Little Stars Nursery - Swindon College, North Star Avenue
'A celebration of early childhood'

The nursery was awarded an outstanding Grade 1 for all aspects of their childcare provision in their last Ofsted inspection, in 2009. They also achieved an excellent 5 star rating in their Swindon Borough Council Environmental Health 'Scores on the Doors' inspection in March 2011.

Little Stars currently has a number of spaces available for children aged between three months to two years and eleven months. Parents are urged to contact the Nursery to secure a space for their child, contact details below.

Little Stars nursery is open for 48 weeks of the year, providing high quality affordable childcare for the local community as well as students and staff of Swindon College.

Opening hours are:
Monday – Thursday 8.00 am – 5.30 pm
Friday 8.00 am – 5.00pm

For more information on activities, routines and guide to prices please contact us on: Tel: (01793) 498430 or via our online contact form

For more information on childcare vouchers, which can save you money as they are non-taxable and exempt from National Insurance Contributions, click here.

At Little Stars we value and celebrate our babies and children, we recognise their individuality, efforts and achievements by providing the opportunities and experiences within the Early Years Foundation stage. We recognise the ‘holistic’ nature of development and learning, and aim to provide high quality childcare with a balanced approach to children’s growth, development and education. By providing a safe, friendly and nurturing environment children are able to explore and develop at their own pace.

For all our three to five year olds we work towards the Early Years Foundation Stage and are registered to receive the nursery education grant for all three and four year olds. For more details log on to www.surestart.gov.uk or www.ofsted.gov.uk ...or just ask at nursery!

About Us
The nursery is divided into three separate units to cater for the various age groups:

• Silver Stars (3 months-2 years)
• Bright Stars (2-3 years)
• Superstars (3-5 years).

These age groups are a guide, if your child is developmentally ready or not quite ready to move to the next unit we will endeavour to ensure we cater for their individual needs.

Our key carers (staff) specialise in their own age group unit, when you collect your child we will provide you with a verbal and written summary of their day. This will include what activities they have taken part in, how long they have slept, how many nappy changes they have had, how much and what they have eaten and a few general comments on how they have enjoyed their day.

All children and parents/carers are introduced and settled into their key carer groups. This enables a close relationship to develop between your child, you and their main carer at nursery, assisting us in closely monitoring your child’s well being and progress.

The nursery’s outdoor area consists of three enclosed areas offering a safe environment where children are free to explore the natural environment every day come rain, snow or shine!

'Tinytalk' - the UK’s favourite baby signing classes
At Little Stars all staff have undergone rigorous training to enable the nursery to be the very first in Swindon to be an accredited user of baby sign language. We are firm believers that Tiny Talk UK baby signing offers all children a strong foundation for a lifetime of language development and we don’t stop at babies. All children in the nursery are encouraged to use sign language as well as talking, enabling everyone to communicate with each other.

Meal times
At Little Stars we believe meal times should be relaxed and happy with lots of social interaction, where all children are encouraged to develop good table manners. We also believe in healthy eating and to this end we provide a well-balanced diet (with no added salt or sugar) using freshly prepared ingredients and can offer a vegetarian alternative for those children that require it.

We will also endeavour to cater for other dietary needs. For babies under the age of one we provide most brands of formula milk (some conditions apply, please ask for more information) that is prepared in our separate milk kitchen. We also have the facility to store expressed breast-milk.

At Little Stars we operate a no squash policy and offer milk and water at snack and tea times and water at lunch time. Fresh drinking water is available to all children throughout the day. For further details of menus and food served please contact the nursery manager on Tel: 01793 498430.

Staff at Little Stars
To work at Little Stars, staff must demonstrate a genuine care of children and be able to provide a warm and friendly family atmosphere ensuring that every child feels happy, safe, secure and loved, enabling them to flourish. An extremely high proportion of staff hold recognised professional qualifications, and to ensure our staff provide the best possible care and education we are constantly updating our skills and knowledge through various avenues of training.

Our promise to you
At all times we will aim to:

• Maintain our high standards of quality and care for children of any age
• Provide consistent emotional care
• Ensure your child feels secure, loved and valued as an individual
• Promote self-expression, confidence, self-esteem and independence and encourage your child to develop these skills
• Encourage your child to develop a lively enquiring mind
• Encourage and support your child in forming good social relationships with other children and adults
• In partnership with you, ensure that your child achieves their full potential whilst in our care.

For further information please contact Little Stars on Tel: (01793) 498430 or via our online contact form.