Home visit

Before any child begins their journey with Nursery or Forest School, our staff will carry out a home visit. This is usually arranged around six weeks before a child’s agreed start date. The home visit helps us to get to know each child as an individual, as well as their family, and gives parents the opportunity to ask any questions about starting Nursery or Forest School. Your child’s Key Person will attend this visit.

Key Person Approach

All children attending Nursery and Forest School are assigned a Key Person to support the principles of Attachment Theory. This approach recognises that children develop a sense of security when they have a consistent, responsive adult who understands their individual needs.

The Key Person provides a secure base for children to explore and learn in both Nursery and Forest School. Our home visit and settling-in process allows the Key Person to build a strong relationship with the child and family before the child starts. preferences, and we work closely with families to reflect these across both settings.

Each child’s Key Person is responsible for ensuring their care, observe children, assess how they learn, and record their development using our online system, iConnect. Parents receive regular updates about their child’s learning at Nursery and Forest School, along with ideas on how learning can be supported at home.

Important information

The home visit is also an opportunity for parents to share important information about their child, including whether any other professionals are involved in supporting them, such as Speech and Language Therapy, Portage, the SEND team, or Social Care. This ensures we can provide the right support from the very beginning.

Settling in at the Nursery/Forest school

Following the home visit, families and children are invited to meet the rest of the staff and have another look around our nursery/forest school.

Key person support

A series of settling-in visits will then be planned in partnership with parents. These sessions are tailored to each child to help them feel safe, secure, and confident in their new environment.

No parent will be expected to leave their child during the settling-in period unless they feel completely comfortable to do so. For children settling into the Nursery, parents may choose to watch their child via the Nursery camera system. For Forest School, settling-in sessions take place in the outdoor Forest School environment and include familiarisation with the setting and, where applicable, support with transport arrangements. Staff will work closely with families to ensure children feel secure and confident in this setting.

We recognise that all children and families are unique, so we do not place a limit on the number of settling-in visits required. The length of each session is gradually increased, and children are supported to experience various parts of the day, including mealtimes and sleep times (where applicable).

There is no charge for the settling-in period, which lasts as long as needed.