FAQs

7:30am-6pm

Early drop off 7:15 or late picker up 6:15pm can be booked as an extra

Closed bank holidays and in between Christmas and New Year

Little Sparks Clayton le Moors offers care for children aged 3 months – 5 years

Little Sparks Clayton le Moors offers the government free funded places for children form 9 months to 5 years offering both 15 hours and 30 hours places

Our younger children ages 3months to two years have 1 staff member to every 3 children. All our baby room and young toddler room staff have specialist training to support the care, learning and development of younger children

In our toddler room caring for children aged 2 years and above we have 1 staff for every 4 children

In our preschool room we have 1 staff for every 8 children

At Little sparks nursery we offer free settling in visit to support you and your child’s transition to starting nursery. We usually advise parents to allocate a two-week time frame to allow three visits to be booked or extra if required to support the child or parents needs. We aim to make the settling in process as calm and smooth as possible ensuring both child and parents feel at ease and ready to start their little sparks journey.

Visit 1 – here parents will stay with their child. They will be asked to complete the nursery paperwork alongside having the opportunity to chat to staff about nursery life and routines, They can also support their child as they explore the nursery environment. This visit usually last around 1 hour

Visit 2 – here we encourage parent to leave their child to see how they settle, staff will use the information upon the all about completed within their first visit to support our child’s interests as they explore their new surroundings, again this viist is for around 1 hour.

Visit 3  - here we provide a visit over a mealtime to support your child to develop their knowledge of nursery routines. This visit usually last for around 1 and half hours giving your child also time to play and have their photo taken for their very own special coat peg.

All our visits are flexible where we offer a range of times to support you and your child, additional visits may also be booked again free of charge.

We ask all parents to provide their child with a wetsuit and wellington boots for the rainy days along with a sun hat for the sunny days. Alongside spare clothes in case of any accidents. We ask if all clothes, wellies and wetsuits can be labelled with your child’s name and stored in a bag. No carrier bags

If you are not accessing our all-inclusive package, we ask parents to pack

• Spare clothes
• Nappies, wipes and nappy cream
• Suncream
• Formula milk for under 1’s

If you access our all-inclusive package all nappies, wipes, nappy creams, suncream and formula milk are included

At little sparks we have our very own parentzone app/ iconnect that allows you to see how your child has been that day inclusive what they have eaten, their nappy changes and sleep times. The app also provides you updates on upcoming events and nursery news along with providing observation of your child’s time at nursery and termly assessments. Our app also allows you to message your child’s keyworker directly.

Our nursery Facebook share nursery news and activities which also has a message feature which is managed by the manager

Alongside this we use emails to send out your invoices but most importantly we have an open doors and telephone policy. Call us anytime to chat directly to your child’s keyworker no call is too much; we want to ensure you are able to check in whenever you need too.

At Little Sparks we follow the guidance for sickness form the department of health which offers guidance upon any periods of absence that may need to be in place. We do ask if your child is unwell they do not attend nursery.

If your child becomes unwell whilst at nursery, we will comfort your child and provide care and support to keep them at ease. If your child is too unwell to be at nursery we will ask parents to come and pick up their child.

All staff at Little Sparks Clayton le Moors are fist aid trained and are able to support children who become unwell.

Nursery registrations can be completed via email, telephone, Facebook messenger or face to face

Paid places £100 deposit refunded upon first months invoice . Funded only places do not require a deposit

All are staff have undergone a DBS check who work within Little Sparks nursery. Staffs’ suitability is regularly checked to maintain the highest standard of safeguarding children

All staff have undertaken food safety and allergy awareness training. Children who have an allergy or intolerance will be added to the diet requirements list for all staff to see. We also ask parents to complete a allergy questionnaire. The chef will follow food safety guidance when preparing and serving children food with allergies alongside all our staff. We do not sit children separate form others with allergies but we take steps within our practice to minimise the cross contamination during meal times such as staff deployed next to children with severe allergies. We are also a nut free setting

Little Sparks nursery is an inclusive setting providing care and support for all children. The nursery has their own special educational needs coordinator who holds a level 3 accreditation in special educational needs in early years alongside the setting receiving award form the department for education. All staff have also received inhouse and online training supporting children with special education needs, English as additional language and supporting communication and language. The nursery has also be award a ELKLAN communication friendly status where staff and the setting have undergone training to support communication and language through learning and play.