What should you look for when choosing a nursery for your children? The experts from present their guide
What should I look for when choosing a nursery?
There are many key factors to take into account when choose the right nursery for your child. Which is why we have created this handy step-by-step guide to help you choose your perfect nursery:
1. Choose a nursery near you
Location is key when choosing a nursery as you want to make sure this is close to your home and family, or work, to make drop off and pick up as convenient for yourself as possible. Grandir UK has nurseries and preschools located across England and you can easily find your nearest nursey by either entering your postcode or hometown in the on our website.
2. Research your chosen nursery/nurseries
Now that you have found the nurseries near you, it is worth researching them to ensure that the quality meets your standard, you are comfortable with its reputation, and see if any of your friends, family or community members would recommend one of the nurseries to help you narrow down and confirm your choice.
a. Quality – Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, and inspects services providing education, including nurseries and preschools. All Grandir UK nurseries are registered with Ofsted, and you can find all the nursery’s reports on the Ofsted Website.
b. Reputation – daynurseries.co.uk is the leading site for collating customer reviews specifically for day nurseries and preschools, and is a great resource for finding authentic, up to date reviews from both current or recent nursery families. All Grandir UK nurseries have a daynurseries.co.uk profile which can be found on their website.
c. Recommendations – Lastly, it’s beneficial to receive some feedback from someone you know and trust. If you know someone whose child already attends one of the nurseries of your choice, they can give you a great recommendation and insight into nursery life.
3. Book a visit
Visiting your chosen nursery is a great way to get a feel for what the nursery is like. You will see what your little one would be up to each and every day. It’s also a great chance to meet the staff and ask questions about how long they have worked at the nursery and what training they have.
Visiting multiple nurseries can make it difficult to make your choice. Which one if right for you? We have created a simple checklist of things to look for when finding your perfect nursery…
a. Is the premises safe and clean? Your child’s safety will be one of the key things you’ll want to look out for when visiting a nursery. This is a great chance to see what the nursery’s safety procedures are, how secure the premises and outside spaces are and how clean the nursery rooms are.
b. What activities are planned on the day? Young children learn through purposeful play and a nursery visit is the perfect opportunity to see what kind of activities the nursery implements. This is also a great time to see if the nursery plans any regular outings in the local community.
c. What meals and snacks are provided? Nutrition is crucial to your little one’s mental and physical development. It’s a good idea to check what meals and snacks are provided at the nursery, if they can cater to any dietary requirements or allergies and where these are prepared, who by and when.
d. How do they implement and represent different cultures in the nursery setting?
Nursery can be home away from home for your little one and you may like to ensure your culture is represented in your nursery setting as well as at home. Find out how nurseries can implement your cultural preferences and what cultures they currently represent. This can add a personal touch to your nursery experience.
Below are some key questions that is worth asking the nursery staff when visiting:
• What is the ratio of staff to children? How many children do you care for?
• What qualifications and/or experience does your team have?
• What are the daily routines and how can you incorporate my child’s routine?
• Do you operate a key person scheme (where one member of staff has main responsibility for your child)?
• Do you provide meals, snacks, nappies, etc. or will I need to provide them?
At Grandir UK, our helpful Customers Service team is always available to schedule you a personalised visit with your chosen nursery on a day and time the best suits you and your family.
4. Reflect on your experience
It’s important to take the time to reflect on what you liked and disliked about your nursery visit, especially when you are visiting multiple nurseries. Spend some time asking yourself the following questions:
a. Did the nursey visit live up to my expectations?
b. Did I walk away positive, comfortable with all my questions answered?
c. Did the children and nursery team seem happy?
Where can I find out about help with nursery costs?
There are many schemes available, some of which are listed below which Grandir UK accepts across all their nurseries. To find out what is available to you and your family, head over to Childcare Choices for eligibility and up to date information. Sign up here.
• Tax-Free Childcare scheme replaces childcare vouchers but if you are already using vouchers, you can continue to do so. For every £8 you pay into your tax-free childcare account, the Government will add an extra £2, making a possible saving of up to £2,000 per child per year. Find out more.
• Working families who are claiming Universal Credit can claim back up to 85% of their monthly childcare costs, up to a certain amount each month. Find out more.
• 15 hours funding*: All 3 and 4-year-olds automatically receive 15 hours a week free childcare (universal entitlement) in the term after your child turns 3 years of age. The terms refer to January, April, and September of each year.
• 30 hours funding*: For working families, you may also be eligible for the additional free 15 hours, totalling 30 hours of childcare (extended entitlement). If you are entitled to the additional hours, you will need to obtain 30 hour code. Find out more.
Where can I find out more information from how Grandir UK staff are trained?
At Grandir UK, we recognise the clear link between well-qualified, enthusiastic staff and high-quality childcare and education. That’s why we invest in our team’s progress and create bespoke professional development programmes which are specially designed to further our staff’s knowledge and career.
All our nursery teams meet the required staff qualifications, training, support and skills outlined in the Department for Education’s Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. This includes having at least one member of staff onsite with a Paediatric First Aid (PFA) certificate and for them to be available at all times, assigning a key person to each child, having at least one member of staff for every three children, having one member of staff with a level 2 qualification and one member of staff with a level 3 qualification etc.
At Grandir UK, all our staff are trained on safeguarding, Health & Safety and have completed all of their foundation level training including Communication Counts, Effective Teaching & Learning, Emotional & Behavioural Development, our ME Model and more. We equally provide specialist and leadership training on areas such as Schematic Play, Loose Parts Play, Awe and Wonder of the Outdoors, Leading Pedagogical Excellence and Inspection Ready. We aim to have 100% of our nursery staff team First Aid trained across all our nursery settings.
