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).
Bank 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 under the age of 5 years (3 children per childminder).
2 of these may be under 1 years old (1 child per childminder).
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:

Please could you provide a suitably sized bag which is updated each day, consisting of the following:

Suitable clothing dependant on the time of year during the winter/summer months e.g. woolly hats and gloves, sun hats, with at least 2 changes of clothes in case of accidents/ getting dirty/wet during play.
A sun hat, preferably legionaries design or wide brimmed, must be worn at all times whilst outside in sunny weather.
Light-weight cotton clothing suitable for the sun, with long sleeves and long legs if prone to sunburn must be worn, strappy tops are not suitable and shoulders must be covered.
Sun cream of factor 50.
Nappies.
Cream (e.g Sudocrem if necessary).
Wipes.
Formula/breast milk, if required.

Visits & Settling in

Visits:

As you can appreciate, with the amount of requests we get to visit our setting, this can become a full time job on its own! We do also have a duty of care for the children we childmind and our personal family time.

So we can only accommodate visits to our setting once we know a space will be coming available. This is when we will contact the next person on the waiting list to arrange a visit, which will be arranged for weekday evenings from 6pm or on weekends. If you are happy with our setting, we can start the registration process, alternatively we will work down our waiting list.

Settling in Visits: (Once a space is confirmed and deposit is paid)

I/we understand how difficult it is for parents to leave their child in childcare and return to work. We have been there with our own child. For this reason, I will work with you wherever possible, to ensure your child is settled and that you are happy with the care that I provide.

Settling in visits are very important, so I/we like to organise short settling in sessions in order for you, your child and myself to get to know each other better before contracted hours commence.

Where possible, I recommend we offer 2 to 4 Free, short (30min – 1hr) settling in sessions on a weekend, as it enables both parents to attend without the worry of taking time off work and allows us to give our full attention (These can be extended with a fee charge, if necessary).

Unlike large nursery settings, we are unable to offer settling in sessions before the contract starts during the week, unless our ratios allow it. If ratios allow, we can discuss this closer to the time.

You are welcome to stay with your child during the first 1 or 2 sessions but I would recommend that your stay is gradually shortened so as your child can get used to door drop offs and you not being there. If you feel your child requires longer to settle then we can of course arrange further settling in sessions but we may need to charge at a standard hourly rate).

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.

During the first few days, we send a quick WhatsApp message/photo to provide reassurance and let parents know how their child is doing especially if there was a few tears at the door during drop off. This can be normal for your child to cry at drop off time, while they are settling in, but they often stop crying by the time we have gone through and met the other children.

Meals

We can provide:

Breakfast
Morning snack
Lunch
Afternoon snack/Milk
Evening Tea (dinner).
- Meals are currently included in our daily private rate.
- Meals for funded days please see our Additional Charges/Alternative Option on our Fees & Charges page

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/chilli con carne 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:

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