Elflin's outdoor based early years setting. Outstanding childcare setting based in Tidworth.
Where your Elflin can be Spirted, muddy, barefoot and free to explore and thrive in a loving and nurturing environment.
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Welcome to Elflins!
Our unique free flow and free play early years setting. At Elflin's we follow the Curiosity Approach which is inspired by Steiner, Reggio, Emilia, Montessori and Te Whariki. We are a Hygge accredited setting and follow a forest school ethos.
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Why are we unique? Because we believe it is crucial in the early years to offer children the opportunity and freedom to learn from their own investigations and imaginative play. We will rarely take children away from this crucial learning and development. That being said we offer adult learning in strategic, well timed and opportune moments that extend children's learning!
At Elflin’s we LOVE to spend as much time outside as possible. We embrace the changes in the season and nature which we bring into our learning. This is because we strongly believe that children should be allowed unlimited freedom to connect with nature. All outdoor resources extend on or enhance the indoors resources. Unlike many settings children at Elflins have the freedom to spend as much time as they like outdoors.
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The children have continuous access to authentic resources. Which are always available and accessible to encourage and promote independence. These are risked assessed to meet the age and stage of development of each child.
Messy play areas include digging in the sand, mud patch and growing vegetables. Mark making and painting opportunities make up our continuous provision!
We are very passionate about the care we provide, the huge benefits of outdoor leaning and the nurturing environment our setting has to offer.
A typical day at Elflin's
At Elflin's we treat each Elflin as a unique child. We do this by having a holistic approach. We have an easy to follow routine as we know most young children thrive on a routine and like to know what to expect in their day. However, it has enough flexibility to allow the children to really engage in their surrounding and enjoy the moment. All activities are invitation or provocation to learn. To spark curiosity and awe. Everything we set up and have available as part of our continuous provision follows the EYFS and supports your individual child's age and development!
We have trip days on Mondays and Thursday are our welly walk days exploring the local community.
We use Makaton in the setting to support speech and communication.
Children can either nap outside in pushchairs or on floor mats inside. With staff checking on them regularly following safer sleeping guidelines set out by lullaby trust. We will follow each individual child’s sleep pattern and cues.
Part of our ethos is to make the setting feel like a home from home to support this we are Hygge accredited.
As our recent Ofsted report shows, we ensure children personal, social and emotional needs are met. As the setting is one where your child can flourish, grow, feel loved and always cared for. So, you can feel reassured that your child is in a safe, loving and caring environment where their needs are always met and where you know they feel loved and secure.
At Elflins children move onto school 'School ready'. Children develop independence, are able to show their Elflin values beyond the setting and develop the resilience they will need to thrive in a school environment.
We like to follow a gentle discipline approach where time out is VERY rarely used and only in extreme situations. Age appropriate, distraction and explanation will always be our preferred pathway.
We also baby wear and will do so with your child if permitted.
We hope you and your child enjoy your time with us as we will always strive to make your time with us the best, enriching and the most positive experience possible.
Opening Hours
Mon: 8am - 5pm
Tuesday: 8am - 5pm
Wednesday :8am -4 pm
Thursday : 8am -5 pm
Friday: 8am- 4pm
Fees
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•£5.50 an hour full time and all year.
•£6.50 for part time hours (under 30 hours a week.)
•£6.50 an hour for term time only.
•Funded children will be charged £6.50 an hour for anything over the 30 free hours.
•A £150 non refundable deposit is required if the space is not an immediate start or starting within the month. This will come off your 1st invoice if the place is taken.
Anything outside of these hours are charged at £10 an hour. As are bank holidays if you need childcare on those days. This will remain at the discretion of the setting if childcare is available on these days.
For advice on eligibility for funding and ways to help pay for childcare please ask me for information and advice
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Fees correct as of May 2024, I reserve the right to change fees at any time.
FAQ
I have comprised a small list to help you make the best, most informed childcare choice for you and your child.
