About York Nurseries

Claire York and Heather Langridge own and run York Nurseries in Burnley.

Claire is a Montessori Teacher and has been working in childcare since she was 17, she is currently studying for her NVQ 4 in childcare, learning & development and will then move on to becoming an NVQ assessor. Claire is the Ofsted registered person and also the nominated first aider, although it our policy that all staff undertake First Aid Training

Heather Langridge moved into child care 7 years ago as a second career and has particular responsibility for the finance and administration of the companies, Heather has recently completed her NVQ 4 in childcare, learning & development and is commencing the foundation degree in September 2008

Claire and Heather are assisted by

Nicola Sledden – Manager who has over 20 years experience and is highly qualified

Amanda Horsfall – Assistant Manager has 15 years experience and is also well qualified and experienced.

Between them the Room and Team Leaders have in excess of 50 years experience between them – all are trained and qualified and undertake extra training courses throughout the year to keep their training and interests up to date

Other staff are qualified to level 2 and level 3 NVQ and we are happy to announce that we have 2 modern apprentices studying for their level 3.

Our maintenance and ancillary staff are led by Sean and the trio ensure that all our other needs are met.

Denise Farrington from the East Lancashire Teacher Team visits us on a regular basis to assist us and she is also our mentor for the Lancashire Step into Quality Award.

We are a member of the National Day Nurseries Association and use them to keep up to date with legislation and staff training

Other Information

Dec 2008 - We have been awarded a grant of £20,000 to enhance our outdoor area. We look forward to using our new play area soon!

Stay and Play – in November 2007 all the families were invited to attend a stay and play session, this was well attended and enjoyed by 26 of our families. This involves spending an hour in the room of your choice so that you can see what your child does all day long – some families even joined us for one of Sean’s lunches which were pronounced as ‘great’

Nursery Liaison Group – this group has been recently formed and is aimed at involving as many families as possible in joining in with the planning of their child’s day – we actively invite families to participate by adding to the record of achievement
By telling us what goes on when children are not in nursery. This involves a formal meeting every 2 – 3 months for no more than an hour and as much time as parents want to devote during nursery opening hours

Charity – We spend time through out the year raising money for various charities, Amanda and Louise are undertaking a ‘reverse bungee jump’ shortly to raise money for a local Renal unit. One of the more unusual events was collecting Easter Eggs for the local hospital and other residential care units to give children and families a little lift over such a family orientated time. We have also supported Breast Cancer, Genes for Jeans, Red Nose Day, Children in Need and more ..... Any suggestions for other charities would be gratefully received.

Recycling and greenness – we take this very seriously and have entered a competition to win a £5000 Bob the Builder makeover – we have yet to hear if we have been successful. We recycle, clothing, toys, stamps, mobile phones, ink cartridges, cans, glass, plastic bottles, paper and cardboard. We also have a highly successful compost bin watched over by Louise and Colin

Birth to 5 – many of you will have heard that Birth to 3 and Foundation Stage are being combined to Birth to 5 we will be initiating the change over the next 6 months and will have the ‘new’ system embedded by September 2008 as required by Ofsted. You will see new cards and posters on display and if you have any questions about the expanded system please speak to one of us.

Makaton and Visual Timetabling – Amanda has been working closely with our children who have additional needs by introducing basic Makaton which is a system of communication that uses a vocabulary of key word manual signs and gestures to support speech.

Visual Timetabling is a pictorial reference for the children of the play environment around them. This will assist children who have little or no spoken English and ensures that words and pictures can be used to associate everyday items for all children who may have difficulty