CANDI Nurseries

City and Islington College has two nurseries for children of our students, one at our Centre for Business, Arts and Technology on Camden Road and one at our Centre for Lifelong Learning in Finsbury Park. The nurseries are open from 8.40am to 5.20pm each day, during term time. Childcare times and days are allocated in line with your study timetable.

Our aim is to support you and your child by providing an enjoyable and educational experience within the City and Islington College nurseries, helping you and your child to enjoy and achieve.

The nurseries aim to provide a service which fosters your child’s active learning, development and wellbeing, offering quality daycare under the guidance of the Revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Through this framework, we support children in their earliest years by planning our activities from children’s interests and observations through the Key Persons. Children learn most effectively when they are actively involved and interested, seeking support and guidance from adults when needed.

Staff, students and children from many cultural backgrounds attend our nurseries and our staff team reflects the local communities we serve. We are proud of the fact that our clients and staff team come from different cultures and we believe it contributes to the rich experiences we are able to offer to each other.

We aim:

To provide a secure, happy caring environment for all our users that gives every child the best start
To ensure our children are seen as individuals and their needs are met to help our children reach their full potential – our Key Early Years Practitioners build positive relationships with their children and strive to gain a true understanding of their Key Children
To provide respect and understanding for all religions and cultures – we celebrate festivals and events that are meaningful to the children and their families, encouraging positive attitudes, awareness and respect of diversity
We aim to build on each child’s self-esteem, and together with mutual care and respect for others, we can encourage children to make a positive contribution to the nursery and the wider community. This is achieved in partnership with our parents
To comply with the regulations set out by the Local Authority (the Children Act 2004), and to follow college procedures
To provide a Key Person system
To support each child’s learning and development through observation, assessment and planning (EYFS)

CHILDREN’S LEARNING THROUGH PLAY

We believe that children are active learners and learn by having first-hand experiences through play using their senses and experimenting.

Our nurseries provide an enabling environment that gives children opportunities to discover, explore and find out about the world around them, gaining understanding, building new ideas and concepts. We encourage children to learn new skills and to express their thoughts and feelings in an environment that focuses on free flow play, both inside and outdoor play throughout the day in all seasons.

All of this underpins the Characteristics of Effective Learning which move through all areas of learning:
– Playing and exploring
– Active learning
– Creating and thinking critically

HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT

The Early Years Practitioners encourage the holistic development of every child and recognise that every child is an individual. We believe that children’s personal development, social and emotional development, communication and language and physical development is the cornerstone to all other learning. We encourage praise, respect, affection and support. We work towards enhancing children’s confidence, self-esteem, sense of self, and emotional and physical wellbeing.

NURSERY ROUTINES

We follow a nursery daily routine which we believe children need in order to have an understanding of what will happen next in their nursery day. This helps them to feel safe and secure and encourages boundaries. However, we believe that there should be a flow to the day that is not rigid but is led by the child’s interests and ideas that encourages child-initiated learning. The nurseries’ routines and planning are displayed within the nursery for parents to see. Nursery routines help children to be ‘school-ready’ as well as regular nursery attendance.

PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS

We value parent feedback as this helps us to improve the service we provide. You can do this informally via your child’s Key Person or through our termly parent’s satisfaction questionnaire or through the termly parents’ meetings. You can also arrange to meet with the nursery manager to discuss issues or suggestions. Your child’s Key Person will highlight ongoing programmes and projects and your involvement is valued and welcomed.

We understand that parents are very busy and have study commitments, but parents are always welcome at the nursery. Spending time in the nursery allows parents to gain a greater understanding of what happens at nursery and creates opportunities to share skills with each other e.g. reading stories in your home language, celebrating festivals, playing an instrument, or any other contribution you would like to make. There is a parent rota on display within the nursery and parents can put their name down to join us in the nursery.

Staff will always set aside time to talk over concerns and ideas. We recognise and value that parents are the child’s main educators and have the greatest knowledge of their own child. This is why we ask you to complete the forms we send you prior to your child starting at the nursery. Views and ideas can be shared and put into action by parents, staff and children, working together to plan for children’s next steps through planning and tracking children’s development together.

We work closely with our local children’s centres who support outreach programmes for children and families. Please speak to your child’s Key Person for a list of children centres’ events and programmes.

NURSERY PROCEDURES – SETTLING IN

We recognise that starting anything new can be daunting; that is why it is our aim to provide sensitive care to support each child as they settle into the nursery.

You may be expected to spend the first week settling your child in the nursery, depending on your child’s needs. You must understand that it is natural for some children to cry during their induction stage at the nursery.

Talking to your child before starting nursery and explaining the situation has proved very helpful in the past to both the child and the parent.

The time it takes children to settle into nursery varies and is an individual process. Prior to starting nursery, you can help to prepare your child for nursery by leaving your child with another familiar person occasionally – this will help your child to become used to being with other people. For older children talking about starting nursery and spending time with other children will also help them to prepare for nursery. Your child’s Key Person will support your child’s settling in process in partnership with parents to form a strong bond with the child.