Parents
Communication With Parents
We know that teachers and parents are vital influences on a child’s overall development, acting as a support system for their progress both in the classroom, and at home.
We advocate regular and open communication between parents and Ichiban staff to ensure that your child is getting the best out of their nursery time, and all the support they need to succeed in the future.
We encourage parents to give us feedback regarding their child, to help us focus on their needs, and how we can best help them reach their goals. Parents will receive regular updates about daily class activities, and advice on how to continue and encourage their child’s learning at home.
We keep you up-to-date throughout the day with our secure Parent mobile app.
We’ll send parents messages about their child’s progress and daily activities; notifications for class activities and upcoming events; and photos of their little ones during the day to see all the activities they participate in.
We aspire to work closely with parents to ensure their child’s future success and operate an “Open Door” policy to allow parents to regularly visit and chat with the staff and educators about their child’s progress, activities and lessons.
We are happy to provide parents with additional information on how to support their child’s continuous learning and development, both at home and at nursery.
In line with our environmental policy, all correspondence is sent to parent electronically via the Parent app, email, Whatsapp or SMS.
Covid Health & Safety at Ichiban
At Ichiban, we keep our health and safety standards high so that you have peace of mind your child is in a friendly, safe and secure environment.
Additional COVID-19 safety measures are in place and closely adhered to in line with the UAE government-mandated measures for Early Years Settings. All of our staff have received online training provided by the government, and are kept up to date with COVID-related safety updates. Additionally, all of our staff undergo routine COVID testing to help prevent the spread of the virus.
If your child is showing any symptoms of illness, we ask that you keep them at home and let us know that they are unwell. If you or your child is confirmed as having COVID-19, or any contagious illness, it is important that you inform us immediately to contain any infection amongst the other children and staff.
In the event that your child falls ill during their day, we will ask you to come and collect them. We do have an in-house qualified nurse and first aiders on duty daily in case any medical situation arises.
We’ve introduced a number of key measures to minimise the spread of COVID, whilst maintaining a homely, welcoming atmosphere with your child’s wellbeing in mind:
We’ll advise you of timings for drop off and pick up to allow for temperature checks to be carried out. We ask you to stick to these timings to minimise crowding while necessary screening measures are in place.
Everybody coming to Ichiban will be asked to sanitise his or her shoes at the entrance before entering the building. We also ask that your child bring indoor shoes that can be kept at the nursery.
Frequent hand washing is part of the everyday routine at Ichiban, our staff ensure your child is washing their hands thoroughly at key times throughout the day to encourage good hygiene.
As with everywhere in the UAE, we practice social distancing and have bright, colourful floor stickers to help maintain this. Children and staff in each of our classrooms, or “bubbles”, do not interact with other “bubbles” in the nursery to help minimise the risk of infection.
All floors and surfaces are regularly cleaned and disinfected throughout the nursery, with extra care taken with toys and items that are handled by the children – these are immediately sanitised after use.
Settling In
At Ichiban, we understand that the first days of nursery can be challenging for both the parents and little ones.
We want you and your child to feel safe and happy with our environment, and comfortable with our staff and nursery practitioners in order to make the transition as smooth and easy as possible.
It is important to allow your child to gradually get used to their new surroundings and new faces. We recommend a settling-in period for each child when starting at the nursery, based on their individual needs.
At the beginning of each academic year, the settling-in period normally takes 1-2 weeks, depending on the child’s age and needs. Our experience shows that it is much easier if parents leave their child for shorter sessions (starting with 1 hour) without being present. This will help your child become accustomed to being separated from you, with the reassurance that you will come back to collect them.
This is the first and most important lesson for any child starting nursery, “Mum and Dad always come back to collect us.”
We hold stay-and-plays within the week before the academic year starts, where you and your child can visit the nursery, meet the staff and practitioners, and explore the different learning areas together. During these sessions, you and your child can familiarise yourselves so that you both can feel more comfortable and at ease.