Frequently Asked Questions
Of course! Choosing a care provider is an important decision and you may want to visit a number of settings to feel confident you are choosing the right one for your child. Just contact us by email or phone us and we will arrange a suitable time. We will invite you for a visit at the weekend or in the evening after our children have left the building so as to minimise the number of contacts our children have with visitors.
All children who are under two years old will be looked after by the Owlet Staff. However, once they are up and on their feet, we encourage free flow play across all the playrooms upstairs, so that they become familiar with the staff in the Branchers room. Once they are 2 years old, then the transition from being an Owlet to becoming a Brancher is smooth and uneventful!
Branchers are those children who are two up to three year olds who have not yet received their 1140 hours funded childcare. So, your child does not automatically move downstairs once they are 3 years old. But, once they are approaching 3 years of age, they will have opportunities to play with their Fledgling friends and meet the Fledgling staff to allow for them to familiarise themselves with their downstairs surroundings.
Moving downstairs to the Fledglings Room is not as clear cut as “once they have reached their 3rd birthday” There are a number of factors to consider, including their readiness, according to their Brancher Keyworker, how far along in their potty training they are (not being potty trained does not exclude them from being a Fledgling.) We also need to consider the dynamics of the group and staff to child ratios. This should be less important than following the needs of the child, but nevertheless is an important consideration to make in order to keep to our registration requirements and for the safety of the children.
To reserve a place at Wise Owls, there is a £50 registration fee. This covers the cost of processing your information, and any transition visits before your child starts with us. This usually involves 4 transition visits of increasing length but we can be flexible as every child is different (and every parent too!) There is also a deposit of one week’s fees which is returned when your child leaves Wise Owls, if the full months notice is given and all fees have been paid.
Lastly, each month, we charge £3.25 per family for use of our nursery management app (£1.25 if your child attends OSC)
None of these charges apply if your child receives solely funded hours from ourselves.
We also apply a late payment change for fees not received by the 7th of the month and an admin fee of £4.50 for changes to bookings (swaps etc)
Our sessions run from 8-12.45pm in the morning or 12.45pm-5.30pm in the afternoon. This helps with setting staff ratios and keeping the flow of play uninterrupted. However we acknowledge that every family has different needs. Therefore there is an hourly rate of £8.15 Children who require full sessions will always be given priority over those who want ad hoc hours. However, if there are other people needing full sessions, we will always give you the opportunity to take full sessions first. If staff ratios are compromised (due to staff illness) children who have ad hoc sessions will be first to have their session cancelled.
We are delighted that, from August 2020, we offer flexible funded hours for all 3-5 year olds and for eligible 2 year olds. Due to high demand, children will be prioritised based on four factors; those who already attend WON; those who have siblings already at WON; those who require longer hours that are not accommodated at other settings; and those who require a 48 week model (full time) rather than a 38 week model (term time only).
Term time only children are eligible for 30 hours per week (limited term time only spaces available)
Children will be eligible for 1 free meal a day. If they attend for longer days, parents will be charged for the additional meal.
Children who are deferring automatically (ie born between 21 August 2019 and 29 February 2020 , do not need to fill out a form, they only need to enrol for nursery during nursery enrollment – they don’t need to do anything for school.
Children with the date of birth between 1 March 2019 and 20 of August 2019 don’t have an automatic right to defer entry to Primary School or be entitled to a funded early learning and childcare place. However, you can apply for special consideration for a deferred year. You should complete the online form. Please click the link for more information.
We are not a fully outdoor provision. Ivy House is a wonderful setting for children to explore and lead their own play and learning. However, we do subscribe to the view that the outdoors is nature’s classroom and, with Moffat’s wonderful surroundings, we are fortunate to extend learning outdoors. We have a garden where children can choose whether to play inside or out and we regularly visit other outdoor venues, such as the riverside and the woodland area around us as well as our local shops and parks. The weather will not deter us as there is no such thing as the wrong weather – only the wrong clothing!
Yes, they are available in paper format at the Nursery – kept in the main
reception. Or you can access them via this link here.
Yes! You can read our latest monthly menu plan here.
It’s updated regularly by our nursery chef. All our menus are planned
following guidance by the Scottish Government, “Setting the Table” and
more recently, “Food Matters” Each recipe has a list of allergens, with the
exception of seasonal soup which is decided based on the vegetables in our
garden or local greengrocers.
We adhere to the NHS guidance ‘Infection Control and Prevention in Childcare Settings’. You can view a table of the exclusion criteria here.
At Wise Owls Nursery we believe that parents are entitled to expect courtesy and prompt, careful attention to their individual needs and wishes. We hope that at all times parents are happy with the service provided and we encourage parents to voice their appreciation to the staff concerned. We record all compliments and share these with staff.
We welcome any suggestions from parents on how we can improve our services and will give prompt and serious attention to any concerns that parents may have. Any concerns will be dealt with professionally and promptly to ensure that any issues arising from them are handled effectively and to ensure the welfare of all children, enable ongoing cooperative partnership with parents and to continually improve the quality of the nursery.
We have a formal procedure for dealing with concerns. You can access this here. [Link: Compliments and Complaints Procedure WON 29-04.pdf]
If you feel that you would like to complain directly to the Care Inspectorate, our governing body, you can be reassured that you can complain confidentially to them. When people complain anonymously, it is much harder for the Care Inspectorate to investigate as they can’t verify information. The Care Inspectorate wants people to be assured that they can complain to us confidentially and that their personal details are safe.
