Policy and procedures

All our policies are vital to the effective running of the pre-school. We would encourage you to read all the policies as these help us to provide high quality service which is an enjoyable and beneficial experience for each child and their parents. A copy of our policies and procedures can be found on the Famly app or displayed at the preschool. Our staff will be more than happy to explain them to you if required. It outlines how we satisfy the requirements of the EYFS in our everyday practice and the priority we place on your child’s wellbeing whilst with us at Heathcot. We will notify you as and when any changes are made to our policies and procedures.

Attendance

Regular and punctual attendance is of paramount importance in ensuring that all children have full access to the curriculum. Children’s absence and lateness will affect the pre-school’s ability to provide the best learning experiences and disrupt other children in the setting. Children should be at nursery, on time, every day unless the reason for the absence is genuine illness or other unavoidable cause. If a child’s attendance is below 80% in any term, parents will be contacted and if no reasonable explanation is given, the preschool reserve the right to terminate the place. If a child is receiving the free nursery place, all attendance may be checked by the local authority and parents may be charged for absences if they are unauthorized or deemed to be an unacceptable reason.

Dropping and collecting children

We must be kept informed of who will be collecting each child. If the person who is due to collect a child is not usually responsible for collecting them, we will require a password as staff will not allow your child to leave with anyone who has not been nominated by you beforehand. If we are not reasonably satisfied that the person collecting your child is who we were expecting, we will not release your child into their care until we have checked with you. The pre-school doors will be open for 10 minutes after the official opening and closing time. We will not allow late arrivals after the doors have closed, unless it has been pre-arrange with the pre-school. Late collection of your child will incur extra costs of 25p per minute after the doors are closed.

Holidays

Families are allowed to take up to 2 weeks maximum each year for holidays which will be charged at normal weekly fees. Holidays must be booked two weeks in advance with the Pre-School and a Holiday request Form will need to be filled in before taking holidays. Please note: You are required to make payment in advance. For children who receive free entitlement can take holidays up to two weeks. The first two weeks of the holidays will be funded as normal. Additional two weeks may be granted for children with special circumstances.

Health and Medical Matters

Your child will not be able to attend pre-school if they have a temperature, sickness, diarrhoea or a contagious infection/disease on arrival at our setting. We will have to ask you to collect your child if they become unwell whilst in our care, according to our Managing Children who are Sick, Infectious or with Allergies Policy. Parents must immediately inform us if their child is suffering from any contagious disease or has been diagnosed by a medical practitioner with a notifiable disease. For the benefit of other children attending you must not allow your child to attend whilst they are contagious and pose a risk to other children during normal daily activities. In line with government health guidelines children should not come into preschool for a minimum of 48 hours after the last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea has occurred.

We will only administer prescribed medicines if parents complete a ‘medicine consent form’; however, the first dose must be given at home and medicines must not be left on the Pre-School premises overnight. Medication must be clearly labelled with child’s name, dosage and any instructions.

An ambulance is called for children requiring emergency treatment. In the event of a major accident or injury we will make every effort to contact the child’s parents immediately. ’Parents sign a consent form at registration allowing staff to take their child to the nearest Accident and Emergency unit to be examined, treated or admitted as necessary. Accidents and injuries will be recorded in our accident record book and, where applicable, notified to the Health and Safety Executive, Ofsted and/or local child protection agencies in line with our Recording and Reporting of Accident and Incidents Policy.

Clothing

We provide protective clothing for the children when they play with messy activities. Every child is encouraged to wear an apron for painting but even with an apron on, accidents may still happen. Practical and inexpensive clothing is strongly recommended for children attending pre-school.

We encourage children to gain the skills that help them to be independent and look after themselves. These include taking themselves to the toilet and taking off and putting on outdoor clothes. Clothing that is easy for them to manage will help them to do this. We encourage outdoor play as much as possible. Children should be encouraged to play outdoors in all kinds of weather, as this creates very valuable learning experiences for them. Children are encouraged to explore their environment and learn through experiences. We would appreciate if you dressed your child appropriately so then we can make the most of all weather types.

We cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage to children’s property. Every reasonable effort will be made by staff to ensure the children’s belongings are not lost or damaged. It is the parent’s responsibility to name and clearly label all items of clothing.

Working with Other Professionals

The Pre-School works closely with local schools, children centres, health visitors, specialist workers, speech therapists, services for children with disabilities, Early Years Additional Needs Service and Social Services. We will always seek your consent where we need to share information about your child with any other professional or agency. However, there may be circumstances where information is shared with other professionals or agencies without parent’s consent according to our Information sharing policy.

Equality of opportunity

We will ensure that our service is fully inclusive in meeting the needs of all children, particularly those that arise from their ethnic heritage, social and economic background, gender, ability or disability. Our setting is committed to anti-discriminatory practice to promote equality of opportunity and valuing diversity for all children and families.

Safeguarding children

Our setting has a duty under the law to help safeguard children against suspected or actual significant harm. Our employment practices ensure children against the likelihood of abuse in our settings and we have a procedure for managing complaints or allegations against a member of staff. Our way of working with children and their parents ensures we are aware of any problems that may emerge and can offer support, including referral to appropriate agencies when necessary, to help families in difficulty. The staff take part in further training to help them to keep up-to-date with best practice and quality care in early years.

Additional Educational Needs

As part of the setting's policy to make sure that its provision meets the needs of each individual child, we take account of any additional need a child may have. The setting works to the requirements of the 1993 Education Act and Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice 2015.

Information we hold about you and your child

We have procedures in place for the recording and sharing of information about you and your child that is compliant with the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (2018). The data we collect is:

Processed fairly, lawfully and in a transparent manner in relation to you and your child.
Collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed for other purposes incompatible with those purposes.
Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which data is processed.
Accurate and kept up to date.
Kept in a form that permits identification of you and your child for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data is processed.
Processed in a way that ensures appropriate security of the personal data including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.

When you register your child with us we will provide you with a privacy notice that gives you further details of how we fulfil our obligations regarding your data.

Policy and procedures

Termination of contract