Three Little Birds
Welcome to Penge East Day Nursery, part of the Three Little Birds Nursery group.
Our beautiful nursery has been established since 1988. Formerly known as Crystal Day Nursery, it has nurtured many, many families over these years. We are a 43 place nursery and our wonderful, dedicated team have many years’ experience in Early Years with a passion for Childcare and seeing children reach their full potential.
We strive for, and pride ourselves on having a strong partnership with parents, so they feel involved in their child’s learning and development. We also offer parent evenings, where you have a 1:1 catch up with your child’s key worker.
We are open from 07:30 – 18:30 five days a week Monday – Friday, 50 weeks of the year. We are closed for one week in August, on all Bank Holidays and over the Christmas period.
We are located in Sydenham, with great transport links - Penge East Station is only a 1 minute walk away and Sydenham station a five minute. We are also accessible via the 194 and 75 bus routes.
Our goal is to offer excellent childcare and education that is age-appropriate and meets the individual needs of all children. We see first-hand that children thrive from safe and loving relationships. Our embedded key person approach means we can respond gently and be sensitive to children’s feelings and behaviours, while fulfilling their overall emotional needs.
Our skilled staff work together with our families to enrich the happiness and contentment of each child to increase their well being. Our origin of our curriculum comes from our children, families and staff. We nurture children so they can self-learn and provide opportunities for experimentation and decision making. Children have time to discover and explore in our holistic approach towards development. Our skilled practitioners structure learning, considering children’s strengths and unique interests, scaffolding development through the seven areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage. We create and support the children’s journey as lifelong learners.
Hi. My name is Sophie Hussein, and I am the Manager of Penge East Day Nursery. I have worked here for almost 12 years and been Manager for five years.
As childcare practitioners, our job is to ensure children are safe, nurtured, loved and continuously thriving in their development. Our staff provide an environment that supports teaching and learning; helping each child reach their developmental milestones.
I believe children learn through play, and that nursery is an environment where children should feel loved and cared for, and also a place where parents should feel comforted and reassured in leaving their children in our care. We build strong bonds with parents from our settling in sessions, and continue their journey until children are ready to fly their way into school. We offer a ‘home from home’ environment, to ensure we provide a safe and fun learning provision.
We are housed over two floors, offering two Baby Rooms, one 2-3 year old room and a 3-5 year Pre-School Room. We have a new, beautifully refurbished garden, which is accessed through the conservatory area in our Pre-School room to offer a free flow experience, with a built in sand pit, mud kitchen, role play and sensory area. Pre-School also have access to the garden from the ‘Messy Room’ which is offered as ‘free flow’. Children are encouraged to use the garden to grow their own plants, vegetables and herbs, and then use these in our meals. We have, and are continuously improving our teaching and learning to support children in getting ready for school. Maths and literacy is offered in all areas, and encouraged through a variety of play ideas. Children’s interests and individual needs are taken into account when staff are planning for their next steps and for the environment, and ‘responsive planning’ is encouraged, as we believe all children have a voice and should take part in the planning of their environment. Pre-School also visit our local care home once a month, and engage in messy, creative and sport activities with a small group of the residents. The children absolutely love visiting them, and visits are always a high topic of conversation.
We have a brand new Baby Room that has recently opened with fresh paint and resources, and can take nine children a day, aged from 3 months – 1 year, with three staff. It is situated on our first floor, and is a warm and nurturing environment, with staff being highly experienced with that age group. We offer a continuous provision with guidance from the ‘Curiosity Approach’ and ‘Heuristic Play’, whilst staff also offer special activities throughout the day to support the developmental needs of the children. It has its own milk kitchen and changing area.
Staff in the Baby Room have experience in nannying, caring for children under 2 years, having their own children and also working in The Portland Hospital supporting new mums.
Our Toddler Room has also had fresh new resources and decoration, and can have up to six children a day, aged 1 – 2 years, with two staff. This is situated opposite our Baby Room to support a smooth transition between the rooms. This is a similar provision to the Baby Room, but offers activities which are age appropriate and meet individual needs.
Our 2-3 year old room can have up to seven children a day, with 2 members of staff. This has been recently decorated with new resources, and is situated on the ground floor at the front of the building. The activities provided are based around children’s interests and individual developmental needs. It is a smaller room as we feel that staff can really support the children’s communication and language, social development and self-confidence, which we feel to be key milestones for children of this age.
Our Pre-School room is situated on the ground floor at the back of the nursery. We can have up to 21 children with three members of staff. We have a conservatory area at the back which is called our Messy Room, and children have access to all resources. There is a low level sink so that children can use this to wash their resources and gain independent skills.
We believe a gradual transition into a nursery setting works best and our flexible tailor-made settling sessions provide children with the opportunity to feel comfortable and safe in their new environment. To us, there is nothing more important than our children feeling secure, welcome and loved in our nursery. During our settling-in sessions your child will meet their key person to bond and so we can learn their individual interests and needs. This starts the process of building a solid foundation for lifelong learning.
Our flexible and tailor-made settling sessions, allow you and your child a gradual transition into nursery.
Please view our Settling in Policy to see our settle session procedure throughout the current lockdown period.
We also accept nursery fees via direct debit, the government Tax Free Childcare scheme and childcare vouchers. You can talk to your Nursery Manager to find out more or visit www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare to see if you can benefit from the scheme.
We are pleased to be able to offer the 15 hour Funded Early Education Entitlement, for all children from the term after they turn 3 years old. In addition, we offer the 2 year old and 30 hour Funded Early Education Entitlement for families that qualify. Please speak with your Nursery Manager to find out if you are eligible and for more information.
View our fee sheet here
5 days: £1430.00
4 days: £1430.00
3 days: £900.00
2 days: £900.00
1 day: £70.00
5 days: £1250.00
4 days: £1080.00
3 days: £810.00
2 days: £540.00
1 day: £63.00
5 days: £1012.50
4 days: £842.50
3 days: £572.50
2 days: £302.50
Daily rate for extra sessions only
5 days: £775.00
4 days: £605.00
3 days: £335.00
2 days: £223.33
Daily rate for extra sessions only
Children at our nursery enjoy healthy nutritious meals across the day, packed with fruit and vegetables with a balanced mix of proteins, carbohydrates and dairy/non-dairy. We keep sugars and salt to a minimum and offer a vast range of diverse dishes.
If your child has allergies or other dietary requirements, we have the experience and knowledge to cater for them. We are inspected regularly for food hygiene and our staff have been trained in this area.
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Penge East Day Nursery