery staff remaining responsible for the quality of education provided. We regularly liaise with a range of other agencies such as Health Visitors, Speech Therapists, Educational Psychologists to ensure that your child gets the best possible care and attention.

5. NURSERY TIMES Your child will have been allocated either a morning session (8:30am—11.40am) or an afternoon session (12.15—3.25pm). The children should arrive within 15 minutes of the start of the session as it can be a little upsetting for wee ones if they arrive in nursery only to find that the children are not there but elsewhere in the school. Each session comprises 40 children who are either 3, 4 or 5 years old with all children having access to 5 sessions per week, Monday to Friday, You are very welcome to help your child settle into their first activity. All children must be signed in by an adult and collected by an adult. We ask you to record who will be collecting your child at the end of the session. If there are any changes to this you MUST inform us as we will not let children be taken from nursery by someone not named on the signing in sheet. We will also ask you to provide us with a password so that if someone who is not named on the signing in sheet comes to collect your child and cannot provide staff with your password, we will not allow your child to leave nursery before contacting parents. When collecting your child you must ‘sign out’ too.

6. NURSERY SNACK The children enjoy a small snack every day which the children help to plan, and prepare for their friends in the nursery,It is by no means a meal but a chance for the children to try some different foods on a daily basis. The snack menu is displayed clearly in the nurseryand you will see the variety of foods that the children enjoy. Fruit and milk is provided for all children daily with water being available for those who cannot drink milk. We ask all parents to pay £2.50 per week towards the cost of snack, payable on a Monday.We need to know about any allergies, vegetarian preferences, mention these to the staff on your induction visit. We welcome any suggestions from yourselves, so if you have a good idea for snack please speak to a member of the nursery team who will be delighted to incorporate your ideas into the plans

7. CLOTHING • We encourage the children to be as independent as possible at nursery so it is really helpful if the children can manage their own clothing. Please dress your child in clothing that they are more or less able to manage themselves, Velcro on shoes is really helpful. • Nursery is a messy place! Please do not send your child to Nursery in expensive clothing. Overalls and aprons are provided for very messy or wet activities. Bring the bag daily as the children will be sharing morning/afternoon peg. • Your child will require gym shoes for use in the hall too, these should be clearly labelled so that they can be easily found if they get mixed up. • We take the children out and about often and they should come to nursery dressed for the weather: in rain, welly boots and waterproof jacket and in summer sunscreen • Please ensure that you apply sun cream to your child so that we can protect them from the sun. Sun tan lotion will be available to use at the beginning of every nursery session. Please ask a member of the nursery team.

8. TOILETTING HOW INVOLVED IS THE NURSERY IN THE SCHOOL • Most children should be able to use the toilet by themselves by the time they come to nursery, but some children are still experiencing some problems. • Please let the nursery staff know how confident your child is and ensure that a bag containing a change of clothes is left in the Nursery. This can be used when the child has an accident—toilet wise or not. • For those children who are still wearing pull ups, parents are required to provide the Nursery with the pull ups worn by the child. • Some children do not like anyone new changing them and for this reason we contact parents if a child appears at all distressed at the thought of being changed by a member of the Nursery team. • As part of the school, the Nursery is timetabled to make use of the gym hall, music room and the playground. • The children are encouraged to feel part of the whole school and may attend assemblies and special celebrations. • The children benefit from any fundraising undertaken by the school in order to subsidies trips, parties, resources and books. • Children in their pre-school year will have opportunities to play along with the children in Primary 1 in preparation for them heading into Primary 1. • Specialist teachers may be timetabled to work with the Nursery too.

9. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES / INCLUSION • It is important that the children are helped to understand about the world around them in a positive way. • Books and resources are carefully selected to ensure that our children see lots of positive images of people of different races, creeds and cultures, they also show men and women in a range of different roles. • We encourage all children to participate in all experiences. Care is taken that activities do not become associated with either girls or boys. All children are encouraged to play with all of the equipment on offer. • The Nursery strives at all times to give equal opportunity and attention to all children irrespective of race, gender, religious belief and cultural background. We place great emphasis on educating children against prejudices. PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT At Seaton Nursery we firmly believe that a key factor in helping children develop and achieve lies in the relationship between home and school. Parents are always welcome in nursery and we work hard to ensure there are as many opportunities as possible for parents/carers to work with us. Parents are welcome to meet with nursery staff both formally and informally; we aim to keep parents informed through our newsletters and regularly consult with parents for their views on various nursery issues. The Nursery welcomes help from parents who hold the correct PVG certificate from Disclosure Scotland. Please speak to a member of the nursery team if you are interested in helping in any way or would like further information about how you can support learning.

10. STAY AND PLAY • Parents and carershave regular opportunities to participate in nursery sessions in order to experience and see for themselves. Each term parents are invited to attend nursery for one hour, either in the morning or the afternoon. All parents get the opportunity to have a look around and spend some time learning and playing with the nursery children. • Help your child to become as independent as is possible by encouraging and helping them to: • • Use the toilet and wash their hands • • Put on and take off their coat • • Use a tissue to wipe their nose • • Share toys and take turns • • Put their toys away Starting Nursery

11. HEALTH AND SAFETY • Given the on-going public concern on the subject of child abuse and changes in law, schools are required to report if they think that any child or young person has come to harm as a result of possible abuse. • Each school has a named member of staff appointed responsible for Child Protection matters. • Should you wish to talk further about Child Protection and the safety of children, please feel free to contact the Head Teacher at school. • As a school we have good contacts with medical officers, social workers and the police—any of whom may be involved if abuse is suspected. • Depending upon the concern, parents/carers may or may not be informed of any action taken. • Our staff recognise the importance of keeping the nursery clean and safe. They are aware of their own personal hygiene and help teach the children when and why they have to wash their hands, brush their teeth etc. • If your child becomes unwell in nursery we will contact you to come and collect your child, as bugs spread quickly in young children. • NHS advice states that children who have had a stomach bug should avoid coming back to Nursery until they have had two days clear of the bug. • Please keep your child at home if they are unwell and contact nurseryso we are aware of the situation. CHILD PROTECTION

12. ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING • Staff make regular observations of children in Nursery and keep a record of their progress and development by completing Interactive Learning Diaries. After the induction visit each parent will be given a unique password to log into the ILD system. Parents will be able to access child’s account to view the profile and see the progress of learning. What is more, parents will be able to add comments and photos to child’s profile. • There are two formal meetings with parents during a year to discuss individually the child’s progress. In the final term a written report will be issued to you by the nursery staff. • We operate an ‘open door’ policy at Seaton Nursery so parents are able to talk to staff when they drop off and pick their children up. If you need to talk with staff for a longer period or in private, please arrange a meeting with the appropriate member of staff. We encourage parents to share any concerns with us as early as possible so we can work to resolve matters and/or offer support.If there is something you would like to know, please ask: the staff will only be too delighted to help. If you feel that any concern or request has not been resolved by speaking to the Nursery staff, please make an appointment to speak with the Head Teacher. • If, after speaking with the Head Teacher, you still do not feel that your concern has been resolved, please contact either the Quality Improvement Officer, Deborah Moir, on 01224 522002, or the Care Inspectorate, ‘Johnstone House, Rose Street, Aberdeen—Tel. 01224 793870

13. Seaton Nursery School Seaton Place East Aberdeen AB24 1XE Tel: 01224 277810 Email: seatonnursery@aberdeencity.gov.uk Melanie Medhi Depute Head Teacher