Keeley's Nursery

5 ⭐️ Inspection!

A HUGE congratulations to our fantastic Chef Kieran who received the highest rating on our unannounced food hygiene inspection today

What a wonderful day we had during our summer celebration and pre-school graduation. We love Emma’s designs, with beautiful colours and glitter galore.. the cherry ontop many smiling faces!

As you may be aware, we have been undergoing huge renovations to completely transform our Nurseries both in Horsham and Croydon, in line with our Curiosity Approach Inspired visions. We are so excited to reveal our state of the art spaces and facilities once we’ve finished decorating (now all the building works have been completed!). In the meantime, here is a little teaser showing you our cosy and calm welcome area 🧡💚💛

🦖 Learning through play at Keeley's... Our aim is to use as many natural and organic materials as possible. Here we can see a little shopping trip for some fresh ingredients - the perfect activity for developing your child's senses including sight, touch, smell and taste!🧡🧡🧡

🦖 Is there a more satisfying view than that of children covered in paint and experimenting with colour mixing? 🧡🧡🧡

Working at a Children’s Nursery throughout a Pandemic

Hello all, here's our latest BLOG! Here you can read views from Croydon's Nursery Manager, Chelby, about working at a Children's Nursery throughout the pandemic. Thank you to Chelby for taking the time to talk about this sensitive subject in such an honest way.
https://www.keeleysnursery.com/post/working-at-a-children-s-nursery-throughout-a-pandemic

Working at a Children’s Nursery throughout a Pandemic Hi, I’m the Nursery Manager at Keeley’s in Croydon. I’ve worked in Childcare for 10 years and at Keeley’s Nursery in Croydon for 4 years. My passion for being a childcare provider has never been greater. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we have remained open and tried to adapt as best as po...

Keeley's today joined forces with nurseries, pre-schools and childminders across the country to celebrate the work of the Early Years workforce during the pandemic.

Staff really have faced having to adapt continuously to change and have pulled together as teams and supported each other through it all.

We will be posting blogs soon, from speaking to Nursery Managers at both Horsham and Croydon, conversations which give insight into just how impacting these times are for the industry, and how staff are rising to the challenges.

🧡 Thank you so much to Angela for submitting a review to us. We are so humbled to hear such positive feedback.

🧡 Thank you so much to Clare for submitting a review to us. We are so grateful to hear such positive feedback.

🧡Toddler activities // Pasta Threading!
Here is an activity encouraging development of fine motor skills for toddlers...

For this activity, you will need:
🦖 Play dough
🦖 Spaghetti
🦖 Penne or Rigatoni Pasta

Pasta threading is simple to set up and great fun. It involves threading uncooked pasta onto spaghetti, with some freshly made play dough as a base. As well as promoting focus, problem solving and creativity, this activity encourages development of the smaller muscles in the hand. Stimulating early development of these muscles at a young age helps hone children’s fine motor skills to go on and complete everyday tasks, such as fastening buttons, cutting with a scissors, writing and drawing.

🌎🪐Photo of the day!
Looking up at the sky in wonder is a natural extension of human curiosity. Living on Earth we are part of the Universe, and the Universe is everything that exists! So are the Sun, Moon and all the planets. So where better to start the journey of curiosity and conversation than through crafts and creating our very own visual Solar System. Giving children the opportunity to learn through play and discover what else is out there, children relished working independently on creating a planet and collectively creating a Solar System as pictured.

🧠🕵️‍♀️Today’s photo of the day was taken in Rex’s Room at Keeley’s in Horsham. Rex’s caters to children ages 3 to 5yrs and in this activity we approach teaching children about anatomy using a fun and engaging learning strategy. A wonderful book we use is called 'Human Body Magic Skeleton – Pull The Tab Book'. From the Magic Skeleton series, children can discover and learn by pulling a tab to be amazed and make the Human Body come alive. It’s a fun way to explore what’s on the inside and learn how the human body works. From here we look at different organs within human body such as the lungs, heart and brain, and explore conversation about where each organ is in our bodies and what their job is.

Here is a link if you would like to purchase the book we use: https://amzn.to/2Xj2jSW

🐛🍊Photo of the day! Taken at Rex's Room in Croydon.
The Hungry Caterpillar is a firm favourite with us at Keeley’s. As well as enabling us to talk through the lifecycle of a butterfly, it also opens conversation to different food types. In this instance, you can see the use of fresh fruits, and the reason for using real items of food is that is gives children so many more opportunities than handling plastic representations. Opportunities to peel back and explore, opportunities to smell the items, investigating the array of smells that fill their noses.
The touch & texture of various fruits and how they differ. Inspiring curiosity as children handle or taste items that they perhaps have never encountered before.
Providing opportunities for conversation, language and thinking critically. To count and explore mathematical concepts; weight, size & measure.

