Everything That You Need to Know

We love to welcome new children to our daytime family, but we do have waiting list for our most popular sessions. To find out if we have availability for what you need, please get in touch by submitting an enquiry here or giving us a call.

Ready to join our family - that’s great news. Please complete our registration form and we will be in touch.

https://www.katiebkids.co.uk/registration-page

For ease we have created a Kit List that includes all the essential items that your child will need for a day at KatieB Kids. In creating this list, we have considered sustainability, the season and what your child needs to be comfortable, safe, and able to enjoy everything that we offer in our nursery. We also have some recommendations for kit that we have found works well. Find full details of our Kit List here.

Early years education is governed by strict guidelines that state the required staff for each age group that we care for. These are:

3-23 months 1:3

24-35 months 1:5

36 months to 5 years 1:8

We recognise that some activities, such as outings and woodwork will require adjustments to this, and we always have more staff to ensure that we can assess risk, and deploy our team to maximise the opportunities for our children.

We love food at KatieB Kids, we have a 16 week rolling menu with professionally considered meals and snacks to meet all nutritional requirements and to promote good food habits. Our weekly bulletin will remind parents what week menu we are on.

The home visit is an opportunity for an educator from your child's room and a member of our management team to meet your child in their home environment where they feel safe and secure. It's also an opportunity for you as parents to ask any questions you have and alleviate those final worries! When your child then comes to nursery for their first settling-in session, they'll recognise the 'safe' people who came to see them at home, which helps the process run more smoothly. These visits usually last for about an hour.

Settling-in sessions are booked in over roughly a fortnight before your child's official start date. The first one will last for about an hour, and then the remaining sessions will get incrementally longer so that your child gradually builds up their time spent at nursery. We use the information you provide on your child's All About Me to set-up specific activities and opportunities that we know they will particularly enjoy. We advise that these sessions are without parents, as children will often stick to their parents and not explore the environment or start to develop bonds with their educators if they are present. However, if your child was to become distressed to the point that their emotional wellbeing was significantly impacted, we could be flexible in allowing you to accompany your child for short periods. Our coffee lounge upstairs at the chapel is also available for you to use during your child's settling-in sessions if you want to remain close by, but without them being able to see you!

Every day in our nursery we are actively and proactively looking, listening, and noticing, not only what makes each child ‘tick’, but how each child plays, interacts, and learns. If we had any emerging concern about a child’s progress and development, we discuss this with parents promptly. We dissect the best way to achieve maximum learning for every child considering their schema, learning style and interests, alongside anything that we know could impact upon their wellbeing – perhaps a change to family circumstances. We achieve this through building close relationships with our families, and offering professional support to our educators, and supporting warm, detailed and genuine handovers every day. We do our very best to capture images of all our children to share through our digital parent portal. We want our parents to enjoy receiving pictures of their child at nursery, and we know how important it is that families feel part of their child’s day when they are at work. We share weekly insight bulletins, lead workshops and produce extensive resources to support linked to our ethos and values. Finally every parent receives a termly report on the progress of their child, including ideas for home.

We will use the daily handover to share information with you verbally, how your child has been, and what they have been doing. It is important for the children that we do not spend unnecessary time completing paperwork when they will benefit more from our direct attention, and we believe that a verbal informed handover is more personal and relevant for you. In addition to your handover we send families weekly bulletins that capture insights from the week from every room, with explanations and key information that we think you need or would want to know.

We recommend children wear clothing that they are comfortable in and which enable them to move freely. Our children love messy play, so please don’t send your child to nursery in any clothing you don’t want to risk getting messy. You will need to provide your child with weather-appropriate clothing for outdoor adventures, with their name clearly visible in each item of clothing. In summer, we provide factor 50 sun-cream, but you may provide your own if you prefer.

If your child’s key person is in nursery, they would always want to deliver the handover upon collection. However this is not always possible, as they may be required to support other children in the room. Be reassured that all our educators know every child in their room well, and will always provide you with all necessary information about your child’s day. You are always welcome to request a meeting with your child’s key person if you would like a more thorough catch-up.

It is a legal requirement for children in Early Years education to have access to the outdoors. If your child isn’t well enough to go outside, then they shouldn’t attend nursery for that day.

