Dorchester Nursery

Welcome to Chipmunks

Dorchester Nursery

Our Dorchester nursery has been running for over 25 years and has been at its current location since 1997.

Our site has five buildings that are interlinked and scale around our large playground space.  

We have our cottage building, which is a 2-story building with at present a room upstairs that is used as a sleeping room and downstairs a playroom which caters for our babies. This age group also has a space within our main house building.

The main house building houses the manager’s office and our large, carpeted playroom and our conservatory space with a kitchenette and a separate sleep room.  Upstairs in this building is for one group of our preschool-age children. They have three separate rooms each set up for specific activities, such as messy play, role play and storey time.

Our bungalow hosts our ladybird’s room which caters for children approximately 2years to 3years.  This is a large room which we can set up for any type of activity, as in here we have areas for cosey storytime, role play, messy play, napping and a vast carpeted area for any other activities.

The ranch building is our other pre-school building.  In here we have 2 rooms one carpeted and one free for messy activities such as playdough, painting, sand and water play, sticking and model making.

Our large hall space is adjacent to our main kitchen and is used at lunchtime for our toddlers and preschool to have lunch. This hall is transformed during the holidays to provide our school-age children with space to play and create during the school holidays.  During term time this space is an additional inside space for us to play.

Our Dorchester nursery has four outside spaces in total, our lovely playground has a track and other educational characters painted on it. We have large cable reels that have been upcycled into car tracks with other equipment available for the children to use their imaginations. We have a reading hub for some quiet time and our outside cupboard is full of bikes, trikes, bats, balls and equipment for the children to carry out many different activities outside.

Our garden is a large space with a small woodland area for the children to explore.  We have a large sandpit and many large equipment toys for the children to enjoy.

Our gazebo space is attached to our bungalow/2-3’s building, but it is a well-used undercover space for all age groups to enjoy the fresh air while playing.

Our yard space is attached to our conservatory featuring ride on toys a sandpit and a playhouse,  used primarily by our babies. 

Dragonflies – Babies

Before our babies start we offer a 1-1 session with a staff member to enable parents/carers to chat with each other to give as much information about their child to enable them to settle in smoothly.  The rooms are cosy spaces for the little ones to have cuddles, enjoy playing with lots of natural resources and throughout the day enjoy mark making and messy activities such as jelly play, cornflour play and painting.

We have a little play kitchen with utensils and a mirror at their level for the ones that are up and mobile, while for the smaller ones lots of floor-based activities including wooden blocks, rattles, mega blocks and much more.  We have a baby cosy area where we can read stories to the children, plus the older ones are able to look at picture books independently. 

The dragonflies are also able to access our playground space outside along with our garden and all of the bikes/trikes, bats and balls.

We follow each child’s routine as if they were at home as much as possible.  

Ladybirds – Toddlers 

Hello and welcome to the Ladybirds Room. We would like to introduce you to our room and give you an idea of what we do.

As all of our rooms, the ladybirds love to play outside in all weathers on our playground with bikes/trikes or our outside kitchen area and running around our track.  The ladybirds are situated with access to the gazebo undercover space so we do tend to use this throughout the day.  The ladybirds room have a role play area that can be made into a home space/builders area and many more.  We have a cosy space for quiet time and reading stories.  We love to get messy within this room so lots of painting / creating pictures and using our tuff trays for sand and creatures.  The room does get changed around with the children’s interests that cover all areas of development.

Pre-school

Hello and welcome to Preschool. We would like to introduce you to our rooms and give you an idea of what we do. 

Pre–school has two units; one room is situated upstairs in the main house and the other is alongside the playground (the Ranch), Both rooms do the same day to day activities and routines to help them get ready for school. 

Our Pre-school rooms are set out to cover all the areas of the EYFS in free play. We have writing tables, ICT equipment, sand, water, Role playroom, painting, play dough, treasure baskets, small world tables, number, shape, sorting, measuring table and lots more to cover all the areas of development.

Within Pre-School, we have a Café style snack area where we encourage independence at pouring ones own drinks and helping oneself to food. 

We do like to go outside in all weathers to do activities, so we do ask you to bring coats, gloves, wellies, hats, sun cream and a change of clothes. Please ensure that all belongings are labelled to stop things from getting lost.

Every day we have circle time in the morning and the afternoon.  During this time we take the register, talk about the day, date, month, the weather and count the children and compare how many girls/boys etc, all to help prepare the children for starting school.

We do encourage the children to become independent by putting their coats on, blowing their own noses, finding their names in the morning for their coat peg, and finding their name for snack time (with us supervising of course)

Welcome to Edgefield 

We would like to introduce you to our Edgefield holiday club and give an insight into what we do!!

Edgefield is based in the main hall area of the nursery, at the opposite end of the dining hall.

We have a variety of activities on offer ranging from art and crafts to outdoor play. The children are able to choose what toys they would like to play with and whether they wish to take part in activities set up for them. 

Edgefield runs during school holidays from 7.45 am – 5.30 pm.  We follow activity based themes and special activities throughout the different holidays. Different activities are set out throughout the day to help stimulate the children and make their holidays fun. Craft activities, such as painting, drawing, collage, clay, plaster of Paris are available as well as more quiet activities such as board games, puzzles, construction and reading. We also have a sand play, table tennis, football table and PlayStation console which the children enjoy playing.  We encourage extensive outside play, both on the lawned garden and tarmac playground. These facilities enable the children to have plenty of fresh air and to enjoy many different outside activities. 

We are able to offer short notice emergency care to ensure the safety and security of your child for those extra work or training days where possible.

Children at Edgefield are cared for by qualified staff with a wealth of experience, offering challenging and relaxing activities throughout the time the children spend with us.

Meal Times:

Staff will use meal and snack times to help children to develop independence through making choices, serving food and drink, and feeding themselves. Staff will support children to make healthy choices and understand the need for healthy eating.

Dietary Needs:

Where appropriate, we will carry out a risk assessment in the case of allergies and work alongside parents/carers to put into place an individual dietary plan for their child

 

Dorchester menu 2023

Settling In:

All our staff know about the importance of building strong attachments with children. They are trained to recognise the different stages of attachment and use this knowledge to support children and families settling in to the nursery. 

SEN:

At Chipmunks Day Nursery we are committed to the inclusion of all children. All children have the right to be cared for and educated to develop to their full potential alongside their peers through positive experiences, to enable them to share opportunities and experiences and develop and learn from each other.

Government Funded Spaces

We offer lots of different, flexible sessions to suit your family’s requirements and also to fit around school hours. If you require those longer days then we offer funding from 8am – 6pm. 

You may be eligible for up to 15 hours free childcare for you 2 year old if you meet the criteria,  please follow the link to check eligibility.

 Two year funding eligibility checker 15 hours funded childcare for 2 year olds – Dorset Council

All 3 and 4 year olds are eligible for 15 hours free childcare per week after your child’s third birthday. We work alongside parents and carers to offer sessions that work for you and your families with no hidden costs.

We also offer up to 30 hours funding for 3 and 4 year olds if you meet the criteria and are eligible, to check your eligibility please check here 30 hours funded childcare for 3 and 4 year olds – Dorset Council

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Nursery News & Notices

Dorchester
Providing care to
thousands of children
since1994
Testimonials

What Parents Say:

Emma-Jane Stocker

Via Facebook
Absolutely amazing nursery. My son loves it here. The staff are so friendly and it's obvious my son adores them all as he can't wait to get out of his pushchair and into the playroom.

Teal Olivia Lee-Carter

Via Facebook
My daughter came out of nursery one afternoon and said to me, "mummy, I love my nursery☺" made me really happy!!