Welcome to the Penguin Room
Our Dolphin room accommodates children from 6 weeks to around 24 months. It is an open and spacious environment with a range of open ended resources for babies to explore as they please. Everything is accessible to them to promote, as early as possible, independence and their own identities!
Take the virtual tour around our Penguin Room by watching the video.
Penguins (2-3 year olds)
Our Penguin room can accommodate up to 16 children on a 1 adult to every four children ratio. The room has immediate access to the nursery garden and a small decked area where they can continue to extend their individual interests when they wish. As numbers increase in this age range, keyworkers organise their own group routines, utilising other rooms within the nursery such as the sensory room or the pre-school room (garden also included!) This helps us to learn and develop in our own spaces, rather than crowded ones!
We love to involve others in our learning experiences - we regularly invite the local outreach worker to come in and support our needs (and our families!) alongside our keyworkers, as well as our parents and carers. This means our children's learning experiences become continuous across a range of environments.
In the Penguin Room
Throughout their day at nursery, children have ongoing opportunities across the seven areas of learning including creative and messy play, being outdoors, opportunities to develop physically and strengthen early literacy and mathematical skills. Play is an important part of our children's learning and development at this age. Through play, our children are encouraged to interact with their peers, become aware of others feelings and explore and learn about the world around us and our environment.
Penguin Room Staff
The keyworkers in this room have more than 30 years experience working in the Early Years between them. They are specially trained in coming together with families and health visitors to develop an integrated approach to learning and development. They have the skill set to accurately assess children's development on entry to the toddler room and just before the children become pre-schoolers, to pinpoint, and next steps, any gaps in development (or any concerns our parents may have).
Our SENCO is also based within this room and has specialised training in dealing with additional needs including behaviour. Any concerns that arise around our children are able to be dealt with on a one to one basis with our SENCO, accessing support and intervention (where required) as soon as possible.
Tapestry Learning Journals
To record children's learning and development we use an online platform called 'Tapestry.' This is a secure programme which is designed for parents/carers to be able to view/contribute to their child's personal file. This helps us to keep consistency from learning and opportunities are able to be built upon within any environment, home or nursery.