Rooms
Diverse Learning Environments
Baby Room
Baby Bears
Our Baby Bears room is where your little ones will play, learn and grow until the age of 2.
Baby Bears is situated in one large room, area's are sub-divided into a rest area and activity area. This provides the children with a reassuring and comforting environment, the emphasis is on providing a 'home from home' feel, filled with lots of fun, love and care. Baby Bears staff work in close partnership with parents to ensure your baby's home routine is followed, providing stability for both you and your baby. Danielle, Baby Bears room leader will invite you in to the setting to discuss your babies routine and the individual needs of your baby before they begin their nursery journey. To ensure the smoothest, most stress-free transition from home to nursery life, settling in sessions are always arranged before your babies first day.
On starting their nursery journey, each baby will be assigned a Key Person (see below - Key Person)
During each day, babies will have access to a variety of activities as well as lots of free play to allow them to explore, promoting their natural curiosity. Activities are planned around the EYFS curriculum and your baby's interests. We have a dedicated baby garden in our outside area which enables the babies to enjoy plenty of outside play, in a safe and secure environment allowing your babies to explore outdoor activities as well as indoor.
After all the excitement of their day we have various cosy and sleep areas for the babies to rest, again following parents guidance on where they would like their baby to take their nap and when.
The babies have dedicated snack and meal times through the day, keeping with your babies home routine as much as possible. Milk, juice and water are available and accessible to the babies throughout the day.
With so much going on each day in Baby Bears and with so much information to pass over to parents at the end of a day, we developed our Daily Communication Diaries which are issued to each baby when they start De Verdun. Diaries are filled in by your child's Key Person throughout the day and list everything your baby has eaten, nap times, nappy changes and just a snippet of the fun and activities they have taken part in during that day. This helps parents to feel as included as possible in their baby's day at nursery.
When your child is nearly two, visits to the Toddler Room are introduced to help them become familiar with the staff, children and day to day routine and help with transitioning before they make the move to our Tiny Tots - Mini Monkey's area.
Tiny Tots
Mini Monkey's
Our toddler area, Mini Monkey's is for our children aged 2-3 years.
Mini Monkey's explore freely across the whole toddler area, enjoying a variety of creative, messy and educational activities. Mini Monkey's is bustling and fun as by this stage, the children are able to experience a wider range of educational yet exciting activities. As the children move to the Mini Monkey's area, the nursery days become more structured, with staff carefully planning daily adult led activities based on both your toddler's individual interests and the EYFS curriculum, supporting each area of development to promote progression and to stimulate their ever expanding minds. Planned activities continue as the children move on to our outside area with many more activities and opportunities to play, learn and grow. Staff will be supporting and encouraging each child to build on their confidence, independence, personal hygiene and social skills within the toddler room and ready for starting preschool.
Mini Monkey's staff support and promote the toddlers natural and growing curiosity as they explore further, encouraging them to try new things, build on their relationships with their peers and new key person/other toddler room staff and teaching them how to think for themselves and not what to think. The toddlers are encouraged to take part in small group activities and to be able to have simple/brief conversations with both adults and peers about the activity, their friends, their family and home. In Mini Monkey's, as well as the planned activities and free play, we love story time, dancing and singing and encourage the toddlers to take part and join in with actions and words where they can, we like to create a busy, fun filled day in Mini Monkey's!
Mini Monkey's join our Little Lions (preschoolers) for mealtimes and free flow activities, this encourages the building of relationships with older children and not just their peers and builds a familiarity and relationship with preschool staff. Monkey's are encouraged to engage in good hygiene routines and to become more independent in doing so, ready for our snack and mealtimes.
We work closely with parents to support and assist with toddlers mastering toilet training within nursery and to encourage your toddler to become as independent as possible. All we ask is that you provide us with lots of spare underwear and changes of clothes to ensure comfortability for your child should they have any accidents within nursery. Many children of toddler age still nap during the day, we have various different places for your child to have their nap should you want them to and we will always follow parents guidance on where you want your child to take their nap and for how long.
When your toddler is nearly three years of age, transition is arranged for them to spend a morning or afternoon in our preschool - Little Lions area to help them become familiar with the staff, other children and the day to day routine of preschool before their first day.
Preschool
Little Lions
Our Preschool area is for our Little Lions aged 3 - 5 years.
This unit is provided for across one large area with separate rooms divided into an Messy Room, Role Play Room and Quiet area, with activities that are set out daily based on your child's interests and the EYFS curriculum.
Our Little Lions room is organised to prepare your child for their transition to primary school. During your child's day in the Preschool Room they are given the opportunity to move freely around the areas both indoor or outdoor. Whilst our Little Lions do still learn through play, planned activities are also arranged alongside free play, based on the individual child's learning to promote progression. This is planned, observed and recorded by your child's Key Person. During free play, the children are encouraged to be independent and make their own choices from a wide range of activities within the preschool area. Our Little Lions staff observe the children as they play, taking turns, communicating with peers, being mindful of other children's feelings and forming positive relationships with both other children and adults.
Little Lions staff encourage the children to try new things, to speak and share their ideas within a small familiar group and to speak out when they need help. We hold regular circle times where we talk, share news and read stories to promote this, Each circle time a Little Lion is chosen to hold Rooh, our storytime Kangaroo for the days circle time. Our staff are always on hand to offer support and guidance to help your child achieve their milestones, build their confidence and encourage their independence before they move on to school. We offer a wide range of resources and activities to enhance development and our Preschool aged children have plenty of opportunities and experiences to help them on their way to meeting the Early Learning Goals of the EYFS curriculum.
At the end of their time in Preschool - Little Lions, we aim for the children to have grown immensely in their confidence, learning and social skills so the children experience a continued progression of their learning and a smooth transition to full time school. We host a leaving Gradation ceremony for our children and their parents when their time at De Verdun comes to an end where the children make and keep their handmade graduation hats and receive a certificate. It is always very bittersweet for us, saying goodbye and knowing the children are about to embark on their new exciting adventure of starting school. It is very heartwarming that we have been part of so many children's early years and we thank you parents, for choosing De Verdun and for allowing us to be a part of your child's journey.
Additional Rooms
Roleplay Room
Messy Room
Quiet Room
Outside / Garden Area
Key Person
Each child will be assigned a Key Person when starting at De Verdun. Your child's designated Key Person is there to help your child feel safe and secure, which is important for both the child and parent. The Key Person will be your main point of contact within the setting and they will be responsible for working closely with you, meeting your child’s individual needs and milestones and most importantly, build a trusting relationship with both you and your baby/child.
The Key person will get to know both you and your child closely, finding out about your child’s preferences, routine and interests and will be the person that shares information with you about what your child has done during the day and information about their learning, progress and development. Your child's Key Person will observe and keep track of your child's progress in the prime areas of learning, which will take the form of an online learning journal which parents can access at any time.
The key person role within the nursery is very important, research and evidence show that children thrive when their needs are met by a special person that they know, trust and respect. So having a key person who is attentive, knows the child well and builds a close, trusting relationship between them and the child will support children in their personal, social and emotional development and most importantly make them feel safe, supported, cared for and completely at ease within nursery.