Nursery School
Yellow Brick Road Nursery is the first of four Beautiful Minds nurseries founded by Bernadette King-Turner. Babies can start at the nursery from the age of two months, and be cared for until they are five years old. The nursery’s curriculum is based upon the British Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), New Zealand learning – Te Whariki while also incorporating methods from Montessori. The nursery facilities have been highly accredited and are of the newest technology.
Location
The nursery is located in Garhoud on street 31a, opposite Irish Village and in front of the Al Garhoud Residential Complex, and is open from Sundays to Thursdays, from 7am to 6pm with flexible pick-up times at 12.30pm, 3pm, 5pm and 6pm.
The other three branches are Indigo Valley Nursery near terminal two, Dubai, Crystal Valley Nursery at Arabian Centre, Dubai and Emerald City Nursery in Jumeirah 2, Dubai.
Curriculum
Yellow Brick Road Nursery is dedicated to taking extra special care of all your preschooler’s early learning needs. The preschool classes for the children aged three and four years complete very important preschool learning programmess and skills which give the children the understanding and the recognition of phonic sounds, counting and also recognizing numbers, quantities, colour and shapes; plus pre-reading and pre-writing programs such as writing their own names and recognizing the same.
TheNursery Curriculum is based around the British Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) <http://www.yellowbrickroad.ws/curriculum.php> framework and incorporates guidelines from the New Zealand Early Childhood <http://www.yellowbrickroad.ws/curriculum.php> Curriculum ‘Te Whariki’ and the Montessori method <http://www.yellowbrickroad.ws/curriculum.php> . Keeping each child’s individual strengths and interests at heart and where children are granted the freedom to explore and play, igniting their passion and excitement for learning.
British Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
The Principles
A Unique Child – recognises that every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.
Positive Relationships – describes how children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key person.
Enabling Environments – explains that the environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning.
Learning and Development – recognises that children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates, and that all areas of learning and development are equally important and inter-connected.
Embedded within the principles of the EYFS are six areas of Early Learning – How does Yellow Brick Road nursery put these into practice?
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: The nursery recognizes and values each child’s individual strengths and interests. By supporting and extending these strengths and interests wherever possible, each child will see him or herself as a confident and capable young learner, curious and ready to discover the big wide world around them with strong social skills and a positive sense of themselves.
Communication, Language and Literacy: Children are encouraged to have fun with language and literacy every moment of the day through story-telling and visits to the library. The nursery recognizes that ‘mark making’ is a vital step towards a strong understanding of the importance of literacy in our lives and so children are encouraged to experiment and explore with different mark making tools every day. Children leave for big school with a strong ability to communicate, speak and listen.
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy: The children extend their problem solving, reasoning and numeracy skills by pegging numbers onto the mathematical tree, or recreating shape patterns with potato stampers and paint, or measuring volume and capacity through pouring activities with cylinders. The nursery is always thinking of exciting ways to offer continuous challenges to encourage math through all contexts.
Knowledge and Understanding of the World: Through play and hands-on experiences, children are able to make sense of their world. Young children have an intrinsic need to experiment, explore, ask questions and make discoveries and so the nursery makes sure to foster this. Activities such as making recycled paper, building a real erupting volcano in the sandpit with vinegar and baking soda or developing and taking care of their very own vegetable garden, support in the development of vital knowledge, skills and understanding of their world.
Physical Development: Each child must develop holistically and so just as important as cognitive development the nursery curriculum believes in physical development. The nursery’s outdoors is used as an ‘Extension of the Classroom.’ To help stimulate co-ordination, balance and movement at every opportunity, children are encouraged to be outdoors, getting back to nature, to run, jump, skip and hop, building gross motor skills.
Creative Development:
From Kung-Fu to Ballet to Bharatnatyam, a passion for the creative arts is explored at the nursery. Every individual has the right to create and imagine freely and unhindered. Messy play, art and craft, junk modelling, role-play, dance, drama, music and movement are all encouraged. Creativity is our key to a strong sense of well-being and confidence.
