FAQ’s – Kindergarten

We open 8am – 5.30pm for 50 weeks of the year, closing for bank holidays and for two weeks at Christmas.

Of course, our funded sessions are offered on a stretched basis only. This means that 15 hours funding per week is stretched over the 50 weeks that we are open and will entitle you to one full day per week with us or two shorter sessions. 30 hours funding would also be stretched over 50 weeks of the year and would entitle you to two full days, 4 shorter days or 1 full and 2 short days each week. You will be asked to complete a funding form to confirm the amount of funding we are able to claim for your child.

We are bound to following Sheffield FEL Code of Practice in regards to how we can offer and claim the funding.

 

Children’s attendance varies within our settings, from children attending on only one day per week up to children attending 5 full days a week with us. We do ask that if children are only attending one day per week that they attend for a full day, from experience it can be quite tricky for children to settle and get to know us if they only attend a short few hours each week. If it is shorter or half days you are looking for, we recommend doing 2 shorter sessions a week to give your child the chance to familiarise themself with our Kindy adults and setting.

Being an outdoor setting our ‘classroom’ may be missing a roof but that does not mean children aren’t prepared for school. We believe that preparing children for school is about building the holistic child. Supporting children’s mental and physical wellbeing, developing their confidence, and building their independence skills are just some of the skills we help build prior to school. In regards to reading and writing, if children are interested that’s great, we will support that in the setting, however we understand that not all children are interested in reading and writing pre-school age, and that’s fine too. We have mark-making opportunities available to the children every day and plenty of activities whereby the children can strengthen their fine motor muscles in preparation for those writing skills.

In Kindy, we have a letter of the week which is chosen in line with the weeks theme. For example, if the children have been showing an interest in dinosaurs then we may explore dinosaurs for a week with the letter of the week being ‘D’. Our snacks each week coincide with the letter of the week and so if the letter of the week was ‘D’ we’d be eating dragon fruit, dandelion fritters and damper bread.

We offer activities to extend and support the learning of letters and sounds such as going on sound hunts, drawing in the mud, drawing letters on our hands or a friends back, letters in the air with ribbons and scarves, parachute games and rhyming races.

We have a morning circle time and an afternoon reflection time which supports the children to prepare and practice sitting in a larger group time and listening to one another.

We work with local schools during the summer term to support children’s transitions to school, often having teachers come to Kindy to visit the children.

 

Enjoy it! With the children dressed in waterproof suits and wellies it enables them to scoop up the rain and splash in the puddles whilst staying warm and dry. On wet days we do also hang tarps from the trees and erect tents, allowing the children (and team) to have a space sheltered from the rain also.

Our team are experienced in keeping children warm and have a wealth of resources available to them to help. As well as encouraging physical energy to keep the body warm the children are offered warm drinks such as berry tea, and we have lots of blankets for the children to snuggle down under. We also have hand/foot warmers, hot water bottles, heat packs and of course the campfire to keep warm by.

We change children’s nappies in the designated nappy changing areas in Kits and in Kindy. We provide nappies and wipes for the children, however if you would prefer to send your own nappies and wipes we would use these instead.

If children are potty training then we have a selection of potties available for the children to use. We will work with you as parents/carers to support the child through the potty training stage and try to keep the consistency between home and setting as much as possible (although I bet your child doesn’t wear 3 layers of clothing on under a snowsuit when at home!).

We don’t have any running water up in our Kits and Kindy areas and so our toilets are sawdust toilets. All human waste whether from potties, toilets or nappies are disposed of appropriately and collected from site regularly.

We have handwashing stations for children to use independently or with the support of an adult, with warm water, soap and paper towels available for the children to follow hygiene routines.

 

Of course!

We have sleep mats and fresh bedding for children to use each day.

At Lynwood Gardens, our Kits shelter has a roof and so children are able to sleep outdoors whilst staying dry on those wetter days.  We also have a tent on the Kindy side for the older children to use for sleeping or resting.

At Whiteley Woods, we have the bell tent to provide a sheltered place for children to sleep.

If a child is to fall asleep in the open play space of either site, we would either support them with being warm and comfortable where they are, ensuring they would stay dry whilst sleeping. Or if they weren’t safe where they were, we would carry them over to a sleep mat whether into the Kits shelter, bell tent or Kindy tent.

We love to see the variety of foods children bring with them for lunch, it’s often a great talking and learning point as the children discuss and compare their foods.

Being a fully outdoor setting, we are unable to store children’s packed lunch bags in a fridge and so food is at risk of spoiling on those warmer days. We therefore ask you to be mindful of packing foods that won’t last well in heat on hot days. Top Tip icepacks in with children’s lunch boxes/bags can help keep food chilled.

During colder days, we recommend packing your child some warm food for their lunch, our children often have flasks with pasta, noodles, baked beans, and soups.

 

We encourage children to take risks in the setting as we believe that risky play and learning to take assessed risks is a vital skill for children to learn and develop and take with them into adulthood. Children are therefore encouraged to manage their own risks in the setting with the Kindy adults scaffolding the children’s learning, using phrases such as ‘Have you done your risk assessment?’ to allow the child to think critically and assess what they’re trying to do.

Our staff are first aid trained and are familiar with the procedures if a child was to have an accident. Our accident forms are completed through Famly and so parent/carers receive a notification if an accident has been logged for their child. Where a child has had a bump to the head or a more serious accident or injury, the Kindy adults will contact parents and if necessary, arrange for the child to be collected and/or taken to be checked out by a medical professional.

 

If a child at the setting has been stung for example, by a bee or wasp, or been bitten by an insect we would contact parents to let them know. Often for our youngest children, this sting or bite could be their first ever sting / bite and so we understand the importance of monitoring the child for a reaction and keeping parents updated. We do have Piriton in the setting which we may administer but only with parents consent and in the event we felt this was needed. If we are ever concerned a child is reaction negatively to a sting we would ask for parents/carers to collect the child and either monitor them at home or take them to be checked by a medical professional.

Please contact us at sheffieldwoodlandkindergarten@gmail.com