Blossom

About Us

Welcome to Blossom Lodge Day Nursery. This is an exciting and important stage in your child’s development. This is the time when learning through play and the development through the senses can be maximised through planned activities and a wide variety of resources.

We will assist you in this transition and keep you fully informed of the development
milestones that your child progresses through each step of the way. To support you further
we have produced this welcome pack which contains ample information for your perusal. We hope that you will find it useful as we begin a very important phase of your child’s learning.

As a nursery we aim to:

•Recognise you as parents/carers to be the main carers and educators of your child[ren] and
to work in a supportive role with you.

•Provide a safe, loving environment where your children can be cared for, thrive, learn and be
happy.

•Provide a wide range of learning opportunities and enriching experiences designed to
Encourage your child to reach his or her full potential.

•Keep you as parents/carers fully informed of your child’s progress and of current events
within the nursery by way of discussion between you as parents/carers, letters posted in
your child[ren]’s individual trays and by keeping notice boards up-to-date.

•Promote a respect for the environment and for other persons, irrespective of culture, ability,
belief, language or gender and to encourage within your child, high self esteem,
self-discipline and good manners.

•Provide a high ratio of qualified and experienced staff and to make training opportunities
available to staff, and the resources to extend their knowledge and skills.

•Run the nursery in a professional manner, thus ensuring high quality of care and continuing improvements of standards.

Your child will be settled into one of four age-related groups, this is flexible depending on your child’s development. We are registered to accept children from the age of three months to five years, and the staff/child ratios and more information about the rooms are shown below:

Ladybirds Room

Our younger children join the Ladybirds Room where you, as parents/carers, alongside our qualified and experienced staff can work together to ensure a smooth transition from home to nursery. The children in this room are aged 3 – 15 months old and the ratio of staff to children is 1:3.In Ladybirds we endeavour to achieve the highest standards by providing a safe, stimulating and happy atmosphere, with a high ratio of staff to children and a good balance of care and understanding of your child’s needs. We are sure that your child will settle in quickly and enjoy their time with us and that you will, as a family, begin to feel at home with us and get to know and develop a confidence in our staff team.


Throughout the day the children explore through heuristic play with the open ended equipment provided. The learning environment also includes access to messy play activities such as Baked Bean Play, sand, water etc. We also provide treasure baskets for the babies to explore, these are full of objects that are natural or made from natural materials. Babies respond more intensely to these materials and more muted colours, they are encouraged to explore the texture, taste, smell and sound of objects, not just the look of them. Our new sensory area, with lights, shapes and textures helps stimulate their senses.

We strive to encourage each child’s exploratory impulses and natural inquisitiveness; more often than not this involves a lot of messy play. For this reason we ask you to put your child in suitable nursery clothing that lets them express themselves without the boundary of us trying to keep little bits of paint etc. off their clothes, which will inevitably happen! We have a lovely array of the babies’ artwork and photographs displayed in the playroom so you can see what a fun time they have learning.

The babies individual routines are generally quite easy to fit into the rooms routine and we are able to offer sleep times throughout the day and can give babies bottles as required. You will be given a ‘Baby routine form’ to complete when your baby starts with us that will show us what their routine is like at home so we can keep it similar at nursery. This form will need updating regularly as your babies routine may change quite often so please keep us informed.

Bumblebees Room

From the Ladybirds Room, the children move on to join our Bumblebees Room where they are further encouraged to participate in the many varied opportunities provided. The age range in this room is 12 months to 2 years and the ratio of staff to children is 1:3.

Bumblebees children love to explore using all of their senses with their new found independence and mobility. All aspects of your child’s development are enhanced through play and social interaction in a relaxed and homely environment.

In Bumblebees Room the children participate in varied activities with the emphasis on learning through Play, activities are provided to enhance the children’s interests. We have a wide variety of open ended equipment which the children can access and explore.Bumblebees children like to get messy, as do we.

Caterpillars Room

Caterpillars children are aged 2 years to 3 years old, and the ratio of staff to children is 1:5 they benefit from more structured play as their concentration levels expand. This lively, happy room is full of children further developing their skills with the support of our enthusiastic staff. Language, independence, social skills and all other areas of development are further developed through free play, and fun, well-planned activities. Caterpillar children love imaginary play; we encourage this further with lots of dressing up, stories and role play activities.

Caterpillars is usually the age group where toilet training is introduced, starting at home and supported by nursery. We have a toilet training guide that is available to all parents with nursery procedures, tips and support.

Butterflies Pre-school Group

When the children are 3 years old they join our Butterflies Pre-school Group and the ratio of staff to children is 1:8 here the knowledge and skills acquired in our other groups, together with the children’s other day-to-day experiences are developed. With a relaxed atmosphere and a balanced mix of structured activities and free play, confidence and a desire to learn are nurtured in each individual child. We are very proud of our children as we help to nurture them and prepare them for school.

Children’s play and interests are carefully observed in order to monitor their progress, access individual needs, and appropriately plan the child’s next step in their learning and development. The curriculum is child-centred; it arises from the interests of the children. Staffs have trained in the Reggio Emilia approach. This approach is based on the belief that children construct their own theories and knowledge, through the relationships that they build with other people, and the surrounding environment.

Butterflies do a lot of experimental and investigative activities, these encourage the children, and it does not put pressure on them to produce an outcome e.g. a painting, whilst still learning and exploring, it forms a child centred curriculum that arises from the interests of each child.

The team celebrates all the achievements of the children and they are encouraged to ask questions and express discoveries, as play and talk are the main ways they learn. The team actively encourages the children to take part in planning their activities, this results in a greater enthusiasm for what they are doing and pride in their own achievements, it also greatly enhances confidence. The children’s work and photos of the learning process are displayed. We encourage children to bring things of interest in from home that we may be able to develop in nursery for example, leaves they found on a walk in the woods, photos of a family wedding etc.

Funded childcare hours:
We accept the use of Government funded hours for children aged 9mths - 23mths, 2 years and 3 years. Further information of how the funded hours are applied at Blossom Lodge is shared with parents on enquiry.