Parent handbook
A place to make lasting friendships
At First Friends Pre-school we aim to provide a safe, caring and stimulating environment in which your child will flourish. We value every individual at First Friends, whether children or adults, with equal consideration and respect.
The First Friends Team
First Friends is a small, privately run Pre-School located in the spacious and bright Saint Saviour’s Mission Church on Scott Road in Wallisdown, Poole.
During opening hours (Mon-Fri, 9am-1.30pm) we have sole use of the hall and outdoor space. We cater for children from 2 years up to primary school age (the month that children turn 5 years old). First Friends is open during term times in line with schools in Poole and Bournemouth.
All of our enthusiastic and experienced staff at First Friends are DBS certified and either fully qualified or undergoing study to achieve relevant childcare qualifications. The managers, Danielle Haigh and Shelley Hatchard, hold NVQ Early Years Care and Education qualifications and have many years experience of working with Pre-School children in a variety of settings.
All staff at First Friends are committed to providing the highest possible standard of care, attention and education for your child. They provide for the emotional security of all the children in their care, actively promoting and acting as good role models with kindness, empathy, responsibility and self-awareness. We are all enrolled on a programme of continual professional development, attending regular training sessions to benefit our working practice in First Friends and, most importantly, the children attending.
Each child attending First Friends will be assigned a ‘key person’. Your child’s key person will work alongside you to create a personalised learning journey to detail their achievements and experiences at First Friends, ensuring that what the pre-school provides is right for your child’s personal needs and interests.
The key person will ensure that from the moment your child starts they are helped to settle and will be supported and nurtured throughout their time at First Friends. You will be given the opportunity to spend time with your child’s key person to create an initial profile, detailing your child’s likes and dislikes as well as the important people and events in their life. Your child’s key worker will also be happy to update you with the progress and experiences of your child at First Friends and will arrange regular ‘catch-up’ meetings with you to look through their learning journey together.
We operate on ‘open door’ policy which gives parents/carers and staff the chance to keep each other up to date with your child’s learning at home and in the Pre-School. This helps us to get to know your child better and build positive relationships. We value your opinions and ideas, as the person who knows your child best, and consider a partnership with parents and carers to be vital in providing the highest possible level of care and education for your child.
Parents and carers are always welcome to discuss any specific needs or concerns that may arise, either during drop-off or collection times or upon arranging a mutually convenient time with your child’s Key Worker or one of the managers of First Friends. You will receive a weekly e-newsletter with all important information about what is happening at First Friends and we will organise informal ‘catch-up’ sessions with your child’s Key Worker in the Autumn and Spring terms to discuss your child’s progress.
Together with your child’s Key Worker an individual plan will be created, detailing your child’s changing needs and interests and how we are planning to build on their progress in all areas of learning. Parents and carers are invited and encouraged to join in with our themes and topics with any insights you may have. We value visits from family members who would feel happy to give talks on their profession, hobbies or, host activities relating to their interests, or share our story and circle times as a ‘special visitor’ From time to time we will organise activities for groups of children where parents will be welcome to join in; focusing on special occasions, festivities or introductions to areas of learning so that parents are well informed about how to continue and build upon their child’s learning at home.
We acknowledge the valuable contribution that parents and carers can make to First Friends. If you would like to come in as a parent helper and have some free time then please talk to a member of staff and we would love to get you involved!
Every child at First Friends will have a comprehensive Learning Journey regularly updated by their Key Worker. This will include a collection of observations with photographs and stories detailing your child’s progress and experiences throughout their time at First Friends. This document will follow your child up to primary school providing a clear and consistent record of development that ties in with the EYFS.
All observations of children are kept strictly confidential. Each observation will be linked to an area of Learning and Development as outlined by the EYFS. Observing and reflecting on children’s spontaneous play, and building on this by planning and resourcing a challenging environment helps us to support and extend specific areas of children's learning. We will create termly reports for each child which will help us to identify their interests and needs and we will then use their learning journeys to plan for ‘Next Steps’ to ensure that all children fulfill their potential at First Friends.
