PRE-SCHOOL ROOM
Our Pre-School room is colourful, intriguing and popular! There is a lively atmosphere where all children actively engage in exciting learning experiences.
Our pre-school room team work together to ensure that all children learn to realise their potential.
Your pre-school child can enjoy a fantastic experience in our nursery as well as the opportunity for them to attend their school nursery. Staff can collect and drop-off children at Aberdour, Burntisland and Kinghorn nursery schools free of charge if you would like them to attend both. Please contact us for more information and to check availability of this service.
We do not offer partnership funding through Fife Council but it is our intention to do so should Fife Council require our service in future.
Settling-In
We suggest that you and your child attend our Nursery together for the first time. You can spend time with your child, their Personal Care Leader and other friends in their room. Also, a suitable time to meet with the Nursery Manager is arranged to record all relevant information regarding your child's circumstances, interests, skills and needs.
We then recommend that your child attend our Nursery for a half-day before beginning their regular sessions. We take into account individual preferences and will meet the needs of your child & family during the settling-in period, and indeed at all times at our Nursery.
Communication & Parent Participation
We encourage parents and carers and all pre-school children themselves to have as much input into their children's nursery experience and developmental progress as possible. Staff are available to discuss day-to-day issues and you can also arrange to meet staff at a convenient time that best suits you. There is a Pre School Activity board which staff encourage parents and children to look at to stimulate discussions about their children's fun day at nursery.
Every child has a Personal Care Leader who is responsible for having an in-depth understanding of individual needs and continually monitoring, recording and evaluating individual progress and developmental needs. Staff record information in children's Personal Learning Plans/Development folders and this information is made available to parents at all times. Personal Care Leaders will regularly liaise with you and arrange a parent's evening to involve you as much as possible in the development of your child.
Pre School room staff are happy to follow individual parent requests relating to personal care routines, for example, toileting and day-time sleeps.
The pre-school room team issue newsletters to inform you about fun activities, outings and events that have taken place. There is also information at the main entrance available relating to health promotion and local services. Staff are really keen to help in any way and offer any other support you may require relating to any of your children's needs. Social events are arranged to allow parents to get the chance to meet informally and build relationships within the community. We also arrange an annual Family Fun Day.
We encourage parents to access our information and discussion forums contained on this website.
Parents are given the opportunity to complete questionnaires to help us evaluate the effectiveness of our service and agree improvement areas. We welcome and value all your suggestions and ideas and hope we can implement them.
We believe that your feedback and continued support is crucial in achieving all our aims and objectives, in particular to sustain the excellent level of care we provide.
Activities and Pre-School Curriculum
Pre-school room staff are dedicated to maintaining an interesting and stimulating environment that encourages your child to foster an enthusiasm for learning. Our pre-school room team incorporate the Three to Five Curriculum (Scottish Executive, 1999). We also involve principles outlined in the new government guidelines: A Curriculum for Excellence (Scottish Executive, 2006).
Our pre-school children enjoy participating in swimming lessons and other physical education activities, such as basketball, tennis, athletics and football. These activities are provided free of charge and implemented by a qualified Physical Education teacher.
The pre-school room programme is designed to encourage children to become more independent, confident learners, and responsible individuals in preparation for going to school. Staff ensure planning is flexible to meet the personal needs, interests and capabilities of each individual child and incorporate children's ideas and contributions into future planning. Staff encourage children to make choices, begin to realise and assess risk, and evaluate their own learning. Children can choose to engage in more structured staff-directed activities.
The pre-school room is made up of a home corner, story corner, creative play area, painting easel, sand and water play, dramatic play, construction area, maths area, language and writing area, painting easel, musical instruments and a variety of table top educational games and resources.
They have the choice to access all our safe and secure play areas, which includes a play area with special wet-pour rubber safety surface, pirate boat, climbing wall, climbing frame, bikes & trikes, our activity trail and sensory garden.
Development Folders
Every child has a Personal Care Leader who is responsible for having an in-depth understanding of individual needs and continually monitors, records and evaluates individual progress and developmental needs. Staff record information in pre-school children's Personal Learning Plans and this information is made available to parents and children at all times. Personal Care Leaders will regularly liaise with you and arrange a parent's evening to involve you as much as possible in the development of your child.
We encourage you to have as much involvement as possible with your child's nursery experience and developmental progress.
Healthy Nutritious Menus
As children at our Nursery are very active and are using up lots of energy, our menus have been carefully designed to ensure that children are provided with healthy balanced foods containing all the essential nutrients they need. We develop our menus in-line with current government guidelines; 'Nutritional guidance for early years' (Scottish Executive, 2006).
We provide a healthy 2 course lunch, morning and afternoon snacks for all children over 1 year old. Our menus change regularly in order to introduce new foods encouraging children to accept different tastes and textures. We use organic milk and a selection of fresh fruit and vegetables. We take into account any special dietary or cultural requirements.
All our rooms are designed so that children can eat together allowing excellent opportunities for socialising and developing good table manners.
Water will be made available to children regularly throughout the day and at meal times. Milk will also be served alongside meals and snacks.
Our cook is suitably qualified, experienced and precisely adheres to strict procedures, following National guidelines, to ensure excellent health and hygiene. We are very proud to hold an Eat Safe award for exemplary food hygiene procedures.
We welcome your ideas as to how we can improve and develop our menus. Parents can view our 4 weekly menus in the Parent's Page of the website.
