families

Oak Valley Win Well-Deserved Accolade!!

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We couldn’t have been happier to hear that Oak Valley (https://www.eyced.co.uk/nurseries/oak-valley-day-nursery/) have been awarded a place on the list of the Top 20 Nurseries in Yorkshire & the Humber 2021.

The setting’s Manager, Emma Wheelhouse, says she’s “surprised but thrilled to receive the accolade of being included on this list”. Director, Carlette Sarayreh, & Area Manager, Lisa Mapley, whole-heartedly agree that the fantastic reviews volunteered by the families who access Oak Valley are testament to all the efforts made by Emma & the team. “They all work so hard to implement our Company vision – keeping the unique child at the heart of all we do; providing positive relationships & enabling environments to support their learning & development. It really shows in the relationships the staff have with both the children & their families.”

Read on for the report:

Parents have revealed the best nurseries in the country, with the top nurseries judged from thousands of reviews compiled by the UK’s leading nursery reviews site, daynurseries.co.uk.

The winning nurseries have been judged on over 57,000 reviews between 29 May 2019 and 28 May 2021 from parents, relatives and guardians of children who attend the nurseries.

daynurseries.co.uk launched the Top 20 awards back in 2014, in a drive to make people’s search for a nursery easier and to give them a valuable insight into the quality and type of childcare offered.

Amanda Hopkins, reviews manager of daynurseries.co.uk, said: “The vision and ethos of a nursery can have a huge impact on children, instilling in them a desire and enthusiasm for learning and discovery that will sustain them throughout their lives.

“Nurseries have a big effect on children’s wellbeing and development. We feel it is a real achievement to be recognised for being a Top 20 nursery by children’s families and carers.

“Nurseries have been through such challenging times during the pandemic, many of whom were offering childcare to vulnerable and keyworker children during the various lockdowns and giving children a piece of all important ‘normality’.”

The award is based on the nursery’s reviews from the children’s families and carers. Parents give it a rating on overall standard, facilities and outside space, learning, resources and equipment and ICT, care, activities, staff, food and nutrition, management, cleanliness, safeguarding as well as value for money.

Mrs Hopkins added: “We hope these awards will boost the spirits of nursery staff which have had to help children adjust to the ‘new normal’, as well as help parents choose a top performing nursery for their child.”

For a full list of all regional and national winners click here

January at Little School House

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During January The Little School House have been up to lots of fun and exciting activities. We kick started the New Year with our loose theme topic ‘All About Me’. The Pre-School children started by talking about themselves, what they look like and how they are different from each other. They continued their learning by looking at their reflections in a mirror and drawing themselves, highlighting key features such as eye and hair colour, and then drew each other. The Baby and Toddler rooms used families as a theme and created displays of children’s family photographs, looking and talking about who the children live with and what they do as a family outside of the nursery setting. Parents enjoyed getting involved and provided us with lots of happy family memories that the children could share with each other at nursery.

Since our conception as Early Years Care and Education we have been striving to raise awareness of healthy lifestyles, diet of course being a big part of this area. As well as overhauling our menus, considering ingredients and portion sizes, we have also now introduced a new strategy – ‘Free Fruit Friday’ which runs the last Friday of each month. We are doing this as an opportunity to invite children, parents and carers to have a piece of fresh fruit on us! Although the children attending nursery receive lots of fresh fruit on a daily basis, we thought it would be another fantastic role modelling opportunity. Our first attempt at the end of January was a great success and I know that lots of parents and children alike are looking forward to having it again in February and beyond.

At our setting we like to promote diversity and culture and, with this in mind, the Pre-School children have been learning about Chinese New Year. They talked in group time about the different animals each year represents and how this year is the year of the dog. The children then made their own red ‘lucky envelopes’ and put chocolate coins inside which they took home to parents. The children discussed while doing this, how the colour red in Chinese culture is a lucky colour.

Our next exciting project will be our lending library where we will further promote literacy. Children and parents/carers will be able to select and borrow books from the nursery library to read together at home.