Our Baby Room ‘ Turtles’

This January 2024 we are really excited to open our newly extended Turtles Rooms. We have a new additional play room and lots more bright & welcoming spaces, organised around the needs of babies from Birth to 2yrs.  

Turtles Activities…For our Turtles babies, we incorporate a broad range of experiences into each day.  A sample of what you can expect to see on your baby’s daily diary would include: 

• Messy play with paint, water, wobbly jelly, spaghetti, gloop or play dough, making for such happy moments, as the children enjoy the feeling of new experiences with their friends 
• Dancing and singing and playing musical instruments with the little ones is such great noisy fun
• Inside and outside toys and play equipment - push and pull-along and ride-on toys, explore the playhouse, sandtray, baby trampoline, slide and swings
• Walks to the park in buggies and around the fields, to give the babies lots of fresh air
• Imaginative play- including home corner, dressing-up, dolls and buggies
• Reading corner – many musical and noisy books, soft play books, books to encourage baby eyes
• Natural exploration table – touching and experiencing a number of items found in daily life
• Young Baby Exploration- including baby gyms, swings, rattles, soft toys and books
• Large Play Equipment- tunnels, slides, climbing frame, rockers, baby walkers and static bouncers
• We use our gardens a great deal and especially in the warmer months, we spend a lot of time outside for play. We have a smooth surface playground where the babies can play in cars and be pushed in ride-ons  - this area helps us in wet weather too.

Our Turtles Team - Our baby area is supervised by qualified and well-trained staff, who care and nurture your baby, whilst providing stimulating and interesting activities, relevant to the developmental needs of each baby. 

Throughout the year, all staff are offered opportunities for personal and professional development, allowing them to update their knowledge continuously. Practical courses such as First Aid and Food Safety are also undertaken regularly.

Our “Key Person” system ensures that your baby is assigned to a carer who is responsible for:

• Welcoming your baby into nursery upon arrival for each session
• Looking after your baby’s every need whilst in their care, including lots of cuddles
• Making written progress reports, as well as giving verbal feedback to parents
• Supervising high chairs & tables at meal times and encouraging cutlery use, drinking from a cup/beaker and good table manners
• Providing a wide variety of experiences to encourage your baby’s development
• Undertaking a personalised Learning Journey of your baby’s learning journey, capturing special moments on camera for keepsakes and referencing those points to the Early Years Outcomes, noting relevant progress to your baby’s age

At the end of the nursery day, a member of our team will report to you on the activities and adventures your baby has enjoyed during their session.

Our food..Meals offering nutritional balance for the under 5’s is vital. Our menus consist of familiar meals that you would serve to your family at home – all cooked by Toni, our in-house cook. 

We are proud of our continued 5* star food hygiene rating and we are included in the online rating scheme set up by the Uttlesford Environmental Health Department and by nature of our business, hygiene is paramount and a reassurance to our parents.

Our menu rotates on a four weekly basis, so that the children all experience the different dishes.  We try to capture the childrens food imagination by having lots of variety and involving them as much as possible at meal times.

Our day in Turtles begins with breakfast from 8am, ranging from baby cereals to weetabix, baby porridge and/or toast, followed by play-time and your baby’s individual morning routine.  At 10.30/mid-morning, we all sit down for a baby “snack-time”, consisting of fruit, various suitable baby snacks and milk/water.  At midday we eat either a homemade hot lunch or cold buffet and/or any dietary variation as discussed during our “family meeting times”.   The afternoon consists of baby-snack, fruit, baby biscuits etc., followed by hot dinner or finger food at 4.30pm as our final meal of the day.  

What if we have special dietary needs.. We cater for all dietary needs, including wheat-free, dairy-free and many other important dietary combinations. We can also provide vegetarian alternatives to all our meals. Please do speak to one of our staff should you wish to make any changes to your baby or toddlers meal options, we’ll happily plan an alternative dietary-menu wherever needed. 

What should we bring in from home?...All that you will be required to bring is your own nappies and your preferred choice of formula milk, a change of clothes, a warm coat and to help baby to settle, a comforter.  We provide sudocream to use at nappy changing and factor 50 sun cream for the warmer months. (If you have an alternative cream or product you’d like us to use, please speak with a member of the team.)

Potty Training…When you begin potty training just let us know and we will work alongside you, to encourage and support your toddler at this important milestone.

Settling in Sessions…At Freedom, we support and encourage flexible settling-in sessions.  We offer one free taster session, to give you and your baby a feeling of how much fun nursery can be. If you’re happy with us, we invite you back for your settling-in sessions, to enable you to meet your key worker complete our Settling In form. We want you to feel involved and included in nursery life, as we understand that your baby is your most precious treasure. This time also offers opportunity for you to share with us anything you feel would ease the settling in process. We ask that you complete a Turtle Baby Settling-In Record, this provides us with details of your current baby routine, so that we can follow this whilst your baby is with us at Nursery.

Home/Nursery Diary…Our babies have a Daily Diary which is written in by our staff – detailing all the activities, sleeps, nappies, snacks and meals that your baby has enjoyed. 

Learning Journey & Curriculum…The babies follow a curriculum loosely based around topics like ‘food’, ‘light and dark’ &‘people who help us’ – the activities for the Turtles are all involving and age related. We celebrate all languages, religions and special days throughout the year. All our babies and children have a Learning Journey. This scrapbook follows your baby through nursery, containing samples of artwork, photos and observations which is always available for you to look at on a daily basis and given to you as a memento of your baby’s time with us when they leave.

Your baby’s personal belongings…Turtles have personalised coat pegs and a large personalised drawer for nappies, changes of clothes and comforters and anything that you would like to leave here with us. These trays and hooks are located in the Turtle/Terrapin room.

Slippers - We like children to have a set of indoor and outdoor shoes. Please provide your child with a pair of slippers or other suitable indoor shoes. You can leave these at nursery or take them home each time

Wellington Boots - Please provide a pair of named Wellington Boots for your child in the wetter months. These can be left at nursery or taken home each time. You will find a bag on your childs peg to store them in.

Spare Clothes ­ - Please provide us with a spare set of clothes for your child in case they need changing. Even if they are fully potty trained, garden, water or sand play can lead to a change of clothes.

Water Bottles - We have baby beakers in the room and encourage your baby to drink regularly.

Nappies – All the babies have a storage drawer for nappies and other personal items & spare clothes.

If your baby is ill - We ask that you do not bring them to nursery. Please ring us and let us know you will not be attending and if you need any advice, we will gladly offer an opinion.

We hope you and your family enjoy your time at Freedom. Please ask any questions you may have of us all, we are happy to help. Best wishes, Jules & Kath and all the Freedom Team