FAQs

Our preschool accepts children from 2½ years old up to age 4 years. Some younger 2 year olds may be able to start with us depending on room ratios and on whether they are confident in a larger whole group setting. We will discuss this with you on your initial visit and look at when both you as parents and us as practitioners think it may be best for them to start.

Please visit our Applying for a Place page. To register your interest with us please fill out an initial enquiry form linked on our website or send an email. We then ask parents to arrange a date to come in and visit the setting with their child for a show around so we can meet both you and your child. After you have visited, we will provide you with all necessary enrolment information and add your child’s name to our waiting list.

Please see our fees and funding page.

We are open Monday through Friday. Currently we only offer a whole day session on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for our Upper Preschool Children.

Morning sessions are 9am-12pm. Afternoon sessions are 12- 3:30pm. Whole day sessions are 9am – 3:30pm.

Your child is required to attend a minimum of 3 sessions with us (unless otherwise agreed with by Mrs B) to ensure continuity and allow us to help your child build important relationships and feel settled and part of our community.

We are very proud of our jade and black uniform which is both practical and smart. We do not apologise for getting messy as we will definitely get messy during the day with all the varying learning opportunities available.

We always encourage children to practise specific skills which make them independent. Simple clothing which they can handle themselves will allow them to go to the toilet when they want to and to put on and take off their outdoor clothes without being too dependent on adults for help.

Weather appropriate clothing is a must as we go out in all weather conditions so please ensure you provide a coat/ hat/ gloves/ wellies/ waterproof trousers/ suncream/ glasses etc. Please see our Uniform page for more information on purchasing uniform.

At present, we ask you as parents to provide a healthy snack or lunch for your child (e.g: fruit/veg/ pasta/ sandwiches/ yoghurts). These should be brought in in a named/ sealed box and will be stored safely until we stop for our snack time. If your child is staying for a whole day we store lunchbox items in our kitchen/ fridge or encourage parents to use the cool pouches which can be popped into lunchboxes. We also ask you to ensure your child has a water bottle in every day.

We always provide both fresh drinking water and milk for children to have throughout the day.

If your child has specific dietary needs or allergies, please let us know so we can accommodate them. We work to ensure every child is safe and included and make sure children with any allergies or dietary requirements are closely monitored during any snack or meal times. You may be asked to pop in to get an individual health care plan developed which ensures all practitioners working with your child are aware of any signs and symptoms. Please speak to Mrs B if your child has a severe allergy or specific diet as we will ensure we complete a personalised plan where we hold all the relevant and up to date procedures/ medication/ EpiPens/ inhaler and is agreed to before your child starts with us.

We are also a totally NUT FREE environment and ask for your support as parents to ensure you try your best to not include any nut based items in your child’s snack to help ensure the safety of some of our most vulnerable children who have severe nut allergies.

We ask you to always inform us if your child is unwell and can’t attend their session. We will ask you to give us a brief description of the reason in case we need to inform other parents (e.g contagious or virus). If your child has a sickness or diarrhoea bug they will need to be kept off Preschool for at least 48hours after the last bout.

If your child requires medicine administering during the day whilst they are with us then we will ask you to fill out and consent on our medication forms. For further information please ask to see our Medication Policy.

Yes, we support children in the process of potty training, and our staff are trained to assist with this transition. We will do our best to accommodate any procedures you may have during this process although will keep you informed if…

Please make sure you consider what you are dressing your child in if they are in the early stages of potty training so they can help themselves or be easily changed by an adult.

Good Communication with parents and families is of the utmost importance to us. We use lots of ways to keep in touch with you such as weekly updates on our app, emails, newsletters, individual reports or parent-key worker pop ins. We also speak daily at drop off/pick up times to keep you updated on your child’s progress and discuss any important events. We also have a Parents Area on our website with useful links and information.

Yes – when all our sessions and spaces are full, we do maintain a waiting list. We will hold your child’s details on the waiting list unless we hear that you no longer want a place and will contact you as soon as a space becomes available. We always try our best to accommodate your requirements but this is not always possible. We reserve the right to make a judgement on who we select to begin dependent on chronological age and staff/ room ratios. **** *Feel free to contact us for more information about this or read our admissions policy.

We are very lucky to have the use of a large carpark at the front of the church and our garden area where you can park and walk your child up to the Church hall building where preschool is based. Sometimes parking can be very busy if there are other events on at the church but we will try to notify you in advance if it will be busier than usual.

Once your child has settled after first joining St Mary’s we place your child into a key worker group with a member of staff who they have developed a strong relationship with. We also look at which Key Worker groups may have other children in who allow your child to feel safe and secure. Our key worker groups are mixed aged with both upper and lower preschool age children which we feel really benefits our children and gives them confidence to chat and build key relationships within these smaller group times. You will then be introduced to your child’s key worker and will be invited to an initial pop in meeting to discuss how your child has settled in with us.

Please ensure you send your child with items like a change of clothes, wellies, all in one, a water bottle, sunscreen. Your child will have their own individual peg and can keep a bag with these items in on them throughout the term.

We strive to accommodate children with diverse learning needs. Please let us know if your child requires specific support so that we can tailor our approach and resources to help them thrive. We will invite you as parents to have regular meetings with our SENCO and your child’s key worker so we can discuss how we aim to support your child’s individualised needs.

Info coming soon.

At St Mary’s we use positive reinforcement and gentle redirection to guide behaviour. Our teachers work with children as individuals to help them understand appropriate behaviour and encourage social skills through communication and empathy. We endeavour to work alongside families to ensure we have a consistent and manageable approach to behaviour and we may invite you in to ensure we regularly update, monitor and discuss how your child is doing in the setting.
*Please ask to read our current Behaviour policy for more information about this.

For Sports Coach sessions (days may change termly) children are required to wear trousers/ leggings or jogging bottoms, socks and comfortable trainers. No jewellery or tights please. Please label all clothing, footwear and bags.

If you decide you wish to leave Preschool and give up your child’s place we will require you to give us written notice either by email or handwritten. The period of notice is one term in writing or one term’s fees in advance.

As involved as you would like!! You may have a talent you would like to share, want to come to read a story with our children, help tidy out the garden, be amazing at fundraising and would like to help and support our many events throughout the year (e.g. the summer fayre or Christmas celebration day) or have a unusual or interesting job.

We always welcome any type of support or involvement from our parents and families and love to ensure we build the best possible partnerships with you as our children’s families.

You know your child the best so it is incredibly important that we listen to you as parents and ensure we can adapt to meet the needs of your child. We ask you to ensure you give us regular feedback through either our parental questionnaires or verbal feedback to staff so we can be reflective in our practise.