First Mates Room
Welcome to the First Mates room. This room is full of a wide variety of educational toys, books, puzzles, construction resources and sensory materials to stimulate the children’s senses and challenge their minds. For new children starting with us, we focus on building consistency and stability between home and nursery to ensure a smooth transition for the whole family, and a solid foundation for a wonderful relationship to begin between our family and yours.
Every child is allocated a key worker who spends the whole day with them – from drop off to pick up. Your child’s key worker will be responsible for their individual weekly planning and next steps, as well as helping parents to continue building on what the children have learnt at home.
A typical day…
08:00 – 08:30 We start the day with a warm welcome and a healthy breakfast
08:30 – 10:30 After breakfast, we move in to child-initiated free play with what has been set up that day. For those children who need a morning sleep, they will be placed into their designated cot in the sleeping area. For older children, the planned activities begin – which can include messy play, cooking, music and movement or one to one play with a key worker to engage their interests. These opportunities allow the staff to observe their key children during play for signs of learning and development to coincide with the statutory framework of the Early Years Foundation Stage.
10:30 – 10:45 Healthy snack time
11:00 – 11.45 Before lunch, the First Mates spend time in the garden. This offers the chance to challenge them in their physical development with some low-level climbing equipment or baby walkers. The space allows the children to explore freely and enjoy activities such as sand and water play, the car racetrack or the tunnel.
11.45 – 12:30 The First Mates sit together with their key workers to enjoy a delicious lunch. Here at the nursery, we start to teach the children about their own independence from feeding themselves to handing out water beakers to their friends.
12:30 – 15:00 Sleep time
15:00-16:15 When the children awake, organic milk is offered and the children are introduced to a new layout of the room ready for afternoon play. We also join the rest of the children from the nursery in the garden, challenging the First Mates to push their physical boundaries and try new things. We also try to make as much use as possible of our local Bishop’s Park, where children can feed the ducks and play in the sandpit
16:15 – 18:30 Tea time is another social occasion to encourage chatter and babbling at the table. After tea, the children enjoy free play while we wait for parents/ carers to pick up and hear about the wonderful things their children have been up to that day.