INFORMATION

Kingsway Playgroup and Pre-School centre is registered with Lancashire Education as a registered provider of nursery education which allows all three and four year olds who attend, to qualify for free places. It is affiliated to the Pre-school Learning Alliance.

Full daycare is available, Monday to Friday from 08.30 to 3.30. This is split into a morning and afternoon session with a breakfast and lunch club. You are able to take any or all of these sessions.

The breakfast club includes a nutritious breakfast, an example of the menu can be seen here

At both morning and afternoon sessions the children are given a healthy snack, an example of the menu can be seen here

The lunch club includes a nutritious buffet style cold lunch and a drink, an example of the menu can be seen here .

     
The centre is situated in Heysham and provides quality and affordable childcare to the community in which it is situated. It is conveniently situated close to a major bus route
   
The pre-school centre occupies a part of St Patrick's School, but is run as an independent setting. It consists of a large main playroom where most of the activities take place, a small quiet room where small group activities are carried out and a multi purpose area which is used for a variety of purposes as well as snacks and meals. There is also a secure sheltered outdoor area with an all weather surface to which our children have the exclusive use. We also have the option of taking the children into the main school grounds which are extensive and as they border open countryside the children can explore the natural world about them with the utmost safety.
   

The Playgroup is inspected by OFSTED to ensure that we provide quality care and education.

We were inspected in January 2009 and were judged to be outstanding in 5 areas and good in the other 9 areas.

Here are a few examples of what the what the inspector said about the centre:
  • The setting provides a very secure and welcoming environment where all the staff have a good understanding of each child's individual needs, enabling them to support every child's all round care and learning most effectively.
  • This is an inclusive setting where the needs of all groups of children are valued and catered for extremely effectively.
  • The setting's management and staff all have a strong commitment to the continuous development of the setting and strive to make improvements to the provision.
  • The learning environment provides a wonderful balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities that result in children being active learners.
  • High quality planning ensures that an outstanding level of challenge is provided across the six areas of learning.

The full report can be viewed by clicking on the following links:

To view the report as a pdf file click here - you will need to have adobe reader installed on your computer
To view the report as a microsoft word file click here

As we have had to re-register the pre-school there are no previous inspection reports available on the Ofsted website, but the last inspection report from November 2006 for our old premises can be seen by clicking the links below- all that is different is the building.

To view the report as a pdf file click here - you will need to have adobe reader installed on your computer
To view the report as a microsoft word file click here

     

We are aslo pleased that we have been awarded the Lancashire County Council's "Step into Quality " award.

The scheme is adminstered by Lancashire County Council's Sure Start, Early Years and Childcare Service as a quality assurance scheme to help all childcare providers across Lancashire to demonstrate good practice and develop high quality services for children and parents.

The ratio of staff to children is always at the levels recommended in the Early Years Foundation Stage framework, and often more. This is because we regularly have volunteer parent helpers, work experience students and other more mature students on work placement.

The Early Years Foundation Stage is a comprehensive framework which sets the national standards for learning, development and care of children from birth to 5. Further information can be found by clicking here
   
The partnership with parents, carers and anyone else involved with the children is important to us and parents are encouraged to visit and see how their children are progressing. Each child is assigned a key-worker who will always be happy to discuss your child's progress or answer any concerns you may have.
     
If you would like to find out more about us please contact us by phone or email (via the contacts page) or just call in and see for yourself.
 
Our secure and child friendly outside play area

 

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