The nursery was set up and opened by Regent College to offer parents full time professional child care. In addition to full time/daily places, we also offer morning and afternoon sessions.

The nursery hours are between 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM and we are open all year round except for bank holidays, two inset training between Christmas eve and New Year.

The nursery is on two floors, providing five children’s rooms, two children’s bathrooms and a sleeping room. The nursery has been designed throughout for the comfort and safety of the children. We have corner protected shelving, window locks, child hand rails and safety gates, child level coat pegs, etc.

All members of staff at the nursery have a recognised qualification in childcare, such as ADCE, NNEB, BTEC, NVQ, Childcare Education, City and Guilds, PLA and a first aid certificate. All members of staff are employed on a full time permanent basis. We have extra staff for general duties such as cleaning.

The younger children have lots of choice in what they do and the main aim is that the children get used to a nursery environment and stimulating activities. This is particularly important when a child has just started at the nursery and is settling in with us. The younger children have a structured routine which includes activities such as singing, music and movement, cooking, painting, play dough, drawing, jigsaws, threading, outside play, junk modelling and much more!

We also spend a lot of time with the children on colours, shapes and starting to count and the children gradually progress to worksheets.

In the nursery, we use a ‘key worker’ system. Each member of staff is responsible for a small group of children and we organise activities according to the needs of each individual child. All the children at the nursery have a set time each morning and afternoon to work with their key workers. Key worker time covers all aspects of child development in accordance with the National Foundation Stage Curriculum.

Our older children spend part of each session time together. The children are split into groups of up to five children with one member of staff and they move from room to room for different activities. Our aim with the older children is that they learn to do as much as possible for themselves and also take an active part in a group.

The older children also have a structured routine and are more involved in pre-school activities to prepare them for moving on. They do lots of practical tasks and are also aided by prepared worksheets, all connected to the monthly theme. The children cover all aspects of the Early Learning Goals which are: Physical Development, Mathematics, Creative Development, Knowledge and Understanding of the World, Language and Literacy as well as Personal and Social Development.

All of the children have their own folders in which they can keep their work. We like to display the children’s work in the nursery so they can see their achievements!

Our aim is to provide a safe happy and caring environment for children to play and develop their abilities. We are interested in the all round development of the child. We concentrate on building their social, intellectual, physical, and emotional and language skills at each child’s individual pace. We aim for your child to become more confident and have a degree of independence, therefore making the transition from nursery to school as smooth as possible.

In our nursery the children will have their own coat peg and during tuck time they will enjoy a variety of healthy snacks. We advise our full time children to bring their own pack lunches. There are also two large notice boards for the parents that are constantly updated with the news about the nursery. We also send out a regular newsletter to let the parents know in more detail what has been happening at the nursery and what will be happening in the future.

We have an Equal Opportunities Policy throughout the nursery and we celebrate festivals to reflect the cultures of children who attend. We recognise that all the families with us have individual needs and we aim to cater for these. We try to encourage the parents to get involved wherever possible. We hold various festivals celebrations and we always welcome the parents’ support and help.

We have an open door policy at the nursery for parents to call in for a visit and have a look at the nursery, or if you prefer, please contact the Nursery Manager and she will book an appointment for you.

I hope that we will be seeing you and your children at the Regent Nursery soon!