None of these areas of Learning and Development can be delivered in isolation from the others. They are equally important and depend on each other to support a rounded approach to child development. All the areas must be delivered through planned, purposeful play, with a balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities.
New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum
Empowerment – The early childhood curriculum empowers the child to learn and grow.
Holistic Development – The early childhood curriculum reflects the holistic way children learn and grow.
Family and Community – The wider world of family and community plays an integral part of the early childhood curriculum.
Relationships – Children learn through responsive and reciprocal relationships with people, places and things.
Embedded within the principles of the NZ Early Childhood Curriculum are five strands of Early Learning – How does Yellow Brick Road nursery put these into practice?
Well-Being: We promote health and safety, ensuring that each child is nurtured and kept safe from harm. We feel that protecting a child’s wellbeing contributes to the development of the ‘whole’ view of the child and creates the right environment for meaningful and positive learning. With qualified Nurses on our Nursery staff, taking temperature checks three times per day, and weekly visits from a qualified Doctor, encouraging daily self-care through independence, dressing, washing and toileting we nurture each child’s sense of well-being.
Belonging: From each child’s first day, a loving environment where children feel they have a place that they belong is created. Photographs are taken each day, which are the basis for all fortnightly diaries and topic letters that are emailed to parents. Birthdays and special events in each child’s life are celebrated, perhaps the arrival of a new baby in the family or a visiting grandparent, each child feels valued and appreciated and they know that this is ‘their place.’
Contribution: Equal opportunities for learning are encouraged, and that is why all at the nursery are excited by the variety of culture and ethnicity. Every child is encouraged to make their own contribution and to identify their own special strengths, allowing them to “make their own mark”.
Communication: Children develop skills in verbal and non-verbal communication for a wide range of purposes. Through dance and drama, children are encouraged to recognize that these are valid ways of expressing or representing a feeling, experience, mood or thought.
Exploration: Play is valued as meaningful learning, and spontaneous and child-initiated play is emphasized as a crucial step towards a child’s developing working theories about the natural, social, physical and material worlds. Children ar encouraged to explore and learn about their life experiences through play – by doing, asking questions, interacting and trying out ideas. We challenge children to think, ‘outside the box,’ and develop strategies for thinking, active exploration and reasoning.
Montessori Methods
Maria Montessori, was born in 1870, and was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Italy. She developed an interest in childhood diseases, and later developed what is now known as the Montessori Method. She based her ideas on the principle that the senses should be educated first, and then the intellect. For example, learning to look develops into reading, while touching leads to writing…
In the Montessori room of Yellow Brick Road Nursery, the Montessori teacher prepares and presents materials needed for the children to carry out his/her great work, and offers them to the children in the form of individual or small group presentations. Once an initial presentation or lesson has been given the activities are freely chosen and frequently repeated according to each child’s needs. The Montessori classroom fascinates both children and their parents. The classroom is bright, warm and inviting, filled with plants, books , music and art. There are six main interest areas filled with intriguing learning materials; practical life, sensorial learning, mathematics, language, creative and cultural.
Facilities
Indoor Learning Areas:
•Colourful and creative open-plan classrooms, with age appropriate equipment and materials.
•Well resourced indoor play area designed to cover all essential learning areas, and challenging for all ages and stages of child development.
•Fully equipped music and multi-purpose room with piano, guitars, African drums and children’s musical instruments where children can explore with the creative arts.
•Classroom Promethean Interactive Boards and computers connected to wireless internet.
•Cosy and comfortable library.
•Montessori classroom where children are encouraged to learn independently and through hands-on experiences.
Outdoor Learning Areas:
•Bright and breezy outdoor play area with swings, sandpits, slides, and bikes. We believe in using this area as an ‘extension of the classroom,’ and during the cooler months have planned activities including, painting, messy play, water play, block and construction, role-play, musical and more.
•Our very own vegetable garden where the children can care for and cultivate their own ‘home-grown’ produce.
•A shallow Nursery sized swimming pool where children gain early confidence in the water. This area is protected with a 2 metre fence with a self -closing lock plus an additional 1.2 metre gate for added security.
