Our Ethos

Our aim is to provide enchanting and enabling environments for children to learn in their own way. We have five themes of our ethos, which underpin everything that we do with the children at the nursery, and define our nursery design concept and daily operations.

– Active Childhoods

– Safety Culture

– Eating Healthy

– Loving The Planet

– Evolving With Time

Active Childhood

Inspiring young children to lead an active lifestyle starts in their childhood. Most young children are generally very active as they explore the surrounding world, gradually refining motor skills throughout their early development.

During the progression through education a child’s level of active participation in sport or other physical activities significantly decreases. This might be due to more pressure from other areas of academia, lack of facilities to pursue a particular interest or just too much “screen time”. It is important to instil the significance of an active lifestyle in our children as part of their physiological growth, but also as a foundation for general health and well-being in the future.

We absolutely encourage children at our nursery to be highly active. Whether this be participating in our weekly superstar sports sessions or walking to the local park for group activities and outdoor games. Our team are passionate about facilitating a range of activities to accommodate even the wriggliest of children, encouraging the healthy building blocks of an active lifestyle, which may stay with them into adulthood.

Here at Monkey Puzzle Uxbridge safety is and will always be our number one priority. We are passionate about promoting the right safety culture within our nursery setting as we truly believe it should be at the heart of all we do.

A big part of running our nursery is completing daily risk assessments of toys, rooms and the garden area. With that in mind we have a daily Safety Helper who helps with completing their very own safety checks!! It is hugely important to us that we raise awareness of personal safety with all our children so they can identify hazards and risks they should look out for.. The safety helper concept reminds us all that we must never take our eye of the ball when it comes to safety.

Fire Safety

Here at Monkey Puzzle Uxbridge we have a state of the art fire system installed. The system gets tested on a weekly basis with a full fire drill carried out every 2 months. Our target time to evacuate the entire building is 2 minutes and we regularly beat that time.

To ensure everyone at Monkey Puzzle Uxbridge understands the importance of fire safety we hold regular fire awareness training courses and all of our management team are trained as Fire Marshalls. We also have visits from real Fire fighter which always goes down well with our children.

Healthy Eating

We believe it is absolutely essential for the children in our care to develop positive eating habits early on in their lives. Many of a child’s early experiences of food will have a significant impact on their preferences and eating habits later on in adult life, so it is important that we encourage children to be adventurous with their food, and to understand about different foods and their nutritional values. We provide a healthy and balanced diet for the children to ensure they have all the energy to fulfil their learning and thrive in the nursery environment. Our 4 week menu’s celebrate the diversity in our nursery, with dishes from all around the world and flavours, which will expand the children’s palette for great food.

Mini Monkey Chef

Here at Monkey Puzzle Uxbridge we have introduced the concept of Mini Monkey Chefs. A small group of children take turns to bake / cook and also observe the nursery chef making all their lovely food. It offers a great learning opportunity for children to learn about different ingredients, food groups and recipes and to work collaboratively with our chef to create some wonderful culinary delights!

Evolving with Time

More and More in the modern world we are innovating the way we live, work and play. The evolution of technology is something which perhaps defines the era in which we live, with the boundaries of possibility constantly challenged by creative minds looking to progress our knowledge and understanding of the world. Technology adds great benefit to many areas of life and education is no exception.

At our nursery we recognise the importance of supporting children’s exploration of technology as a learning tool and as a common aspect of the modern world. We have equipped our nursery with a multitude of technology to support your child’s learning and see it as a massive responsibility to ensure that children are taught from an early age about how to be safe with technology and the internet.

SMART Interactive Whiteboard

Our Pre-School and Toddler groups have access to our interactive Whiteboard, which is an educational tool for the facilitation of media in learning. We have turned the negative stigma of “screen time” into a positive way of engaging children in learning. The Interactive Whiteboard’s touch screen feature allows children to interact with an information rich digital platform, whilst also practicing writing and group cooperation skills.

iPads

In keeping both with Ofsted recommendation and our “green” ethos we use iPad technology to document observations and log books, making the processes involved with excellent childcare as paper free as possible. Not only does this contribute towards caring for the planet, but it also gives our childcare professionals more valuable time to engage with your child instead of being bombarded with paper work. This also presents us with the opportunity to share your child’s successes through email, allowing you to stay up to date with their progress and send us your feedback at your own convenience.

Security

Technology also extends to security. We understand the importance of providing a safe and secure environment for your child at all times. CCTV and video door access control helps us to know who is entering the building to ensure that no unwanted visitors gain access at any time.

Loving The Planet

We have a strong focus on being environmentally friendly, providing your child with a solid understanding of the world, encouraging them to have respect for our planet. The effect of humans on Earth has and will continue to have an unprecedented effect on it’s sustainability and the future of all our lives.

Our nursery is one of the “greenest” nurseries in the country, sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. From the eco friendly hand dryers around the building, right through to the wonderful beech wood toys and furniture, designed and crafted since 1920 by a small community in Sussex.

Community Playthings

Our furniture, play-frames and room dividers are sourced from Community Playthings. They are a small community from Sussex who specialise in crafting products and designing room layouts for early years settings. The wood used to make these products is sustainably sourced from beech forests in the Baltic states and all products are designed to allow your child the most stimulating experience. The chairs are made out of one piece of wood for ease of hygiene, the tables feature extendable legs so that we can accommodate any age/size children. And the play frames are interlocking in structure to ensure easy construction but more importantly safety for your child.

http://www.communityplaythings.co.uk/

Planting Seeds for the Future

Inclusive to teaching children about the world around us, we undertake projects on growing plants, fruits and vegetables. This not only helps children to understand the origins of food, to encourage healthy diets; but it also allows them to understand how the living world thrives and conditions required to support natural growth.