Les Nounours – Baby Room

Les Nounours (The Teddy Bears) is the baby room at The Gower School’s independent nursery in Islington, where babies are welcome from three months old.

A homely, family-like environment is provided for your baby, where he or she will receive a lot of attention and individual care. Our staff team is conscientious and well-trained and they all love working with children. Laura Gethin, who is the head of Les Nounours, has worked here since The Gower School opened in 2000 and has been running the baby room since 2004.

For babies aged between six months and one year old, the staffing ratio is one adult to two babies. For babies aged over one year, the staffing ratio is one adult to three babies.

We adopt a Key Person approach to caring for your baby.

This means the same person looks after your baby all day, every day (unless they are away from work, in which case there is a co-Key Person, who knows your baby well and can take over). We know that babies respond well to having a consistent, familiar and special person to care for them in the same way that their mother or father would do at home. Your baby’s Key Person will form a special bond with him or her. We will learn about your baby’s individual preferences and plan a gentle routine, following his or her established routine for meal times and sleeping to ensure a smooth transition between home and nursery.Your baby will enjoy happy, stimulating days in Les Nounours.  There is plenty of time for discovery, play, fresh air and sleep – and lots of attention and affection! At meal times, the babies eat together in a little group at a round table with wooden high chairs and a bouncer for younger babies. With such a homely atmosphere, parents often comment on how secure and settled their babies are at The Gower School.

There are two playrooms in Les Nounours – a main room and a quiet room where babies can feed, sleep and receive one-to-one attention. Babies enjoy our story area with lots of baby books. There is, of course, lots of discovery play including treasure baskets and heuristic play where babies explore real objects to develop their senses and satisfy their natural curiosity. The room is well-equipped with toys and resources. We also have a mini-staircase where babies can practice crawling and walking.

Babies in Les Nounours enjoy the outdoors, including regular walks in our wagons and trips to the park, and there is a dedicated decked area in the garden where they go to play, which is accessed directly from their playroom.

Professional musicians join Les Nounours each week to run music sessions with our babies, including guitar, singing and percussion with Louise Loft, and piano, singing, puppets and rhymes with Sarah Wilkinson.

All of our staff are trained in Tiny Talk (sign language for babies) and incorporate this into storytime, music and everyday life. For more information on Tiny Talk, please visit: www.tinytalk.co.uk

The Gower School is the only nursery in North London to be accredited by Tiny Talk UK.

Protecting our environment for the future is at the heart of The Gower School’s ethos and we reduce our waste by using washable, real cotton nappies for all of our babies. These are kind to the skin and help children to toilet-train sooner. When a baby is changed, they wear a washable nappy provided by the school. Children return home in whichever nappy their parent has provided.  If you are interested in sustainable nappies, please visit: www.nappyeverafter.co.uk

We work in partnership with parents and you will receive regular updates on your baby and information on their day, every day. The Principal will email all parents a fortnightly nursery newsletter and send an annual report on your child’s progress.

Les Nounours’ day runs from 8am to 6pm.

• Breakfast is available at 8am.
• Milk/snack times at 10am, 2pm and 4:45pm.
• Lunch at 11:30am and afternoon tea at 3:30pm.
• There are daily Treasure Basket and Heuristic Play sessions in Les Nounours.
• We also enjoy an array of creative and messy play activities in Les Nounours.