About usEthos & Core Values
Tiddlywinks Day Nursery was founded by husband and wife, Imelda & David Mihell in the Summer of 1994 and the company officially opened their doors the same year.
Play
At Tiddlywinks Nursery, Play is … the language of childhood. It is through play that children begin to explore and experience the world around them. It is a process of observation, endeavour, challenge, imitation, examination and enjoyment of the people around them and the environment they are in.
Play is what children naturally do when given freedom, time, and space.
Children learn to forge connections with each other, build a wide range of leadership skills, develop resilience, navigate relationships and social challenges as well as conquer their fears and begin to develop interests which will follow them through into adulthood.
Curriculum
Our Tiddlywinks Nursery ABC Curriculum has been uniquely designed by our team. It provides our early years educators with a carefully constructed education programme which is sequenced from birth to five years. This provides them with a plan and structure they can adapt and evaluate, ensuring they deliver high quality education.
Our curriculum identifies learning outcomes and core competencies and skills we intend for our children to demonstrate before they move onto their next stage of learning.
Our Sequenced Curriculum supports children’s learning over time, building on what they have already learned. It maps out the skills and knowledge that our children need and empowers us to provide the children, with rich challenging and play based activities based on their curiosities and interests. It allows the children to revisit previous learning which helps to consolidate the skills they need to become competent and confident learners.
Community
At Tiddlywinks Nursery we take pride and proactively celebrating the diverse communities our settings are situated within. Our aim is to expose our children to a wealth of opportunity in terms of celebrating culture, exploring the natural world around them, and making links with the vibrant city or town they live in.
Throughout our children’s journey, the children are offered a wealth of opportunities and experiences through regular visits into our communities. By taking part in these learning opportunities, children experience and begin to appreciate culture, history and gain knowledge in addition to establishing a sense of belonging within their diverse community.
Wellbeing
At Tiddlywinks Nursery we believe that the Wellbeing of our children is linked to their happiness and contentment. Wellbeing is important for all ages and is linked to emotional, physical, intellectual, and social elements.
A strong sense of wellbeing is connected to belonging and we want all of our children to feel they belong within our nursery feeling safe and secure. By providing children with positive wellbeing experiences, we hope to give them the opportunity to confidently explore and learn, identify their needs and express their feelings and emotions, something we aim for everyday in the wide range of activities our children engage in.
Welcoming Atmosphere
At Tiddlywinks Nursery we believe a welcoming atmosphere should be evident from the moment an enquiry is made for your child, and it is essential to us that all families feel a sense that they belong.
Our children will naturally develop creativity and curiosity from the environments and experiences they encounter, enabling them to explore their own interests and learn from their experiences. Children are encouraged to collaborate, communicate, create, and experiment throughout the space, which has been carefully planned to foster a sense of calmness, wonder and exploration to enable our children to effectively engage and be motivated to learn and allows space for children to practice and retain their learning.
Nurturing Environment
The Nursery Environment plays a key role as the third teacher in supporting and enabling children to grow, develop, explore and discover. Encouraging babies and young children to play and learn begins from a foundation of feeling emotionally safe and secure.
The Learning Environment consists of three aspects: the emotional environment, the indoor environment, and the outdoor environment. Our environments are designed to nurture and encourage babies and children to feel ready and able to explore, learn and flourish from their secure foundation.
Staff Team
Tiddlywinks Nursery recognises and values our staff team who are fundamental to our vision and success. Leaders and staff are passionate, dedicated and committed to providing nurturing and responsive care alongside an ambitious and stimulating curriculum.
A cycle of strategic and professional staff development enables us to attract and retain a high-calibre staff team with the skills and competencies necessary to deliver our vision. A culture of continuous knowledge acquisition, coaching and development enables our team to ensure all of our children flourish and reach their full potential.
Partnerships with Parents & Carers
At Tiddlywinks Nursery we recognise that Parents and Carers are their child’s first and most important educators and an essential influence in enabling them to achieve to their highest potential. Building strong partnerships from the start is key and we value parents’ involvement.
Parents and carers have a rich knowledge of their child’s personality, interests, preferences and abilities. We believe education is a collaborative enterprise based on transparency and trust and recognise that supporting parents/carers engagement in learning is an effective way to make a difference to children’s lives and outcomes.
Partnerships with parents can truly flourish when we work together to enable children to create meaningful connections to their wider world and to foster a love of learning. We strive to ensure our parents and carers feel included, listened to and valued within their own role supporting their child’s wellbeing, development and learning.
The Role of the Keycarer
Tiddlywinks Nursery Keycarers are nurturing, supportive and offer encouragement to support our babies and children in their daily routine and prepare them in their journey to being independent learners with the confidence to achieve their very best outcomes.
Our Keycarers role is that of an inclusive practitioner, who is are aware of each of their keychild’s individual needs; in particular those related to their family, culture, learning abilities, ability, dietary requirements and sensitivities.
We encourage excellent communication and share information in a cycle with our parents and carers and the rest of the staff team to ensure that each of our children’s needs and learning milestones are met.
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