// Welcome

Welcome to the Eastwood Nursery School website, which we aim to update as regularly as possible to keep our readers fully informed about developments in this exciting Nursery. Please use the links above to navigate our site and discover more about us.

Since September 2005 Eastwood Nursery School has been actively preparing to become one of 16 Children’s Centres to be created in the Borough of Wandsworth. It has been an exciting and challenging journey as we have developed plans for high-quality, multi-agency provision in Roehampton, one of the most disadvantaged areas in the Borough. Eastwood Nursery School is currently maintained by the Local Authority and caters for 60 full-time equivalent children, including 8 places for vulnerable two-year olds with special needs referred by the Early Years Multi-agency panel (EYMAP). The current Headteacher is in her third year in post and during this time she has developed the range of services available to children and their families through the use of professionals from other disciplines. These include an artist, music and play and movement therapists and a speech, language and communication therapist. Their work is central to our commitment of giving children a voice and enabling us to hear and value the expression of their thoughts, ideas and feelings. In 2007 Eastwood Nursery was recognised by Mark Allen publications and the Early Years Educator as ‘Early Years Setting of the Year’. This was a timely recognition of the services which this maintained nursery school has provided for over 30 years. In September 2007 Eastwood Nursery School expanded to embrace the work of a Neighbourhood Nursery based at the Sure Start Centre, 166 Roehampton Lane. In April 2008 we expanded our work still further by assuming responsibility for the toy library and crèche services currently being provided from 166 Roehampton Lane. In September 2008, Eastwood Nursery School will become a Childre.

The Children’s Centre includes a three-storey building, newly refurbished to provide an exciting and comfortable environment in which young children, staff and families can learn together. The ground floor includes a spacious and welcoming reception area which leads to two large indoor learning spaces designed to promote maximum flexibility for shaping the learning environment. Both areas have easy access to the outdoor learning spaces giving a range of different learning opportunities, including forest school education which forms a key part of our work with children. To one side of the central staircase, the first floor includes a large hall where children will take their lunch, cooked on site, and enjoy a range of developmental movement experiences. This is also the location for a large kitchen and laundry. To the other side of the staircase, a series of rooms has been provided for individual and small group work. These include a sensory room, soft play and ball pool rooms, an atelier and a group room for individual use by staff and therapists. The second floor houses the staff room and administrative bases, a family room and a large, self-contained training base which will be used to support the personal and professional development needs of both our own staff and Early Years’ practitioners across the Borough and beyond. The building has been designed to give maximum opportunity for flexibility and to allow people from different disciplines can carry out their work effectively while working closely with each other: a multidisciplinary team working in an inter-disciplinary way. The new Centre will accommodate more children, more families and more staff.

The range of children being provided for will include

• Vulnerable two year olds referred by the EYMAP
• Children with learning difficulties and disabilities(LDD)
• Children with EAL • Children on the Child Protection Register
• Looked After Children’s Centre and relocate to 168 Roehampton Lane, forming the largest Children’s Centre in the Borough.

To facilitate this increase in service provision, staffing will increase from 34 to 87. The Link co-ordinator post is one of several new posts created to help us better serve the needs of children and families from an area of high deprivation including asylum seekers, refugees, immigrants and many who live in poverty in a densely-packed area of high-rise flats with no direct access to the outdoors. Leadership at the new Centre will be provided by the Head and 6 Link Co-ordinators responsible for specific aspects of service delivery. The co-ordinator for Learning and Teaching will be responsible for all educational aspects of the programme. The co-ordinator for Community will be responsible for all day care provision, crèche and toy library services, extended school services and all community-based aspects of the Centre’s work. The co-ordinator for Voice of the Child will support all aspects of our work in supporting the development of facilities and opportunities whereby children can effectively express their ideas and feelings. The co-ordinator for Inclusion will be responsible for co-ordinating the work of all staff in delivering high-quality services to children with special and additional needs. The co-ordinator for Business Organisation will be responsible for ensuring maximum efficiency in the way we receive and expend money to maintain and support the development of the Centre. The co-ordinator for Premises will be responsible for ensuring that all the areas for which the Centre is responsible in both 166 and 168 Roehampton Lane are attractive, well maintained and fit for purpose. The six co-ordinators, working under the Head’s direction, will formulate vision, strategy, policy and the principles which will underpin the excellent practice we aim to secure in the new Centre. Co-ordinators will be responsible for developing excellent communication between each other and with the staff for whom they have line-management responsibilities. The Head and Link co-ordinators will form the leadership team, the strength of which will be determined by the degree to which it functions as a cohesive and coherent whole.

The framework on which the vision for our Centre hangs 5 4 3 2 1

5 Outcomes for children

• Staying safe
• Being healthy
• Enjoying positive relationships
• Achieving and enjoying and
• Experiencing economic well-being

4 Key themes for quality experiences at the Centre

• The unique child
• Positive relationships
• Enabling environments
• Learning and development

3 Points of our ‘relationship triangle’

• Child
• Parent
• Practitioner

2 Lines of accountability

• OFSTED
• Local Authority

1 Leadership team

• Governing Body Setting the vision and establishing the right culture to drive forward improvement to ensure that the best life chances are secured for every child.

Eastwood is one of one of a number of Children’s Centres being developed in the Borough of Wandsworth. Children attend between the ages of 8 weeks and 4 years of age. They enjoy a wide range of play, development and learning opportunities. Our aim is to support the learning and development of each individual child, by providing an integrated, balanced, broad, stimulating, differentiated and play- based curriculum.

To achieve this, we work in partnership with parents, carers and children and with colleagues from supporting disciplines such as speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, music therapy, play therapy, movement therapy and the visual arts.

• Promote family learning - supporting parents and carers as the prime and most enduring educators of their children.

• Foster strong working links between the wider community and ourselves.

• Offer a wide range of exciting and challenging facilities and resources, both indoors and outdoors.

• Make available a wide range of opportunities for people to develop personally and professionally

• Integrate children into their local schools. We pride ourselves on creating an environment which is organised and efficient, and where every person matters.