Settling-In

 At our nurseries, we work in partnership with you as parents and carers to help you become familiar with the nursery setting and to provide a settled relationship for your child. 

We know children learn best when they are happy and healthy in a safe and secure environment, and we know building positive relationships with parents and carers ensures we can meet children’s individual needs and help them settle quickly into nursery life.

Our staff know the importance of building strong attachments with children and are trained to recognise the different stages of attachment and use their knowledge, and experience to support children, and their caregivers, during the settling-in period.

• Working with parents/carers to gather information before the child starts by filling in a unique child form to learn about the child’s family, interests, likes and dislikes and anything else that you would like to share with us to better understand your child.
• We will allocate key person to each child and their family before they attend. The key person welcomes and looks after the child, ensuring that their care is tailored to meet their individual needs. The Key person will build a relationship with parents during the settling in period and throughout their child’s time at the nursery, to ensure the family has a familiar contact person to assist with the settling in process
• Reviewing the nominated key person if the child is bonding with another member of staff.
• Providing parents with relevant information about the policies and procedures of the nursery
• Planning a tailored settling in sessions, were you will stay with your child on their first day until 11am as its best that they leave happy with a positive association to their nursery. Depending on how well they settle, we aim for you to stay with them for around 20 minutes the next day until they are settled with their key person and then you will let them know you are leaving, but we recommend you stay close by as we will not let them get upset or cry for more than 20 minutes, so may need to call you to come back. 
• If they need more time to settle we will adjust the process to suit their needs, for example you stay again until 11am with them or they leave earlier then their usual end time. Our aim will always be for the child to feel settled and for you to feel comfortable leaving them.
• We encourage you to send in items that will help settle your child to start i.e. their comfort blanket or a favourite book to read. 
• Reassuring parents whose children take a little longer to settle in and developing a plan with them, for example shorter days, where possible 
• Providing regular updates and photos of the children settling 
• Encouraging parents, where appropriate, to separate themselves from their children for brief periods at first, gradually building up to longer absences
• Ensure a good relationship is built with all key staff in case the key person is not available. Parents are made aware of this to support the settling process and attachment 
• Respecting the circumstances of all families, including those who are unable to stay for long periods of time in the nursery and reassure them of their child’s progress towards settling in
• Not taking a child on an outing from the nursery until he/she is completely settled.