Day to day information about Abbeydale Cottage Nursery
Abbeydale Cottage Nursery is open 7.30am-6.30pm, Monday to Friday, all year round with the exception of Bank Holidays and Christmas week. We close at 1pm on 24th December/Christmas Eve in years that this falls on a weekday, and re-open the first working day after 1st January. There is no charge for these closure days.
Our experienced and well qualified staff will care for and nurture your child, supporting their learning and development across all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage in partnership with you, as parents and carers. We will provide appropriate age-related activities which are designed to encourage your child’s social, emotional, and physical skills, creativity, and all-important communication and listening skills. Of course, your child will just see all this as different ways of playing.
Some of the activities your child will take part in include: playing with sand and water, painting, drawing, gluing, and sticking, creating with construction blocks and play dough, moving and dancing to music, listening to stories and reading, doing jigsaws and puzzles, cooking and baking, singing songs and nursery rhymes.
Our two-storey soft play facility has a corkscrew slide, ball pool and lots of squishy shapes to roll around on or create exciting and imaginative worlds of play.
We also have an enclosed outdoor courtyard with climbing equipment, slides and bikes with access to a large onsite playing field for running, jumping and rolling around. We also go for walks in the local area and visit places such as Ecclesall Woods, Dore Station to watch the trains and Totley shops to post letters or buy fruit for snack.
We will keep you updated throughout the day on feeding, sleeping and activities your little one has been doing via our Famly app.
When you drop off, ring the appropriate classroom door bell and the main entry bell, please sign in on the screen in the hallway, before attaching your child’s photograph above the coat peg. Hang up their bag, coat and place shoes under the peg. A member of staff will meet you on the corridor where you can handover any medicines to a member of staff; and complete any relevant consent forms have been completed.
If your child has had an accident at home, please inform the staff in the room and complete an accident at home form on reception.
If a person who is not known to nursery will be collecting your child, please advise the receptionist and room staff. You will also need to supply the individual with the collection password. We will not release a child to anyone other than the known parent or nominated adult.
When collecting, please remember to take home all your child’s belongings and check their drawer in the classroom. Sign out on the screen in the hallway as you leave.
Please advise us if you are running late at either end of the day.
If you arrive early at nursery at drop off, you will be asked to wait in the corridor until the designated time. We allow 5 minutes overrun at the end of the session before applying a late collection charge.
• Suitable and named clothing and footwear for all weathers including warm, waterproof outdoor clothing and wellies for wet weather, sun hat, loose long sleeve/legged clothing for sunny days
• Several changes of clothes, particularly if your child is toilet training
• Prescribed medicines with pharmacy dispensing label, nappy creams, teething gel, sun cream ( to be applied before attending nursery) …to be handed to staff
• Comforter and/or dummy for sleep time
• Pre-school uniform – ACN polo shirt and cardigan/sweatshirt
We are sorry but we cannot accept toys from home.
We require prior written notice by a person with parental responsibility to administer medicines. Please speak to a member of staff who will provide you with a consent form.
We promote the good health of all children attending. To help keep children healthy and minimise infection, we do not expect children to attend nursery if they are unwell. Please report any sickness absence either by telephone or via the Famly app, as soon as possible.
Any wounds or blisters must be dressed before coming to nursery.
In the unfortunate event that your child has an accident or requires hospital treatment, please speak to a member of the management team to discuss your child’s needs before they return to nursery
This must be in the original container and can only be given to the person named on the bottle for the dosage stated.
The nursery will not administer any non-prescription medicine containing aspirin or ibuprofen.
If a child needs medicine such as liquid paracetamol or antihistamine for a temperature or allergic reaction, such will be treated as prescription medicine. You will be asked to sign a medication consent form for such circumstances when you register. We will make every effort to contact you prior to administering the medicine.
The nursery provides emergency Calpol and Piriton should the need arise.
Please note that pain relief medicine can only be given for a maximum of 3 consecutive days.
You must provide any non-prescription cream for skin conditions such as nappy creams, Aveno, or gels for teething. We require prior written permission to administer such to your child. Items must be clearly labelled with your child’s name and handed over to a member of staff.
For safety reasons, please do not leave any medicine in your child’s bag.
You are entitled to two weeks holiday pro-rata unless claiming funded hours (FEL) where there is no holiday allowance.
Holidays can be booked via Famly with 6 weeks’ notice prior to monthly invoice being sent (on or around 15th). If you cancel a holiday, we cannot guarantee that your place will still be available on that day. Please speak to or message reception to check availability, and so that your holiday record can be amended.
Notice Period for changes
A minimum of 6 weeks written notice is required to make changes to your “plan” including hours, days or leaving nursery.
Additional bookings
It may be possible to book one off extra sessions subject to staffing. We generally, however, require a minimum of one week’s notice. Please message/speak to reception.
Unfortunately, we cannot swop days for you on an ad-hoc basis.
The nursery has 4 designated spaces in front of the building for drop off and collection. Please keep the main entrance clear by not parking in the yellow hatched area.
At the discretion of the Sports Club, overflow spaces are available for drop off and collection of children at busy times.
Full details on pricing and funding can be found here.
Invoice are issued for sessions booked for the following month on or around the 15th, and are payable by the 25th. A late payment charge of £10 will be applied to all payments made after this date.
Early or late drop off will be charged at £10 after 5 minutes and £10 every 15 minutes thereafter.
Please respect our safeguarding procedures by not using your phone or any other recording device in or around nursery. This is part of our statutory duty to help keep all our children safe.
Ordinarily, your child will take the next step in their journey towards school on or around their birthday other than small toddlers who will make the transition around 15 months old. This move will be supported by your child’s key worker to make the transition as smooth as possible.
To support your child’s journey on to school, we introduce a uniform for all children who attend Blue room / pre-school. This includes an ACN logo polo shirt with a cardigan or sweatshirt.
We provide a balanced menu which changes on a quarterly basis to provide variety and interest. Outside caterers deliver allergy sensitive, healthy and nutritious lunches for all our children.
Our housekeeper also prepares a variety of healthy snacks and light tea which compliments the lunchtime menu.
View our latest menu here.
Keeping you connected.
Famly connects you as parents with your child here at nursery. We use the app to send and receive important and relevant information, communicate with you in real time, keep you informed of your child’s learning and development, record holidays, take bookings and pay invoices.
Useful information, tips and advice can be found on our website, particularly the FAQ section. Please refer to the website before contacting nursery for any unanswered questions or enquiries.
We believe that you are entitled to expect courteous and prompt attention. We hope that you will be happy with the service provided and we encourage you as parents to voice your appreciation to the staff concerned.
We welcome any suggestions from you on how we can improve our service and will give prompt and serious attention to any concerns raised.
We have a formal procedure for dealing with complaints where you feel that your concern was not resolved. Please speak to a member of the management team if you feel that your concern has not been adequately dealt with.
Abbeydale Cottage Nursery
Abbeydale Road South
Dore, Sheffield S17 3LJ
info@abbeydalecottagenursery.co.uk
