Name: Janet MacGregor / Gail Gilbert
Position: Manager
Telephone:
Website:
Smithfield House Children's Nursery
Monday to Friday 8am-6pm. Closed for one week at Christmas.
Description
Smithfield House Children's Nursery offers play, education and care to children aged eight weeks to five years.
Our staff follows the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, which encourages development and learning from birth to five years, and children are provided with activities that promote:
- Personal, social and emotional development
- Communication and language
- Physical development
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding of the world
- Expressive arts and design
We are an inclusive practice and aim to accommodate children from different cultural backgrounds and those with special needs.
We are registered to accept 3-4 year old free entitlement and also accept childcare vouchers.
You can find the link to our most recent Ofsted report in the Useful documents box at lower left.
Current vacancies
- two spaces for children aged 2-3 (fulltime)
- five spaces for children aged 3-5 (fulltime)
Contact
Address
Smithfield House Children's Nursery
14 West Smithfield, London, EC1A 9HY
Local Offer
Contact
Information
Smithfield House Nursery is a purpose built, owner-managed nursery in the heart of the City of London, offering early education and childcare to children aged 8 weeks to 5 years. We are open Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, 51 weeks of the year. Our nursery has been specially designed to incorporate the needs of all children whilst ensuring compliance with current regulatory requirements, such as Health & Safety, Disability Discrimination Act and Ofsted. We provide a loving, safe and secure environment for all children regardless of ability or needs.
What specialist services and expertise are available via the setting?
All staff have undertaken training in supporting children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. We also regularly attend SENCO Forums, to share ideas and expertise from other settings. One member of staff is qualified to Masters level in supporting children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. We have a named SENCO – Janet MacGregor. Over 50% of our staff team are graduates, and are therefore fully able to provide inclusive provision based on each individual child's needs. All staff are appropriately trained in First Aid, and are able to undertake specialist training if required (e.g. Epi-Pen training etc.)
How will Smithfield House Children's Nursery support my child, and how will you identify if they need any extra help?
Your child will be allocated a Key Person who will be responsible for planning activities and opportunities to support their learning, development and well-being during their time with us. As a staff team we regularly observe all children, and then use these observations to track each individual child's learning and development against the Early Years Foundation Stage – the national framework that all settings must adhere to. During your time with us, you will have access to the EYLOG system that we use. All observations that we carry out on your child are uploaded, and via a secure log-in you are then able to view these as soon as they are uploaded (usually within 24 hours). We also encourage parents to upload their own observations, to help build a rich picture of each child's abilities and achievements. If, at any time, we observe and find that your child's development is not quite where we would expect them to be in any area, your child's Key Person will always discuss it with you. Often, we find that some focused activities in the specific area of development means that in a few weeks everything is back on track. We use Short Term Education Plans so that staff and parents can work together in supporting a particular area of development.
If, however, you or we feel that your child would benefit from some additional support, or there are further concerns, with your permission we are able to access the Area SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-coordinator) for the City of London.
Who can I contact for further information?
You are welcome to contact us at any time during opening hours. Our contact details are on our website. Please also feel free to drop in at any time when we are open. If you have specific questions, our setting's SENCO will be happy to discuss these with you – please ask to speak with Janet MacGregor.
Local Offer Extended Response
There are a range of ways that this can happen. We have a genuine ‘open door' approach within the nursery. This means you can telephone us, email us or pop in at any time during opening hours and speak to a member of staff – in fact, we encourage you to do so. Every child also has a ‘Learning Journey' document, which is a record of their learning and development during their time with us. We also encourage parents to contribute to this too, through pictures, observations etc. We endeavour to hold Parents' Evenings twice per year, and of course through the EYLOG app you have instant access to your child's Development Folder and ‘real time' observations 24 hours a day. Your child's Key Person is your single point of contact during your child's time with us, however, any member of staff will be happy to speak with you if you have any questions.
In addition, if your child has a Short Term Education Plan, or an Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan) then we will meet with you regularly throughout the year to look at how your child is progressing and if we need to do anything differently.
We will always discuss this with you. We will not seek any outside support without your permission, unless of course we are concerned that your child is at risk by not doing so. In most cases we can agree this between us, with the support of our setting's SENCO. However, we also have access to the City of London Area SENCO, and SEND Project Manager, if required. We also have access to a Senior Educational Psychologist, who we can draw support from if your child has, or would benefit from, an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan – previously referred to as a ‘Statement').
Smithfield House Nursery is fully wheel chair accessible. We have a lift and disabled access toilet facilities. We have a sensory room and an excellent team of bi-lingual staff (English, Somali, Swahili, Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, Greek, Spanish, Kurdish and Turkish!). Visits to the local area form part of our everyday life at the nursery, and this is the case for all children regardless of ability. We are easily able to accommodate wheelchairs, walking and mobility aides. We routinely carry out risk assessments, and assess any risks identified based on our good understanding of each individual child and their needs. We are able to source specialist resources as required to ensure that every child is included within all activities, as appropriate. Inclusion is a common theme which runs through all areas of the setting, both indoors and out.
Before your child starts with us, we will ask you to complete an ‘All About Me' and a ‘My Routine' form. This will tell us all about your child; what they like, dislike, what is important to them and how we can best support them. This will be the first step in our on-going partnership with you and will help us to meet your child's specific needs from day one. We will then work with you and your child to ensure they settle securely into the setting at their own pace.
We will capture your child's learning and development in their ‘Learning Journey' document – which we hope you will also contribute to. With your input, this will create a holistic overview of your child's achievements and abilities. When it is time for your child to move on, this will help to form a ‘Transition Report' for your child's next setting. Our ‘Open Door' policy also extends to your child's new setting – we often have children's new Key Worker come and visit them during their time with us before they move on. Of course this will only be with your consent. We are also happy to have 1-1 meetings with your child's new setting, to ensure a smooth transition both for yourself and your child.