Rainbow Day Nursery Lowestoft
Rainbow Day Nursery is Lowestoft's only co-operative nursery
The Rainbow Day Nursery is a parents co-operative providing day care for
pre-school children. Co-operative - meaning nursery is democratically owned and
controlled by parents. The committee members’ names are shown on our
notice board, all parents old and new are welcome to join.
The Rainbow Difference:
- Our aim is to provide a high standard of childcare, in a happy and
relaxed atmosphere. We offer a modern day approach to the traditional
educational and social development of children in our care. We operate a key
worker system ensuring that each child has a specific member of staff who is
responsible for the primary care of your child and ensuring that their time
at the nursery is to suit their individual needs. A positive link is then
created between the staff, child and parents. Rainbow also reaches out to the
wider community through the Little Raindrops mother & tots club held
regularly for parents and children living locally. As a co-operative venture
any profits from the nursery are ploughed straight back into the nursery for
the improvement of the facilities for the children.
Recent Projects:
Installation of a new safe playground surface. Fund raising for this was
through a variety of activities, including a fun day open to the wider
community and a sponsored marathon run by one of the fathers.
-
Creation of a professionally staffed kitchen. This has enabled the nursery
to provide healthy, locally sourced and freshly prepared food for the children.
Ages:
- Children aged between 3 months to 5 Years.
Opening times:
- Monday to Friday between 8:00am. and 6:00pm. It will be closed for
Christmas and Bank Holidays.
Finding Us
Camp Road –
LOWESTOFT - Suffolk - NR32 2LW
TEL (01502) 562 281
Email:
History
- The Rainbow Day Nursery has been running since August 1990 and became a
parent co-operative in November 1990. The co-operative structure means that
the nursery is democratically owned and controlled by the parents. We moved
to our current premises after having had several homes in April 2005,
hopefully we are here to stay for the forseeable future.
Staffing Levels
- The officers in charge (managers) are qualified with NNEB Diplomas. The supervisors are all
qualified to level 3 in childcare, the nursery assistants have relevant
qualifications and we strictly adhere to the staff/child ratio required under
the Children’s Act by Ofsted. We also provide training placements for
students on various courses.
Educational programme
- All children are entitled to 5 x 2 ½ hour sessions per week the term
after their 3rd birthday. We encourage the learning of colours and numbers,
co-ordination, imagination, language and social interaction through play,
rhymes, artwork, cooking, stories, role-play, playdough, sand, water, etc. We
encourage independence and good social skills so that the children can gain
confidence in their own ability. The staff monitor the development of the
children in the nursery and if we consider that a child is not developing in
certain areas we will speak to the parent and may contact the Health Visitor
to arrange an assessment.
Key areas we aim to develop
- • Personal and Social Development
- • Language and Literacy
- • Mathematics
- • Knowledge and Understanding of the World
- • Physical Development
- • Creative Development
The nursery has three age ranges as follows:
Ladybirds
- This first group is for 9 children aged from 3 months to 2 years. We join
our friends the Busy Bees and the Sunbeams for breakfast. We like to play
with our older friends who are between 2 and 5 years of age. After breakfast
we play in our room. We have free time when we can play with anything that
the big people can find.
We have three big people who play with us and change
our nappies. They also provide us with drinks and a snack. They do like us to
have fruit but sometimes we get biscuits. When the big people have cleared up
we have a messy time when we have the sand and water tray out, sometimes we
paint each other and use the play dough. Then it’s time to sleep. We
all go at different times but we all like to cry together to make our big
people work hard. Mum has to tell the big people whether I like to sleep in a
cot or a pushchair which are provided at our nursery.
Dinner time is usually
about 12:00 noon. Jackie, our cook, makes delicious and healthy hot dinners,
and I have great fun rubbing it in my hair and throwing most of it on the
floor. After dinner some of us go to the playground and play with the
Busybees in the big cars or with the balls. When we are tired we go back to
our lovely room. We play musical instruments and laugh at our big people
trying to sing. It’s soon home time and mummy has to drag me away from
my friends. Never mind, I can come back tomorrow and do it all again.
It’s a hard life!
Busybees
- Our second group caters for up to 16 children aged from 2 – 3
years. We kick off the fun at 8:00 a.m. when we sit down to breakfast,
followed by free play and table top toys of our choice. At 9:30 a.m. we like
to go outside for some lovely fresh air to enjoy playing with the bikes,
cars, balls and hoops.
The playground is full of laughter as we have lots of
fun playing our games. After a good buzz around we like to have our milk and
fruit to set us up for the rest of the morning. At 10:15 a.m. we have messy
play with sand, water, playdough and paints. We love to make a mess and
create as much havoc as possible. We also ice and decorate cakes and biscuits
that we sometimes have instead of fruit, then we tidy up and have misical
instruments and singing followed by a story before lunch at 12:00 noon.
Jackie, our cook, makes us a delicious and healthy hot dinner. It takes a
long time to eat our lunch and we make lots of mess. If it is not raining we
play outside on the bikes and cars or we can run around and chase each other
– we then come in and have activities like painting, sticking, sand and
water toys.
After we have tidied up the toys, we sit at the table together to
have fruit with milk or juice, then it’s free play again before singing
and tea which the nursery provides. Sometimes we help to make jelly or angel
delight for tea, but by this time lots of our mummy’s have come to take
us home but some of us stay and play with the toys. We have a real buzz being
Busybees!
Sunbeams
Our third group can cater up to 24 children aged from 3 years of age to 5. There are three grown-ups to look after and play with us. We love to get
messy with paint, sand and playdough. There are lots of activities like
cutting out, sticking and model making.
When we are clean we have puzzles and
games and a home corner where we change the theme - shop or a hospital etc.
There are times when we are quiet and helpful too. At circle time we talk and
listen to each other. We like to make lots of noise during singing, dancing
or when we are outside playing.
We love our story time when it’s time
to come in after play – this is then followed by us having our lunch.
After lunch up we jump to start the fun all over again – we are happy
little sunbeams.
Special Needs
- The nursery is flexible and can adapt to ensure all children enjoy their
early learning experiences.
Security
The safety and security of the children in our care is very important to us.
Parents sign their child in and out of each session. If someone different is
collecting a child the parent must arrange a password with the nursery and pass
it on to that person. That person must repeat this to a member of staff in
order to be able to collect the child.
The external gate is locked during outside play sessions and there is a
intercom system at the main door for entry. A further set of double doors
ensure that children cannot exit the nursery area without adult supervision.
We hope you have enjoyed this introduction to Rainbow Day Nursery.
Please send suggestions for improvement or changes to: