Pre-School

Happy Hands Pre-school aims to:

provide high quality care and education for children primarily below statutory school age;
work in partnership with parents to help children to learn and develop;
add to the life and well-being of its local community; and
offer children and their parents a service which promotes equality and values diversity.
follow the Foundation Stage Curriculum, which covers Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication, Language and Literacy, Mathematical Development, Knowledge and Understanding of the World, Creative Development and Physical Development. together with components of the 'Birth to Three Matters' framework - a strong child, a skillful communicator, a competent learner & a healthy child.
work to its operational plan (available on request).

As a member of Happy Hands Pre-school, your child:

is in a safe and stimulating environment;
is given generous care and attention, because of our ratio of adults to children;
has the chance to join with other children and adults to play, work and learn together;
is helped to take forward her/his learning and development by being helped to build on what she/he already knows and can do;
has the chance to establish the basis of reading and writing through well chosen stories, songs, rhymes and games;
is helped to create habits of listening, sharing and concentration and pride in their achievements;
operates a key worker system, to ensure your child makes satisfying progress;
is in a pre-school which sees you as a partner in helping your child to learn and develop; and
is in a pre-school in which parents help to shape the service it offers.

The service offered by Happy Hands Pre-school:

The pre-school is open 38 weeks each year.
We are closed during school holidays.
We are open 4 days each week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
We offer the sessional day care between the following times: 9.20am to 12 noon.
We provide care and education for young children between the ages of 2½ and 5

Fees

To help meet initial administration costs, a non-refundable registration fee is requested. This is payable on return of your completed Admissions Pack Information and is currently £15.00.

The fees are currently £8.50 per session, payable half-termly in advance. Fees must still be paid if children are absent without notice for a short period of time. If your child has to be absent over a long period of time, talk to the senior supervisor or the committee chair. For your child to keep her/his place at the pre-school, you must pay the fees. If you have any difficulties with payment, please let us know and we will do our best to help.

Working together for your children

Happy Hands Pre-School has a high ratio of adults to children in the setting. This helps us to:

give time and attention to each child;
talk with the children about their interests and activities;
help children to experience and benefit from the activities we provide; and
allow the children to explore and be adventurous in safety.

Our members of staff have a number of years’ experience, and a range of qualifications which are improved and added to on a continual basis. Their qualifications and certificates of achievement are available for viewing at the start or end of a Pre-school or 2’s group session.

We aim for all staff to undertake courses run by the Pre-school Learning Alliance and other bodies, as well as maintaining up to date first-aid qualifications. Staff training is continuous to keep up to date with current best practice. All staff are encouraged to achieve a CACHE or NVQ qualification.

How parents take part in the pre-school

As a member of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, Happy Hands Pre-school recognises parents as the first and most important educators of their children. The staff members see themselves as co-workers with you in providing care and education for your child. There are many ways in which parents take part in making the pre-school a welcoming and stimulating place for children and parents, such as:

exchanging knowledge about their children’s needs, activities, interests and progress with the staff;
helping at sessions of the pre-school;
sharing their own special interests with the children;
helping to provide, make and look after the equipment and materials used in the children’s play activities;
being part of the management of the pre-school;
taking part in events and informal discussions about the activities and curriculum provided by the pre-school;
joining in community activities in which the pre-school takes part; and
building friendships with other parents in the pre-school.

The parents’ rota

The pre-school has a rota which you can be included in if you would like to help at a particular session or sessions of the pre-school. Helping at the session enables you to see what the day-to-day life of the pre-school is like and to join in helping the children to get the best out of their activities.

Joining the rota is not the only means of taking part in the life of the pre-school. You can offer to take part in a session by sharing your own interests and skills with the children.

Do feel free to arrange to drop into the pre-school, if you would like to see it at work or to speak with the staff.

Key workers

The pre-school operates a key worker system. Due to the flexible nature of our days and allocation of staff accordingly, all staff act as key workers for all children within each session. Parents can approach any one of the staff to discuss their child. Regular key worker meetings are held after sessions, where the staff discuss any observations made, or points made by a parent etc.

Records of achievement

The pre-school keeps a record of achievement for each child. Staff and parents working together on their children’s records of achievement is one of the ways in which Happy Hands Pre-school and parents work in partnership. Your child’s record of achievement helps us to celebrate together her/his achievements and to work together to provide what your child needs for her/his well-being and to make progress.

Our key workers will work with you to keep this record. To do this they will collect information about your child’s needs, activities, interests and achievements throughout their time with us. This information will enable the key workers to identify your child’s stage of development and so decide on how best to plan an appropriate curriculum to help your child learn and develop through play.

Learning opportunities for adults

The pre-school staff members are all encouraged to gain qualifcations in early years care and education. They also take part in further training to help them to keep up-to-date with new ideas in early years care and education.

The pre-school also keeps itself up-to-date with best practice in early years care and education through the Pre-school Learning Alliance’s magazine Under Five and publications produced by the Pre-school Learning Alliance. The current copy of Under Five is available for you to read.

The pre-school’s timetable and routines

Happy Hands Pre-school believes that care and education are equally important in the experience which we offer children. The routines and activities that make up the pre-school’s session/day are provided in ways that:

help each child to feel that she/he is a valued member of the pre-school;
ensure the safety of each child;
help children to gain from the social experience of being part of a group; and
provide children with opportunities to learn and help them to value learning.

The session

The pre-school organises its sessions so that the children can choose from — and work at — a range of activities and, in doing so, build up their ability to select and work through a task to its completion. The children are also helped and encouraged to take part in adult-led small and large group activities which introduce them to new experiences and help them to gain new skills, as well as helping them to learn to work with others.

