The greatest resource on which a child can draw is the adults who care for them. The quality of care and respect for each child's personality are crucial factors in their well being.
Nursery school (Funded places)
The Foundation Stage Curriculum
Sunhill nurseries have qualified Montessori as well as general teacher involvement and are registered to accept funded places under the SureStart Nursery Education Grant Scheme, which funds all eligible 3-5 year olds for up to five 2 1/2 hour sessions per week within term times. Therefore, children may stay at Sunhill nurseries/schools until the age of 5. All children are taught the same foundation stage curriculum and the funding is identical to that received for a child attending an LEA school nursery class, enabling nursery fees to be reduced, and avoidance of pre & after-school-care collection difficulties.
Most of our nurseries also offer school day sessions, and after school club.
Children attending school and nursery
This presents no difficulty, and complementary or less taxing activities can be provided. Early school days can be stressful for young children and our staff appreciate the need for children to tell someone what they did at school, or that they may be hungry, thirsty, or need comforting. We cannot replace parents, but we can feed children, listen sympathetically, and ensure parents are aware of any anxiety a child may have. Generally parents must arrange their own transport between school and nursery.
Food and Diet
A cook is employed at each nursery to prepare healthy meals for the children and staff. A weekly menu is provided appropriate to age groups, consisting of healthy nutritious dishes; vegetarian meals and special diets can also be provided. The menu is rotated at 4 weekly intervals, and changes seasonally. Our children's' menus have recently won a Healthy Eating Award.
Click link for example menus: Healthy Menus
Insurance
However well cared for, minor bumps and scratches are an everyday occurrence among young children in nursery. All Sunhill nurseries are comprehensively insured; in addition to mandatory public liability insurance, every child is individually insured against personal accident and injury.
Registration information
All children's daycare must be registered and comply with national standards imposed by the SureStart, (The Department for Education and Skills, Work and Pensions), which is regulated by Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education). Our premises are all inspected regularly and approved by the local authority Fire, and Environmental Health Departments.
Quality of Care
About Ofsted Inspections
There is little comparison between a school Ofsted inspection and that of a day nursery which is carried out without prior notice, and while Ofsted claim it is merely a snap-shot of what they find on the day, this is in our view of very limited value, and has little bearing on the general standard of care and pre-school education at a given nursery.
For example, a nursery could have a newly appointed manager, key staff on holiday or off sick, or be using agency cover staff who may be better or worse qualified than the normal staff. A nursery may therefore receive a favourable or less favourable report based on a few hours inspection, depending very much on the staff present at that time, neither of which may represent the normal standard of care at that nursery. The same may apply to physical items mentioned in a report, which can contain factual inaccuracies which the provider is either given no chance to correct, or may have long since been rectified.
It is also necessary to read Ofsted reports on day nurseries bearing in mind the latest inspection standards involve a number of highly subjective criteria, based on attempting to ascertain what it is like for a child in the nursery, which depending on the inspectors involved, allow little room for initiative on the part of staff or indeed children. Any items found to be unsatisfactory in a nursery are generally capable of being rectified in a matter of hours, and the nursery must satisfy Ofsted of this within 14 days, however Ofsted have up to one year to re-inspect and issue a new report. During this time a nursery has to live with, e.g. a critical report involving perhaps a single observation of bad practice by a trainee staff member which is quickly resolvable, or indeed an outstanding report based on the observation of one member of staff's work which can change as soon as they go off duty.
It is therefore essential to read what parents and staff say about the nursery, check any items requiring action have been adequately dealt with, and then to visit and form your own opinion, by speaking to the manager, staff and most importantly the children and parents. The children are probably the best point of reference, you will soon discover if they are happy and enjoy being there. It is also necessary to look at the resources available, i.e. are they a sole operator of part of a group, and do they have their own QA.
Sunhill's approach to Quality
Quality childcare is not just about the individual care, it is all encompassing, and includes parent support and the environment in which your child's care is delivered. Sunhill has invested heavily in these areas, and all of our nurseries have the additional support of individual managers solely responsible for:
- Quality Assurance
- Customer Relations
- Nursery Facilities
24/7 Facilities Management keep our nurseries safe Sunhill welcomes and supports the development of quality childcare, and inspection, we are however not content to leave this to Ofsted.
For the reasons stated above, Sunhill does not rely on Ofsted inspections and imposes its own quality assurance headed by an experienced QA manager who unlike Ofsted, carries out continuous monitoring of our nurseries by random unannounced inspections covering a detailed check-list; thus ensuring compliance with national standards, and that each nursery meets our own more rigorous standards.
Our inspection routine enables us to ensure uniform standards of care across all Sunhill nurseries and to compare our inspection data with Ofsted's inspection outcomes, which we will challenge if significantly different. We are however just as determined as Ofsted to uphold standards of care, and issue our own actions on any item picked up by our QA visits, we also carry out follow- up checks to ensure they have been actioned.
Unannounced spot checks ensure continuity of care
Policy Statement
Sunhill Daycare ’s primary mission is to provide a protective, happy, caring and stimulating environment for young children to develop and gain essential early skills, thereby affording peace of mind to parents when entrusting us with their child’s care. Sunhill’s principal policy objectives are to:
- ensure all children have equal opportunities, regardless of their race, religion, culture or gender
- help all children to be healthy
- protect children from harm or neglect and help them stay safe
- help children make a positive contribution to the provision and wider community
- work in partnership with parents and carers in promoting children's learning
- organise activities that enable all children to value and respect difference in ability, culture and gender
- encourage socially correct behaviour towards other children and adults
- apply discipline which is neither aggressive nor confrontational, but tactful
- recognise that certain misbehaviour is caused by tiredness, attention seeking or simply frustration
- reassure a misbehaving child by ensuring they understand that it is their actions which are unacceptable, and not them
- remove children from any stressful situation and comfort them if distressed for any reason
- provide a formal complaints procedure for parents
- ensure that all staff are familiar with all aspects of the child protection act
Complaints
Sunhill Daycare welcomes all comment which assists in improving the quality of care of children attending our nurseries, including the service provided to their parents - our customers.
Our managers are generally capable of resolving quickly most parent concerns, however if parents feel they need to take the matter to a higher level, an experienced Customer Relations Manager is on hand to deal with more intricate issues. All registered daycare providers are required to maintain a register of complaints received, regardless of whether they are merited, anonymous or upheld. We are pleased that Ofsted has listened to recent representation, and will now only investigate anonymous complaints, including 'whistle blowing by staff' if they believe children may be at risk, which we totally support. Otherwise they will refer anonymous complaints relating to national standards to the provider to investigate, and only take it further if dissatisfied with the response. Furthermore, Ofsted now only list complaints in inspection reports if their investigation results in requiring the provider to take action.
It should also be noted that Ofsted do not deal with fee, nursery education grant (NEG) funding or Nursery Voucher queries, unless relating to compliance with a national standard. Fee enquiries should be addressed to your nursery manager, nursery grant to the Surestart Team at the Early Years Department of your Local Authority, the Nursery Vouchers to the provider used by your company or organisation.
When considering the care of your child, always look at the bigger picture