GREAT SANKEY
101 Barrow Hall Lane, Great Sankey, Warrington, WA5 3AE
Dunky’s Day Nursery is located on Barrow Hall Lane in the old medical centre situated opposite Great Sankey High School and Leisure Centre. The building is spacious with an extremely large natural garden which we have developed so each room have their own outdoor area. The nursery is registered for 55 children. The nursery has the highest standard of security including state of the art Biometric fingerprint door access and CCTV cameras within all rooms and surrounding gardens.
The nursery caters for children from 0-5 years and we have the facilities for breakfast club, afterschool and holiday club for children 5-13 years with the flexibility of term time only and shift rota contracts available for all age groups.
The nursery has a spacious baby room, toddlers and preschool rooms are made up of two smaller rooms each with direct access into a large spacious natural garden. Our rooms are very comfortable and equipped with plenty of age appropriate educational resources and soft furnishings where children can relax and spend quality time making new friends and learning new skills in the stimulating and educational environment.
We encourage children’s independence and regularly consult with our children to ensure their involvement in making decisions and having choices about their learning and education is evident. Our garden is fully secured with a large high fence surrounding the perimeter. We have a gardening club which encourages children to grow their own fruits and vegetables to use in the weekly cookery classes with the nursery chef. Together with their enjoyment of the healthy balanced meals and snacks offered throughout the day at nursery we want to look after the health and wellbeing of all the children in our care, to enable us to achieve this we actively promote healthy choices such as outdoor play, hygiene routines and practices and our healthy eating program. The outdoors is accessed by the children flexibly throughout the day “it is not bad weather, it is bad clothing”.
As well as encouraging independence within personal hygiene routines children are encouraged to brush their teeth from 6 months. At Dunkys we have supervised tooth brushing scheme where children have their own toothbrush and are encouraged to clean their teeth along with hand washing and brushing their hair, to encourage life style choices that will remain with them into their adulthood.
Our curriculum is based on each individual child and their age and stage of development as well as their current interests. Staff will use starting points from parents to plan and support children’s individual learning needs and styles. Staff can identify the characteristics of effective learning to ensure an enriched environment to support every child’s learning style. We offer a wide range of opportunities such as creative and messy play, sensory activities, baking, understanding of the world, imaginative play and role play, problem solving, reasoning and numeracy, information and communication technology and much much more.
Video Tour
Working Hours
You’re welcome to visit the nursery at any time during our opening hours – Just drop in and say hello!
We are open 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday except for Bank Holidays. However, we can accommodate a 7.30am start for an extra charge.
Nutrition
Dunky’s has been awarded Warrington Healthy Early Years and Halton Healthy Early Years status which recognises our commitment to work together to promote the health and well being of children in our care. In order to achieve these accolades we demonstrated how we prom
ote consistent, informed messages about healthy eating so that children and families have the confidence, skills and understanding to make healthy food choices.
It is paramount that healthy and nutritious food and drink is available in our nurseries. With that in mind all of our nurseries are fully equipped with an industrial sized kitchen. We employ a Senior chef, who has over 28 years experience in working in nurseries providing meals for the under 5s . She leads our team of nursery chefs to cater for all children’s nutritional needs including dietary and religious requirements. All of our kitchens are inspected by Environmental health and have been awarded the highest ratings of 5 stars. The nursery Chefs when determine our menus have researched the Caroline Walker Trust Guidelines. The Caroline Walker Trust is dedicated to the improvement of public health through good food. You can do your own research by following the link www.cwt.org.uk. We have a summer and winter menu over a 6 week rolling programme ensuring all children’s nutritional needs are met. The nurseries are open from 8am till 6pm each day. We provide a three course breakfast, two course lunch and high tea each day, fully homemade by our chefs. A fruit bowl is also available with every meal and fresh drinking water is always available all day, every day to all children.
At Dunky’s we provide a welcoming and relaxed eating environment which supports positive social interactions including good manners for all of our children. We encourage the children to be independent during meal times, setting up tables, serving their own food and scraping the left over’s away as they finish…. if there is any! of course support will always be given to those who need it.
We try to educate our children so that healthy choices become easy choices. At all times our teachers give out positive messages around nutrition and oral health. All of our children brush their teeth at the nursery and we regularly invite dentists to come in and talk to our children about the importance of brushing and oral hygiene. We also provide a wide range of activities to promote healthy eating as a fun, rewarding and social activity. Every one of our nurseries operates a gardening club where the children grow their own fruits and vegetables which are then used in the nursery meals prepared by our chefs. The children tend to their own herb gardens again which seasons our food made by the chefs. We recognise that children learn best when engaging all of their senses. When gardening, the children touch and feel the soil, plants, roots, seeds and petals. Children observe the vibrant colours, the sounds to the snap of the vegetable when taken from the plant, and all the amazing smells of the herbs and flowers. Allowing all the senses to be involved helps the children understand and grasp the concepts of gardening and sustainability along with all the mathematics and scientific concepts which go along with it. Children also attend weekly cookery lesson which are sometimes led by our nursery chefs. Children learn about different food groups, how food is grown and harvested and environmental footprints as food and drink is shipped around the world. Children feel a huge sense of pride when they have contributed towards the making of a meal for their peers for example baking the bread rolls to accompany the homemade soups, or investigating and chopping exotic fruits for our fruit kebabs or making and filling pita parcels for tea.
Dunkys uses food to promote special events and festivals. Every child who attends nursery on the birthday will receive a birthday cake baked specially for them by our nursery chef.
Our Nursery Chefs are always on hand to support families with weaning advice and menu planning for you at home.
