FAQs with a Rockers Parent

Here at Rockers & Rollers Day Nursery we completely understand how daunting it can be for your children to start attending a new daycare setting. Whether it’s their first time in any setting at all, or whether you have decided to move them to us from somewhere else, we are here to support you in your decision making process.

And that’s why we thought it would be helpful to go through some of the Frequently Asked Questions that we receive from parents, giving not just our own, but a parent’s insight into matters to boot.

Emily and Simon Young have had two children under our care - Elodie in the Toddler’s room and Ovi in the Pre-School. With their two children, they have been through the experience of starting a child off for the first time in childcare (Elodie) and that of transitioning a child from elsewhere (Ovi). They have also now experienced the handover to primary school with Ovi, so they’ve got loads of great first hand experience with life at Rockers and Rollers!

So, just to kick us off, what made you choose Rockers and Rollers for your children?

We were extremely fussy when it came to choosing a childcare setting - I pretty much visited everything in a 10 mile radius of Wells and Rockers and Rollers was the last place I saw and I was bowled over at the difference between the atmosphere here compared with everywhere else I saw.

Firstly, even just on the phone, Natalie was so incredibly insightful, empathetic and well-informed and I could just tell that she and the team understood exactly what I needed and wanted from them for my children. So, I guess the thing that set them apart, for me, was the staff experience, insight and the hugely obvious degree to which they care about their children.

It’s quite a large child-care setting for Wells, Somerset - were you concerned about that?

In all honesty I was very worried about that - especially for my son who was going into the Rockers preschool after previously attending a really tiny village preschool. I was worried he would just find it far too overwhelming and chaotic. I was completely wrong.

The staff are so skilled at managing the children in their play, and in their day-to-day activities, that the whole place functions like a well-oiled, highly energetic, genuinely caring machine, everyday.

It’s been far more engaging for Ovi socially to have a bigger selection of children to play and learn alongside; he has learnt how to manage different friendship groups and how to behave in a larger group as well as in the smaller groups when they sit down to a task. And there has never been any shortage of one-to-one time for Ovi with his key worker, Ellie. I know that he feels nurtured and protected by his relationship with her but also excited at the various friendships that he has made.

They eat lunch at long tables all sitting down together in the main room in preschool and I only wish meal times at our house were so calm - the children tuck into their food and chatter and giggle whilst classical music and a good Disney selection of hits plays through the Alexa speakers!

How has Rockers and Rollers Day Nursery dealt with the Covid-19 situation?

We have been very impressed with how they have dealt with the whole situation, since lockdown and beyond. Ovi wasn’t in pre-school on the last day before lockdown as it wasn’t one of his regular days - but the staff found a way to make sure that we had all of his things returned to us and a lovely big pack of activities and ideas and information for us parents about how to continue his school preparation learning at home. We felt really supported by the staff’s continued presence through Tapestry, the online learning portal, where we could find videos of familiar key workers reading stories and chatting to the children about the PPE that they would find when they returned. I know they all worked so hard to stay open for key workers and they were really communicative throughout about what they could offer to key workers’ children.

Since the children went back after lockdown things have been well-managed and efficient. We have felt that the children are completely safe and secure with all the precautions put in place - and it’s actually much better for us to drop at the door as my daughter hates lengthy goodbyes!

How did you find the transition to school from Rockers and Rollers?

Our son has a complex care plan but the process of, firstly, producing his detailed plan, as well as obtaining the relevant funding solutions and the support network that we needed to take us across to primary school was entirely led and handled by the excellent Rockers and Rollers staff. In addition to this (and to make things even more challenging) we chose a school in a different area, with a different local authority, but none of this caused an issue for the staff - or, if it did, they hid it from me very well!

Without them, we wouldn’t have had the first clue what we needed to do and when - they held our hands throughout the process and, as a result, we have had the most amazing and really positive experience of starting school with Ovi. As a family, we have been able to focus entirely on the exciting event of moving to ‘big school’, without having to worry about how (or indeed whether!) his needs would be met. Everything was in place thanks to the detailed handover from Rockers and Rollers.

The biggest problem is that Ovi still wants to pop in, pretty much everyday, to show off his school uniform!

How was life down in the Toddler’s room?

Our daughter Elodie found it very difficult to start life at nursery as she has a lot of separation anxiety but the staff in the Toddler room couldn’t have been more supportive and helpful - with both her and me! I have spent a good amount of time standing in the car park hearing her screaming inside but they knew exactly what she needed and I always knew that she was in safe and caring hands. Whenever I collected her, she was beaming from ear to ear, and after her bumpy settling in period of screaming every morning, she was soon skipping out of the door and into nursery without a second glance backward. It’s pretty amazing considering how she started!

One of the things that bothered me about Ovi’s first pre-school was that he never came home with anything ‘to show’ from his days there - well, the same thing could not be said of life at Rockers and Rollers; everyday both children emerge with arms full of drawings, paintings, sculptures and examples of their learning. It’s truly lovely to see their pride at what they are making and achieving each day.

Of course, we’re sure you have many more questions about our setting down here at Rockers and Rollers and we are more than happy to chat with you about what your children’s needs might be and how we can best meet them.

Contact us here to talk more or to book a socially distanced viewing.

