Kiltearn

Nursery

Handbook

201 7/18

On behalf of all of the Nursery staff, I am delighted to welcome you

to Kiltearn Nursery and hope that your child has an enjoyable

experience in our care.

I have a highly motivated, enthusiastic Early Years team who are

committed to bringing exciting challenges and enjoyable experiences

for all children.

We greatly value the support from all our parents and look forward

to working in partnership with you, to provide positive learning

experiences for our pupils. If at any time you have any suggestions

or wish to discuss something about your child’s education or well-

being, please do not hesitate to contact us via the school office.

This handbook has been planned to give a comprehensive description

of the educational provision at our Nursery and also to provide any

information required for the welfare of your child.

However, please feel free to contact us if you require further

information.

We look forward to working in partnership with you and your child.

Lauren McKernie

Head Teacher

Staffing

Head Teacher

Mrs Lauren McKernie

Principal Teacher

Miss Morag Thomson

Early Years Practitioner

Mrs Elizabeth McLelland

Early Years Practitioner

Mrs Carol Hallam

School Clerical

Mrs Alison Batchen

Contact

Kiltearn Primary School

Drummond Road

Evanton

IV16 9UD

Phone: 01349 830568

Email: kiltearn.primary@highland.gov.uk

School Blog: kiltearnprimaryschool.wordpress.com

Our Nursery

Aims

Provide a safe,

environment

where children

feel happy and

secure

To build positive

working

relationships

with parents and

carers

To encourage

children to

explore, respect

and appreciate

our world

To provide

learning

opportunities to

develop literacy

and numeracy

Extend

children’s

abilities to

communicate

ideas in a variety

of ways

To create

opportunities for

indoor and

outdoor play

Nursery Session

Your child is enrolled in the Nursery for 5 sessions per week and regular

attendance, while not compulsory, is desirable for the purposes of continuity

and progression.

The sessions available at Kiltearn Nursery are dependent upon the number of

children enrolled. If there are over 25 children the Nursery opens for a

morning and an afternoon session. If there are 25 children or under the

Nursery opens in the mornings only.

Current times are:

MORNING Session 9:10am – 12:20 am

Dropping Off/Picking Up

Parents are requested to inform the Nursery staff of the name of the adult

who will regularly collect their child. You will be expected to come in to the

Nursery room before and after Nursery sessions to drop off and collect your

child. If there are any changes to the usual arrangements for collection, please

inform the Nursery staff when you drop your child in to Nursery that morning

or you can always ring our school office to inform us of changes. For safety

reasons we ask that it is always an adult that brings your child to the Nursery

and who collects them. Please do not send your child/children to Nursery with

an older brother or sister or to pick them up. Please note that there is no

crossing patroller on duty at Nursery times. Parents are requested to try to be

as punctual as possible when collecting your child, as some children can become

very anxious if they are left at the end of the session. Our door is always open

at 12.15pm, 5 minutes before the end of session to alleviate congestion in our

small cloakroom. During the better months we often carry out our full Nursery

session in the woods. On these days you will be asked to drop your child off at

the woods to meet us and to pick them up from the woods at the end of the

session.

Snack

A Healthy snack which includes fruit is provided daily for snack, with the offer

of milk or water to drink. This snack is provided free of charge by Highland

Council. We operate a ‘Rolling-Snack’ which means children can choose when to

come for their snack. We encourage all children to have a snack but do not

interrupt playing/learning activities to ask a child to have snack. Please inform

us of any dietary requirements at time of enrolling.

During daily sessions, children will brush their teeth with toothbrushes and

toothpaste supplied by the nursery as advised by our oral health educator.

Clothing

As in the rest of the school, the Nursery children should bring a pair of named,

soft indoor shoes for changing into. These can be kept in the shoe boxes in the

nursery cloakroom. Slippers are not suitable as the children take part in active

movement regularly, both in the nursery and the gym. Indoor shoes may need to

be replaced during the school year as your child’s feet grow. They can also

suffer some ‘wear and tear’ and may need replaced.

