Wimborne First School & Nursery

Useful Information

Settling in:

Once you have registered to start with us, you will have completed your application pack, part of which will include an all about me book providing us with more information about your child.  Nearer to the time when your child will be starting, Miss Read our Nursery Teacher will then make contact with parents/carers to talk through the booklet and make sure there is no other information you feel we need to know about your child or your family circumstance.  Then just before your child is due to start, we encourage children to come in for a settling in session.  This is to support your child to become familiar with staff, other children and the environment before starting.  

Food:

Snacks are included within the daily fees for each session. A choice of milk or water is available at snack time and children have access to water at all times during the day. The snacks provided at Little Caterpillars will be different and varied each day.

If your child is staying for lunch they will need to either bring a packed lunch or order a hot school meal through HC3S, our school meal provider. All Nursery children eat their lunch together in Little Caterpillar irrespective of which lunch option they choose. Hot school meals must be ordered in advance through Parent Mail.  More information on Parent Mail will be provided to you once your child is registered.  

Key Workers:

Your child will have a Key Person who is responsible for ensuring your child has a smooth transition to pre-school. The Key Person will also be responsible for sharing your child’s next steps and interests with our Nursery Teacher to inform planning and changes needed within the Nursery environment.  They will also be responsible for sharing your child's progress and next steps with as part of ongoing parent/nursery communication.  You will get the opportunity to meet with your child's keyworker as part of termly parents evenings where they will provide you with a more formal report on your child's development.  All members of the Little Caterpillars team work very closely with each other and know all of the children well, it may not be your child’s Key Person handing over to you every day.

Parent Partnership:

Working with parents/carers is really important to us. We will keep parents updated with key dates, events and news through our weekly bulletin, noticeboard (that can be found in the playground by Little Caterpillars door), fortnightly whole school newsletters, half termly curriculum leaflets, Key Worker Catch Up’s, parents evening, Tapestry and emails. We have an open door policy for parents and staff will always provide a daily handover. Parents evenings will run in line with whole school policy with 3 reporting opportunities throughout the academic year.

Our school Links:

Little Caterpillars is very much part of the school and we make the most of every opportunity to join in with whole school events where appropriate for us to do so.  We also enjoy spending time in the school library, hall and once the children are settled in the forest school area. As our Nursery outdoor classroom is next to and joined to the Reception outdoor classroom we quickly get to the staff that are in Reception.  In the Summer Term before we are due to start school we will spend more time with the Reception teacher and in the classrooms helping us to build familiarity before the children start in September.  This really helps with transition when the children go to school and allows the children to start in Reception feeling confident and secure. 

Uniform:

Although it is not essential we would prefer where possible that children wear clothing and shoes to Nursery and Nursery t-shirts and sweatshirts.  Unifoms can be purchased through Just William in Wimborne:  https://www.jwuk.com/    

Children can wear any appropriate footwear to Pre-School (shoes, trainers, plimsolls) as long as they have a velcro fastening so that they can be taken off and put back on independently.  They will also need a pair of wellies, hat and gloves in the winter and sun hat in the summer. All clothing needs to be carefully labelled.

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 taking off – and putting on – clothing where possible. Clothing which is easy for them to manage will help them to do this. All clothing should be clearly named.

What to bring:

• A named water bottle (water only please, no squash)
• A change of clothes and spare pants/socks. These are not only for accidents but also if a child gets wet during water play or a spillage!
• Nappies/pull up’s and wipes (if needed). If your child is toilet training, please bring lots of spare pants and changes of clothes.
• Named wellie boots
• A named waterproof coat
• Clearly named sun cream in the hot weather and a sun hat
• In the winter please bring in a named hat, gloves and scarf
• A named rucksack to keep their belongings on their peg (please only keep this at pre-school on the days/sessions that your child is in)

Safeguarding at Little Caterpillars:

We are dedicated to the welfare and protection of our children and if an occasion does arise where we need to speak to you about your child, please understand that their safety and happiness is our top priority.  Please see our school Safeguarding Policy for more information.   

Drop off and Collection:

We ask parents and carers to drop off and collect at the door to Little Caterpillars.  A member of staff will be there to meet you and settle your child into Nursery.  If your child is attending full day wrap around care then you will drop your child to Kingfishers which is located to the right hand side of the main school entrance.  Your child will then been taken by staff to Little Caterpillars at 8:40am.  At the end of the day once children who are going home have been collected the Nursery children will be taken back to Kingfishers where you will be able to collect them from. 

When your child starts at Little Caterpillars we will ask you to decide on a password that will be linked to your child.  You will have also completed a collection form detailing the people you are expecting will be regularly collecting your child.  This means that as long as the person collecting is on the list you have provided you do not have to call the Nursery to advise them of who is collecting.  If anyone different to those indicated on your collection form are going to be picking your child up then you need to inform the Nursery of this.  For people collecting, that the Nursery staff have not met before this password will need to be provided in order for us to hand over your child to them. 

If your collection form is not returned or the person trying to pick up your child does not know the password, then only parents will be allowed to collect their own child. 

If there are any changes to the collection arrangements, it is important to let the Nursery know. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Choosing the best pre-school for your child can be stressful, here are some FAQs – answered

Snack Time
We offer the children a daily variety of fruit and vegetables, and snacks such as toast fingers, crumpets, croissants and crackers, as well as milk or water to drink. If your child has any special dietary needs please speak to a member of staff.

Special Needs
Little Caterpillars will, wherever possible, accommodate children with special needs. Each case will be assessed individually taking into consideration the child’s needs, staff ratio and our ability to meet the child's needs. 

Behaviour
We have a few rules in Nursery that are in line with our whole school Behaviour Policy and Curriculum.  These are Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Respectful.  We also talk with the children about having 'kind hands' and 'kind feet'. When talking to the children about undesirable behaviour we take time to explain why their behaviour is not acceptable and identify what we do want to see them doing.  We are always consistent so that the children soon feel secure and confident in our rules and expectations.  This encourages the children to develop their self-discipline. If a child is persistently not following our rules and expectations then we follow our school graduated response.  See school behaviour page for more information. 

Nappy Changing
We realise and accept that the stages of a child’s development vary when they attend Nursery. Some children will be in nappies or trainer pants. We ask that the following be adhered to:

• We expect all children wherever possible to arrive at Nursery in a clean nappy.
• Parents need to bring their child to Little Caterpillars with a bag that contains nappies, wipes and a spare change of clothes.  

Personal Possessions
Please discourage your child from bringing their own possessions into pre-school. These can get easily lost or broken and we don't want any children to be upset. 

Photography 
The staff are required to take photographs of the children. These will be used appropriately for use in their personal ‘Learning Journeys’ on Tapestry.  We will also use photographs on displays and within the Nursery environment to celebrate their learning and successes. As well as our school website we also have a school Facebook page.  When your child starts with us we will as for your permission before we ‘post’ any images showing what the children have been doing. No photograph will be taken of a child whose parent/carer has not already given their consent by signing the relevant section within your application pack. 

Below are the forms that are included in an application pack for your information. 

If you would like to find out any more information about Little Caterpillars please do not hesitate to contact us;

office@wimbornefirst.dorset.sch.uk or give us a call on 01202 882532