Our Staff

Working together for your children

We maintain the ratio of adults to children in the setting that is set by the Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements. We also have volunteer parent helpers, where possible, to complement these ratios. This helps us to:

• Give time and attention to each child;
• Talk with the children about their interests and activities;
• Help children to experience and benefit from the activities we provide; and
• Allow the children to explore and be adventurous in safety.

Our team of dedicated staff have various levels of qualifications and experience, but each is as committed to ensuring your child gets the best start in life as each other.

 
 

Key person and your child

Our setting uses a key person approach. This means that each member of staff has a group of children for whom she/he is particularly responsible. Your child’s key person will be the person who works with you to make sure that the childcare that we provide is right for your child’s particular needs and interests. When your child first starts at the setting, she/he will help your child to settle and throughout your child’s time at the setting, she/he will help your child to benefit from our activities.

 

Learning opportunities for adults

As well as gaining childcare qualifications, our staff take part in further training to help them to keep up-to date with thinking about early years care and education. We also keep up-to-date with best practice, as a member of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, through Under 5 magazine and other publications produced by the Alliance. The current copy of Under 5 is available for you to read. From time to time we hold learning events for parents. These usually look at how adults can help children to learn and develop in their early years.

 

The management of our setting

Our setting is a charity and as such is managed by a volunteer board of trustees – whose members are elected. The elections take place at our Annual General Meeting. The board of trustees make up the registered person with Ofsted and are responsible for:

• managing our finances;
• employing and managing our staff;
• making sure that we have, and work to, policies that help us to provide a high quality service; and
• making sure that we work in partnership with parents.

The Annual General Meeting is open to the parents of all of the children who attend our setting. It is our shared forum for looking back over the previous year’s activities and shaping the coming year’s plan.

Our setting has a parent support group. This group is made up of, and elected by, the parents of the children who attend the setting. In our setting we share with this group, some of the tasks involved in managing the setting.