Play Away Day Nursery

The Jelly Babies room offers places to children aged between 3 months and 2 years. The unit has been designed so that at each stage of your babies development there is a separate and safe area for them to play. In addition to the play rooms, the unit also has a separate sleep/light sensory room and changing room.

The pattern of day to day activities in the Jelly Babies room is very relaxed and is reflected in the needs of the babies in each day. With babies aged between 3–14 months, there is no structured sleep or meal time and all of the children have lots of cuddles and playtime with the dedicated babyroom staff. Once your child is old enough, he or she will join our older babies for lunch at approximately 11:45 and sleep time after that.

We will encourage the children to use a spoon and fork as soon as they are old enough and transfer from a bottle to a feeder cup. We would discourage the use of bottles for juice.

The toys, games and activities in the baby unit have been designed to promote early skills such as manipulative and cognitive skills and word and sentence construction. Also developed are early problem solving skills through jigsaws, puzzles and games. Your baby will join in with sand and water play, painting and craft, music, dance and movement. Whenever the weather permits, your baby or toddler will have the opportunity to play outside.

The Jelly Tots room offers places to children between 2–3 years of age. Once your child has settled into their new room, special emphasis will be placed on potty training and staff will work very closely with parents in helping your child develop this skill.

The activities in the Tots Room will start to become more focused on group activities than in the baby room, as children will be encouraged to take turns, share and co-operate both with their friends and the staff.

The Jelly Tots have plenty of opportunities to play on the nursery computers, to listen to tape stories and music and take part in PE. The games and equipment are focused on developing speech and language skills along with problem solving, construction and early pencil control activities. Your child will have lots of time outside playing too, using the equipment such as bikes, bats, balls, skipping ropes, swings and hoops.

The Jelly Tots Room is separate from the 3–4 year olds but they do have opportunities to mix at the beginning and end of the day. This contact with the older children does we feel, help with the transition to the next room once your child is 3.

The Jelly Beans Room offers places to children between 3–4 years of age. A few weeks before your child joins Jelly Beans, you will be asked to complete a book called 'Look What I Can Do'. This book will be used as a guide for the staff in the room as to the stage of development your child has reached and sections of it should be completed with your three year old. Once your child has reached 3 years old, you will start to receive a grant from Halton Borough Council entitling you to 5 sessions per week of preschool education, each of 2½ hours.

PE and Gym activities are scheduled in both nurseries. Langdale Road has it's own fully equipped gym and Beechwood makes use of the facilites in the Hall of Beechwood Primary School.

The pre-school Education your child will work towards is known as the Early Learning Goals and in essence covers the following 6 areas; Language and Literacy, Mathematics, Knowledge and Understanding of the World, Physical Development, Creative Development and Personal & Social Development. Check the links below for the Early Learning Goals for 3 year olds and 4 year olds.

• Early Learning goals for 3 year olds
• Early Learning goals for 4 year olds

In Summary

The Jelly Beans Room is an exciting and challenging room. Your child will have lots of opportunities to learn, explore, develop and question.

We will monitor his/her Progress carefully and at any stage if we are concerned about how they are doing we will let you know. You are very welcome to come and talk to us or take your child’s book bag home with you, though we do ask that you return it the following day.

Play Away is a warm and friendly nursery with an excellent reputation. We hope we will be able to provide you and your child with the opportunity to join us.