The pre-school has space in the hall so that the children can enjoy outdoor activities (bikes, climbing frame etc.). Activities contribute to children’s health, their physical development and their knowledge of the world around them. The children have the opportunity — and are encouraged — to take part in child-chosen and adult-led activities.

A typical session will generally follow the pattern of:

9.20 - 9.40 Welcome and Registration
9.40 - 10.30 Free play - including planned craft & topic activities, physical play, role-play, small world and
construction toys, play dough, jigsaws, and mark-making etc
10.30 - 10.50 Snack time
10.50 - 11.25 Free play - as above
11.25 - 11.30 Tidy-Up Time
11.30 - 12.00 End Activity - Story and song time
12 Noon Exit register and Home Time

Clothing

The pre-school provides aprons for the children when they play with messy activities. However, please send your child in clothes which you do not mind if they get messy. We also have a uniform of T-shirts and sweatshirts which, although not compulsory, benefits the children in many ways.

The pre-school encourages children to gain the skills which help them to be independent and look after themselves. These include taking themselves to the toilet and washing hands. Clothing which is easy for them to manage will help them to do this.

All outdoor clothing and shoes must be labeled with your child’s name. Please ask a member of staff for a label order form if you require labels.

If your child is not quite toilet-trained, parents should supply clean nappies, pull-ups and wipes in a plastic bag with the child’s name on it. If the pre-school has to use a nappy from stock, a charge of £1.00 will be made.

Shoes and Jewellery

In the interest of safety, open-toed footwear is not permitted at any time of the year.

For safety reasons, children are not permitted to wear jewellery in Pre-school, with the exception of stud earrings. Cultural/religious requirements will be respected, but please discuss these with the Supervisor. In this case the parent/carer must provide a signed waiver of liability to the Pre-school. This will state that the Pre-school will not be held responsible for loss or injury caused to or by the jewellery. Staff will remove any other jewellery from children and the Pre-school will not be liable for such items.

Snacks and meals

The pre-school provides healthy snacks which children and adults sit down to together. We plan these snacks around current topics and themes and ensure they are both healthy and nutritious. Do tell us about your child’s dietary needs or any allergies and we will make sure that these are met.

Toilets

The pre-school policy for children going to toilet is that the child must tell a member of staff if they wish to go to the toilet, and a member of staff (CRB checked) will take the child. If a child has an ‘accident’, the child will be treated with sympathy and understanding. If you have any concerns, please speak to the session supervisor.

Policies

Copies of the pre-school’s policies are available to view at the pre-school, please ask a member of staff. They are also available on the pre-school web site.

The pre-school’s policies help us to make sure that the service provided by the pre-school is a high quality one and that being a member of the pre-school is an enjoyable and beneficial experience for each child and her/his parents.

The staff and parents of the pre-school work together to adopt the policies and they all have the opportunity to take part in the annual review of the policies. This review helps us to make sure that the policies are enabling the pre-school to provide a quality service for its members and the local community.

Special needs

As part of the pre-school’s policy to make sure that its provision meets the needs of each individual child, we take account of any special needs which a child may have.

The pre-school works to the requirements of the 1993 Education Act and The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (2000). The pre-school’s Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator is Linda Crossland.

The management of Pre-school

A parent management committee — whose members are elected by the parents of the children who attend the pre-school — manages the pre-school. The elections take place at the pre-school’s Annual General Meeting which is held in each year. The committee is responsible for:

managing the pre-school’s finances and arranges fund raising events;
employing and managing the staff;
making sure that the pre-school has — and works to — policies which help it to provide a high quality service;
making sure that the pre-school works in partnership with the children’s parents.

The Annual General Meeting is open to the parents of all of the children who attend the pre-school. It is their forum for looking back over the previous year’s activities and shaping the coming year’s activities.

The pre-school encourages parents to join the committee and help the pre-school in whatever way they can.

Birthdays

We also celebrate your child’s birthday at pre-school. If you wish to contribute, we would welcome a packet of biscuits, cake or some small treats to share among the children. If for any reason you do not want your child’s birthday celebrated, please tell the session supervisor.

Newsletters

Regular newsletters are produced to let parents know of meetings and events, planned themes for the next half term, fundraising activities, committee activities and other information that the parent should be aware of.

Events calendar

We arrange events for parents and children to be involved in. Please check our notice board and read our newsletters for further information.

Starting at Happy Hands Dorridge Pre-school

Admissions Policy

Your child’s name may be placed on a waiting list at any time. We maintain our lists on the basis of intakes to the infant school. Places will be offered on a first-come-first-served basis to the first 36 children on the list. Any places not taken will then be offered to the child next on the list until all the places are full. See the admissions policy for more details.

Our intakes are based on birth month: children who have September to February birthdays will start in September (Autumn term) and those with March to August birthdays will start in January (Spring term).

The first days

We want your child to feel happy and safe at the pre-school. To make sure that this is the case, the staff will work with you to decide on how to help your child to settle into the pre-school.

Extra session

If you would like an extra session for your child, please let the session supervisor know whether it is permanent or temporary, and we will let you know if there are vacancies on the session you want. Fees must be paid for the extra session.

Please let us know if you no longer want a session, so that we are able to offer the place to another child. All changes to sessions must be made via the pre-school.

The Staff and Committee of Happy Hands Pre-school hopes that you and your child enjoy being members of the pre-school and that you both find taking part in our activities interesting and stimulating. The staff and committee are always ready and willing to talk with you about your ideas, views or questions.