Frequently Asked Questions

Starting a new nursery can present lots of new experiences which your child may not have come across before. This might be confusing to start with, especially if your child is accustomed to spending much of their time with you.

To overcome this, we offer free settling in visits before your child starts nursery. To begin with,you will have a zoom call with the nursery manager. Followed by a 30 minute meeting at the setting with your child meeting the nursery manager in person and your child's key worker. The nursery manager will then arrange a 2 hour settling in session for your child to attend the nursery themselves to explore their new environment, begin to build relationships with their key person, staff and their peers within the room. 

This has the added bonus of giving you a clear idea of what your child will do in nursery.

As a parent, we appreciate that it is important for you have a good understanding of how your child is developing emotionally, physically and socially.  We use an online system called Tapestry and update it regularly with observations on your child.

When children are very young, it is important that you know exactly when your child was last fed, slept and changed. For this reason we use the care diary function on the Tapestry app where parents can see all their child's updates. The care diary will be used for children up to 2 years old. 

Our nursery is closed for a week over the Christmas period, we inform all of our families in advance of our closure dates for Christmas as they change each year. We are also closed on bank holidays. 

If you are going on holiday or your child will not be attending their booked session, please could you inform us as soon as possible so this can be recorded on the register. If we are not aware of any absence then a courtesy call will be made to check on your child’s well being.

Any absences due to Holiday/sickness must be paid in full.

We want to find out as much as possible about your child and their routine and we’ll ask you to fill out a form, called ‘All About Me’ and 'Care plan' that will give us lots of information about their home life, routine and what they do and don’t like.  We’ll ask about things like allergies, when they sleep and what their development is like if they are a baby and what kind of things they love to do.  

To ensure your child is happy when they start at New Beginnings you’ll be asked to bring and drop your child to nursery for some taster sessions.  

This usually consists of a 30 minute meeting  at the nursery with the nursery manager and your child's key person. After this meeting your child will then be invited to another settling in session where they visit their nursery room for 2 hours on their own where they will begin to explore their new environment, build relationships with their key person, staff and peers. 

We are very happy to call you to let you know how they are getting on if you are worried.  When you come to collect your child we will let you know how they have got on. 

Please visit our nurseries pages to view new starts & moving rooms information document.  This will give you all the information on what to bring. 

We can accommodate all dietary and cultural requirements including vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, dairy free & nut free.

For lots of children and for all kinds of reasons, food can be a bit tricky. In fact, that’s exactly why we don’t allow packed lunches or snacks from home at our nurseries; some of the children in our care have allergies, and we just can’t put their safety at risk.

Instead, we provide fresh and tasty breakfasts, lunches, teas, and snacks at every one of our nurseries. Our menus are healthy and varied, and we cater for special dietary requirements, cultural food choices and allergies, so every child can look forward to tasty food they love to eat. It’s all covered in your nursery fee, too. You can take a look at an example menu by visitng our healthy eating & well being page. 

If your child is absent for any reason, and unable to attend nursery, please inform the nursery manager on all occasions.

If your child has shown symptoms of any infectious disease, including vomiting and diarrhoea, the Health Standards state that a child cannot attend nursery for 48 hours after the symptoms have subsided. This helps us to stop infection being passed on to other children in the nursery.

We also do not admit children into nursery who have been given calpol/paracetemol as this can mask a potentially infectious illness or a more concerning illness such as meningitus.

Any child sent home from nursery with a temperature will be excluded for 24 hours or untill they no longer need paractemol to control their temperature. 

Any absences due to sickness must be paid in full.

If your child becomes sick when in nursery we will telephone you straight away to let you know and come to collect them. If you are unavailable, we will call the emergency contacts provided on your admissions form. If it is a minor problem, we may advise you to make an appointment at the doctors for medical reassurance.

The nursery follows rigorous cleaning and hygiene procedures to keep exposure to infectious diseases at bay. If a child in the nursery shows signs of having an infectious disease, or is not coping with the day, we will send them home straight away. This will help us to ensure that it does not spread throughout the nursery. This includes children vomiting or suffering from diarrhoea.

1 adult to 3 children for children under 2 years old.

1 adult to 4 children for children aged between 2 and 3 years old.

1 adult to 8 children for children aged 3 years and older.

Our staff are qualified level 2 and level 3 early years practitioners. All staff who are recruited participate in a 3 month induction period. In these 3 months they attend first aid training , food hygiene training and safeguarding children training. We ensure this training is continually updated and refreshed. As an organisation we are committed to the continuous development of our staff and we ensure they complete a variety of courses relevant to their roles and responsibilities. 

We run a robust apprenticeship program giving staff the opportunity to gain first hand experience working with children. They are supported throughout their course by a qualified member of staff mentor and qualified early years assessor.

All of our staff team have paediatric First Aid Training. We strongly believe that every individual should be trained to support and respond to an accident or injury. Each one of our nurseries hold the Millie’s Mark Paediatric accreditation, which champions excellence in first aid training and delivery.

We use an online platform called Tapestry to communicate with all our families. 

We hold parents evenings twice a year and send out monthly newsletters. 

Parents can also view what the children have been up to through our private twitter nursery accounts which are for New Beginnings parents and staff only.

Every child attending New Beginnings Day Nursery is assigned a key person.  The role of a key person is develop a relationship with your child whereby your child will while resilent and assured within the nursery environment. Additionally the key person works with you to support your child in their learning to help them reach their full potential and works closely with the child and their parents/guardians.

Your child’s key person is responsible for compiling your child's Tapestry learning journal.  A Learning journal is a collection of written and photographic evidence relating to your child's development and progress whilst they are at New Beginnings.  It is important to remember that whilst the Key Person has responsibility for their child’s learning journal, all members of staff undertake observations on all children.

If you need to discuss anything about your child's development, please speak to your nursery manager. 

We always want to hear if you or your child are unhappy with any aspect of the nursery.  Please raise any concerns you have initially with the nursery manager who will endeavour to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction if possible. Please refer to our complaints policy on the policies and procedure pages of the website for a more detailed explaination of the stages.