You will also have the opportunity to add in any special home experiences that will help to build their learning journey so that there is a continuation of care between the pre-school and your child’s home life. You will always have free access to your child’s learning journey and we encourage you to read about your child’s progress regularly and to contribute with any special events, outings, comments and memorable moments to help us to build a picture of your child and how they are developing. This will help us to continue to meet their changing needs and interests and to extend their learning accordingly, and will also give us the opportunity to celebrate their achievements together.
We consider a partnership with parents and carers to be extremely important in having a positive impact on your child’s progress.
To download and view a copy of the Early Years Statutory Framework, which we use to inform our planning and assessments, please visit the Early Years Foundation Stage website.
The government made the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory from 1st September 2008 to ensure that all under 5s in childcare benefit from a safe, secure and happy environment where they can play and develop. It seeks to assure that whichever nursery or pre-school parents choose, they can be confident that their child will receive a quality experience that supports their development and learning.
The EYFS is built on the principle that young children need to play in order to have fun, make friends and begin to learn about and understand the world around them. Ensuring the welfare and safety of children is fundamental to the EYFS. The standards made statutory by the EYFS reassure parents that by enrolling in childcare they are doing the very best for their child, as they will be safe and well looked after.
The EYFS principles that guide the work of all practitioners of First
Friends are grouped as follows:
❏ A Unique Child
❏ Positive Relationships
❏ Enabling Environments
❏ Learning and Development
This approach provided by the EYFS meets the overarching aim of improving outcomes and reflects that it is every child’s right to grow up safe; healthy; enjoying and achieving; making a positive contribution; and enjoy economic well-being.
How we provide for development and learning
The care and education offered by First Friends helps children to learn about the world around them providing all of the children with interesting activities appropriate to their age and stage of development. The EYFS framework explains how and what your child will be learning to support their healthy development.
Your child will be learning
skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding
through 7 areas of learning and development.
Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first. These are:
● Communication and Language
● Physical development
● Personal, social and emotional development
These prime areas are the most essential for your child’s healthy
development and future learning.
As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in
4 specific areas. These are:
● Literacy
● Mathematics
● Understanding the world
● Expressive arts and design
Together, these 7 areas of learning are used to guide the planning of your child’s learning and activities. Your child’s Key Person will ensure that the activities planned include elements of each of the 7 areas and are suited to your child’s individual needs and progress. The practice guidance also sets out in ‘Development Matters’ the likely stages of progress a child will make along their learning journey towards achieving their early learning goals. First Friends will track your child’s progress alongside these stages and will use the information gained to feed into children’s assessment, planning and programme of learning.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Physical Development
Communication and Language
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive Art and Design
Our planning builds on the experiences the children bring to Pre-School. We aim to provide activities which will extend and expand upon each child’s unique knowledge and skills. Our planning is flexible in order to address and include individual needs and interests.
First Friends uses a system of long, medium and short term planning. The long term planning is built around the pre-school environment, using seasonal activities and festivities to create a framework of themes to build upon. These take into account the physical and emotional needs of the children as they prepare for, and achieve in, their stages of development in preparation for stepping up to primary school.
The medium term planning covers all seven areas of development, linking the themes to the curriculum and including a focus on key ‘life skills’ to encourage independence and self confidence. The short term planning (weekly) is created using child-led ideas, Key Person plans and parental input, and will include, and build upon, spontaneous activities introduced by the children and families of First Friends.
Parents and carers will receive a weekly e-mail which will inform you of our current themes and topics so that you can talk about them at home and have the opportunity to bring in relevant items, books or pictures to help your child gain more fun and interest from our activities. We welcome ideas and suggestions from parents and carers and encourage involvement so that you have opportunities to share your skills and knowledge with the children at First Friends.
