At Hydesville, we believe that play is educationally powerful. The staff plan, individually and jointly, to capitalise on the basic principles of play i.e. that it is concrete, active learning that is intrinsically motivating.

Using their knowledge of the curriculum, of play and of the children's developmental stages, the staff plan flexibly to combine adult focused and child initiated play situations. We aim to provide for the needs of the "whole child" i.e. intellectual, emotional, social, physical, spiritual and moral. 

Each child within our Nursery has their own individual development progress folder, which contains a photographic album, this is updated regularly with assessments, samples of their work, observations, foundation stage profile and their next steps of learning. this folder will follow your child's time at the nursery. Depending on the general topic of the term for example; seasons, stories, rhymes or letters and numbers, children complete activities and various works, observations of which are described in the 'Record Keeping' file. They are encouraged to take work home to parents through the term and on occasions are also encouraged to bring things they have made at home.

Please remember that these recorded observations  and samples of work are essential to parents, encouraging children to recognise their own achievements consequently developing a sense of pride and self-esteem.

We as staff observe the children within the setting with everything they participate in and will cover "the six learning outcomes", in order for us to know what to work on and plan for each child as as an individual. to ensure their needs are catered for.

Our records, whilst maintaining appropriate levels of confidentiality, are open to be seen, discussed and understood by relevant others, including parents and other professionals. Our records have a clear purpose in unifying and gathering together all information that will facilitate our aims. This involves the staff, as a whole, in planning to provide for the children's ongoing development, progress and education and also facilitates assessment, recording and reporting.

  Our records are practical in that whilst they fulfil their purpose they must be as simple as possible to carry out and monitor. Our records are positive in both focus and content as well as taking due regard to equal opportunities. They celebrate achievement by showing what children have attained and how they  have progressed.