•What experience and/or training do you have? I have all essential training to run a childcare setting. We are regulated by OFSTED. My staff and I are required by Ofsted to have the following updated regularly: safeguarding and paediatric first aid. We are also required to have our DBS on the update service and all adults in the setting are required to have a suitability check before being allowed to work with the children. I also ensure I update my CPD by taking any training opportunities that I believe will be beneficial for the children and setting. I have been in the childcare work environment for over 10 years and I also have 4 children of my own. I have a CACHE level 3 in children and young people’s work force. We are currently 'working towards' the Curiosity approach accreditation. I am a level 2 muddy puddle teacher. I am also training for my forest school level 3. We are a Hygge accredited setting. I have completed my level 3 Senco training with the DFE.
•I work with 3 members of staff. Hayley who has a level 3 in early years and working in early years for 3 years.
Jade who has recently finished her apprenticeship with us and is now level 2 qualified and looking to start her level 3.
Mary Beth who has worked in early years for over 3 years and will be starting her Level 3. My staff all have set working days but will also cover each other if the need arises to avoid setting closure. My husband Luke will sometimes be in the house and does come out to the setting as he is also the handyman! He is also DBS checked and cleared as one of my assistants as is my Eldest daughter.
•How many children do you care for on a typical day? As there are 3 members of staff, we are able to care for up to 18 children a day however, we prefer to keep our child to staff ratio low and usually care for around 12 to 15 children per day.
•What activities do you provide for children? We don't follow the formal adult led activities that are seen in a lot of nurseries. This is because they are not beneficial to the children and have low rates of success for the child's learning . We predominantly are child led and a free play setting. What we do instead is we set up invitations and provocations to learn. My fb page shows a lot of the invitations and provocations we provide, these all link into the EYFS and follow each childs stage and age of development. They will extend children's learning as they will include opportunities for the prime areas which include communication and language (listening, understanding and speaking), Physical development and personal, emotional and social development. They will also lead into the specific areas too. Literacy, maths, expressive arts and design and understanding the worlds. We include STEM in a lot of the activities and incorporate a forest school ethos for much of the activities that we provide and in our daily routine.
•We use a system called babys days which is where you will be able to find your contracts, policies, procedures, your child’s development and invoices.
•Will you take my child shopping, to the park, toddler groups and, if so, how frequently? I may take the children to the shops. As there are 3 of us, I would take just a small number of children and this would only be if the parents permit this. We will take the children to the park and woodland walks. We go out on Mondays to a local outdoor space where possible we will make trips to National trust or English heritage sites. Or to visit the wider community. On Monday’s and Thursdays we ask that children bring their lunch and a drink and anything they need for the day in a small bag that they can carry for themselves. Ideally a throw away lunch to avoid losing pots and utensils on the trips.
•How will you encourage positive behaviour and deal with any problems? We always praise children for their positive behaviour and use a lot of distraction technics and knowing and understanding the children we care we know what will trigger unwanted behaviours and will intervene before a problem arises which we find really effective in avoiding unwanted negative behaviour. We will always explain to a child why certain behaviours may be unwanted to support the child. As a rule, we would only use methods such as time out for behaviour such as hitting, biting and kicking. As I believe that if a child is suddenly displaying unwanted behaviour there is always a reason behind it so will ensure we try and find the reason to enable us to best support the child. We will always discuss with parents and ask for support and together we will usually find a way to tackle it. If we are really unable to support the child with parental support then it may have to be a case of terminating the contract. However, we usually are able to tackle most behaviour issues.
•Which rooms do you use for childminding? I use my outdoor setting and sleeping children will either sleep outdoors in pushchairs which is part of my Hygge accreditation setting as there are many proven benefits to sleeping outside (this would be the parents’ choice). We also now offer a floor bed for the children in the playhouse for those who nap in the afternoon.
•What are the ages of other minded children? We care for a range of children from age 4 months -5 years during the day and school age children before and after school. We believe the age range of children is a positive for the children.
•Do you have pets? Yes, I have a dog, a skinny pig and 2 lizards. And of course Buttons the Elflin rabbit.
•What are the arrangements for travelling and child safety? We have risk assessments in place for travel and safety which we naturally assess on a daily basis.
•Will you take/collect my child from pre-school/nursery/school? We choose not to collect from nursery or preschool as we feel very strongly about continuity of care for the children to allow them to form close meaningful relationships with us their carers and their peers.
Contact Us
Interested in learning more about Elflin's outdoor based early years setting? Please feel free to get in touch, and a member of our team will get back to you as soon as possible.
07500043349