Stratford Park Leisure Centre, Stratford Road, Stroud, GL5 4AF
01453 840474 / email Megan: barbarnursery-stratfordpark@eygloucestershire.co.uk
“The staff at Bar Bar show genuine love and support to my child and to us as a family, it is in this environment that my child has flourished. Their focus on good manners and respect is something we encourage at home and this has given her consistency.” Mrs S- Uplands Stroud
“Both my girls absolutely love nursery and it’s clear how much the staff love their job. They always have new displays and ideas which my children are very excited to tell me about. Thank you – it does make working much easier knowing they’re enjoying their time!” Mrs W- Rodborough Stroud
BarBar Nursery is a 49 place private nursery set in a beautiful parkland location, close to Stroud town Centre and next to the popular Stratford Park Leisure Centre.
BarBar Nursery at Stratford Park was established in 2010 and is situated in the beautiful grounds of Stratford Park in Stroud. The setting was designed and developed by an experienced management team to provide high standards of child care in a relaxed and happy atmosphere enabling children to feel safe, settled and secure. Our environment is stimulating and prepares children for their next stage of development and ultimately providing them with the skills needed for life after nursery.
BarBar Stratford Park is open all year round, but we also offer term time only places too!
We are open between 8:00am and 6:00pm, offering sessions 8:00am-1:00pm, 1:00pm-6:00pm and 8:00am-6:00pm.
The nursery team consists of experienced and highly qualified nursery teachers. All of our staff have an enhanced DBS check and undertake continuous professional development in safeguarding, first aid, food hygiene plus many other childcare courses.
We regularly visit the surrounding areas such as the park, duck pond and woodland areas. The staff are all trained to a high standard to enable the children to experience outdoor learning. We try to link up with our two sister settings twice a year for a summer and a winter trip.
At BarBar Nursery at Stratford Park there are three age groups of children-
- Baby Room (approx 3 months-2years)
- Toddler Room (approx 18months-3 years)
- Preschool Room (approx 2 years 9month-5years)
When visiting BarBar @Stratford Park you will find our Baby Room located upstairs via the external staircase and our Toddlers and Preschool children are located on the lower floor of the building.
Every child at BarBar Nursery has their own key person. The role of the key person is to create a bond with children and their families; a trusting partnership to ensure that your child’s learning and development reaches its full potential. Your child’s key person will support your child’s individual interests, completing learning journeys and assessments as well as recording their milestones. The child’s key person is also there if parents have any questions or concerns during their child’s time with us at BarBar Nursery.
Baby room
Our baby room consists of an eating and messy room, which caters for meal times, adult led activities and sensory/ craft activities. We also have a large carpeted playroom which is used for various activities such as free play, circle and story times, role play, construction, music and movement and much more. Throughout the rooms we have lots of space for the babies to crawl and walk in a safe environment. In addition to these rooms we also have a kitchen area, sleep/ cot room, a nappy/ toileting area.
Our baby room follows the curiosity approach and focuses on each child as an individual. The curiosity approach is a modern way for babies and children to learn. Part of the curiosity approach is to move away from plastic toys and introduce and use natural resources. We feel this approach is suitable for our babies in the setting as it enables them to be creative and imaginative, encouraging them to take risks, think for themselves, problem solve and develop their language. Each child is able to develop and learn whilst using their own interests at a pace to suit them. Our activities are focused on explorative play to enable their curiosity to be inspired!
Outdoor Play
Our baby room have their own separate garden area which is partially covered to enable outdoor play in the rain! This area benefits from a “soft landings” play surface which enables the children to free flow all year round in all weather conditions. The toys and resources are accessible at child height to enable the babies to self-select the toys of their choice to then play and explore with.
Toddler and Preschool Rooms
Our downstairs areas are split between our Toddlers and our Preschool children, each age group has 2 accessible areas offering a variety of activities to cater for each individual with our planning all being child focussed. Children from both rooms are greeted at the same entrance by familiar faces ready to start their day. Throughout the day each room has their own routines which consists of outdoor play, 2 adult led activities, free play and group circle times. The children also participate in physical activities daily including dancing and yoga.
