Our Dumbarton and Alexandria Nurseries open at 7.30am and close at 6.00pm.  Clyde Nursery opens at 7.00am and closes at 6.00pm and Schools Out Club opens at 7.15am and closes at 6.00pm.  Our opening hours are documented on our Certificate of Registration with the Care Inspectorate and we are insured to care for children on our premises during these hours.  To ensure complicity, we would ask that you please ensure your child is dropped off and collected within our opening hours.

Our establishments are open all year round except the following statutory holidays:

• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day
• New Years Day
• 2^nd January
• Easter Monday

We do reserve the right to close on additional days between Christmas and New Year, dependent on bookings and when Christmas and New Year fall on weekends.  The Nursery will close at 4.30pm on the last day of business before Christmas and New Year.

At Carousel Nursery, all staff are vetted in line with Care Inspectorate Registration Requirements (Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland – our regulatory body).  This consists of an PVG check, an employer reference, a personal reference and a medical reference.  All childcare staff are either qualified, or working towards a childcare qualification.  All staff receive training on First Aid, Food Hygiene, Child Protection and Infection Control.

On registering, your child will be given a security number.  The Nursery must be informed of the identity (ie, name and relationship to the child) of anyone other than a parent coming to collect your child and this person must be aware of your child’s security number which will be asked for.  When signing your child into nursery, you must write down the name and relationship of the person coming to collect your child at the end of his / her day.  Please telephone the Nursery as soon as possible if there is to be a change to the collecting adult.  Your child’s safety is of paramount importance to us and we will not allow your child to be collected from nursery without up to date and verified information.

In order to comply with Local Authority Fire Regulations, it is extremely important that you sign your child in and out of nursery each day.  A daily register is located in each playroom.  A fire drill will be held on a monthly basis at varying times of the day.

If you wish to permanently change sessions, or withdraw your child from nursery, we require you to advise at least 4 weeks prior to the change, in writing.  If you wish to book an additional session, this is possible where vacancies allow.

It is not permissible to swap your child’s days at nursery.

Children attending nursery before 8.30am will be offered a breakfast of cereal, toast and fruit, with either fruit juice or milk.  A light, nutritious mid-morning snack will be offered, eg, breadsticks with cheese dip, carrot, celery or pepper sticks, a variety of fruit etc.  This will be served with milk or water to drink.   For our Pussy Cats, Puppy Dogs, Butterflies and Busy Bees, a High Tea will be served mid afternoon, which will consist of a substantial, healthy meal which they have often helped prepare.  This may be homemade soup, filled tortilla wraps, baked potatoes, pasta etc.  Water or milk may be served with the High Tea and water is available for the children throughout the day.  Breakfast, snack and High Tea are included in Nursery fees and menu’s have been developed in line with current government advice.

We would ask that you bring a packed lunch for your child to eat at lunchtime.  Lunches can be cold, eg, sandwiches, wraps etc, or if you prefer, we have facilities to heat up tins of food, or reheat a meal which has already been prepared.  We do not have the facilities to cook food from frozen, or prepare a meal for your child at lunchtime.  If your child is between the age of 6 weeks to 2 years, we would ask that you also bring an evening meal for child to be served mid / late afternoon and supply sufficient bottles of their regular formula milk.

For more information on our menu options, please see the sample menu’s on this website, or ask in any playroom where the staff will be happy to chat to you about the food on offer to your child.

Children should come to Nursery every day with suitable, appropriate clothing to participate in outdoor play, ie, a waterproof jacket.  We would advise that they don’t wear their best clothes to nursery, as although care will be taken, some clothes may end up messy at the end of the day, depending on the activities your child has participated in that day.  Your child will have a bag area or coat peg and basket and they can keep items there, such as wellington boots, sunhats and slippers.  All children should bring a spare set of clothing with them each day and it would be helpful to have spare pants and socks too.  Only soft shoes such as slippers or sandshoes should be worn in nursery.  All clothing and personal items should be clearly labelled with your child’s name.  The Nursery cannot be held responsible for the loss or damage of these items.

