“When I am grown to man’s estate
I shall be very proud and great
And tell the other girls and boys
Not to meddle with my toys”

...Robert Louis Stevenson               

Hopscotch Nurseries provide a high standard of professional child care from early in the morning until late in the evening. The longer hours allow parents to work a full day, confident in the knowledge that their child is being well cared for. The early arrivals may start the day with a simple breakfast of hot or cold milk and toast or cereal as requested, have a healthy morning snack of fruit, cheese, raisins and milk. Consult the sample lunch menu for information on our home cooked lunches which always include vegetables and a late afternoon tea snack is provided for all the children. A feature of our facility is small rooms where each child can feel secure in a loving environment and we can provide for whole families. For the children age 0 – 5 years we are a day care establishment and we take great care to ensure that there is a varied tempo throughout the day to give the children opportunities for vigorous play as well as opportunities to chose to rest and the whole gambit of activities in between. A typical day care timetable, structured for the particular age group may include registration and breakfast, imaginative play in a hospital, kitchen, dentist, travel agents or art and crafts, morning break, French, computing, abc, free choice of play and a home cooked healthy lunch.

Breakfast!

A rest period usually follows lunchtime when the younger children sleep and those who no longer need a sleep engage in quiet activities in order that they can relax before the challenges of the afternoon session.

The afternoon day care session is similar in format to the morning but usually with different activities for the children to engage with and includes afternoon tea.

During the day the children are encouraged to make choices about what they do and care is taken to ensure that they participate in a wide range of challenging activities to promote their age and stage of development irrespective of their age. To enable this to happen each area of the nursery designated for the development age, offers opportunities for emotional, social and intellectual development as well as opportunities for vigorous play and knowledge of the world around them.

The children’s development is closely monitored and they are encouraged to take a pride in their achievements. They actively participate in monitoring their own progress and in filling up their own folders for their parents and carers to look at during parents’ evenings.

Our Kindergarten timetable for the pre and ante pre school children is embedded within the day care day and a presentation on it is given to the parents during the first session of every school year. We endeavour to explain to the parents the Scottish Executive expectation of the nursery, how the curriculum is delivered in a child friendly and led setting and how the development needs of each child are being met through play.

Hopscotch never loses sight of the fact that parents are the prime educators of their children and we seek a strong partnership with the parents through individual discussions, reports and parents’ evenings to take their child’s development forward.

Holiday time in the Nursery
Everything we do in the nursery is a learning opportunity for our children and we continue to monitor their development.

It is important for the young child to maintain a reasonably structured day, but with the better weather, even more time will be spent outside in our garden, picnics or outings such as to the park, the farm, art gallery or museums. There is such a lot to do.

To view details about our Children at Hopscotch, click here.

To view our Education policy, click here.

To view our Curriculum, click here.