The structure of Little Dots Nursery
Little Dots Daycare has a simple, streamlined and effective structure.
Separate rooms were built during the original renovation of the building in order to cater for children from birth to preschool. There are 3 designated areas, a baby room for the 0-2 year olds, a toddler room for the 2-3 year olds and a preschool room for the 3-5 year olds.
This allows the children to safely explore their surroundings and interact with their peer group, whilst starting an early years curriculum to develop the foundation of their learning.
Over the last four years we have been fortunate enough to be able to fill our available spaces to capacity, which has in turn allowed us to build up our resources and expertise.
Now, in 2017, Clair and Lynsey are happy to report that Little Dots Daycare is moving onto the next phase of its development. The building is being extended so that we can provide an additional baby room, which provides space for an extra 9 babies.
These rooms will incorporate a sensory area and a cosy, quiet room where the babies can sleep undisturbed, yet allowing our staff to carry out regular checks and monitoring.
We are also expanding our toddler space which will create a further 8 places taking our total toddler quota to 20.
Finally, we are really excited to report that we are in the process of constructing a purpose built cabin that will have its own separate entrance for the pre-schoolers.
The ethos behind this design is that those who are entering into their final year of nursery will have a completely different environment that will enable them to feel more ‘grown up’ which will start to prepare them for life at school. This preschool expansion will give Little Dots a total quota of 25 places for 3-5 year olds.
A lot of the babies that came to us when we opened are now ‘fleeing the nest’ so we are in a position to offer a significant amount of spaces for 3-5 year olds over the coming months.
What makes Little Dots Daycare Special?
Clair and Lynsey work hard to make sure new children settle into nursery quickly. Throughout the time they attend Little Dots, we operate a ‘key person’ approach.
Your child is assigned a dedicated member of staff who will be responsible for the day to day care of your child. This ensures that your child settles into nursery life well and any issues can be raised and addressed quickly.
We provide feedback to parents on a daily basis either written or verbally, for babies and toddlers home diaries are provided. Staff carry out observations of your child, which are used to plan activities and educational tasks that are relevant to both their age and stage of development.
Records of the observations will be kept on your child’s file and can be accessed by parents at any time. An informal parents’ evening is held twice per year so that you can discuss your child’s progress.
Parents as part of the Little Dots family
It is important that parents become a part of the Little Dots family. It is difficult to have quality conversations during the drop-off and pick up part of the day, especially with so many little ones and parents in attendance keen to get to work/go home to make dinner.
So here at Little Dots we schedule ‘stay and play’ sessions throughout the year, where we invite you and your family to stay for tea at the nursery after we have closed for the day, usually 5.30pm – 7.30pm.
This allows parents and staff to build rapport and enables parents to spend a couple of hours with their children in the nursery environment.
During these sessions, parents can observe how settled and happy their children are and see what strong bonds they develop with our staff, which allays any anxieties parents may feel about any stage of their child’s development.
