Squirrels

Childcare for babies aged from 3 months to 1 year

We open our doors at 8:00, welcome parents and children into the nursery, and offer breakfast.

We don’t follow a strict routine in baby room - instead we ask parents to give us the child’s routine (in written form) and we follow that, so throughout the day we are feeding children at different times and putting them down to sleep.

We feel this helps the children settle better into nursery life.

Building a routine

As the children head towards 1 year we begin to settle them into a toddler routine:

• snack at 9:30
• lunch at 11:00-11:20 followed by a sleep
• tea at 15:00-15:20

This helps prepare your child for their next step in nursery to Hedgehogs. We have a wide range of healthy menus and food will be blended where appropriate.

For the babies, we have a separate sleep room, which holds 9 cots. These are labelled with photos and information on the children, and this helps them to have a sense of belonging and security. Your child will fall asleep with the help of rockers, swings and prams.

Playtime

Children have free play in the Squirrel room or in the large play garden. Our large range of toys includes rattles, shakers, bead gyms, musical toys, walkers, balls, sand, paper, cars, musical instruments, tunnels, soft play, treasure baskets and puzzles.

When the weather allows we go for walks around the University Campus. We focus our activities on child-led play and observe what the children like to play with and then provide and adapt activities that reflect that.