FUNDED PLACES
Funded Places for Children
Twinkles are registered for 2, 3 & 4 year funding. All 3 to 4 year olds in England are entitled to 570 hours of free early education or childcare per year. This can be used as 15 hours per week over 38 weeks of the year. The 38 weeks are spread over three terms, Spring, Summer and Autumn with the exact number of weeks in the terms varying slightly each year and are set by the local authority. In addition, some families can claim the extended entitlement, this is an additional 15 hours per week, bringing the number of hours per year to 1140.
Funded Places for 2-year-olds
Some 2-year-olds in England can also get free early education and childcare. To find out if you are eligible, visit the Childcare Choices website and scroll down to the age 2 section.
Funded Places for 3 to 4-year-olds
You can start claiming free childcare, the term after your child turns 3. The date you can claim will depend on when their birthday is:
Child’s Birthday When you can claim
1st January to 31st March The beginning of the term after 1st April – Summer Term
1st April to 31st August The beginning of the term after 1st September – Autumn Term
1st September to 31st December The beginning of the term after 1st January – Spring Term
All 3 & 4 year olds are eligible for 15 hours per week for 38 weeks of the year.
3 to 4-year-olds Additional Entitlement
In addition some families can claim an additional 570 hours, bringing their total to 1140 hours per year (38 weeks x 30 hours.) To find out if you are eligible, please visit the Childcare Choices website.
Why Choose Twinkles…
Education
A mix of adult led & child initiated activities ensure we support learning across the seven areas of development which form part of the Early Years Foundation Stage, these are:
Communication & Language – involves giving children opportunities to experience a rich language environment; to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves; and to speak and listen in a range of situations
Physical Development – involves providing opportunities for young children to be active and interactive; and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity6, and to make healthy choices in relation to food
Personal, Social & Emotional Development – this involves helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others; to form positive relationships and develop respect for others; to develop social skills and learn how to manage their feelings; to understand appropriate behaviour in groups; and to have confidence in their own abilities
Literacy – involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems, and other written materials) to ignite their interest
Maths – involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measure
Understanding the World – involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment
Expressive Arts & Design – involves enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology 1
As well as looking at ‘what’ children are learning, we also look at ‘how’ they are learning and ensure that our learning environments and highly skilled early years educators support children in developing the Characteristics of Effective Learning and these are:
Playing and Exploring – Engagement
Finding out and exploring
Playing with what they know
Being willing to ‘have a go’
Active Learning – Motivation
Being involved and concentrating
Keeping trying
Enjoying achieving what they set out to do
Creating and Thinking Critically –Thinking
Having their own ideas
Making links
Choosing ways to do things
Well Being
We want to make sure that you and your child settle quickly into nursery life. To achieve this your child will be allocated a member of staff called a Key Person who will be their own special person at nursery. The Key Person will help your child to feel happy, safe, stimulated and secure at nursery and will give you peace of mind that you always have someone with whom you can share information about your child. The key person will take responsibility for meeting your child’s needs and making careful records of your child’s learning, development and progress. You’ll be able to talk to your Key Person regularly at our Parent Evenings to find out how your child is getting on and your Key Person will also be able to support you with activity ideas to try out at home. There’s always lots of cuddles to go round and we believe that every child is unique, so the Key Person will plan activities just for your child, based around their current interest, that way we know they are going to enjoy every single day at nursery!
Parents as Partners
We really want you to be part of your child’s learning, so we use a secure online programme called ‘Capture’ to record your child’s progress at nursery. This means you can you can log in at any time to see what your child has been getting up to at nursery and read the observations written by their Key Person. We value the knowledge you have about your child, so you can add your own observations from home and let us know what new skills your child has developed!
Outdoor & Physical Play
We believe outdoor play to be vital to your child’s development, so at Twinkles we go outside every day, whatever the weather may be doing! There is nothing children love more than running around in the fresh air and that’s why we invest in outdoor areas for all of our nurseries. Our outdoor areas are well resourced, with lots for the children to do to support development in all areas of the EYFS. At Twinkles, children have all the same learning opportunities outside as they do inside, so you can be rest assured, wherever your child is playing, they will always be learning something new! As well as ensuring there are lots of opportunities for outdoor play, we also want to ensure that your child takes part in enough physical activity each day to keep healthy and for under fives, this means 180 minutes every day!
Nutritious food for your child
A well balanced and nutritious diet is vital to a child’s development. Here at Twinkles Nurseries our trained cooks prepare fresh, healthy, tasty and nutritious meals for the children daily. Our four weekly menus have been carefully put together, in line with the British Nutrition Foundation. Your children will enjoy tasty home cooking for both dinner and tea, as well as a choice of breakfasts and healthy snacks. At Twinkles we are able to cater to any dietary requirements that your little one may have, and try to incorporate the wealth of cultures we have at nursery into our meals!
We are always on the lookout for tasty new recipes to try, so please feel free to suggest a meal for us to try!
5 Star Rated Food Hygiene
All of our five nurseries have received a 5* rating in their most recent food hygiene inspections. Health and safety is of paramount importance to us and we are very proud to achieve the highest possible rating in ‘Food Hygiene’.
Visit our nurseries
Click on any of the links below to be taken the microsite for the nursery
Your children’s education and welfare are our main priorities