At Domi Domingo we take a child centered approach to learning. This means that your child is at the heart of their learning, and their interests form the foundations of what we teach. We get to know each child individually and develop their learning through play. The learning and achievements are shared with you through your child’s online journal and we encourage parents to comment on this.
As a Nursery we try to be as healthy as possible…this is our ethos and we support our children with this through baking and preparing food from scratch. Our toddlers and pre school enjoy doing this on a Monday. This is led by our staff member Laura. Additionally our pre school children prepare their own healthy snack.
Some of our children come into the setting and need some help with their speech and imaginative vocabulary. Our pre school children have fun developing and exploring this through our interactive ‘Pyjama Drama’ sessions on a Tuesday.
On a Wednesday in the pre school room we have lots of fun with Emma from Mini Professors. She teaches some of our pre school children all about Science investigations and the children play a hands on role. This develops our critical thinking and our questioning skills.
Kath visits us on a Wednesday afternoon in the pre school room to teach us Spanish. A lot of our children have English as an additional language and this supports their understanding. Our children love Kath!
On a Thursday our children have lots of fun taking part in Diddi Dance, run by the amazing Susan. Susan visits our toddlers and pre school weekly, bringing lots of lovely movement resources, and introduces our children to a wide range of music. Our children’s physical skills are greatly developed by this experience.
We are also excited to be introducing yoga and mindfulness for our children shortly. Watch this space!
Originating in Scandinavia and soon becoming a worldwide area of learning, Forest Schooling is a unique type of learning. This covers different areas of learning that a child would not have access to in the classroom and provides countless learning opportunities. Through Forest School, child have an ability to explore the outdoors in a way they may not be able to do at home. They are able to create dens, make fires and explore new ways of cooking. They are shown how to use different tools appropriately and safely, given safety talks and allowed to use them on a one child to one adult basis. This enables child to build confidence in themselves and discover new abilities. Learning in a Forest School setting also enables child who may be shy in a setting to learn more about themselves and discover new talents. It is proven to boost academic skills and also indicates that child who have access to these learning opportunities are more confident and concentrated within the classroom. Here at Domi Domingo, we are passionate about all areas of learning for our child and the opportunities we can offer. We are proud to say we offer Forest School learning and have our own Forest School Leader on site. Our childen have an ability to learn new skills, using tools such as a palm drill to make holes in different pieces of wood and create their own sculptures. They are also able to use a billhook and mallet to help split wood with the assistance of our Forest School Leader. At Domi Domingo we also have a fire pit and are able to make fires with our children, showing them new ways to cook a variety of items and teach them, new skills along the way.
At Domi Domingo we are all inclusive and welcome all children to our setting, regardless of need. We plan activities specifically for all children, considering their needs and next steps to ensure that your child makes good progress whilst being in our care. We will work with parents/carers to ensure that your child is settled, and gains the best possible support whilst with us.
We would encourage you to phone our Nursery or just pop in! However if you would like to discuss your child’s needs in more detail, an appointment would be best with the manager and/or our SENDCO, so we would ask you to phone us on 0113 2783104 to arrange a mutually convenient time. During this meeting we will discuss how we would care for your child, but also liaise with you regarding any help you may already be getting. We would then get in touch with any agencies who are supporting you to ensure that we are working together as a collective to make your child’s transition to nursery as smooth and calm as possible.
Great! We can’t wait for you to join our Domi Domingo family! The first thing you would need to do is complete a registration form. You can complete a paper copy or register online. Once you have done this the manager will email you a letter of confirmation detailing which sessions you have selected, your start date, the monthly cost of your sessions, and anything you need to bring to Nursery. There will also be details on the letter of settling in sessions and a home visit if needed. Our office manager will also input your details onto our invoicing system, and you will be invoiced the registration fee of £50, (not applicable for 2yr and 3yr old funded places).
When you attend your first settling in session we will introduce you to your child’s keyperson, and they will take the lead in the visit.
Everybody!!!! We love to hear positive feedback from visitors who come in to see us. We would also ask that if a member of staff has done something well or made a difference to you, please tell them! The management team also love to receive emails from parents praising staff or telling us about something that you have been really pleased about. We then also share with our staff. The management team are also available should you have any other questions or comments.
