At Fenwood House we strongly believe that nurturing our children’s health and wellbeing is a key part of our role in ensuring all of our children have the most positive outcomes possible. We consider our children’s health and wellbeing to include their physical, emotional, hygienic and nutritional needs, please see below some examples of how we nurture these key areas in our children’s development.
Physical Health & Wellbeing
We encourage our children to keep physically active and provide as many opportunities as possible for them to do so in our large outdoor spaces, with a range of scooters, bikes, climbing frames and other equipment. We also have professionally certified sports activity coordinators visit each of our settings twice per week. Below we have just some of the key benefits of this emphasise on physical activity.
- Improved balance and hand-eye coordination.
- The development of healthy muscles and bones.
- Improved fine and gross motor skills.
- Improved mental health and mindfulness.
- The boosting of confidence and self-esteem.
- Improved social skills.
- Increased cognitive development.
- Improves cardiorespiratory fitness.
- Improved ability to identify, assess and navigate risk.
- And of course, a healthy dose of fresh air!
Emotional Health & Wellbeing
Fenwood House believes that positive relationships and secure attachments are key factors that can influence our children’s emotional wellbeing. We use a Key Person approach where our children form a strong bond with a designated staff member/s who provide continuity of care and lessen the anxiety around separation from parents.
This strong secondary attachment to a Key Person helps our children to feel secure in their new environment, we believe this in turn promotes a better platform from which positive learning outcomes can develop. Essentially our hope is that happy and secure children learn better.
In addition to ensuring an environment where our children feel safe and secure, our practitioners will also work (And Play) closely with our children guiding and helping them to understand and manage their emotions, so that hopefully very soon little tears become big smiles.
Nutritional Wellbeing
There is a well-known phrase “you are what you eat”, at Fenwood House we have taken this to heart, this is because we understand that good nutrition during early childhood is essential as this is a time of rapid growth, development, and activity. Providing good nutrition and encouraging heathy habits at this early year’s stage can provide some of the following life changing benefits.
- Health tooth development and prevention of decay.
- Reduced risk of future obesity, hypertension, and diabetes.
- Improve growth and development.
- Improve concentration and focus.
- And of course, a delicious meal that our children love.
The reasons listed above along with many more is why Fenwood House are committed to providing our children nutritious and well-balanced meals which fall within the guidelines of both The Healthy Foundations and Nutrition Matters.
HEALTHY FOOD FOR YOUR CHILD
To learn more about our food and a sample of the menus on offer to your child you can view and download our example menus below:
Important – As part of our efforts to nurture our children with the healthiest and most well-balanced nutrition available, we kindly ask that our parents who choose to send a packed lunch to nursery as an alternative to accessing our optional food offering, please ensure that this consists of food items which are recognised as being healthy for children. Below we have listed a small selection of healthy packed lunch ideas, however if you would like further guidance or ideas, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our nursery staff.
- Soup in a flask.
- Stew in a flask.
- Sandwich with a healthy filling / Wrap with a healthy filling.
- Fruit or Vegetables.
- Yogurt.
Please also be aware we do not allow juice to be brought into nursery, only water. We will however provide our children with milk or water throughout the day.
Hygienic Wellbeing
We will at all times encourage positive hygienic behaviours throughout our nursery settings, this can be as simple as ensuring and encouraging our children always wash their hands, or establishing routines where our children learn to tidy away after an activity. The end goal of all the positive behaviours we re-enforce is to establish healthy habits which will accompany our children in to adulthood.
Awarded Gold
As of 2021 we are proud to be the only Nursery Group within our Local Authority to have been awarded the “Healthy Foundations Gold Award” across all of our Nurseries.
The Healthy Foundations program has been designed as a whole setting approach with the focus being on promoting all children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development while linking into and supporting public health priorities.
The frame work the Healthy Foundations Award is based upon is as follows:
- Whole setting Approach and Ethos.
- Healthy Eating & Oral Health.
- Exercise, Movement, Rest and Sleep.
- Emotional Health and Well Being (EHWB).
- Managing Behavior and Independence (PSED).
- Managing Dangers and Risks (Safe and Healthy Environment).
To help facilitate and remain compliant with the frame work set out in our Awards we have along with other steps partnered with a professional kitchen who prepare and deliver fresh cooked lunches to our nurseries daily which have been designed to meet the nutritional guidelines found within Public Health advise.