Startwell
What is Startwell?
Startwell Birmingham offers Early Years settings and Children Centre’s the opportunity to work towards and achieve the Startwell Award which has been designed to improve the knowledge, skills and confidence of Early Years Professionals in healthy eating, physical activity and oral health, to create a healthier environment for our children and families. .
Selly Oak Nursery as a Startwell Setting
Children are taught about the key Startwell characters in circle time sessions and we refer back to them during snack time, lunch and during physical activities.
Adults will only drink water or milk when they are with the children so they can role model good behaviours.
We promote healthy eating by featuring healthy food in our role play house and shop.
We keep children active by encouraging them to take part in PE Sessions, sensory circuits, dancing and by encouraging them to stand as they work, rather than sitting down.
We have a range of healthy recipes stored in our entrance area for families to look at and take copies if they wish.
Selly Oak Nursery School is very proud of its achievement in gaining the award and we continue to maintain this standard!
Adults should be good role models and demonstrate healthy behaviours
Eat at least 5 portions of fruit and veg per day
Eat two healthy snacks per day alongside your three main meals
Children should be eating "me size meals"
Children should be physically active for at least 180 minutes per day
Children need to be able to move, balance and handle objects with control
It is important to move more and sit less
Brush your teeth for two minutes twice a day
Physical Exercise
PE sessions
Every fortnight we have a planned physical development session to further enhance and develop our gross motor skills. We dance, balance, climb, jump, catch, throw and learn a variety of new skills. It’s so important that your child joins in with our sessions, we think about how exercise can help us and keep us healthy and fit.
Sensory Circuits
Every week, groups will take part in a sensory circuit session with their keyworker which will be centred around movement to music. The session comes in three stages;
Alerting- which is high intensity movement such as jumping jacks,. This gets the heart pumping and provides vestibular stimulation..
Organising -this involves balancing, weaving, jumping and catching. This develops processing, focus and attention.
Calming- deep breathing, stretching and rocking will get the body calm again and ready for learning.
Outside sessions
Children have access to the outside areas in the morning and afternoon. They have a range of activities engage in such as bikes, carrying and building with large crates and using the large climbing frame.
Lunch times
At lunchtimes the children are asked to bring a healthy pack lunch to Nursery. The staff speak with all parents in September to promote healthy eating in Nursery and we provide a leaflet with ideas for lunches. The weekly newsletter provides new ideas for lunch boxes.
We use lunch times as a learning experience and a Lunchtime Supervisor sits with each group while they eat. Children are encouraged to become involved in discussion about healthy eating. Lunchtime provides wonderful opportunities for children to be involved in learning important social skills.
We also have a healthy snack of fruit and vegetables and milk during each morning. Throughout the day children are able to access their water bottles which are kept inside cool boxes.