Noah’s Ark Christian Pre-School aim to ensure your child’s introduction to our setting is as stress free as possible.

We are a small Pre-School so children quickly build relationships with all of our staff. We encourage you and your child to come and have a look around the Pre-School. This will help you to feel comfortable with the staff and the setting. It will also give your child a chance to see other children enjoying the activities.

You will be required to fill in a registration pack which includes information about your child’s interests, like and dislikes, before your child can start with us. This will allow us to get to know a little about your child prior to them starting and ensure that we have all the relevant information to help us care for your child.

Our settling in policy allows for a parent/carer to stay with their child for the first week of sessions. This allows the child and parent/carer to become familiar with the surroundings and get to know the child’s key worker and how a typical session works. All children are different and you may feel that staying for the whole week of sessions does not work for your child, therefore you are not obligated to stay, but we recommend that you let your child know that you are leaving and that you will return. However, if you decide to stay for the sessions, then you be expected to remain in the room and will not be allowed unsupervised access to other areas of the Pre-School, in particular the children’s toilets and surrounding area. All visitors (including parents/carers) will be required to leave their mobile phone and handbag with a member of staff, who will put the items safely out of the children’s rooms and return them to you when you leave.

To encourage a smooth transition, simple, exciting, stimulating, fun activities will be provided. We will use the information provided by yourself in the registration pack and try to include these activities or resources on that day.
A child who is tense or unhappy will not be able to play or learn properly, so it is important for parents/carers and staff to work together to help the child feel confident and secure in the setting. This takes longer for some children and parents/carers should not feel worried if their child takes a while to settle. You must be prepared to accept that it may take some time for your child to adjust to the Pre-School but very few children fail to settle eventually. Please remember, the more your child comes and experiences the activities on offer and sees other children enjoying them, the easier it becomes. You are more than welcome to give us a call during the day to see how your child is getting on.

If a child is very upset or unable to be settled for a prolonged period we will give you a call to make sure you are aware of this. At the end of the session a member of the team from the room your child is in will hand over your child and give you a brief update on how the day went. You are welcome to call the Pre-School and have a longer chat with the keyworker or arrange to come in and see them if you feel this is needed.