Sometimes things don’t always go to plan or you may be concerned about something. Please pop in and see us or drop us an email so we can sort this out for you.
We firmly believe that every child at Domi Domingo is special, and we want to encourage every child to be the best they can at anything they set out to do. This is an important ethos and message that we believe children should believe in. The first thing that we would do is get to know your child. We would listen to your concerns and note these. If your child already has outside agencies working with them, we would liaise with them and look at future support from Nursery.
If your child hasn’t been diagnosed or has no outside agencies working with them, we would have very open and honest conversations with you – it might mean a referral to an outside agency should we have any concerns. This is called ‘Early Intervention.’ The benefit of this is that if your child needs a bit more support in a certain area, for example in their speech and language, research shows that the earlier we get that support the better for your child in the long run.
We would then continue to work alongside the professionals and follow their advice. This might mean different teams coming into Nursery to observe and work with your child. We will always let you know when this is happening and share all information with you. We would ask that you do the same.
Sometimes we will put things in place in Nursery to support your child and judge that at that moment in time, no referral to an outside agency is needed. We would ask that you support us in any strategies that we have in place so there is consistency at home and at Nursery.
Lots of children who attend our setting our EAL. This is what makes are setting so diverse and special! We have a number of staff who can speak different languages, ranging from Arabic to Spanish, so we will communicate with you in your home language initially if we can. We also have a ‘survival sheet’ in which we will ask you to write key words in your home language that we may need to use with your child in the setting.
Children pick up English very quickly and we will support them in doing this through using picture clues, sign language and simple sentences/words in our setting.
We encourage you to be as involved as you can! There are lots of opportunities to take part in different events throughout the year. You may also want to consider joining our PODDS group, (Parent’s of Domi Domingo Support group.) Our PODDS are parents whose children attend our setting, who meet up on a termly basis and discuss and offer support to various parts of Nursery life.
We recognise word of mouth as our most important way of advertising and we reward you if you do recommend a friend and they sign up. After your friend pays their first month’s fees, you will receive either a £20 gift card or 10% off your next month’s fees. You can recommend as many friends as you want!
All of our staff are highly trained and we offer continuous professional development to them. We expect all of our staff to be friendly towards our families and children, however children sometimes naturally gravitate towards another member of staff. If this is obvious, where we can we will change keyperson for your child. This is not always able to happen straight away – we have to bear in mind the number of key children that member of staff has already.
We are closed every bank holiday and the week in between Christmas and New Year. Y. We don’t close early for staff training sessions. These happen after opening hours.
We do offer term time only places, however we feel that stretched provision, (all year round places) are more beneficial for your children. This means that your child will not have nearly six weeks off in the school holidays in the Summer. This can be traumatic for children as they lose their routine. If you do require a term time only place, please let us know on registration.
No. We need time to process your application, look at booking patterns, do the letter of confirmation, set up Tapestry, book settling in sessions and assign a keyperson!
We prefer you to pay monthly and we always ask for a month in advance.
In extreme circumstances we can allow weekly payments, however this must be in agreement with Emma J, (Office Manager).
At Domi Domingo we play out in all weathers. Research shows us that it is unhealthier for a child to be inside, even if they have a cold, cough or some other illness. This is true for all weathers. Fresh air and being outside is the healthiest place for them. The only exception for this is if your child had a doctor’s note stating that they needed to be kept inside.
In addition to this children at our Nursery get to explore different learning environments and learning opportunities outside that the different weather offers us.
We would prefer you not to do this. We believe that you have to be positive about Nursery right from the start so that your child can see this as a positive too. If you are not sure about your child attending, your child will pick up on that uncertainty too. Additionally there is a lot of admin work and time from staff spent settling in your child which would also be wasted.
Yes we do. Our staff are paid for the bank holidays and are on contracts. We cannot reduce their hours should you be on holiday so do charge if you take a child out of Nursery.
Please don’t worry! You can phone us anytime on 01132783104 and ask to speak to your child’s room. We will also try to update Tapestry as often as we can so you can see that your child is enjoying their time at Nursery.
It is important that every child has at least two settling in sessions.
At Domi Domingo, we do a very calm settling in process, based around your needs and more importantly, that of your child. For our younger children this starts with a home visit. The manager or the deputy and your child’s keyperson will come and visit you at home and begin to develop those initial relationships with your child.