Our Toddler and Preschool rooms follow ‘Development Matters 2021’ which our curriculum is based upon, allowing our nursery teachers to carry out individual planning and assessment on the children. Our planning is child lead; this enables the children to develop around their own interests at a pace which suits them. Our nursery teachers regularly observe the children and send updates to parents through their child’s individual online learning journey. The nursery teachers use these observations to plan activities for each child to extend on their learning. We also use our online learning journal to record daily records such as meals, nappies and sleeps to allow our families to see the information throughout their daily sessions.
Toddler Room
As you enter our Toddler Room we have a messy/eating area where the children can access a range of activities throughout the day including sensory play, mark making, construction and more, this space is also changed into an eating area for all of our meal times. The children also have access to a larger playroom which is set up into areas such as our quiet cosy pod, a role play area, small world area as well as tuff spots for further explorative play. The children can access these areas freely throughout their sessions.
Preschool Room
In our preschool room we also have 2 areas for the children to free-flow between. Our large playroom is set up into different areas such as a role play, small world, mathematical, construction and a craft corner incorporating a range of learning opportunities. Each week the children have a go at baking in small groups, supporting their independence, learning about how to be safe. Our preschool children are busy learning all they need ready for their transition into school life.
The children also have a quiet room called the ‘den’ with a quiet, cosy pod for a calm reading and group circle time activities including letters and sounds. The ‘den’ also has a tuff spot for sensory/messy activities. During the afternoon sessions our children who sleep (from both rooms) join in our ‘den’ where we follow their individual sleep routines.
Outdoor Play
The Toddler and Preschool children have a large outdoor play area which includes a covered area, this enables the children to use the outdoor space in all weather conditions. The garden has a large wooden fort and train, a balancing beam, a mud kitchen, a digging patch, a construction area, craft/mark making areas and space to run and ride bikes.
Our garden plot in the sensory garden area of Stratford Park
In summer we have a plot of land in their sensory garden opposite our nursery in Stratford Park- alongside other community groups. Our children grow various vegetables and plants and when they are ready to be harvested we have been known to use them in our lunch time menu! This opportunity is great for our children to learn about growth, changes and life cycles.
Transitioning to our preschool/toddler room from baby room
As the children reach the age where they are ready to transition to the next room we work with parents to ensure this is a seamless process and children are fully supported through all stages of the transition. Initially, the child’s keyworker will discuss the transition process with parents explaining how it will work in practice. When the child is developmentally ready and their parents are happy, the transition process to the next room will begin, usually in the term before their 2nd/3rd birthday.
Parents are first invited to look around the Toddler and Preschool rooms and meet the team. Children spend short sessions in, what will be their new room, thus enabling them to feel comfortable, safe, secure and familiar in their new surroundings. The child’s current key person will accompany them and stay with them during these sessions. Wherever possible groups of friends will transition together to enable friendships to be kept. Once the nursery teachers and parents feel children are finally ready to transition, the permanent room move can take place.
Food/Snacks
We believe mealtimes are happy and social times for the children. We are committed to and provide children with healthy, nutritious and balanced meals and snacks avoiding large quantities of fat, sugar, salt and artificial additives, preservatives and colourings. We offer a balanced and healthy breakfast, morning snack, lunch, and evening snack.
Our menus are planned in advance and are on a three week rota. Our menus reflect cultural diversity and variation. Individual dietary requirements are respected. We gather information from parents regarding children’s dietary needs, including any special dietary requirements, preferences, food allergies and any special health requirements.
Where appropriate, we carry out a risk assessment in the case of allergies and work alongside parents to put into place an individual dietary plan for their child.
We promote shared, enjoyable positive interactions at meal times with the staff using snack and meal times to support and encourage children to develop their independence through making choices, self-serving food and drink, and feeding themselves. Our food hygiene rating at Stratford Park BarBar is 5 stars.
Suggested Menus used- menus may vary depending on availability of ingredients
Visiting BarBar Nursery at Stratford Park
We encourage parents to visit our setting either with or without their children. This allows for nursery teachers to answer any questions or queries that they may have- after all you will be trusting us with your most valuable possession!
We use these visits to enable our staff to understand your aspirations for your child whilst they are with us. We discuss how you would like to settle your child in at BarBar and tailor this to suit individual families as every child is unique.