Our Staff - Corwen Day Nursery

All members of staff receive induction training which includes going through the safeguarding policy and health and safety procedures. All members of staff are either, fully qualified in childcare or are training towards a childcare qualification and have not been selected just for the qualifications they hold, but also for their exceptional personal qualities and their genuine love for children and dedication to their job and all it involves. As the nursery is situated in a rural Welsh speaking environment, we have a positive approach to recruiting Welsh speaking staff, and therefore offer the facility through a bilingual medium.

Continual professional development and training is very important and an ongoing priority, thus staff regularly attend training courses to improve their skills, which allow the nursery to provide the best quality care of the highest standard. All members of staff are; Paediatric First Aid trained, have received training in understanding and managing challenging behaviour, DBS checked, have received fire awareness and manual handling training, hold a Food Safety certificate and have had safeguarding training and foundation phase training.

We hold monthly staff meetings to discuss many points and room leaders hold regular departmental meetings. Some members of staff have spent some time in other settings to learn from their procedures and pick up some ideas. We are proud that labour turnover is exceptionally low, and many members of staff have worked at the nursery for several years.

Our staff enjoy their work and receive an annual appraisal to give us the opportunity to look at their strengths and weaknesses as well as looking at how we see them progressing within the nursery. Regular job chats take place as well as observations. We have introduced an “employee of the month” scheme where a member of staff has the opportunity of receiving this award for going above and beyond what is expected of them. Staff will observe children, play alongside them, and support them in their individual play to build on what they already know and encourage them to learn new skills. Staff will have knowledge of children’s development and use this to observe and assess children’s progress and plan for children’s next steps. Learning journeys are produced for each child and discussed with parents at parents evening.

The nursery has invested in some software to assist with observations of children. All members of staff have received training from Shonette Bason Wood who is an experienced teacher and makes learning fun, she often sends ideas on fun activities for us to undertake at the nursery and dough disco and squiggle whilst you wiggle which was introduced by Shonette to strengthen muscles in the hand to assist young children with holding a pen to write takes place daily. The team have also benefited from training from Jude Twani who is an Early years Consultant and Alice Sharp who uses an experiential approach in her role as early childhood influencer, keynote speaker, mum, and writer.

Working in partnership with parents

Corwen Day Nursery works closely with parents in partnership resulting in a culture of co-operation between the nursery and parents. Parents hold key information and have a critical role to play in their child’s education and our work will be more effective when parents are involved, and account will be taken of their wishes, feelings and perspectives on their child’s development. We will endeavour to ensure that we can accommodate any particular wishes parents may have for their child. Daily diaries are completed for the children in the baby room and middle room and given to the parents at the end of each day. All members of staff will speak with the parents at the beginning and end of each day. A newsletter is issued to parents every other month detailing what we have achieved, any changes made within the setting, future, and forthcoming events. We regularly post on our face book page to give parents confidence in what we do, and it allows parents to view the activities that their children have been involved in. We host a mince pie and mulled wine night at Christmas as well as an annual open / parents evening where parents are invited in to discuss their child’s milestones and review their child’s learning journey with the key worker. Tea, coffee, and cake are available on the night along with samples from our fantastic menu. We host a graduation ceremony before the summer holidays for the parents and children who will be moving on to full time school.

A Key Worker System

A key worker system is in operation where each child is allocated to a particular member of staff and will receive more personal care. This person will take special responsibility for knowing the child and is the first point of contact for parents. Information about the child’s day and any other special messages will be given by the key person to parents at the end of the nursery day and the child’s key person will work closely with the parent in the various stages of development.