Partnership with parents
As day care providers, our relationship is as much with parents as with the children in our care. No one knows your children better than you and the more information we have about their likes and dislikes and their routines at home, the better we are able to look after them.
Your Key Person will be available for 'handover' when you drop off and when you collect and we make sure you know all about your child's busy day in day care!
This page contains information about some of the areas you will be interested in, including meals and what to do when your child is unwell.
Meals and snacks
All our meals are prepared on site by our Nursery Chef.
Naturally we comply with Nutritional Standards and can cater for most dietary needs and preferences. It is very important that parents keep us up to date with their child's allergen information.
Children in Buntings and Cuckoo take their meals in their rooms. Children in the Day Care come up to the dining hall and sit in 'family groups' with their key person to eat their lunch and tea.
Feeling unwell
It is a fact of life that small children are prone to illness and if your child is unwell, the best place for them to be is at home with mum or dad. Please phone the Day Care as soon as possible to inform us of any absence due to illness.
For infectious diseases, we follow and enforce the exclusion guidelines set out in the guide to health protection in schools and other childcare facilities published by Public Health England. In particular, in cases of sickness or diarrhoea children must not return to the Day Care until they have been symptom free for 48 hours.
If children become unwell during the day, we will telephone the parent or other emergency contact to request that they are collected. Provided parental permission has been given, staff will administer a paracetamol suspension if the child has a raised and prolonged temperature and we will of course ensure the child remains comforted and comfortable until they can go home.
Short-term medical needs
Many children will need to take medicines during the day at some time during their time in the setting. This will usually be for a short period only, perhaps to finish a course of antibiotics or to apply a lotion. To allow children to do this will minimise the time that they need to be absent. However such medicines should only be taken to the setting where it would be detrimental to a child’s health if it were not administered during the session or day. Parents should allow at least 24 hours after the start of a course of antibiotics before sending a child back to the Day Care.
Chronic medical conditions
Where children have longer term medical needs, we will work with parents to develop an appropriate personal health care plan to ensure those children are supported to be able to access and enjoy the day care provision. Medication will be administered by qualified staff providing parental consent has been obtained and that the maximum dosage and times of previous dosage has been checked. We will endeavour to seek specialist training for staff wherever needed; however we do reserve the right to refuse to administer medication or procedures in exceptional circumstances.
Accidents
Accidents happen! There will always be a first-aid trained member of staff on duty and minor injuries will be treated in accordance with Ofsted guidance. All minor injuries will be documented on an accident form to be signed by the parent and kept on site. In the event of any head bumps or other more significant injury, a pink Accident Slip will be completed and a copy given to the parent.
Policies
Our policies on managing medication and first aid can be found on the Policies page.
Day Care Closure
Our scheduled closure dates can be found below:
Batford Day Care will endeavour to stay open in all circumstances. Please note however that if the nursery site is closed for health and safety reasons or, for example, due to inclement weather or failure of utility services, there will be no refund for sessions booked.
In the event of the Batford Nursery School and Day Care site being closed in such an emergency, we will use email to contact you, so please make sure we have the correct address.
Moving on
We work hard to ensure smooth transitions whether your child is moving rooms within the Day Care setting, moving up to nursery school at Batford or elsewhere or transferring to a different day care setting.
Many of our children stay within Batford Nursery School and Day Care and of course the communication between staff of both entities is strong. If the move is to another organisation, your child's key person will meet with a representative of the new setting if possible.