We provide a high staffing ratio to ensure that the children have sufficient individual attention and to guarantee care and education of a high quality. We ensure that children and their parents are offered high quality preschool care and education. Our staff are appropriately qualified and are checked for criminal records through the criminal records bureau in accordance with OFSTED’s requirements.
To meet this we use the following ratios of adult to Child:
Children ages 1 the ration is 1 adult : 3 Children
Children aged 2 the ratio is 1 adult: 4 children
Children aged 3 to 7 the ratio is 1 adult: 8 children
A minimum of 2 adults/staff are on duty at any one time.
We inform parents/carers when their children join the group that we encourage the child to form friendships with the staff members to establish who they feel most comfortable with. In the early days of settling in to the setting children need to know that they have support and attention from someone that they can go to someone in particular that they have chosen and feel comfortable with.
We at Dragonfly believe that it is important for the children to eventually work with all the staff members of the group because we feel that this will assist them when getting to know the many staff they will encounter at their infant schools.
We hold regular staff meetings to undertake curriculum planning and to discuss children’s progress, their achievements and any difficulties, which may arise from time to time. At the end of each day we will also have short discussions about any matters that need to address before the next session.
We work towards offering equality or opportunity by using non-discriminatory procedures for staff recruitment and selection.
All staff have job descriptions, which set out their roles and their responsibilities
We welcome applications from all sections of the community, applicants will be considered on the basis of their suitability for the post regardless of marital status, age, gender, culture, religious belief, ethnic origin or sexual orientation. We will not place applicants at a disadvantage imposing conditions or requirements which are not justifiable.
Our management hold NVQ 3 and equivalent qualifications.
We provide regular in service3 training to all the staff and support any requests for staff wishing to begin the NVQ courses, we assist staff to obtain bursaries and release them from work if necessary.
We encourage students from the local schools to do work experience and long term placements with us as we feel that this could give direction to those students unsure about the career they wish to pursue. We support the work of our staff by holding regular supervision meetings an appraisals. We use OFSTED Guidance on obtaining references and criminal record checks through the criminal records bureau for staff.