About Pre-School

Our aim is to provide and ensure that the service we offer is the best available in the area.

We are open term time only- 5 days a week!

We are a vibrant, energetic, fully inclusive setting, and everyone is welcome to join us.

We offer a caring, nurturing environment that supports children as individuals, building confidence and independence while developing curiosity and a love of learning. The children learn through a varied and exciting continuous provision and small adult-led groups.

Sharing and development of friendships is the focus of everything we do.

Our premises are self-contained and comprise of a spacious central space, a small quiet room, kitchen and toilets which are decorated and furnished to a high standard. We also have access to a safe and secure outdoor play area which the children can access throughout the day under the supervision of our staff. The outside area consists of two artificial grass areas, one of which is undercover and a patio area.  This enables the children to have access to the outside area in all weathers.

Children attend from the local community and from across the whole of Melton and the surrounding villages. This means our children progress through primary schools throughout the borough.

The manager of the pre-school (Mandy Whitelocks) has Early Years Professional Status and a BA Honours in Education Studies and the deputy manager (Emma Sharpe) holds a Foundation Degree in Children and Young Peoples Services.  Our staff are highly qualified and undertake continuous professional development to maintain the highest standards of childcare practice in line with current legislation.  We provide higher ratios of staff to children than required by the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework.

This enables us to:

§   Give time and attention to each child

§   Talk with the children about their interests and activities

§   Help children to experience and benefit from the activities we provide

§   Allow the children to explore and be adventurous in safety

Meet The Staff

Name	Job Title	Qualifications
Mrs Mandy Whitelocks	Manager/ SENDCO Deputy Safeguarding Lead	Early Years Professional Status Level 6.   BA Honours Degree in Education Studies Early Language Lead Practitioner (ELLP)
Mrs Emma Sharpe	Deputy Manager Deputy Safeguarding Lead	Foundation Degree in Children & Young People’s Services. (Early Years) (Level 5).
Mrs Claire Hughes	Assistant	CACHE Level 3 Diploma in Pre-school Practice
Mrs Lisa Armitage	Assistant	BETC National Diploma Caring Services (Nursery Nursing)
Miss Harrie Day	Assistant	BTEC NVQ Level 3 in Children’s Care Learning and Development.
Miss Heidi Farrow	Assistant	Advanced Level Apprenticeship in Early Learning and Childcare
Mrs Jess Southam	Assistant	Working towards Level 3 Early Years Educator.

All staff have the full paediatric first aid qualification which is updated every three years.

All staff have basic Makaton sign language training which is used throughout the sessions.  This supports the children with their expressive language development. All staff receive annual safeguarding training and have level 2 food hygiene.