Rooms at Cygnets Day Nursery
The children’s rooms have all been specially designed for the age of children within each room.
Hummingbirds: Babies
The baby rooms are in a purpose designed unit. There is lots of soft carpeting, cushions and chairs for cuddles and story/quiet times. We have separate sleep rooms and separate milk kitchens for the babies’ feeds to ensure sterile conditions are kept. The highest standard of care, cleanliness and hygiene are maintained at all times. Children have direct access to their own outdoor play garden surrounded by trees and age appropriate furniture.
Story Corner – has a comfy chair, and is a place for daily story time to encourage communication, language and literacy skills. We have story sacks which help make story time more visual and exciting which is a bonus at this age, particularly with the characters of the stories included in the sacks.
Music Area – lots of instruments, from handbells to shakers and drums and rainmakers. We learn lots of songs with actions, rhythm, and movement which helps to build co-ordination and communication.
Messy Play – We have a sand tray, water tray, paint, jelly, shaving foam, gloop, sawdust and much more. This enables creative development and social interaction with friends and staff.
Role Play area – lots of fun is had in dressing up. Dressing up outfits of service people plus handbags, shoes, hats, old jewellery, or interesting clothes all make dressing up great fun for all the babies.
Construction – a range of building products, bricks of a great variety, Duplo, and wooden can all be used to teach about the curriculum in an enjoyable way, such as counting, hand eye co-ordination, and imaginative play.
Small World Play – a time to stimulate the senses, we have farms, dolls, dolls houses, train tracks, and many others, it is a good opportunity to make friends and social interaction.
Treasure baskets are a great source of wonder and surprise and ideal for developing communication.
The Toddler Rooms 1 and 2: Nightingales and Kingfishers
The toddler rooms are well equipped for a great variety of play situations. They are specially designed to allow the children to see out of the windows, and have direct access outside to a covered play area allowing outdoor play in all weathers (Free Flow Play).
Sand and water trays – buckets, tubes, jugs, water wheels, heavy and light objects for floating and sinking, containers for pouring. Children learn mathematical skills whilst playing with the water whilst also interacting with friends and social skills. It’s amazing just how many children like water play more than anything else. Many also find it very relaxing. Adding bubbles and colouring to the water also adds another dimension.
Creative Activities – Painting tables, collage, painting, finger painting, boxcraft and modelling all help to create and promote the children’s creative instincts. Play dough, pasta, flour, clay, and our outdoor mud kitchen instil a sense of continual discovery.
Small world play – garages, dolls houses cars, train track and many more all encourage vocabulary, imagination, social skills, and role playing.
Book Corner – A great variety of books where children can choose their own, to encourage a love of reading and the story sacks.
Writing Materials – coloured pencils, crayons, chalks, are provided with all kinds of paper to encourage children to learn how to trace, hold pencils, draw shapes and eventually letters and numbers.
Maths – Mathematical jigsaws, dominoes of many kinds, matching games, bricks, and many counting games, scales are all provided to encourage early mathematical awareness.
Role Play – a beautiful role play area for turning into a shop, hospital, hairdresser, doctors surgery, café, (where it always a surprise to hear which foods the children order!). Multicultural dressing up clothes, all kinds of dressing up clothes to stimulate the imagination and help their knowledge of the world. The children are encouraged to dress and undress themselves as much as possible.
The toddlers also have special sleep mats for when they need a quiet time or sleep time.
Flamingos: Pre-school
Our pre–school is a large room divided into separate areas, including: a home corner; book corner; IT area with the latest computer slate; maths area; language and literacy area; dressing up area; table areas for tabletop activities; wet play areas for all the messy play; and direct access to the outdoor covered play area.
All rooms have direct access to the outdoor garden and appropriate areas for quiet times as well as creative activities and book corners for reading, dressing up, home corner and messy play.
We operate a key person system whereby your child will have a designated person responsible for all your child’s care and needs within each room. They are responsible for all your child’s observations and daily record keeping and reporting to you at the end of each day.
Our ratios of staff are:
Ages: 0 – 2 = 1 adult to 3 children
Ages: 2 – 3 = 1 adult to 5 children
Ages: 3 – 5 = 1 adult to 8 children
All staff are qualified first aiders with a variety of childcare qualifications between them as well as a vast amount of experience. Qualifications include degree, NVQ 3, NVQ 4, and others. We are committed to recruiting only the best staff who have a genuine love of children.
“Cuddles are the order of the day in every room.”
