The Diana, Princess of Wales Children's Memorial Centre |
Ages |
6 weeks to 18 months |
Number of children |
6 |
Ratio of staff |
1:3 |
This calm, cosy room enables the babies to feel secure in their surroundings. The small number of children allows the staff to become familiar with the children’s individual routines and personalities and to develop a good relationship with parents.
The Duckling room has a wide variety of developmentally appropriate toys and equipment including ‘treasure baskets’ and sensory materials to ensure that all the children from 6 weeks upwards are suitably stimulated. The small enclosed outside area has also been designed to meet the needs of this young age with herb borders and grass to explore as well as lots of carefully planned activities.
During sunny weather a large gazebo or the brightly coloured parachute is used as a canopy. The sleep room and nappy changing facilities are immediately adjacent to the Duckling room with the kitchen (and baby food preparation area) close by. |
Ages |
18 months to 32 months |
Number of children |
8 |
Ratio of staff |
1:3 or 4 |
This bright busy room is well equipped to keep any lively toddler occupied, with sand, water, art and craft, sensory equipment as well as an extensive collection of
toys to choose from. Encouraging children’s social skills is an important aspect of this room, as is promoting their growing independence and language acquisition.
The secure outside area provides lots of opportunities for exploring and developing gross and fine motor skills whilst the ‘soft’ tarmac helps to protect those knees! The children enjoy the imaginative play equipment i.e. the large train engine with its ‘tender’ sand box and the activity play house. |
Ages |
32 months to 5 years |
Number of children |
24 |
Ratio of staff |
1:6 or 8 |
The Swan room is considerably larger than the other two play rooms. It has a wide selection of toys and equipment and the room is divided into areas eg. art corner, writing area, maths table, book corner, computer desk etc. which encourages the children to select their own activities. Independence and self help skills are encouraged for example toileting and dressing and their increasing social and communication skills are supported.
The large outside area which is used as an extension to the play room has: a natural area to explore and dig in looking for mini beasts or buried treasure; a large play house which can be adapted to meet a variety of scenarios ie doctors, shop, garden centre; a climbing frame and slide; we also provide a wide range of other activities outside. Once again the ‘soft’ tarmac helps to keep scrapes and bruises to a minimum as they try out their developing skills.
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Ages |
6 weeks to 2 years |
Number of children |
12 |
Ratio of staff |
1:3 |
This large, light and airy room is excellently equipped to deal with all the needs of this special age. The layout of the room and the excellent design of the furniture allows for areas to be created for the non mobile babies whilst providing lots of room for exploration for the toddlers. The room has a spacious nappy changing recess, a feed preparation recess and a sleep room. There is also a small outside play area which is used to extend the experiences available to the children. Staff provide a wide range of sensory, heuristic and explorative activities ensuring that all children have the opportunity to develop holistically.
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Ages |
2 to 5 years |
Number of children |
Maximum number of 2 year olds: 16
Maximum number of 3 & 4 year olds: 24 |
Ratio of staff |
Ratio of staff 2 - 2 years 11 months: 1-4
Ratio of staff 3 – 4 years 11 months: 1-8 |
This large room is utilised well by the careful arrangement of the excellently designed furniture enabling bays to be created for different areas of play i.e. art & craft, construction, role play etc. Within each of these areas children are encouraged to use their immerging reading, writing and numerical skills thereby putting these skills into context. The large outside play area provides, not only an excellent facility for developing gross motor skills but is also an important learning environment allowing additional xperiences
that are difficult to provide indoors i.e. gardening, large scale art & craft etc. Encouraging the children’s social skills is an important aspect of this room and staff consistently praise appropriate behaviors and encourage turn taking, sharing etc. Toilet training is introduced when parents/carers decide their child is ready and staff ensure they follow the same procedure as at home to make the process as simple as possible for the child. Independence, self-help skills and co-operation are also encouraged for example, putting on coats for outside play, hand washing, tidying up.
Activities are planned weekly and are based on the interests of the children. Staff also plan ‘Adult Focused Activities’ on a weekly basis which are designed to meet the individual needs of the children. All activities are play based and whilst the children are actively encouraged to take part in a range of activities no pressure is put upon them. The emphasis is on providing a happy, stimulating environment in which the children enjoy learning. Small group work takes place on a regular basis this may be in the form of ‘social interaction’ groups, cooking, going for walks etc. For larger group work the children would be split according to their developmental stage. For example, for story times, those children with a short concentration span may be grouped for a 10 minute story time whilst children with a longer concentration span would be together for a 15 minute story time. |
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