Planning for the future
We have a strong vision to provide high quality care and education in a happy and stimulating environment. We want children to thrive, be confident and motivated to learn.
The team consists of the following personnel
Sally Eaton – B.ED, FRSA
The Owner and Educational Director
Joanne Poole – B.A Hons
Level 6 Childcare
Head of Nursery
Ashlyn Louvieris – B.A Hons
Level 3 Childcare
Nursery Business Manager
At Wellingtons for Langley Hall our staff team of 65 includes two Nursery Managers – one is Head of Teaching and Learning and one is Head of Operations, four Deputy Managers, one for each age group, a business manager, an administration and finance team and specialist French, Gym, Dance, Drama, Music and Swimming teachers. We are committed to professional development.
Two of our staff hold PGCE qualifications, two hold a degree in Early Childhood Studies, one is working towards Early Years Teacher Status, five have a Level 5 qualification, twenty have a Level 3 qualification, two are working towards a Level 3 qualification, five staff have a Level 2 qualification and sixteen are working towards their Level 2 qualification.
The nursery has twelve playrooms, eight of which are on the ground floor. Three of our over 3’s (preschool) rooms are on the first floor and one is located on our ground floor to enable us to offer preschool provision to children with disabilities who may find it difficult to access our first floor.
The nursery opened in 2011 and in that time, we have grown the business rapidly with significant waiting lists for many age groups and sessions. In January 2015 we expanded, creating three brand new 2 – 3 year old playrooms. This means that we now have four under 2 rooms, three under 3 rooms and three over 3 rooms. In April 2017 we created a new area of the nursery to add 7 full time spaces to our baby department between January – August each year, to meet the demand of that age group at that time of the academic year.
We have more than sufficient space and staff for the children in our care. In many of our rooms we keep the number of children below the actual capacity. As the year progresses the capacities and ratios change due to the childrens’ ages. We also employ Lunch Cover Staff and Bank Staff to cover staff breaks and holidays. This ensures that ratios are always adhered to. This year we have also employed a housekeeper to ensure that the nursery remains clean, tidy and presentable throughout the working day.
The corridors and rooms are wide and spacious, allowing good access for children and parents who require support to walk. We are lucky to have a large outdoor area, with a sandpit, growing boxes, play houses, a construction and pulley area, a Water Wall, a Magical Maths area, a Creation Station to encourage creativity and mark making, Imagination Stations for small world play, a mini beast garden, a wonderful mud kitchen, a Story Corner, a Sound Studio for experimenting with making noise, a stage and painted road markings for children to follow on their bikes and scooters.
Every class goes outside twice a day. We have spare wellingtons boots and waterproof suits, so the children can enjoy the outside in all weathers. The baby room has a separate garden which is accessed directly from the room, with growing boxes and a sand and water tray.
The door is regularly left open to allow fresh air to circulate the room. The baby room also has an adjoined sleep room, ensuring that the babies can sleep peacefully.
The setting has a ground floor soft play area and a sensory room on the second floor. These are used by all age groups and we have found them to be particularly helpful in supporting children with additional needs. There is a large hall, which is used to carry out various additional activities, games and performances.
Our in-house chef cooks nutritious meals daily and our menus have received an NHS Smiling for Life Gold Award. In 2014 we were awarded a 'Highly Commended' in the 'Best Safe Food Premises' category of the Slough Catering and Community Business Awards. We were last inspected by Environmental Health in November 2018 and retained our 5 star Food Hygiene rating for another year.
Key priorities
Overall Effectiveness
- To teach all staff that having the right attitude towards their work is important to us.
- Staff recruitment processes to be reviewed and a basic skills test included.
- To employ, retain and up skill staff so that they all have the right attitude towards their work and have the ability to think and react appropriately in all situations, playing an active part in nursery development and improvement.
The Quality of Education
- To involve all staff in setting up well-resourced child-centred high quality provision indoors and outdoors and to raise focus on Communication and Language and Physical Development provision to improve engagement and outcomes for all children in all age groups.
- Communication and Language to remain a focus with effective use of Talking Bags, Small World Provision and Key Worker Groups daily.
- Raise focus on Physical Development in rooms demonstrating opportunities for gross motor movements.
- To ensure that all staff demonstrate strong engagement with children to support learning through play and speech and language outcomes.
Behaviour and Attitudes
- To ensure that expectations for behaviour are met consistently by all staff, encouraging the use of positive reinforcement.
- To review, implement and monitor our new Behaviour Management policy, providing staff with training and support.
- To provide children with enabling and challenging learning environments.
- All staff to maintain a positive attitude when dealing with challenging behaviour.
Personal Development
- Staff at all levels to know their children and plan effectively for challenge at all levels.
- Staff to ensure that children are challenged at Greater Depth and that rooms reflect this understanding – Deputy Managers and SLT to monitor and train.
- To provide further training for staff and new staff to enable them to support children with their development and needs in the most effective way.
- Update training to support staff in their response time, ensuring a high level of vigilance at all times.
- All Deputy Managers and Room Leaders taking responsibility for reporting electronically using CPOMS – in a timely accurate way.
- Ensure that the Vulnerable Children Register is an organic process and staff update this regularly.
- To ensure specific information is shared with new staff (or covering staff) to ensure consistency of approach – in particular for our children with complex needs.
- More time to be allocated for Room Leaders to spend with children moving up to facilitate smoother transitions.
- Handover meetings to be held between current and new room leaders to discuss all relevant information in person.
- A deadline to be set for transition reports to be completed.
Leadership & Management
- To inspire, motivate and enthuse Room Leaders to give them confidence to lead their teams and organise their rooms effectively.
- To plan initiatives to improve staff absence levels, focusing on staff wellbeing and creating a policy for this as well as appointing a Staff Wellbeing Lead.
- To further support training at all levels so that staff who are less confident make good improvements and those with good skills develop on to leadership.