We ensure that in our daily routine we demonstrate clear boundaries of behaviour for staff and children, and we hope that the children at First Friends will learn by example to be considerate and kind to each other. Together with the children we devise and review a set of ‘golden rules’, and by involving their ideas we hope to give them a sense of ownership and instil in them a responsibility for their own actions and a positive course of action for the consequences of their behaviours.
Children are consistently rewarded for making good choices and we award children with ‘star of the day’ recognitions for being positive role models to their peers. If situations occur where continued poor choices are made we will work with parents/carers to develop a strategy whereby our approach to the situation is consistent between home and the pre-school. We believe that a calm and ordered environment with established guidelines for behaviour leads to relaxed, settled and happy children.
As childcare professionals, members of staff at First Friends have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children attending the setting. We have robust recruitment procedures and all staff are fully DBS certified. If your child has a minor accident at the pre-school this will be recorded following a set procedure and you will be informed at collection time. If there is a serious injury you will be informed immediately and our Paediatric First Aid qualified staff will follow the procedure for recording the accident and gaining advice for how to attend to the injury from the NHS helpline.
In an emergency situation we will always contact emergency services and contact you immediately (simultaneously if possible) Please ensure that we always have a current contact number for you as well as an additional contact and you must tell us if your phone number or details change . Staff at First Friends have a legal obligation to record any bruising, injuries or concerns regarding a child. We follow the Local Authority Child Protection procedure and may, on occasion, have to contact another agency such as Health and Social Care without first informing parents.
* For further details, please refer to our setting policies, a copy of which you will receive upon your child commencing attendance at First Friends Pre-School.
A typical day at First Friends Pre-School
At First Friends we operate a free-flow setting where children have the freedom to explore a wide variety of activities that interest and excite them. The routine for the day is a mix of child-led and adult initiated activities to enable children to develop skills in different areas and to foster their natural curiosity and creativity. We also include some planned activities to ensure that children thrive in all areas of development, as detailed in the Early Years Foundation Stage.
Each day will follow a similar routine to allow each child to settle in well and develop independence. Our planning and observations are all based around your child’s personal needs and interests. We celebrate each child as a unique individual and invest time in getting to know them: their likes, dislikes, strengths and challenges.
With this knowledge we plan challenging and interesting activities to support your child in developing new skills whilst encouraging independence and building their self confidence and self esteem. Our aim is to instil positive values of respect, care and attention that will guide them towards a love of learning and to develop valuable social skills in preparation for the next big step up to primary school.
Daily Routine
9am
The doors to First Friends are opened and children are welcomed
in and helped to settle by their Key Workers. Parents and carers can
chat with members of staff to tell us anything we need to know that
might affect how their child is feeling that day. Children are helped
to self-register by fixing their personalised picture on our ‘who is
here today’ board. They hang their coats up on their pegs and change
into their indoor shoes.
9am - 10am
Freeplay in the hall. Children can select activities
from a variety on offer that interest them. There will be an adult
initiated craft activity on offer, as well as areas for construction,
messy play, role-play and shelves set up with toys, games and puzzles
that children are encouraged to access based on their interests. Staff
will support and interact with children in their choices of play, and
make spontaneous observations to add to their learning journeys.
Tidy-up time and circle time. Children will be encouraged to tidy away the toys they have been playing with, making space for circle time. They will then be split into small groups to participate in ‘circle time’ based on their age. Each group will be led by a member of staff to introduce the topic and/or new skills and activities related to a specific area of learning, centred around our planning for that day. Children are encouraged to participate with their ideas and share any news. This time also provides the opportunity to extend the children’s knowledge and understanding of the world and practice literacy and numeracy skills.
10.20am
Snack time. Following circle time, children will be
offered a healthy fruit snack that they have brought from home along
with a drink of milk or water. This a social time where children will
sit at tables and talk with each other whilst a member of staff helps
them to prepare their snack.
10.35am - 11.45am
Free choice re-commences. Further activities are
laid out and children make choices about what they would like to do,
whilst staff continue to support, interact with and make observations
of them. During this time Key Workers work closely with their children
to carry out planned activities or observations based on their unique
needs and stage of development, and to support them in acquiring new
knowledge and skills. Nurture groups will also take place to support
children with any additional requirements to ensure that their
personal, social and emotional needs are met.
