Best Friends Childcare Centre Ltd

90% of our staff are fully qualified which is way above the minimum requirements of 50% as specified by Ofsted. Our staff are also fully trained to a minimum of Basic Food Hygiene, Paediatric First Aid training, and Child Protection.
The management team all have First Aid at Work and Child Protection 1 and 2 (basic and intermediate). Our staff are based in one area for the continuity of care for the children.

At Best Friends Childcare Centre we separate our children into age groups aged 0-2 years and 2years-5years. Within these areas we further group the children into key groups according to age and ability to develop all our children to their full potential.

Our staff get to know the children and develop the activities to the child individual development and capabilities. By working in small key working groups and on a one to one basis at any time needed. The staff work alongside the regulations of Ofsted by planning indoor and outdoor activities for the children on Birth – Three and the Foundation Stage dependent on age.

This room caters for our babies and toddlers aged 3mths- 2 years. This is a cosy room with a capacity for 9 children managed by a minimum of 3 staff at anytime.
We have a wide range of toys for our under 2’s following the children’s routine from home to nursery providing our home-from-home environment.
In our baby room its brightly coloured having murals on the walls to stimulate the young babies. Everything in the baby room is brightly coloured so it is appealing. We have activities from rattles, push and pull toys, puzzles, shape sorters, touch and feel books to small construction. As the children grow the activities within the room grow with them.

Older Room (2 - 5 years)

In our over 2’s room the children are aged from 2years – 5years. In this area we have a capacity for 15 children and 3 staff members.
The children’s day is a little more structured. We do separate the children into age and ability groups and each group is allocated a key worker. We separate them into 2 - 2½ / 2½ - 3 / 3 - 5. We follow the Birth to Three Matters until the child turns 3, once the child has turned 3 they follow the Foundation Stage.

The children have a structured routine as well as time for free play. The activities range from cognitive, physical, emotional, construction. We do mathematics, language and literacy, creativity-doing activities inside and outside.
We also do extra activities as well as carrying out the curriculum; we do Tiny Mites, Playmakers, Yoga and Spanish.

The parents in this age group can claim early education grant funding through us.

We carry out monthly topics with a daily structure of activities taking place alongside free play. We ensure that our children have the opportunity to explore toys that support all the areas of learning such as mark making, construction toys, messy play and home corner.

In doing our topics we encourage our children to become aware and explore their surroundings. Inspiring them to ask questions and support them in finding the answers. We bring people into the nursery to talk to the children and we take the children to places to develop their knowledge as much as possible in the topic we teach them.

We like our children to express themselves through imaginative and creative play, as well as encouraging skills such as letter and number recognition and formation and pencil control.

We do this in a warm friendly environment, making learning fun and putting childcare first. All our children are regularly observed and assessed, building and meeting their individual records of achievement.

We hold parents meetings every 6 months sending records home for the parents to have written records of their child/children’s progress.

Special Extra Activities

Music Sessions with ‘Tiny Mites’ – Carly comes twice a month and gives the children a most wonderful music and dance session. The children love these sessions and everyone gets involved – even our tiniest children!!

Spanish Lessons – Hilda teaches the over 2’s Spanish on a twice-weekly basis. Again the children pick-up and use many words and songs from these sessions.

Cookery – All our children do cookery at least once a week. This can range from making vegetable soup, decorating biscuits with National flags to making their own Pizzas! Every child is encouraged to get involved and taste their results! This activity can easily be done at home over the weekend and we can suggest easy recipes – just ask!!

Other Facilities

We have an all weather outdoor area which all ages use as often as possible. The children enjoy using the facilities even in the rain with their wellies and umbrellas!!!

We encourage parents to call and come into the nursery as often as possible. So they can speak to staff throughout the day getting peace of mind on how their child/children are.

Even though our parents can call, they are given a record of how their child has been throughout the day, and are spoken to at the end of the day on a daily basis passing on information about the childs day personally. This helps us provide the continuity of care and working in partnership with the parents which is extremely important to us as a team.

We also offer digitally monitored activities, we have CCTV cameras in the nursery. Parents and staff can look back on the days events to see how their child has played and had a fun-filled day.
We promote a focus on food campaigne within the nursery. We offer home-made food to the children, so we are aware of what is going into the food, to meet with parent’s dietary requirements and allergies which any child may have. We provide all the meals throughout the day: Breakfast, Snack, Lunch and pudding, Snack, tea and pudding and snack. Our menu is changed every week meeting all festivals and National days around the world, giving the children extra flavors and awareness of the other cultures.