About Us
Almond Bud is a privately owned Nursery and Pre-School established in December 2020.
Our setting is homely, warm and friendly and aims to provide quality, affordable early childhood learning and care to children aged 3 months to 5 years, to give them the best possible start in life.
We offer a wide range of enjoyable early educational childhood activities, pre-school lessons and other learning resources.
Here at Almond Bud, we have spacious, bright, well equipped child friendly rooms and an outdoor area where your child can explore and learn through play. Our staff ratio is high in all the rooms, exceeding Ofsted recommendations.
We are open Monday to Friday from 7.00 am to 6.30 pm, for fifty-one weeks of the year except for bank holidays and one week at Christmas.
Each child is valued as a unique individual and we work to meet the individual needs of all the children at our nursery.
Our Early Years provision is of a consistently high standard, and we continually look for ways to improve the quality of the learning, development and care we offer.
We plan our daily activities using the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum. We organize a balance of child-initiated and adult-led play-based activities that ensure every child receives an enjoyable and challenging learning and development experience as well as allowing plenty of opportunities to play and interact with other children.
Staff give children the support and attention they need to promote their learning and ensure they are generally well occupied. The development of each child is monitored closely, observations are recorded regularly and discussed with parents. Summative development records are completed twice a year and parent consultations are held to discuss these. We use these records to identify learning priorities for each child and to plan activities that will help them make further progress in all areas of learning.
Each child is assigned a member of staff who becomes their ‘key person’. The key person leads the assessment and planning and works closely with the parents to ensure the child’s welfare, learning and development needs are met effectively.
Here at Almond Bud, we strive to form strong partnerships with parents and carers. Our Staff finds out about each child’s background, needs and interests to ensure that each child is fully included and cared for effectively.
Parents and carers are well informed of our policies and procedures which are displayed in the nursery. We use the Tapestry mobile app, newsletters, notice boards and displays to keep parents informed of our children’s daily experience.
Parents can speak to the staff daily about their child’s care, view their progress records and experience how their child learns through play.
Continuous Improvements
Our well-qualified and experienced staff are enthusiastic and share the vision to improve outcomes for all children. Staff are encouraged to develop their knowledge and skills by attending further training. We conduct regular staff appraisals to assess their performance and address any areas for development.
Our Aims and Objectives
Our Mission Statement
Our setting is designed to foster a love of learning and exploration in children.
We believe in the importance of a holistic approach to learning, which considers each child’s unique needs and interests.
We strive to maintain a safe and healthy environment for all children in our care.
We are dedicated to building positive relationships with families, and we value open communication and collaboration with parents and caregivers.
Our Vision
To create the best possible environment for children to learn and thrive
To create a great workplace for colleagues to grow and excel
To create and build strong partnerships with families
Our Values
Ambitious and challenging curriculum and environment
Secure and happy environment
Safe and caring
Excellence in delivery
Trusting relationships for both children and parents
Our Programmes
Maths at 3: We are continuing our partnership with the Centre for Early Mathematics Learning. We are part of the research which is investigating how children develop maths skills. We are proud to be supporting research and improving children’s early maths education.
There are regular visits from our partners to see each child individually for approximately 20-25 minutes. They do some fun activities with them and in some of these activities will ask them questions about numbers, for example to do some counting or comparing, do some pointing or naming pictures. The children always feel comfortable and have fun.
Language: We believe that children can benefit from learning a second language. This new language can contribute to brain development in the areas of memory, speech, and sensory processing. It’s a great boost to child’s self-esteem; even being able to use some simple words and phrases can give children a sense of achievement.
There are many benefits of young children learning a second language, it starts them on this path early, then strong solid foundations are laid to build on as they progress through school.
We do this by using the new languages they hear through simple, everyday activities and songs.
We run weekly Spanish language sessions for our Almond Buds.
Music: Music has so many benefits and musical concepts and developmental ideas are introduced through song, rhythm, and movement. We have fun, structured music sessions through which we improve social interaction, language, and coordination through movement to music and rhyme.
We run fun-filled, lively and imaginative music classes and sessions for children. Music is inherent in its ability to stimulate memories, minds, and bodies. There are originally composed songs for children, using sensory props to encourage engagement and education. These sessions are filled with humour, songs, classical music, and imaginative themes .