Bathroom Facilities:
Bathrooms with sensory taps and soap dispensers and low basins and toilets to promote positive toileting routines and habits.
Dining Facilities:
• Commercial quality kitchen, preparing daily fresh nutritional meals.
• Nursery Dining room for the complete dining experience, to encourage a positive attitude towards eating and table etiquette.
Health and Safety:
•Fully equipped Nursery Clinic.
20 cameras on our 24 hours CCTV.
•Safety gates.
•Air purifiers.
More information about Health and Safety is detailed in the ‘Nursery Family Book of Great Information’.
Staffing and Qualifications:
All Nursery Staff hold Labour Cards and are qualified Nursery Practitioners – some of their qualifications as listed:
•Master of Arts in Education
Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education
•Bachelor in Elementary Education
•Montessori Directress Diplomas
•Bachelor of Science in Nursing
The nursery has staff who are designated to care for all your children’s bathroom and potty training needs and are assigned only to this duty – classroom staff do not need to leave their classrooms to take the children to the bathrooms.
Housekeeping staff’s duty is to keep the Nursery classrooms and all other areas clean and tidy throughout the day.
Security staff who are posted in the Nursery car park during the busy morning and afternoon times.
Nursery gardeners care for the Nursery gardens and outside play areas.
Admissions
To register your child at Yellow Brick Road Nursery, please provide the following admission documents:
* Completed Registration Forms
* Photocopy of Child’s Passport including UAE Residence Visa page
* Photocopy of Child’s Sponsor’s Passport including UAE Visa Page
* Photocopy of Child’s Birth Certificate
* Six passport size photographs
* Completed Nursery ‘Child’s History of Illness’ Form (please complete at reception)
* Copy of Child’s Immunization Records
* Registration Fees of Dhs 500.00 (Five hundred Dirhams) – non refundable
* Medical Fees of Dhs 500.00 (Five hundred Dirhams) – non refundable
Please note that term fees are to be paid in full before the agreed starting date to secure your child’s place in the Nursery.
Yellow Brick Road Nursery continually has a waiting list for all age groups; therefore, it is necessary to enrol your child early. An advance admission fee payment of AED2,000 which will ensure your child’s place at the Nursery. However, all children’s registrations are subject if we deem necessary to re-evaluation.
Starting ages for babies accepted at the Nursery are from two months and children can remain at the Nursery until their fifth birthday.
The preschool classes for the children aged three and four years complete very important preschool learning programs and skills which are part of the early years foundation stage which gives the children the understanding and the recognition of phonic sounds, colours, shapes, counting and also recognizing numbers, quantities, plus pre-reading and pre-writing programs such as writing their own names and recognizing the same.
Nursery Registration Rules and Procedures are followed in Accordance with the Directives of the Director of Child Department of the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Social Affairs.
* Please Note: Registration, medical and term fees must be paid in full before the agreed joining date to secure your child’s place in the Nursery.
* Registration fee Dhs 500.00 . One off payment and fully non-refundable.
* Medical fee Dhs 500.00 is an annual fee and fully non-refundable.
* An Advance Term Fee of Dhs 2,000 confirms your child’s registration at the Nursery. This fee is adjusted against the Nursery Term Fee. This fee is refundable only if the Nursery receives a written notice two weeks prior to the Nursery Term Starting Date, (this fee does not include the Registration and Medical Fees). The advance Term Fee is fully non-refundable after two weeks prior to each Term starting date.
* No discount, refunds or reductions in the Nursery Term fees will for any reason be given after commencement of the Term including if your child is absent or leaves the Nursery during a Nursery Term.
* If a child joins the Nursery during a term and his place has been held from the beginning of the Term then the full amount of the Term Fees must be paid.
* If a child joins the Nursery after the commencement of the Term and the place has not been held but a place becomes available then the Nursery will decide the Term Fee amount to be paid.
Fees
Nursery fees start at Dhs4500 per term for a child to attend for two per week from 7.30am to 12.30pm (half day) and go up to Dhs8,500 per term for a child to attend for five days per week from 7.30am to 12.30pm (half day). There are additional charges if you wish for your child to attend for extra hours. a