Foxcubs Day Nursery a Children’s Day Nursery in Cheltenham

The child is at the centre of everything that we do and children are given every opportunity to follow activities that interest them and to learn through play. We follow the framework of the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) which supports a play based approach. We encourage children to challenge themselves, reach their goals and be proud of their achievements and all this is done through play.

We receive positive feedback from primary schools in the local area that when children arrive they are independent and capable children who are ready and willing to learn. In fact, research shows that children who follow their interests learn more. At Foxcubs Day Nursery they have opportunities to be creative, develop their problem solving skills and have high levels of confidence and self-esteem. They are confident, happy, independent and motivated children who learn skills for lifelong learning.

We follow the curriculum of the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) and the Characteristics of Effective Learning. Foxcubs Day Nursery staff will help all the children to develop as individuals and help them reach their potential in all areas of life. The children will be supported individually to make progress at their own pace, and we will give children extra support if needed. The staff use the information they know about the children to plan activities based on the seven areas of learning which are;

• Physical
• Communication and Language
• Personal, social and emotional
• Expressive arts, and design
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World

They will then develop at their own rate and learn the basic skills to school readiness. The preschool children learn French and sing their ‘hello’ song in the morning in French along with Makaton.

All the children in the nursery sing and follow ‘Our Golden Rules’ and we promote British Values with a little song to help them understand what they are, which we do across the nursery.

Trips and outings are important to us, so that we can give children a wider experience of life. We have had many trips, which include Cotswold Farm Park, Cotswold Wildlife Park, Westonbirt Arboretum and walks to our local park. These are valuable learning experiences for every child.

The children all have a key person. This system will ensure that the staff  know the children inside and out and they can build on their interests and learning to make sure that all aspects of their development is embraced.

We record the children’s development on a development map termly which clearly shows how well the children are developing or any areas they may need a little support.

Throughout the year we have special event days where we focus on a particular area of learning. For example we may have a Personal, Social and emotional day where the whole nursery will focus on feelings, empathy and emotions. We may talk about people who are special to us, or look after a toy animal for the day. These days are very special and rewarding to everyone.

The children benefit from these days as with all the activities they do at Foxcubs Day NUrsery by becoming independent life long learners.

This is a main focus at Foxcubs Day Nursery. Think back to your own childhood, what is your happiest childhood memory? Whenever we ask this question we are usually given an answer that involves playing outdoors: on a bike, climbing a tree, kicking a ball, sledging. Children learn ‘real things’ when they play outside.

At Foxcubs Day Nursery, we bring the indoors outside. We help the children to learn about the different sounds they can hear outside. What can they make in the mud kitchen that they have seen be made in their kitchen at home? How high can they jump to touch the sky? What can they build with guttering, tyres, sellotape and material? Every day at Foxcubs Day Nursery is a different adventure where their imagination will grow and grow.

Communication and language is so important as a prime area as it builds the foundations for other areas of learning such as literacy, maths, expressive arts and design and understanding of the world.

We feel that from a very young age children should be given the opportunities to communicate and from using Makaton throughout the nursery from the day they begin, they will have the confidence and independence to express themselves and communicate their needs. All staff at Foxcubs Day Nursery are trained in Makaton and it is used on a daily basis throughout the nursery.

We encourage our staff to further their professional development and offer opportunities to train for an early years qualification whilst working for Foxcubs Day Nursery.

It is important that new staff shadow our existing staff to learn good practice so we can train them the ‘Foxcubs Way, making sure they have very high standards of care, are affectionate and interact well with the children. They receive training from a nationally recognised training provider as well as excellent support from the mentors within the nursery and from in-house training.

To ensure that we offer consistently high quality care and education for our children we constantly reflect on what we do to assess how we can improve upon it. 

All practitioners are involved in departmental meetings, whole staff meetings and training on a regular basis.

Each department has their own team so that they can reflect daily on what works for the children and to make changes that benefit them. 

The Foxcubs team are very much like a family. We communicate with one another very well and we strive for the best for our children.

We believe that children should be allowed to take risks in order to develop their confidence, independence and life skills. With this in mind we have introduced our children to play with real tools. Each ‘real tool’ activity is well supervised and groups are small. We feel it is important for children to understand risk to be able to learn from it.

We feel it is so important for children to have a wider sense of the community around them.

Once a month the children go to our local church to interact with people from the community. The children and community find this time extremely rewarding. The children love to have cuddles and listen to stories told especially by Bill and the community group love the interaction with the children as it brings a smile and warmth to everyone.

We have visits from our local emergency services to link with our topics and they allow us to explore their vehicles whilst learning about what their job involves.

We love to celebrate throughout the year. Whether it is Chinese New year, Easter, Harvest or Christmas we love the celebrations of teaching the children something new.

Sharing of information is a critical part of us finding out what happens in the children’s lives away from nursery. We use what knowledge we find to build on children’s interests or fill in the gaps for things they may never have experienced before. Enriching the lives of children is what we are passionate about.

We take trips to the local church and Father Mark also will visit us and talk to us about Easter and Harvest. We also celebrate special land mark days such as a 1940’s day to celebrate remembrance Sunday. On this special day we have children’s and staff’s grandparents come in to share their stories.

We fundraise twice a year. One charity is CRUK for Cancer research which is very close to our hearts at Foxcubs and also children in need. We raise as much money as we can with the help of the children, staff and parents.

We have sponsored dance days for the children,  hold very popular cake sales and hold raffles and tombolas. The staff get involved walking 10,000 steps a day and participate in Race for Life or a Muddy Run.

Children need to have quiet time and a time to relax. We give them the opportunity to do some yoga to stretch their bodies and relax their minds or meditate to unwind.