Following this we ask for you to visit Nursery with your child, and for both of you to stay for an hour. This give you chance to show your child around their new room and show them that you are comfortable with the setting.
We then ask on the second visit that you bring your child and leave them for a short amount of time. Your keyperson will be able to advise on this. We gradually build the time up in the following visits until your child is in for a full session. These visits will include at least one mealtime and a sleep time if they need a sleep during the day. We don’t have a set number of settling in sessions and will do as many as needed. It is important to us that your child is fully settled and that you are comfortable leaving them!
We would encourage you to phone our Nursery or just pop in! However if you would like to discuss your child’s needs in more detail, an appointment would be best with the manager and/or our SENDCO, so we would ask you to phone us on 0113 2783104 to arrange a mutually convenient time. During this meeting we will discuss how we would care for your child, but also liaise with you regarding any help you may already be getting. We would then get in touch with any agencies who are supporting you to ensure that we are working together as a collective to make your child’s transition to nursery as smooth and calm as possible.
At Domi Domingo every child’s key person plans activities for their key children. This means that your child’s key person will work really hard to get to know your child quickly, and will identify areas of development and next steps for your child. They will plan activities at your child’s level to teach these. All of our activities are displayed so you can see what we will be working on with your child.
Our setting is all on one level. We do have steps to our door, but we also have a ramp suitable for pushchairs and wheelchairs.
Your child’s key person will seek to maintain regular contact with you regarding your child’s progress. We also have communication books that will contain details of your child’s day. We have parent consultation evenings where you can discuss your child’s progress in more detail, and you are welcome to take your child’s profile home at any time. We actively encourage you to add to your child’s profile.
We try and involve you in every aspect of your child’s learning, and encourage you to share your child’s interests. We will give you ideas to use at home with your child.
We want your child to settle with us and be happy, so in the early days we will liaise with you closely to try and ensure this happens. Of course this doesn’t always go to plan so we will adjust your child’s time spent in our setting until they are settled.
If we need to access training to support your child, we will do, and will work in partnership with health professionals for this. We have a behaviour policy that focusses on using praise, and we would use this with your child. We also have a healthy eating policy, and would also use this with your child. Any dietary requirements are catered for.
When a child with additional needs joins our setting, we aim to get in contact with appropriate specialist services as soon as possible to ensure we can support your child fully.
We have two SENDCO’s who can support your child on a day to day basis, but we can also refer to specialist services such as speech and language and STARS if we deem this necessary. We will of course, liaise with you every step of the way and tell you why we think the referrals would be beneficial.
We are very lucky at Domi Domingo as we have two special educational needs coordinators, one for the 0-2 yr olds, and one for the 2-5 yr olds. One of our coordinators would be your child’s key person, and would plan alongside you to provide activities to excite and stimulate your child. We will track your child’s progress on a regular basis and share this information with you.
Our two SENDCO’s are currently undertaking SENDCO training to ensure they can support children with SEN effectively. IF any further specific training is necessary, we would ensure this was accessed.
Children with SEND are included in all aspects of the nursery day and this would include trips and visits. We would liaise with you to discuss additional resources and aspects to consider, and plan to ensure your child has an enjoyable experience.
We fill out transition reports that require your input so we will liaise with you regarding this. We also invite a member of staff from the setting that your child is moving to into our nursery to see the child in an environment that they are familiar with. We are also happy to share your child’s profile with their next key person, however we will ensure that we receive your consent before doing this.
We will get to know your child, and plan activities that will help support your child’s development. We will use the funding to buy any additional resources, or to get extra support for your child, for example, a 1:1 worker or a specialist if necessary. We will also require your input about what you feel your child needs, and will work in partnership with you to ensure that any extra funding is used to support your child in the best way possible.
We try and encourage you to get involved as much as you can! As well as making sure that your child’s profile is available at all times for you to look at and contribute to, we also have a board with our policies on that we are updating. You can contribute to this. We also have a suggestion box, and you will also have the opportunity to take our topic story home to share with your child at home. When your child does leave, you will be invited to your child’s nursery graduation.
If you would like to enquire about a place at nursery, please contact us on 0113 2783104. You can also find our details online on our website, or facebook page. For more information about funded places, please look at the family information page online.
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