All activities and outings outside of nursery will be in conjunction with the current theme in nursery.  If you have signed the outings consent on the back of the registration form, your child may be taken on short trips to a local park, to visit a pet shop etc but you can mention on the registration form that you would like to be contacted prior to the outing.  For outings further afield, or if using the mini-bus, you will be asked to sign a consent form giving your permission for your child to attend.  If there is a significant entry fee, a small charge may be asked for, where appropriate.  Parents are always welcome to join us on outings, if you are interested in doing so please speak to any member of staff who would be happy to provide you with the details.

During the course of most days, your children will participate in some sort of art and craft activity.  We may display this artwork on the playroom wall, or use it in their individual portfolio.  We feel it is important to display your child’s proud efforts in nursery, so please don’t be disappointed if there are days when they don’t come home with work to admire.  We will ensure that this is given to you at the end of the current theme.

If your child is ill, it is important that we are notified as soon as possible.  You can do this by calling your child’s nursery, details as follows;

Dumbarton – 01389 732636

Alexandria – 01389 750628

Clyde – 01436 821698

School’s Out Club – 01389 764684

Please do not bring your child to Nursery if they are unwell, or suffering from an infectious disease.  The Nursery reserve the right to refuse to accept your child into nursery due to illness, eg, measles, chicken pox etc.  It is not possible to provide suitable care for your child and they should not pose a potential risk to other children or staff.  Should your child become ill at nursery, we will contact you immediately.  It is for this reason it is extremely important that your contact numbers are kept up to date.  We reserve the right to take appropriate action according to medical advice.  We seek advice from current NHS guidelines, on exclusion periods for illness.  To have a look at the NHS guidelines, please look at our Infection and Illness Policy, and the attached HPT Scotland Exclusion Criteria.

Prescribed Medication

Although we would prefer not to administer medicine to your child, we do appreciate that from time to time this may be necessary.  We will ask you to complete and sign the appropriate Medicine Administration form as authorisation for nursery staff to give your child prescribed medication when it is required.

While we take the greatest care for the safety of your child, the inevitable bump or occasional bruise will occur.  For these, we administer First Aid and lots of TLC.  In the unlikely event of serious injury or other emergencies occurring, we will immediately attempt to contact parents, however, we do reserve the right to act appropriately in an emergency.  All accidents, no matter how large or small, are recorded on an ‘Accident Sheet’ and parents will be asked to sign this in the event of an accident affecting your child.   If your child needs further medical attention and requires to see a Doctor or to attend hospital after an accident an ‘Incident Form’ will be completed and the incident reported to the Care Inspectorate.

We are always happy when parents of children in our care want to become involved in Nursery life. Alongside being invited to key events and celebrations throughout the year, like Sports Day, Christmas Nativities and Graduations, you are very welcome to join in with activities and outings.  The Nursery follows a plan of themed learning and staff would be delighted to welcome parents if they feel they can make a contribution to these themes, perhaps because of the job you do or a particular interest you may have.  Regular meetings for parents are held in Nursery and these are arranged to discuss children’s progress or to share information about things happening in Nursery.  It is also a great way to meet other parents.  We ask parents to complete an Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey and evaluation forms after meetings.  All feedback is welcome, and we find this incredibly useful.  We encourage parents to complete the ‘How am I doing’ booklet with nursery staff to help them get to know your child, in particular their likes and dislikes.  If you would be interest in joining a ‘Parents Forum’, which is an excellent way of sharing information and ideas, please speak to your Nursery Manager.

A notice board for parents is located in the Nursery.   The information will be updated on a regular basis and will provide you with details of some policies, newsletters, activities, outings, parent’s evenings etc.  You will also receive a monthly newsletter to keep you up to date with what is happening during the month ahead.  There is an eco notice board in each nursery, which will keep you up to date with any ongoing eco activities and achievements.  If you have an interest in eco issues, we are always looking for parents representative’s on our eco committee.  We also plan to have regular updates on the website, a diary page and regular handy reminder’s so please ensure you log in regularly to see all the latest information.