Early Educators Montessori Nursery
Starting Nursery: Settling Your Child
Starting nursery is a big step for both children and parents. Our personalised settling-in process helps your child feel safe, secure and confident while building a strong relationship with their key person.
At Early Educators Montessori Nursery, we want children to feel safe and happy within our setting, as well as feel comfortable with staff.
We also want you as parents to have confidence in both your child’s wellbeing and your role as an active partner within our setting.
We do our best to offer a
bespoke settling-in package tailored to each individual child and family.
We will allocate a
key person
to your child who will look after them during their first sessions, ensuring that we understand important information about your child related to their routine, the activities they enjoy and any dietary requirements or additional needs they may have.
The settling-in process usually takes a period of
2 weeks; however, this depends on your child’s needs: we consider a child to be settled when they have formed a relationship with their key person. Each child should also be familiar with where things are in the room and be happy to participate in activities.
We ask parents/carers to
bring their child into nursery continuously during the settling-in period, as having breaks during this time disrupts the settling-in process and sends conflicting messages to a child; this, in turn, may bring about feelings of insecurity.
Our Settling-in Process
Together we can make the difference
First day
On the first day we ask parents to stay
with the child for a period of 30 minutes (*timing is subject to change depending on the child’s needs).
Then, the child will be left with us for a period of 30 minutes while parents can stay in the office in
case we need to call upon them.
When you leave your child, it’s important that you say goodbye, fully explain to them that you will be coming back later, and let them know when you’ll be back. (Such as saying, ‘Mummy will be back after you eat lunch’).
First week
We ask the child’s parent/carer to attend the nursery with their child for a whole week, coming in for a few hours (time will be allocated to you by management) every day.
This helps the child become familiar with the setting, the nursery routines, their key person and
other nursery practitioners.
If you are planning your return to work date, be aware that during the initial phase of settling you will be expected to stay with your child for some or all of the settling sessions.
Gradually, increasing time away as your child (and you) begin to adjust.
Second week
We ask the child’s parent/carer to bring the child into nursery but this time to drop them off at the door of the nursery whereupon the key person will greet them both and take the child into the playroom.
We ask that you explain to the child before coming to the nursery the process of being dropped off.
A good way of explaining could be: ‘Today mummy is going to leave you in the nursery to play with your new friends, I’m going to take you to the door then say goodbye and will be back for you in half an hour’.
Some children may take longer to settle and become very upset upon parting from their parents/carers. If this is the case with your child, we ask that the child is still left with us so that he/she has an opportunity to form a bond with their key person and eventually fully settle.
The Role of Your Child's Key Person
Relationship with your child
Recording your child's development
Recording information about your child's learning and next steps, and sharing their progress with parents/carers and other professionals as necessary.