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Our Curriculum
We provide childcare for working and training parents as well as the “Free Early Education Entitlement”. The Early Education is open to anyone within our community as well as across Leeds and anyone who works or trains within the vicinity.
Learning through playWe believe that every child is as individual as their own fingerprint and therefore need to be treated equally but individually. We believe in the power of the child’s voice whether this is expressed through words, signing or babbling!
We feel that the best way to learn is through fun, imaginative and engaging play. Our staff model play and encourage children to partake in activities that they find engaging as well as freely accessing our learning environment.
We have planning in place that meets the needs of the children and they guide us in that planning by their interests and enthusiasm for new things.
To support children with emerging language, special educational needs, shyness or English as an additional language we promote the use of makaton which is a language programme that uses signs, symbols and spoken words.
The Early Education setting places inclusion as a high priority, with our main aims being to celebrate diversity, challenge racism, provide cultural capital and meet pupils' needs.
Because we value highly the partnership between home and nursery, we have a welcome visit to set the scene for this. This enables your child to get to know their key worker and learn more about our setting. This may take place at Nursery or within your home environment.
The welcome visit is the first stage in the process of transitioning into our setting.
We operate a key worker scheme that allows you to have a nominated person to build a bond with your child and it is this staff member who will provide the highest level of care for your child. However, our children get to know all the staff very quickly and may make their own choices in who they like to go to for different needs.
Following on from the welcome visit we start the transition into nursery. This is a big event in a child’s life, so we ensure we take each stage at their pace. We make sure a child is happy with each step of their journey into nursery before moving on to the next. The initial visit in nursery is done with a significant adult family member and the child, both in the room playing together. We then progress to a short visit for around 30min to a hour always placing the child’s needs at the heart of out practise. If the child is attending for full days, we would then have a lunch visit where a dinner can be enjoyed.
At Meadowfield we value and understand the importance for a child to build good skills to communicate effectively, and how this ability to communicate supports a young child’s learning and development. Therefore, alongside the welcome visits we have adapted a ‘shared reading’ program for all our families new to the setting. Two sessions where you and your child can come together to share reading experiences and activities with your child. Following these sessions, you have the opportunity to take a book home each week to share with your child from our very own book library. These sessions play an important part of our transition from home to nursery.
We strongly believe that it is important to respect a child's personal space and preference regardless of their age. Therefore intimate care takes place in a dedicated space and is done by a key worker or in their absence a familiar staff member that the child is comfortable with.
A big milestone in a child’s life is when they become toilet trained and begin to tend to some of their own needs. Our staff have a wealth of knowledge and experience to support families when needed on issues such as toileting, feeding and sleep routines. We also have links to Health Visiting teams and Children's Centre services that are available to provide individual support on a number of topics.
We believe in children becoming self-reliant and resilient as soon as they are able and work on the basis of scaffolding a child so that they can become independent thinkers and learners.
All our children can take part in fruit time whilst with us which takes place in a morning and afternoon. This encourages children to enjoy fruit and milk or water with their peers.
Our children are offered nutritionally balanced hot meals and snacks throughout the day.
We offer for breakfast: cereal, toast and fruit.
Morning snack: a choice of fruit with milk or water.
Lunch: a two course meal.
Afternoon snack: a choice of fruit with milk or water.
Light tea - warm snacks including scrambled eggs on toast, soft cheese bagels and a variety of pastas.
All meals are served with finger vegetables and a choice of milk or water.
For the food choices we offer we ask for a voluntary contribution of £2.65 each day.
Parents may wish to provide their child with a packed lunch and can do so following our school guidelines.
Dinner choices are made by staff on behalf of the children from a 3 week cycle of menus. Key workers make these choices based on children’s preferences. Our team follow the May 2025 DFE publication 'Early Years Foundation Stage nutrition guidance'. The link is here: Early Years Foundation Stage Nutrition Guidance
We have a “H.E.N.R.Y” trained member of staff and they focus on healthy eating, portion control and balanced nutrition.
Outdoor play is an essential part of any child’s lifestyle to aid their development and well-being. Many children prefer to be outdoors rather than in so we believe in all-year round play, wherever safe.
On those occasions when outdoor play is not possible, full body exercise is accessed via our movement play area where children can express themselves through dance, movement and exploration.
We are very fortunate at Meadowfield to have built up a highly skilled, well-established and committed staff team. As a small team we work closely together to do whatever we can to meet the holistic needs of our families with the child at the centre of what we do.
Our Early Education team is led by Managers who have all worked in Early Years, both School and Nursery based, for many years. We are passionate about children being able to access the best provision and strive to always aim higher.
We pride ourselves on being a friendly, honest and approachable team. We will endeavour to seek out support and signpost families where necessary if we are not able to provide a service or support as requested.
