Settling In Policy

The settling in process takes a period of 2 weeks

The first week

We ask the child’s parent/carer to attend the setting with their child for a whole week, coming in for a few hours every day. This helps the child become familiar with the setting, and routines.

The second week

We ask the child’s parent/carer to bring the child into the setting but this time to drop them off at the door of the setting where we will greet them both and take the child over to the playroom. When you leave your child, we ask that you say goodbye, fully explain to them that you will be coming back later, and let them know when you’ll be back.

i.e ‘Such as saying, ‘Mummy will be back after you eat’

On the first day the child will be left with us for a period of 30 minutes. During this time we ask parents to stay in the living room in case I need to call upon them.

On the second day the child will stay for an hour, I will greet both parent/carer and child at the door and take the child.

Depending on the child, the process will be repeated for the rest of the week increasing the time the child stays with us each day, building them up to staying without their parent/carer for a full session.

We ask that parents/carers bring their child into the setting continuously during the settling in period as having breaks during this time disrupts the settling in process and sends conflicting messages to a child; this in turn may bring about feelings of being insecure.

We reserve the right not to accept a child into the setting without a parent or carer if the child finds it too distressing to be left with us. This is especially the case with very young babies.

Within the first four to six weeks of starting we will discuss with you our initial observations of your child. An initial observation form will then be filled out and be given to you to read at home, the initial observation form will then be placed in their Learning Journey and act as a means to help me adequately plan for the needs of your child.

Some children may take longer to settle and become very upset upon parting from their parent/carer, if this is the case with your child we ask that the child is still left with us so that he/she has an opportunity to form a bond and eventually fully settle.

For school pickups and after school policy

We will need to hold a meeting with the parent and their child. It is really important that we are both confident that we can work together.

The first pick up will need to be with both the parent and myself, so we are introduced to the school and the staff are aware that we will be doing pickups.

We will not begin any pickups until all information has been provided, all documentation has been filled and the policy has been read and signed. This is because we have to comply with the EYFS.