Once Upon a Time Day Nurseries - Eastcote, Hillingdon  

Lynsey Dixon Manager

020 8866 7258

Cavendish Sports Pavilion
Field End Road
Eastcote
Middlesex. HA4 9PG

18 months – 5 years

Newnham Infant & Junior School
Newnham Avenue
Eastcote
Middlesex. HA4 9RW

Our Eastcote branch is set back off the main road of Field End Road, looking onto Cavendish Park and giving us a lovely view from the nursery away from all the traffic and noise.  We make regular use of the park and surrounding areas; visiting the play area, searching for wildlife, building snowmen in the winter and visiting the local shops and library.

The nursery building has a big secure fence encircling the perimeter of the setting, making it very safe and away from public users of the park.We cater for children between the ages of 18 months to 5 years.

Activities during the day, involve Free Play, where the children are able to access all the different areas freely, everything is at their level and they are encouraged to be as independent as possible.  Key Group Time where they take part in a planned activity, with their keyworker.  Story Time, which involves story sacks, books, tapes, puppets etc. Singing Time, which involves numbers & action songs, rhymes, musical instruments etc.  Large Physical Play, which involves garden play e.g. bikes, climbing frame, balancing beams and musical movement activities.  For the older children we also introduce Jolly Phonics and do a Have Fun with Sounds Activity.

All the food we provide is free from additives and E numbers, is nutritionally well balanced and mostly home made (even down to our bread).  We provide breakfast (full time places only), which includes a choice of healthy cereals and toast with milk.  We provide hot lunches which are very varied giving our children a wide variety of different tastes.  At tea we provide a variety of snack food e.g. sandwiches, humous with crudités, soup with home made bread etc.  All the teas are followed by fresh fruit and milk.  The children take it in turn once a month to make the tea.  The menus are made up over a 4 week rota and we use seasonal produce.

Within the nursery we have a wonderful diversity of children and staff covering all abilities, races, cultures and genders.

• The Block Area has a variety of construction toys including bricks, train tracks, Duplo and Mobilo.  Here the children develop their fine co-ordination skills and learn about 2 & 3 dimensional shapes, balancing and building etc.
• The Small World Area offers different animals, insects, dinosaurs and play people – helping the children to develop and extend their imagination.
• The Role Play Area is changed regularly, normally to coincide with our monthly topics.  The favourites are a house, hospital, supermarket, hairdressers etc.  It allows children to recreate familiar experiences that they have seen i.e. cooking dinner and looking after baby. or scanning shopping in a supermarket.  It also helps them with new experiences i.e. going to the hairdressers or a stay in hospital.
• The Book Corner lets the children sit quietly on comfy cushions and look at their favourite books.  We also have a computer that they can access at all times and a listening area with a tape recorder and headphones if they want to listen to a story or music on their own.
• The Art Area lets the children experience a wide range of creative activities including painting, sticking, play dough and cutting as well as well as messy activities such as cornflour, jelly and slime.  In this area we also have all different types of writing materials such as pencils, pens, crayons, chalk etc.
• The Sand and Water Tray helps the children explore with volume e.g. pouring, filling and sciences such as floating & sinking e.g. wet, dry.
• The Toy Area has a wide selection of puzzles, threading, matching and sequencing activities to help encourage mathematical and fine manipulative skills.
• The Garden Area is split into two sections.  Our under cover area leads out from the main room so the children can have access to it at all times.  In this part we have it set out in the same areas as inside e.g. role play, block etc.  Then we have a large grassy area leading off of that.  In this area we have a permanent climbing frame, slide, tunnels and stepping stones as well as a sand pit, digging area and a mini beast area full of logs which allows the children to explore the natural world.  We plant our own vegetables and have regular hunts for bugs.  This outside area is surrounded by a big field, so it is nature and greenery all around!