Setting Information

Opening Hours/Holidays

Happy Hares Childcare operates the following working hours:

Our setting is open at these times:

Days: Monday to Friday

Hours: 8:00am – 6:00pm

Weeks: 46 weeks of the year

The setting is closed:

We are closed for 6 weeks per year

2 weeks at Easter (Local Authority Easter Holidays).

Last 2 weeks in the August (Part of Local Authority Summer Holidays).

2 weeks over Christmas/New Years period (Local Authority Christmas Holidays).

Provision

As outlined in the EYFS framework, We are restricted to the number and ages of children that We may care for at any one time.

As part of our Ofsted registration, we are able to care for:

6 children (3 children per childminder) under the age of 5 years.
2 (1 child per childminder) of these may be under 1 years old.
We currently don’t offer a drop off or pick up service from local schools.

Meals & Snacks:

We can provide all snacks, meals and refreshments which is included in the non funded private day rate.
Meals and snacks can be provided for funded places for a daily meal charge, as the government funding is not allowed to be used for this. (You do have the option to provide your own meals and snacks for funded days, inline with our healthy eating policies and DfE Early Years Foundation Stage nutrition guidance).

We can provide:

We can provide wellies and waterproofs for wet/cold/windy days
Rash vests for summer water fun!

You must provide the following:

Suitable clothing during the winter/summer.months e.g. woolly hats and gloves, sun hats, a change of clothes in case of accidents/ getting dirty/wet during play.
Sun cream

If your child is wearing nappies, please provide:

Nappies
Cream (e.g Sudocrem if necessary)
Wipes
Formula/breast milk, if required

Settling in Visits

Settling in visits are very important, not only for the child but also for you as parents. For some of you, it might be the first time you are leaving your child and that in itself can be very emotional.

We offer at least 2 to 4 Free, short (30min – 1hr) settling in sessions depending on whether your child needs it, either on a Saturday or Sunday (which can be extended if necessary), generally without parents/carer present, so the child has time to get to know us, and our setting, but parents are welcome to attend the first 1 or 2 sessions.

We aim to do settling in sessions on the weekends, as it enables parents to attend without the worry of taking time off work and allows us to give our full attention.

Once you know your child is happy, safe, being cared for and having fun, you can go to work during the week relaxed knowing they are okay.

Some children don’t need settling in sessions especially if they are used to going to other settings etc. We can normally tell if they will manage this when we see them for the first time.

Meals

We can provide:

Breakfast
Morning snack
Lunch
Afternoon snack/Milk
Evening Tea (dinner).

These meals will take into consideration our healthy food policy, allergies and dietary and age requirements and dependent on the time of year/planned activities.

We work from a 3 week rotating Spring/Summer menu over six months and a 3 week rotating Autumn/Winter menu for the next 6 months.

When choosing our meals, we will always consider the children’s current likes and dislikes, dietary requirements and will always provide balanced healthy meals (low salt, low sugar, low fat), a variety of wholemeal options and with at least 2 to 3 vegetable/salad options. All our vegetables are steamed and proteins and carbohydrates are either oven cooked or cooked in the Air Fryer

We will always encourage children to try new foods and eat their vegetables but will persist with this if they refuse, as children’s tastes do change as they grow!

As we know children can be very fussy when it comes to eating, with their tastes, like and dislikes constantly changing.

When children are fussy with their food, especially when eating vegetables, we will always ensure that we can provide regular meals with lots of hidden veg e.g. spaghetti bolognaise, shepherds/cottage pie, mild curry or even try to make food fun and exciting by dishing up food in a fun way (e.g. dinosaur shaped sandwiches) or even getting the children to help prep/serve the food.

Communication

Communication is key to a good working relationship with all parents. We have adopted an online digital system called Kinderly, with the aim to reduce our carbon footprint 👣 by being paper free.

This online system is used to share:

Daily diaries including
- Meals eaten
- Sleeping time
- Toileting/nappy changes

Kinderly is also used to:

Register childrens attendance
Set up digital contracts
Medication requests/approval forms
Accident reports
Progress reports

We also set up private WhatsApp groups with each family, where we communicate and share photos.

Activities

We have a wide range of resources for both indoor and outdoor activities, to promote the learning and development of all age and abilities, which supports the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). We make the most of our outdoor space through all seasons.

We do many activities focused around the EYFS and 7 areas of learning, such as:

Arts and crafts
Cooking
Forest school activities
Baby yoga
Sports activities
Music and Instruments
Mark making
Small world and imaginative play
Role Play
Rhymes & Sounds
Dance & Movement
Local playground/park visits
Growing and harvesting fruit and veg

Where possible, we aim to use and make the most of many local facilities, dependant on cohort, age, ratios, weather, like:

Toy libraries/stay and Play groups
Role to Play
Feel good centre
Epping Forest
William Morris Gallery
Vestry House Museum
Walthamstow Wetlands Centre