☁🌈What may simply appear to be a toddler dabbing some pens on paper, is actually a Curiosity Approach inspired activity which focuses on Process rather than Product.
Here you can see freedom to create without step-by-step instruction, there are no fixed end results or right or wrong way to complete, and the experience is based on choice. Every piece of artwork created is individual to each child. This activity is calm, unhurried, unrushed and child-led. The experience is the focus, not the end result.

🖌💭Photo of the day!
Paint brushes at the ready! A glimpse into Rex's Room at Keeley's in Horsham... Children learn best when they are interested and motivated to learn. When THEY are in control of the direction. Children have a love of painting, mixing and experimenting with colours and paint. What comes from the process of painting isn’t the end product alone, but a journey of curiosity, awe and wonder.

🖌🧡Photo of the day! Taken at Steggie's Room in Horsham.
Giving children freedom to finger paint freely not only stimulates learning how colours work (especially mixing primary colours) but also supports sensory integration. Whilst expressing themselves through colours and shapes, children are also improving their fine motor development by strengthening finger and hand muscles. With focus on the process and not the finished product, children can express feelings without words. It's a simple activity that perfectly promotes creativity and imagination!

🌿🐟Photo of the day!
This wonderous scene of children calmly watching their fascinating fish was taken in Rex's Room in Croydon. Here is insight into our Curiosity Approach inspired aquarium activity which encourages cognitive development in children. Collectively observing movement, colours and light changes within the aquarium sparks imagination and improves social and emotional skills.

🌳🦕Photo of the day!
This scene of dinosaur delight was taken in Topsy's Room in Horsham. Here is insight into our Curiosity Approach inspired Messy Play with various materials and textures within a dinosaur themed play tray.

Messy play is hugely beneficial for young children, giving them endless ways to develop and learn. This type of open-ended play helps children to develop and improve their gross and fine motor skills, co-ordination and concentration.

Our Nurseries in Horsham and Croydon each cater for three age groups:

👉Topsy's Room for up to 2yrs
👉Steggie's Room for ages 2-3yrs
👉Rex's Room for ages 3-5yrs

Our photo for today was taken in Topsy's Room in Croydon, and gives a glimpse into our Curiosity Approach inspired Sensory Play with water. An open ended activity for children of all ages, which allows children to make discoveries and explore outcomes! Water is an important natural material that provides hours of absorbing fun and a multitude of wonderful development and learning opportunities.

We are Hiring! Please share to your networks in Horsham and surrounding areas!
For more info, please visit >>> www.keeleysnursery.com/post/we-re-hiring-full-time-nursery-practitioner-horsham

We are recruiting due to continued expansion; you will be joining our wonderful team at Keeley’s Nursery in Horsham.

Position: Full-time Permanent (we may consider part-time)
Location: Keeley’s Nursery, Horsham
Salary: Negotiable based on experience
Annual Leave: 20 days paid holiday plus 8 days statutory holidays (pro rata)
Working hours: between 30-45 hours per week on an 8-9hrs shift basis
Working days: Monday - Friday

Requirements
- You will hold minimum Level 2 Childcare qualification
- Minimum 2 years’ experience of working with children in a Nursery environment
- Room Leader Experience desirable
- Excellent references

Curiosity Approach inspired Learning
A keen interest in developing knowledge and practice of Curiosity Approach is important as we embark on our Curiosity Approach Accreditation.

Duties
Reporting to the Nursery Manager you will be expected to take full responsibility for the children in your care as well as being a key worker to some. We use digital technology to support parents in having good communications with us and you will be trained to use our ParentZone Nursery App; It is paramount that we build and maintain positive parent partnerships, as each child’s learning journey and milestones are accurately documented and communicated to parents.

Responsibilities
We pride ourselves in offering a wonderful learning culture and inspiring environments for all children aged 3months to 5yrs. This role is very hands-on and requires a dedicated, positive approach with a calm efficiency and professionalism. Our vision is to provide a happy, safe and stimulating learning environment, where all children are encouraged to develop their creativity, individuality and self-confidence.

APPLY NOW!

To apply, please send your CV to: [email protected]

See our website: https://www.keeleysnursery.com/post/we-re-hiring-full-time-nursery-practitioner-horsham