11.45am - 12.30pm
Tidy-up time will be followed by a whole group
physical activity, such as dancing, group games, indoor obstacle
course, singing and music. During this time the space will be cleared
and children wash their hands and set tables in preparation for
lunchtime.
12.30 - 1pm Lunch time.
Children sit together to eat their packed
lunches. As with snack time, this is a social activity where children
are encouraged to have conversation and practice good eating habits.
1-1.15pm
Stories, songs and sharing. As each child finishes and
tidies away their lunch items, they then join a whole group singing
and sharing session where we talk about what we have done today and
share stories, favourite rhymes and children can show any special
items that they have brought in from home to share with their friends.
1.15-1.30pm
Home time. Parents and carers arrive to collect their
child and Key Workers are on hand to share updates about their child’s
day. The Pre-School closes at 1.30pm.
First Friends Pre-school
Children at First Friends will have free access to lots of messy play activities; with paints, glue, sand, water and play dough often laid out for them to create and enjoy with. We endeavour to provide aprons for such activities, but on occasion children may get their clothes messy, so for this reason we advise that they are not dressed in their ‘best’ clothes but in clothing that they feel comfortable in and won’t be too worried about getting dirty.
We encourage all parents/carers to provide a named bag with spare clothes that we can change your child into should accidents happen, which can be hanged on their peg along with their coat and outdoor shoes. We ask that children are provided with indoor shoes for their time spent at First Friends. These can be simple slippers or plimsoll shoes to avoid getting any outdoor dirt onto rugs, cushions and blankets laid out for the children to sit on whilst they play. These can be left at pre-school so that they are there when they arrive each day, and putting them on is part of their morning registration as they enter the setting.
For outings and wet weather conditions we ask that parents provide a pair of named wellington boots, which can also remain at pre-school if preferred. Please provide wet weather clothing all year round to help us to ensure that children are suitably dressed for outdoor play. During winter months warm coats are required for outdoor play, and in summer we ask that sunhats are provided and that sun cream is applied at home before the beginning of the pre-school day.
When dressing your child for pre-school, we kindly ask that clothing is comfortable and easy for your child to put on and take off themselves, to encourage them to dress themselves after going to the toilet. Shoes with velcro fastenings and coats with zips rather than buttons help children to develop skills of independence in dressing themselves.
Public Health England provide a useful document to detail how long children are contagious and should be kept off from pre-school: link to Public Health England
With a case of sickness and/or diarrhoea it is important that children do not attend pre-school for at least 48 hours after your child is free from symptoms, to prevent cross-infection.
Please be aware that children will often catch a number of illnesses if this is their first time in a social setting, and if your child is showing symptoms of feeling run down or tired at certain times of year this is quite usual and it is fine to keep them at home to prevent contracting infections and allow them time to get back to full health. Please give a minimum of four week’s notice if you wish your child to leave the pre-school.
From the term after your child’s third birthday, all children in Poole will be entitled to 30 hours of free pre-school care per week, for 38 weeks of the year. For children starting with First Friends before this time, fees will apply.
First Friends offers 22.5 hours weekly with our opening times of 9am-1.30pm daily, which means that fully funded places are available for 3-4 year old children attending on a full time basis, Monday - Friday.
The date you can start claiming depends on your child’s birthday.
Child’s birthday: 1 January to 31 March
When you can claim:
The beginning of term on or after 1 April
Child’s birthday:
1 April to 31 August
When you can claim: The beginning of term on or after 1 September
Child's birthday: 1 September to 31 December
When you can claim: The beginning of term on or after 1 January
Some 2 year olds are also eligible for free funding. You should receive forms from Poole Children's Services. To find out if you are eligible, please contact the Poole Family Information Service, or visit this link: Poole Family Information Service
Thank you
