Each of our nursery rooms is run by a dedicated Room Leader and a team of staff. Our staff are there to encourage and facilitate emerging skills, not to force or over extend them.
We aim to teach children by ensuring challenging playful opportunities across the prime and specific areas of learning and developing. We also have access to plenty of outdoor space, including the University campus and surrounding areas.
Baby Room
The Baby Room takes babies from the age of six months old and can accommodate 12 babies.
The Room Leader leads a team of qualified staff and your child will be assigned a key person. We try to follow your baby's home routine as much as possible, as it helps to build trust and confidence between child and carer.
The Baby Room team create a friendly, caring and relaxed environment, offering a range of age-appropriate games and activities tailored to each child's developmental stage. This includes painting, sticking, water play, sand play and cooking.
Direct access to a secure garden area encourages the babies to explore a different environment. Regular walks on campus and visits to the woodland area ensure the babies have a full range of experiences. Staff make observations which are kept in individual records so you can follow your child's progress and development.
A separate sleep room contains a number of cots to allow babies to have a nap as and when required. Older babies nap on sleep mattresses on the carpeted area in the multi-purpose room within the baby unit. Our practitioners monitor sleeping children closely, carrying out five minute checks on each child.
Our Baby Room provides a safe, caring and loving environment for your children. This is often the first time a child spends time away from their parent or guardian, so it's important to ensure they feel secure.
Nursery Room
The Nursery Room is registered to take children from 24 months to three years old. Depending on the ages of the children currently in the room, our staffing ratio is:
one adult to three children for under twos
one adult to four children for over twos
Activities are available during the day to develop the children's experiences in all areas. We encourage them to share toys, take toys and tidy up after themselves.
The team provide a friendly, caring and relaxed environment to support and develop the children in our care.
All children will be assigned a key person when joining the room. They will take responsibility for planning for and monitoring your child, supported by the Room Leader. All planning and observations are displayed on boards in the room for parents to look at. We keep parents informed on their child's progress through meetings with their child's key person and regular communication with staff.
Toilet training usually starts when a child is in the Nursery Room and their key person will work closely with parents on this. Children should wear clothes which are easy for them to manage, and sent in with plenty of spare clothes and some spare shoes.
Pre-school Room
The Pre-school Room takes children from the age of three until they start school, which in the UK is the September after their fourth birthday. We ensure children are well rounded, stable, happy individuals when they leave Westwood Nursery, ready to start school with the skills needed to meet the challenges of school life.
The Pre-school Room has places for 18 children, with a staff ratio of 1:8. The Room Leader works closely with her highly skilled team of Early Years Educators and Forest School Practitioners to ensure children learn:
independence
social interaction
making choices
problem solving
The structure of the day is similar to a reception class within a school − with adult led activities, opportunities for independent learning and social group interactions. We consider outdoor play an important part of the learning schedule and it is part of our everyday routine. This includes regular trips to the woodland area where learning from the environment extends the Early Years Foundation Stage further.
Outdoor learning and play area
The outdoor environment offers rich learning experiences and contributes to children's health, happiness, stimulation and development. Our play area is full of wonderful things for children to discover, experiment with and explore. Children are encouraged to develop independence skills, improve their decision making and raise their self-esteem though small achievable tasks.
Play area
Our spacious outdoor play area is designed to be both secure and safe, with a soft rubberised surface and vibrant educational graphics. This visually stimulating space encourages exploration while minimising the risk of injury. The children's garden also includes a grassed area, slopes, gradients, steps, bushes, plants and a growing area. Children are encouraged to plant fruit, vegetables and flowers. During their time with us, they will experience the whole process of planting, growing, picking, cooking and eating.
University campus
The children have the opportunity to use the whole of the University to extend their experiences and are well-known faces around the campus. We also have excellent relationships with the Campus Infrastructure department and the gardeners who have helped the children develop a Forest School area alongside our forest trained practitioner.
Trips and outings
The location of the nursery makes it easy to jump on a bus into town. The children enjoy visiting the library, Egg Theatre, Victoria Park, and Zany Zone at the sports centre. Although the highlight of the outing is often the bus journey into town!
Healthy eating
We regard mealtimes and snack times as an important part of our day. Eating represents a social time for children when practitioners help children to adopt healthy eating habits. Special dietary requirements will be catered for.
Our meals consist of:
Mid morning: we provide a snack with milk or water
Lunch: a two course cooked meal is provided by external caterers
Tea: provided by parents - a cold tea such as a sandwich and fruit (we have facilities available for reheating hot food in the Baby Room only)
Fresh drinking water is available throughout the day. Fruit will be provided at least once a day.
We are currently taking part in the Healthy Early Years Initiative and have gained the Healthy Eating Award. The aim of the initiative is to establish good eating practices and behaviours in order to prevent lifelong conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancers. It will also help reduce iron and calcium deficiencies and tooth decay.