We ask for all children to be dressed for the weather.

To enable us to be flexible in the routines within the nursery and to maximise benefit to the children we ask for consent on registration for children to partake in daily outings without notice.

We are unable to care for children with sickness and/or diarrhoea, a fever with a temperature of 101F/38C or above, a continuous cough, chickenpox, measles, mumps, meningitis, hepatitis, a virus or any unexplained rash. Should a child develop such symptoms while they are at the nursery, you will be contacted to collect your child. The Department of Public Health guidelines state that 48 hours must have passed since the final episode of diarrhoea or vomiting before children return to a childcare facility. For COVID illness we will follow government policy.

High Temperature- If a child develops a temperature whilst at nursery, we will call and ask that they are collected within 90 minutes. With your consent, we can administer 5ml of Calpol to your child while they are waiting for you, but this is only under the proviso that they will not be staying at nursery for the remainder of the day. This is because we are unable to provide the 1:1 care that an ill child needs. A child who has been sent home with a temperature will need to remain home from nursery for at least 24 hours.

Vomiting and diarrhoea- For a child experiencing vomiting and/or diarrhoea, parents will be contacted to collect within 90 minutes and the child must stay at home for 48 hours after the last episode, to prevent the spread of infection.

Unexplained rash- if a child develops an unexplained rash, we will call for them to be collected within 90 minutes, and ask that you seek advice from a GP or pharmacist before they can return to nursery, to establish that it is not caused by an illness that requires isolation from the setting.

Not feeling quite themselves- Our educators are very attuned to the children in their care and notice when they're feeling under the weather or not quite their usual selves. In these instances, we give parents a courtesy call to make them aware, and leave it to their discretion if they would like to collect their child. If a child develops a temperature, rash, sickness or diarrhoea, or their emotional wellbeing is deemed to be significantly impacted, then we would require them to be collected within 90 minutes.

It's completely normal for children to feel emotionally unsettled sometimes, for lots of different reasons. If a child becomes emotionally deregulated or particularly upset at nursery, we use emotion coaching to support them to self-regulate, but in instances where no strategies are able to calm the child down, we will contact parents to collect them from nursery. We treat a child in a prolonged state of emotional distress in the same way we would a child who was physically unwell.

If you have given your child Calpol or Nurofen within 4 hours before bringing them into nursery, they will not be permitted to attend. If you want to alleviate pain and symptoms associated with teething, then there are products that are effective, but do not contain paracetamol or ibuprofen. Calpol or other medicines containing paracetamol/ibuprofen could mask the symptoms of an underlying illness or infection, which would be difficult to manage without 1:1 care from an adult.

If your child is prescribed antibiotics, they will need to remain at home for a minimum of 48 hours after starting treatment.

This policy is in place for two important reasons:

1. Recovery and infection control: Antibiotics are only prescribed when a child has been unwell, usually with an illness that could be contagious or that leaves them tired and needing extra care. The 48-hour period allows time for the medicine to take effect and reduces the risk of spreading infection to others.

2. Monitoring for adverse reactions: Most antibiotic side effects or allergic reactions occur within the first 48 hours of starting treatment. Keeping your child at home during this time allows parents to observe them in a safe environment and to seek medical attention promptly if needed.

For these reasons, children cannot return to nursery within 48 hours of starting antibiotics, even if they appear well. We apply this policy consistently to protect the health and safety of all children in our care.

Parents / guardians must never bring any medication or food into the nursery in the child’s belongings. Children have open access to the cloakrooms to develop independence when getting ready for the outside adventure or for home and this is a serious hazard.

For any accidents involving a bump to the head, you will be informed via telephone as soon as the accident has happened. It is our policy to also do this if your child has been bitten, as whilst this is a normal behaviour for children, we recognise it can be a shock to hear. We have a blog post on biting behaviour in young children here, to help you understand why children bite and how we deal with it. An accident form will be filled out for all accidents on Nursery in a Box and you will receive a notification via the Parent Admin app. You will be verbally notified of any accidents at handover.

When you register your child, you are asked to create a ‘collection password’. This password must be provided by anyone collecting a child, other than their parents. If someone is collecting your child for the first time, we ask for a photo of them so that they can be easily identified. Please let us know in advance if you anticipate someone else picking up your child.