Life after Lockdown

We are so pleased to be back in action and to have our fabulous children back in the building; it’s been a very quiet place without them and it’s great to finally return to (something like) normal again.

As everyone knows, it’s been a challenging and unprecedented time being a childcare setting during lockdown, with constantly changing policies from the government and a lot of uncertainty about timeframes, safety requirements and the best way forward, but we worked hard throughout those few months to make sure that once our children and babies returned to our care, they could do so in the safest possible way for them, their families and our staff.

Our Covid-19 policy can be read in full here but suffice to say that we are doing everything we can to ensure that impeccable levels of hygiene are observed by our children, parents and staff throughout the day and that PPE is used when and where required. We have taken quite drastic steps to reorganise the play spaces, both inside and out, to facilitate the frequent cleaning of toys, resources and surfaces, as well as allow plenty of space for the children to move about with increased distance between them.

We are now able to allow parents and carers into the setting for tours and we are more than happy to do so. Here are some of the key things to look out for in our setting and bear in mind if you are considering a visit to us:

• Parents and carers are required to observe social distancing as they queue outside the setting at drop off and collection.

• Parents and carers are kindly asked to stay outside the setting, delivering children into our care in the porch area and leaving promptly to avoid clogging up the area.

• Every child entering the setting is required to wash their hands thoroughly on arrival.

• Children are escorted by staff members into their rooms and there is a minimum level of mixing between age-group bubbles throughout the day.

• Outside playtimes and mealtimes are organised according to the children’s social bubbles, to avoid excessive contact with other children.

• Frequent and thorough hand washing throughout the day is actively encouraged and undertaken (age appropriately).

• Toys and resources are pared down within play spaces and undergo frequent and thorough cleaning after every session and at the end of each day.

• Children are asked not to bring in toys from home and nothing is sent home from the setting beyond the children’s own drawings or art work.

Please read the full policy for more detailed information or contact the setting if you have any specific questions or concerns.

We will keep you in the loop as and when further changes are made to the policies, but, for now, thank you for working with us to ensure the safety of all of our Rockers & Rollers children and staff and let’s put our best foot forward into the new term!

Top Tips for Home Schooling Pre-Schoolers

It’s no mean feat keeping toddlers and pre-schoolers happy and occupied at home all day long; especially if you’ve got more than one of them - and not to mention all the other demands on your time, space and purse strings into the bargain!

Like most schools and childcare settings, we have been working hard to send age-appropriate packs of resources home to our families, providing a range of worksheets, colouring pages, activity ideas and more to try and help parents and carers carry the load as far as we can. But, if you are looking for a few fail-safe ideas to keep your little people occupied through long days and weeks, check out our Top 5 Tips below and we wish you happy, healthy days together.

Our Top 5 Tips

1. Treasure Hunts

There are so many ways you can do treasure hunts and keep your kids out of your hair for about the amount of time it takes to drink a cup of tea… which is something! If you’ve got time on your side, then go to town and make some clues (just pictures of the relevant hiding spots works if your children can’t read and you want them to do the whole thing without you) and hide a selection of things throughout the house, culminating in something they can either play with or eat!

If you’re low on time, you might want to hide items in the style of an easter egg hunt and send them off to find them. Small plastic animals work well for this - if they can find a whole zoo they can then build one out of lego for the animals!

2. Dance Party

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Crank up the tunes and everybody shake it!

3. Daily Journal

If you haven’t got any spare notebooks, simply grab a few sheets of A4 paper, any colour will do, fold them in half to fashion a book and staple down the spine. Allocate one page to each day, write the name of the day at the top of the page, spill out all the felt tips and pencils and ask the children to draw a picture of the best thing that happened to them that day. If you want to be a little more hands on then sit down with them to write a few sentences to sum up the best part of the day, if not, see what they can come up with themselves.

4. Ice Play

Freeze a selection of ice cubes in a range of colours and shapes - a drop of food colouring here and there will transform your cubes into a rainbow of colours. When the kids are bored, whip out a pile of tea towels, a bowl of warm water (to help the melting process along) some bowls, cups, spoons and anything else you can think of, empty out the ice cubes into a bowl and let their imaginations go wild. We’ve seen igloos, towers, imaginative cooking games and more come out of this activity!

5. Quiet Boxes

These are great - but there are a few rules to follow to make them work their best magic.

Find a small box for each child - a shoe box works well. If you’re really keen, you can get them to decorate it themselves in readiness. Each day the box will contain a ‘kit’ for the child to play with independently for around 15-30 minutes (depending on their age). You might find you have to accept only a short amount of time from this to begin with, and lots of requests to join them, but they get better with practice, we promise!

So, eventually, you can use the quiet box for a good length of time to replace screen time or allow you to make breakfast/lunch/dinner/do some work / have a cup of tea in peace!

Here are some ideas for the content of your boxes (just one selection of bits per box - don’t go too mad or they lose interest, strangely):

• A pile of lolly sticks / some toy animals / handful of cotton wool balls.

• A selection of buttons / letters and numbers drawn onto bits of card / bendy pipe cleaners.

• A few sheets of stickers / paper plates.

• a selection of beads / bendy pipe cleaners / paper cups.

• Lego people / matchsticks / coloured pompoms.