Welcome to the website for the Railway Cottage Nursery. Newly opened in September 2013, we offer care and education for children aged from 12 weeks to 5 years old. We only cater for up to 32 children at any one time, so our aim is to provide a ‘home from home’ environment where your child will feel safe, nurtured and secure.
The Railway Cottage is Barrhead’s first private nursery. Once derelict, the owner undertook an ambitious reclamation process and turned the 150-year-old building into a beautiful, bright and airy children’s nursery. We have three very well equipped playrooms and a fantastic all weather outdoor play area.
Manager
SVQ 3 Social Services, Children and Young People
SVQ 3 in Childcare and Development
PDA level 8 childhood practice
SVQ 3 childcare and education
SVQ 3 childcare and education
SVQ 3 Social Services, Children and Young People
Food Hygiene
Child Development Officer
OUR VISION AND AIMS
VISION STATEMENT
Railway Cottage Nursery provides childcare of the highest quality and excellence for children from 0-5 years. All of our staff are passionate and committed to the children in their care, ensuring that early education and development needs are met on an individual basis with a focus on learning through play and creativity. We strive to ensure all children in our care are safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included.
AIMS
- To provide high quality service for children and families.
- To provide a safe, secure and stimulating environment through a balance of directed and free choice activities for all round child development based around the Curriculum for Excellence and Pre Birth to Three document.
- To provide a warm and welcome atmosphere through good child and staff interactions, forming positive relationships with parents and carers.
- To have a qualified staff team who have the skills to assist children in their learning.
- To have an open door for parents and carers.
- To ensure a safe environment this protects children from harm, abuse and neglect.
All children are required to have a settling in period in the nursery. Children will be offered a minimum of three settling sessions before they start with us on a permanent basis. For some children starting nursery can be an overwhelming experience and children will have the opportunity to get to know their environment, become familiar with the staff and meet the other children in the nursery in their own time and pace.
We fully recognise a nursery is a new environment for some children and some little ones may take longer to settle than others. We show patience and warmth to all our new children, and indeed, to all of the children in our care. Hopefully, this will make the child feel at ease and make their parents/carers feel secure that they are in safe hands.
A key worker is allocated to each child who will attend to all their key children’s needs. The key worker will introduce themselves to the parents and their children and find out all the information relevant to the child/children’s care and will record this on the child’s Care Plan. Although a child will have a key worker, all the staff team will be looking after every child and pride themselves in knowing all the children in their care.
Typical Settling in Period
- Day 1 of settles – 30 minute settle to go over care plan and introduce the family to the nursery.
- Day 2 of settles – 30 minute/1 hr without the parent/carer. This allows the child time to settle and become more familiar with their new environment and staff team.
- Day 3 – 2 hrs without parent/carer. This gives the child an opportunity to spend more time getting to know their new environment and begin to build relationships.
Children that take longer to settle, are welcome to have more settling in time where required. A fee is not charged for this period.
Settling will be tailored to the needs of each individual child and family who join us here at Railway cottage. Staff are only too happy to offer support to parents and children through this period of transition.