Your child should come to Nursery in clothing that easily fastens and unfastens

as this will help with your child toileting independently. The Nursery does

provide aprons for ‘messy activities’ but nevertheless new or expensive clothing

is not recommended.

A spare set of named clothing should be left in case they are required. There

are bags provided for storing these. These bags are labelled with your child’s

name and should be kept on their peg outside the Nursery room. Please check

these bags regularly to ensure clothes still fit and that there is a full set of

spare clothes.

As the children go outside on a regular basis it is important to ensure that they

have suitable outdoor clothing and footwear each day.

A selection of polo shirts and sweatshirts with the school logo are available.

Please contact the school office for details on how these can be ordered.

Red Suits

Waterproof red suits will be provided for outdoor activities. You will need to

sign for the suit at the start of the session. Damage or loss of the red suit will

incur a charge.

Illness

If your child becomes ill or has an accident whilst attending Nursery, we will

contact you immediately by phone. If there is no reply we will phone your

Emergency Contact Number. You will be asked to provide these numbers when

enrolling your child.

If any contact numbers change throughout the year please let us know, as it is

essential that we have up to date information.

In the event of a serious injury in the Nursery, the Head Teacher will take the

decision for an ambulance / doctor to be called although every effort will be

made to consult the parent first.

It is vitally important that if any medication is required during Nursery hours

that parents fill in permission form giving exact instructions for the staff. This

form is available from the school office.

Children suffering from either vomiting or diarrhoea should not attend nursery

for 48 hours after the last bout.

Please ensure your children’s immunisations are up to date before starting

nursery.

Positive Behaviour Policy

Here at Kiltearn, we follow the Golden Rules:

We take great delight in rewarding good behaviour with stickers, Dojo points

and praise. However, if we find a child’s behaviour is causing concern the

Nursery staff will make every effort to find out why the child is behaving in

such a way. They will discuss the situation with the parent(s) in confidence and

work with them to find a solution. As you bring your child to nursery, you will be

able to bring up any questions you have when you meet the staff, so that if you

have a concern, there will be an opportunity to discuss it.

Class Dojos

Class Dojos are a motivational tool used on the Smartboard. Children can

earn Dojo points by following the golden rules. The points are shown on the

smartboard for children to see how they are doing. Each child is assigned a

little ‘Dojo’ monster character to keep it fun and engaging.

Emergency Closure

Any school closure due to weather conditions or any other reasons will be put on

the Highland Council Schools Information Service. This can be accessed by

dialling:

0870 054 6999 followed by the Kiltearn Primary School PIN 04 2340

School closures will be announced on Radio Highland News broadcasts and Moray

Firth Radio News.

Child Protection

From time to time incidents can occur within the school setting, which cause

concern and could indicate that a pupil is suffering from some form of abuse. In

terms of the Highland Child Protection Committee Inter-agency Protection

Guidelines, Education Services staff must report such incidents to Social Work

Services, which can lead to a joint social work/police investigation. All agencies

involved in Child Protection are obliged to make the welfare of children their

paramount consideration and this will be the priority of the Education Services

staff. During any investigation the Nursery Confidentiality Policy would not be

adhered to as important information may be required to be passes onto relevant

agencies to aid their investigation.

Care Inspectorate The Care Inspectorate is a national organisation set up under the regulation of

Care (Scotland) Act 2001. It has taken over the regulation of care services in

Scotland and in our care the provision of nursery classes. They operate from

regional offices and our local office is:

Care Inspectorate, First Floor

Castle House

Fairways Business Park

Inverness

IV2 6AA

Tel 0845 600 9527

A set of care standards has been drawn up and a representative of the

commission will visit the nursery to look at how these standards are being

achieved. They have also set up a system for users and staff to express

concerns or complaints. Details of how to use this service are in a leaflet which

is on the nursery notice board.

