Adventures pedagogy

On arrival, your little one will always be greeted with warm, happy welcomes by their key workers.

We will ensure we find out all the important information from you, to ensure we meet their needs right from the get go. 

Their morning will start with cuddles until they are settled and ready to go off and explore. 

Once everyone has arrived the children have together time, which may include singing or stories. 

The Adventurers will then have time to explore and investigate their environment, with inviting play and resources set up in the room for them to engage in. 

At 10:00am, it is snack time, your little one will enjoy a nutritious snack and choice of drink.

After snack, your little ones will venture outside and explore the natural world around them. The children will stay outside usually until it is lunchtime. 

11:45pm is Lunch time. We come together for lunch in the baby room. 

Most of our babies sleep after lunch time, following their routines and individual needs. For the babies that don't sleep after lunch, we will have some quiet time - enjoying time with our key workers - this may be reading, playing or cuddles. 

2pm is snack time again.

2:30pm, we will venture back outside and explore in the garden.

3:30pm - Together time, where we will share a story together before some of us go home.

4:00pm is high-tea time. Again in our room, we sit together and enjoy a high-tea to keep our tummies full before our tea at home later. 

Children are all different and we celebrate this in every aspect, from their different sleep patterns to the way they like to be settled to sleep.

We know that when settling your children into nurseries, this is one of the most common worries, "what if they wont sleep when they're supposed to?", "What if they wont take a bottle". Don't worry, we are here to support you as a family through all of this and meet your child exactly where they are at.

Sleep times are not regimented here at Little Squirrels, we follow the children's individual sleep routines and what works for you as a family.

Children have individual sleep matts, set up in our cosy sleep room. The children have their own bedding from home and any comforters they may need. If they need to be rocked, cuddled or if they like to self soothe, we will follow their lead and do what is best for them.

This is the same as feeding and any dietary requirements your child has. 

If your baby  is still breast fed and you would like to express feed, we can, or if they have formula/cows milk ; we follow exactly what you do with your little ones at home. 

In our room, your little one will become the leaders of their play. We follow this approach from one of the famous pioneers in education ‘Friedrich Froebel’ where he believed that it is important for adults not to lead activities but instead support children to carry out their play by observing and listening to them, and making resources available and by encouraging children to have a go. We love to provide open ended sensory/messy play as young children learn through their senses. This allows them to explore using their whole bodies and provides them with resources to not only engage but to soothe as well. 

We have a lovely decked area outside for the little ones to experience all weathers, where we promote physical activities, such as walking, climbing and other ways of using their bodies to move around. 

At quieter times we have stories and music and rhyme time, this is a valuable time for building relationships with adults and other children, and a great opportunity for choice and turn taking too. 

One area of our room is devoted to role-play, where your little one can use their imagination to dress up and act out every day experiences such as pretending to cook, make tea or going shopping. Through this there will be endless time to develop their communication & language skills and start to learn boundaries and routines. 

We also have lots of opportunities for your little one to make their own choices such as role-playing, snack times and music time. This will ensure they feel their voice is being heard and that we respect them and value them as a person. This approach has been taken from ‘Te Whariki’ approach where the framework states that children will be empowered to learn and grow in a holistic way and how their holistic learning is interwoven across all of their experiences. It also recognises the importance of family and community, because children learn through positive relationships with people, places and things.

Here are the wonderful staff that work in the baby room.

From the left, Helen & Milly. (Photo of Elaine and Jodie coming soon)

Helen is our Baby room Supervisor. Helen started with us in 2020. Helen has a wealth of knowledge about child development & is especially passionate about 'babies' and the nurturing care they need to set the foundations for their later learning in life. 

Milly started with us in 2022, as our apprentice. Milly has supported us in all age groups, but enjoys working with babies. She enjoys watching them meet their milestones and supporting their learning with sensory and creative play.

Jodie started with us in 2024. Jodie has had experience with all ages within early years. But has a special place in her heart for Babies. She enjoys working closely with the babies and their family and loves. being creative (photo coming).

Elaine has re joined our setting this January 2025. She worked at the nursery many years ago, before leaving to take a break for home life commitments. We are super excited about her joining our team again. Elaine has a passion for encouraging children to love being in the outdoors, as she understands how important it is for children's well-being. We look forward to you all getting to know Elaine and making her feel welcome within our setting.