About Brighstone Preschool

Ofsted are our governing body, and our registration number is EY470064

Change of clothing (including underwear), nappies, wipes, nappy cream (if needed) a pair of slippers, sun hat, woolly hat, scarf, coat (weather dependant) and a piece of fruit/healthy snack. Packed lunch if required.

We offer sun lotion, which is a factor 50 plus, sensitive skin waterproof brand. We offer this as included in your £5 weekly sustainability charge. Alternatively, you could provide your own which staff will apply before outside play.

We accept all forms of vouchers, but we may need to register with new ones. You may need some information from us to set these up, such as Ofsted registration numbers.

This is not a problem although please inform us as soon as possible. A password system will be set up if we have not met the person before.

The child’s key person will keep an up-to-date record on your child’s progress. They will share this information with you regularly using our Online Learning Journal, Tapestry. At the end of each session staff members will talk you through your child’s day.

We understand this can happen as some things are out of our control such as traffic or appointments running over. We ask for you to let us know if this is going to happen as soon as you are aware. If this becomes a regular occurrence, you will be charged for any extra hours at our normal hourly rate.

We have fruit/snack time at around 9:30am. Our lunchtime is at 11:45, which is either packed lunch provided by you, or a hot meal provided by Chartwell catering and collected by us from Brighstone Primary school. 

We accept funding. 

Please see our Payment Policy on our Policies page for our most up to date information.

You can apply for funding by following the link below.

We open from 7.30am until 5.30pm. 

We take children from 9 months old up until school age. 

No unfortunately at preschool we have a strict policy on exclusion periods. For sickness and diarrhoea children must be away from preschool for 48 hours after last symptoms.

E.Y.F.S. stands for Early Years Foundation Stage. The EYFS is a document set up by the Government that informs our bespoke curriculum.

The EYFS is split into 7 areas in total.

3 prime areas: 

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Physical Development
• Communication and Language

And 4 specific areas: 

• Maths,
• Understanding the world
• Literacy
• Expressive art and design.

Within these areas we must ensure children are making progress.

Yes, we strive to help in all areas of your child’s development and we take this at your child’s pace. We follow your routine from home as closely as possible. 

We do not encourage the use of potties in the preschool for Health and Hygiene reasons.

Please let us know as soon as you can about your holiday dates. 

Yes we run a holiday club for children age 9 months to 11 years. We are open for 50 weeks of the year closing only at Christmas.

If your child is ill, we will give you a call to notify you. If required you will be asked to collect your child.

Children stick to their home routines. We have a designated sleep area. We always assist in helping your child to take sleep and rest as and when needed. Each child is provided with their own bed sheet and blanket which is washed on a weekly basis.

Yes we can as long as the relevant forms are completed and the medication is in date and prescribed to your child ONLY.

Accidents do happen at Preschool but of course we try our best to prevent them. If your child has an accident, we will let you know upon collection or beforehand depending on the severity of the accident.  We will fill in an accident record to outline the incident (causes, treatments, outcomes etc) and will get you to read and sign on collection. We will provide any first aid needed. For any bigger incidents that we cannot deal with we will consult professional advice through 999 or 101. We will keep you up to date throughout this process.

We play outside every day. We use the outside area for many different activities including bikes, team games, role play, sand pit, physical challenges, free play, water play. 

Outside is an extension to our provision and offers lots of learning experiences.

Designated members of our team hold a valid paediatric first aid certificate. 

Yes, all members of staff full time, part time, volunteers, students hold a current DBS check that is carried out prior to the member of staff starting with us.

Any people visiting the preschool to deliver extracurricular activities also have to have a DBS check.

You can pay for your childcare via BACS or vouchers. We invoice you termly.

Funding for those eligible will be shown within the invoice.

If leaving due to unhappiness within the setting we urge you to talk to us about any issues as we strive to solve most issues swiftly. 

We understand that leaving your child is one of the hardest things to do. We work very closely with you to ensure we know your child as well as possible, ready for this big day. 

We have many strategies that we use to help, including our key person system whereby one of our staff will take the lead in your child’s care and build a strong relationship with them to help with transitions into preschool. We also work to your timescale so do not encourage anything to move faster than you are ready for (if you do not feel comfortable with any of the steps do not hesitate to let us know and we can have a re-think). 

We pride ourselves in being very adaptable to any situation so we will try new strategies to help children settle and get to love preschool as quickly as possible.

Yes, no problem, you may collect your child whenever you wish, however, if appropriate, it may be best to let us know of early collections in order to prepare the child, as some children don’t always enjoy changes in routine. 

This may also change routines for us e.g. sleeping routines, feeding routines or trips out.

We should be informed of any allergies so contingency plans can be made to keep these allergens away from the child. We strive to ensure that every child is safe while at preschool, so we will prepare separate snacks and meals in keeping with the child’s diet. 

We order our lunches through an outside caterer; the caterers are very good at supplying alternate meal solutions if they are provided with the correct paperwork from your child’s GP or allergy clinic. 

We are adaptable to most situations, so just let us know and we can adapt to your child’s needs.

Please come and talk to us. The management team are very approachable, just request a meeting and we will set aside some time to talk through any issues you may have. 

We like to sort out problems before they grow into bigger problems so will be happy to talk about any issues, big or small. 

You and your child’s happiness is our overall goal so we strive to achieve this as best we can.

We advise toys to be left at home, as you can imagine, in a busy childcare setting things can go missing. 

However, comforters that help a child through any difficult transitions are fine to bring in. 

We will try our hardest to keep this comforter safe and will take time to put it away when the child is not using it.

Absolutely, we welcome people to come and see us and we can arrange a suitable time for you.

Due to safeguarding issues we need to know who is always on the premises, and we must ensure that visitors are always fully supervised, so we ask you to call or email us before hand to book a time.

Once a week we take the children the local library. Occasionally we may take the children for a walk around the village, have a play in the park. 

If this happens the children and staff wear yellow high vis jackets and we take a first aid kit.

Whilst at preschool your child needs to be comfortable. You may like to send your child’s slippers for them to wear during their time here.

Aprons will be used for messy activities, however we still advise against the children wearing their best clothes for preschool. 

We provide wellies and waterproof suits for use during the winter months so they can enjoy puddle jumping and playing in the snow.