School Calendar 2017/18 Autumn

Autumn term starts - 15 August 2017

Autumn term ends - 6 October

2017

Winter

Winter term starts - 23 October 2017

Winter term ends – 22 December

2017

Spring

Spring term starts - 8 January 2018

Mid term break – 19 and 20 February

2018

Spring term ends – 28 March

2018

Summer

Summer term begins – 16 April 2018

Summer term ends – 29 June 2018

Public Holidays

Good Friday - 30 March 2018

Easter Monday - 2 April 2018

May Day – 7 May 2018

In-service days (Nursery/School closed)

14 August 2017

21 September 2017

22 September 2017

21 February 2018

4 June 2018

Enrolment and Induction

After the enrolment of your child, letters confirming their nursery place will

then be sent out. Highland Council has an equal opportunities policy and

children will not be refused admission to Nursery if they are not yet toilet

trained. As part of the enrolment, you will be asked to sign consent forms for

outings, photographs (that may be taken of your child in Nursery) and

permission slips for the staff to change your child in the event of an accident.

During the year Nursery staff make visits to Evanton Nursery in order to get to

know the children.

In June your child will have the opportunity to come along for a number of

Induction Days with all the other new nursery children.

At the Induction Day there will be a Parent Information session. At this session

you will be given a list of dates of when your child will attend nursery during the

first two weeks of term. There is a staggered entrance into the nursery over

the first two weeks of term.

Curriculum/Learning

Nursery education is about the development of the ‘whole child’. We strive

to provide a wide range of experiences for children to develop and learn.

We encourage all of our children to become:

Our Curriculum is made up of 8 curricular areas:

Your child will have access to a range of exciting and engaging activities

within the nursery linked to these 8 curricular areas. Staff will be

constantly monitoring, encouraging and assessing how your child is

progressing in each area.

Some activities we like to do in nursery:

Parental Involvement

With a huge, national interest on Family Learning, we truly appreciate and value

the vital role the parent/carer has on their child’s education. We believe that

strong partnerships with parents are the building blocks of the foundation of a

child’s development.

Parents are always welcome and encouraged to come into the Nursery and can

contribute in a variety of ways. Let us know if you have any skills, musical

abilities, and art ideas or just want to come in to read us a story! Perhaps you’d

like to show us something from your work and talk to the children about jobs.

Before children begin nursery there are many ways that parents can help them

at home:

Read to your child regularly

Teach them nursery rhymes

Talk to your child and listen to them when they are talking you

Encourage them to ask questions

Count objects within the home e.g. number of plates on the table

Encourage independence by getting them to put on their own shoes and coat

During the year parents are invited to ‘Busy Start’ sessions with your child when

you can come in to the nursery and work alongside your child. This will help to

give you an idea of the day to day running of the nursery.

From time to time we send home book bags and Nursery Ted for you to enjoy

with your child. Both these activities help to promote and develop literacy skills.

Parents will be kept informed of what we are doing by our regular newsletters

and Blog updates. There is also a white board outside the Nursery which gives

daily information on what the children have been doing.

There are two Parent Contact sessions during the year for you to meet with the

Nursery staff and at the end of the year a written report will be sent home.

There are opportunities throughout the year for you to come in and look at your

child’s ‘Learning Journey’ folder. We have an open door policy in nursery and are

always happy to see our parents to discuss any issues or queries that may arise

during the school year.

Complaints

If you wish to raise concerns or to talk about any issue concerning your child

then please use the correct channels. Phone, write or email to arrange a meeting

with Mrs McKernie, Head Teacher, who will listen to any concerns you may have.

Communication

In line with our Eco School Status, we use a SMS text service and an email

service to send out the majority of our school correspondence. From time

to time you may receive a text as a reminder of a school event, meeting or

to let you know your child is unwell if we are unable to speak to you. Please

ensure you keep us up-to-date with changes to mobile numbers and email

addresses.

Blog

Check out what we’re up to each day on our very own Nursery Blog!

kiltearnnursery.wordpress.com

We provide daily updates on all the fun we’re having in nursery. Make sure

you click on ‘follow’ to receive notifications when a new post is up. You can

also comment on and ‘like’ our photos.