Starting Dundry Pre-school and Settling in
We work together with you as parents to ensure your child’s start at pre-school is as comfortable as possible. This does take longer for some children than others, and you should not feel worried if your child takes a while to settle. Your child’s keyworker will support this settling in process. We have three Key groups – Ladybird group, Bumblebee group and Butterfly group.
Throughout the year our sessions start at 9:00.
For your child’s First Session we ask that you stay and play together at pre-school for just an hour. There will be a welcome pack that you will be required to fill out.
For your child’s Second Session we ask that you leave your child with us for an hour.
From then on we work with you to build up the time your child stays with us depending on how they coping with separating from you.
The first few weeks are crucial for your child and their Key Person to make a close relationship and get to know each other, so we will spend a great deal of time working hard to do this.
Key Persons and Learning Diaries
Our Key Person system gives each member of staff particular responsibility for a group of children. This will give your child the opportunity to have a special adult to help make the settling in period much easier. The Key Person will keep observations on your child’s needs, interests and development on our online Tapestry diaries. The Key Person will work with you as parents to ensure your child is supported to help reach their full potential.
You will have the opportunity to meet with your child’s Key Person at your initial visit, and time will be made available to discuss any questions or concerns you may have. All members of staff are available at the start of each session to answer any queries, discuss experiences in pre-school/out of pre-school or share information. Please let us know if you need to speak to us confidentially.
Although your child will have their own Key Person – we do try and discourage them becoming too dependent on them, and so develop relationships with other adults and children.
An online Learning Diary will be kept on your child, which records your child’s progress and observations of their play, only you will have access to this. We encourage to add to this with things you are doing at home.
There will be 3 Parents Meetings per year, which will provide opportunities to discuss progress or concerns.