In order to protect children with allergies, we only serve food which has been prepared on site and which we can guarantee do not contain any potential allergens.

On a child’s birthday, we are happy to present them with a cake and candles and, where possible, film them being presented with the cake whilst ‘Happy Birthday’ is sung, to be uploaded to Nursery in a Box. We then leave it to each parent’s discretion as to whether or not they would like to take a slice home for their child. We need an ingredients list so that we can see exactly what ingredients they contain.

We have a diverse cohort of children at KatieB Kids, and recognise festivals from a broad range of cultures, to support our children in learning about people of different faiths and backgrounds. If you, as a family, celebrate a specific festival, we would love for you to share ideas of activities we could try at nursery such as recipes, songs, dances or decorations. The Prescolare children, in particular, love to share their experiences with their peers.

Holidays offer wonderful development opportunities for children and quality family time but unfortunately holidays are charged at the normal session rate to reserve the child’s place at nursery. If you are planning a holiday, you should let us know in advance so we can record this on our register. The nursery has a duty to inform Kent County Council where children are in receipt of Early Years Free Entitlement are absent for more than two consecutive weeks in a term. If you decide to withdraw your child from the nursery, you are required to give 1 month’s notice. If you wish to re-join at a later date, you will be required to re-register and will only be offered a place if there is availability at that time. A child who has been withdrawn from the nursery cannot re-join less than 2 months after their leave date.

Bank holidays are charged so that our dedicated, hard-working team still get paid.

Training days are charged for, too, as they allow our educators to engage in high quality professional training, led by genuine experts who are commissioned to present. These enriching, inspiring and motivating days will allow us to ensure that we are delivering continuous improvement of our practice to enhance the experience that all of our children have within our nursery. We strongly believe that it is in the interests of the nursery, the children, families, and the individual, that each educator is given every opportunity to develop their skills and to broaden their knowledge in early years provision. We hope that you agree that a commitment to an employee enrichment culture alongside a professional development programme is important to ensure that our team can thrive, enabling our children to reach their unique potential and to become independent, confident, and emotionally intelligent individuals. We rotate our training days so that families are not penalised on any one day.

Accounts will be reconciled by nursery owner, Katie, on a weekly basis. Therefore your payments will not immediately be reflected on your Parent Admin account. If your payment has not been received by the 5th day of the month, you will receive a reminder email.

Invoices are sent out in the last week of the month for the upcoming month. Payment can be made by standing order or bank transfer and should be received by the 5th day of each month. A late payment fee of 5% of the total invoice will be imposed for payment made over 7 days beyond the 5th of the month. Payments not received by the 19th of the month will impose a penalty fee of 10% and the child’s place in nursery will be suspended. Fees are reviewed every April against the operation costs for the setting which includes annual staff salary increases. At least one month written notice of increase will be given. To leave the nursery one month’s written notice is required to the nursery manager.

If a child is collected late from the nursery, then in order to avoid infringing legal requirements the nursery must pay for additional staffing. To cover this cost a late collection fee of £10 within the first 15 minutes and an additional £10 for every 15 minutes thereafter will be imposed. In situations where a child is collected late on more than 5 occasions throughout their time at the nursery the regular late collection fee will be doubled from then on until the child leaves the nursery. If late collection persists even after the rate has been doubled, we reserve the right to terminate the child's place at the nursery.

For working families that require full day care and booking patterns over the whole year we offer a reduction in fees through government support. Invoices for funded weeks will reflect the cost of consumables, the additional hours, and the local authority funded hours that we have applied. Holiday weeks will reflect our private fee rate.

For families accessing our funded only booking patterns, invoices will reflect the local authority funded hours that we have applied and a consumable fee.

The cost of consumables is calculated to maintain our quality and to ensure that we can sustainably offer the highest standards of care and enable a commitment to reinvestment to the nursery.

You may be eligible to claim 15 or 30 hours’ funding for your child from the first term after they turn 9 months old. You can find out how to apply for this here, and then provide the nursery with your eligibility code once it is issued to you. The nursery manager will then be able to send you a parental declaration form to sign so that they can claim funding.