One of the fundamental principles behind the success of Grandir UK is that we grow our own talent. We provide apprenticeships for Level 2 and 3 through our training provider, Realise, for people who would like to start their career in Early Years Education. We also offer a Level 5 apprenticeships to new and existing employees who want to progress into a leadership role.
We provide our very own Grandir UK programmes for all employees no matter where they are in their career. Our ‘Starter Programme: Introduce, Review, Induct, Train’ (SP:IRIT) provides a welcoming, consistent and robust introduction for any new employee across our network. Our ‘Inspiring Growth. Nurturing Improvement. True Excellence.’ (IGNITE), is our six-month programme designed to enhance an individual’s leadership skills, knowledge, and behaviours to help them further evolve in their role. Our ‘Learn. Evolve. Aspire. Progress.’ (LEAP) programme is our supportive six-month leadership program designed to help the continued development for Deputy Managers, Nursery Managers and Support Office team leader roles. We also provide training in specialist areas such as SENCO and Forest School sessions.
What is Grandir UK’s ME model?
Our ME model sets out the behaviours, attitudes and practices our staff model to the children in our care. This model reflects the principles outlined by the Early Years Foundation Stage and, entwined with our company mission, vision and values, it describes what every child deserves to experience and forms the “DNA” that runs through our Grandir UK childcare teams. The key foundations of the Grandir UK ME Model are:
1. Inspire ME
2. Protect ME
3. Encourage ME
4. Nurture ME
5. Educate ME
6. Empower ME
Our staff follow these foundations by demonstrating positive behaviours and motivated attitudes towards learning; by noticing the talents, capabilities, interests and needs of the children through an effective key person approach; and by action, incorporating planned activities and experiences in the children’s nursery life, creating an inspiring environment that sparks awe and wonder in the every day.
What will I find on Grandir UK’s Parent Hub?
We provided a wealth of articles, tips, activities, forms and information for our parents in our Grandir UK Parent Hub. This helps families keep up to date with not only the ongoings within Grandir UK, but throughout the Early Education sector as well. In our Parent Hub, you can find…
• Our blog, filled with our book club recommendations, tips for starting school, fun activities to do at home with your little one and so much more!
• Our news, keep up to date with our company news such as new Grandir UK acquisitions, latest Ofsted inspection results, awards that nurseries have won and any Early Year sector news.
• All our incentives that we offer at all our Grandir UK nurseries such as our Recommend A Friend voucher incentive scheme.
• An overview our Health and Safety procedure and the steps we put in place to look after your little one.
• Our policies documents so you can read about the standard we hold ourselves to and how we meet Government body regulations.
• All the information on our food and nutrition, and what tasty, seasonal meals you can expect at our nurseries.
• Learn more about the resources and activities we host across all our nurseries, designed to inspire and excite your little one’s vibrant imagination.
What is Grandir UK Foundations for the Future programme?
The EYFS prepares our children for school and our own Foundations for the Future model prepares children for life. Our Foundations for the Future rest on four pillars of education: Environmentally Aware & Responsibilities, Active & Resilient, Innovative & Curious and Confident & Effective. We implement a variety of different activities which supports this programme such as…
• Health & Self – An activity designed to support children’s and staff’s wellbeing and mental health to help form strong bonds and build resilience.
• Innovate & Investigate – Focuses on STEM activities and experiences to motivate children to explore, question, experiment and discover.
• Make & Bake – An activity that teaches children cooking, food preparation and healthy eating. It is designed to engage, inspire and give children lots of opportunities to do as much as possible for themselves.
• Move & Groove – This includes activities such as Boogie Mites, Mini Mites, song and music sessions, and daily access to the outdoors which all contributes to the Government’s recommendation of 180 mins of movement a day for the under 5’s.
• Sow & Grow – An activity which allows children to plant seeds, nurture plants and harvest the fruit and vegetables that they have grown.
All our Foundations for the Future educational programmes are bespoke and fit within the EYFS framework. They are designed to be accessible, flexible and fun for your little one.
Can a Grandir UK nursery deal with special dietary requirements?
Yes, all nursery meals are freshly prepared by a nursery chef and can cater to a variety of dietary requirements and allergies. At Grandir UK nurseries, we conduct a ‘traffic light’ system which consists of a simple but effective method where any child with allergies has their meals served on a red plate that is covered and named. A child with specific preferences has their meals served on a yellow plate that is also covered and named. Children with no allergies or preferences have their meals served on green plates.
Can I visit a Grandir UK nursery?
Yes, you can always contact a member of our helpful Customer Service team via email or telephone. They can talk you through the sessions and fees your nursery has to offer, arrange you a nursery visit and can answer your most burning questions about nursery life. .
What’s the story behind Grandir UK?
Grandir UK is the home of multiple nursery brands across England, including Kiddi Caru Day Nurseries, Dicky Birds Nurseries, DayDream Day Nursery and many more.
We have been delivering outstanding childcare solutions to families with babies, toddlers and preschool children for over 25 years in Essex, Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Leicestershire, London, Midlands, Surrey, Sussex and South West.
We are part of the Grandir group, a leading provider of high-quality childcare operating over 650 centres in Europe and North America, with a dedicated team of 10,000 teachers. Grandir serves over 32,000 families among Fortune 500 companies and in major cities in France, England, Germany, Canada and the USA.
Where can I find out more about Grandir UK?
You can find out more information about Grandir UK and the services we offer on our website www.grandiruk.com.
