SPRINGFIELD LODGE DAY NURSERY

Our lovely nursery is situated in Craylands Lane, Swanscombe.

We are close to main line and Ebbsfleet Stations, M25/A2, Bluewater shopping centre, and Town Centre, Dartford.

We aren’t very far from Northfleet and Gravesend (15 min drive).

Our grounds, designed for children and also for family functions, are within 1.076 acres.

We have a large car park (for 30 vehicles), a soft outdoor play area designed for children of various ages and our development plans for 2007 include the clearance and planting of the huge adventure play area we will have at the back of the nursery.

Our grassed area allows us to hold sports days and of course the children can run and ride, safely.

We are open Monday to Friday from 7 am to 6.30 pm, throughout the year with the exception of bank holidays.

We are registered by Ofsted for 106 children per day of under the age of 5 years and 30 for the after school / holiday club.

We have a very active after school and holiday club for children aged between 4 and 11 years for which we are registered for no more than 30 children aged between 4 and 8 years.

This is in addition to our full day care registered number.

There are 7 children’s rooms in the nursery Use the links to visit each room!
Piglets	Up to age 10 months (approx)
Tiggers	10-20 months (approx)
Pooh Bears	20 months - 2 ½ Years
Honeypots	2 ½ - 3 Years
Butterflies	3 Years
Ladybirds	4 Years
Springfield Jnrs	After school and holiday club 4 - 11 years

There are no hard and fast rules about when the children move and the above are given as guidelines only.

It depends on whether a child is ready to move, or whether there is a space in the next group to move into.

The children’s emotional well being is the first and foremost consideration.

Our nursery is staffed by experienced, mixed age range, qualified and competent persons.

We are an equal opportunity provider and are driven by our commitment to providing high quality and affordable child care.

Our aims and objectives are on display throughout the nursery and we measure our performance capabilities against this by daily observations and in quarterly and annual appraisals.

We exceed the requirements of Ofsted for minimum 50% qualified and we have our own training organisation SET.

Our ratio as recommended by the National Standards is 1:3 (0-2 yrs) 1:4 (2 yrs) 1:8 (3 yrs+) but we generally work on the principal of 1:5 overall.

We have our policies and procedures and these are reviewed intermittently and on an annual basis by the staff team.

Our Head Office at Dartford is Investors in People recognised and we are working towards our own recognition in the coming year.

We are also currently working towards Quality Care Assurance with Kent County Council.

We offer full and part day care for all children over the age of 2 years, but only full days for under two's (no specified number of days although minimum 2 recommended for settling purposes).

Our daily rate changes when the children become 2 years – Payment Scale

We have an open door policy and welcome all visitors.

Visits can be spontaneous, or by appointment.

Springfield at Swanscombe have been open since April 2003. Originally based at Craylands Primary School we have seen many developments, which culminated in our now purpose designed building completed in May 2006.

As well as the children’s rooms, we have a large indoor hall which we are planning to use for children’s birthday parties eventually and possibly family functions.

We also have a large functions kitchen, and staff area. Upstairs we have several training and ancillary rooms used by our sister training company SET.

Designed to promote independence in the children, they are able to access toilet facilities within the safe confines of the children’s area but our policy is that no child goes anywhere without an adult discreetly in attendance!

You can access an application form which can be completed and delivered online, but please let us have your registration fee of £20 with the hard copy as soon as possible.

The registration fee is non-refundable and has been introduced purely to cover administration costs and to ensure we receive sincere applications.

You can also access a copy of our latest newsletter on line which will tell you about any special events we may be holding.

Thank you for reading our website and we are always open to new ideas and suggestions, or if you have any further questions to ask please feel free to contact us.