Jesters are proud to forge strong partnerships

At Jesters, we recognise that strong and meaningful partnerships with local schools and other pre-schools for shared care (including the new Beaulieu Park first ‘all through’ school in Essex) are crucial for smooth transitions for children.

Strong Foundations
Jesters work tirelessly with local schools on school readiness projects for consistency in understanding and to empower parents. These links enable children to be grounded in their foundations; to be valued as individuals and have their development tailored to meet their needs, so they have the specifIc skills they need to thrive in school and reach their full potential in the longer term.

Bicknacre Out of School Club
We provide full wrap around childcare with our fantastic Breakfast and After School Clubs where we provide drop off and pick up to and from the local schools detailed below:

• Priory Primary School Bicknacre
• St Mary’s CofE (VA) Primary School Woodham Ferrers
• Cold Norton Primary School
• Purleigh Community Primary School
• East Hanningfield CofE Primary School
• Elm Green Preparatory School Little Baddow
• St John’s CofE Primary School Danbury
• Danbury Park Community Primary School

In the school holidays we are open to all!
We currently have children from over 40 different schools around Essex attending our long standing, activity filled Holiday Clubs in Bicknacre for school aged children from 4-12 years old.

Partnering with Essex ActivAte to provide FREE school holiday clubs for eligible families.
We are extremely proud to be partnering with Essex ActivAte to provide FREE school holiday clubs for eligible families. Working alongside Active Essex and local communities by participating in the Holiday Activities and Food Programme during selected school holidays. The scheme is designed to provide eligible children and young people with completely free, fun activity sessions and provide a tasty nutritious hot meal whilst learning about food, nutrition and healthy choices, and accessing our superb quality holiday childcare.

Jesters enables our settings to make links with local groups e.g. older peoples clubs, churches and toddler groups and to use and promote the library service as a forum for the community.

Learning Resources
Additionally, by making links with local retailers, it helps children to learn about food, conservation and recycling to help create a greener neighbourhood. We strive to create worthwhile opportunities for networking with community partners to work together on additional seasonal projects that benefit the local community.

Monthly Mobile Library Visits
Essex is fortunate to have one of the largest library services in the country. There are 74 libraries, a home library service, and an ever-expanding fleet of mobile libraries – which we are delighted to have parking up at Jesters Beaulieu and Bicknacre on a MONTHLY basis!

A big part of our Jesters ethos is to encourage a love of language, rich communication skills and a knowledge of traditions and culture through a passion for books. Developing this enthusiasm in early years is essential to support lifelong joy with literacy.

It helps children to develop:
Receptive and expressive language
Sequencing skills
Thinking skills and problem solving
Attention span and listening
Creativity and imagination
Phonological awareness and grammar.

The mobile library visits are a fantastic extension to our extra curricular programme, and a brilliant opportunity for the local community to take advantage of too.

Sharing our Facilities
Jesters ensure the premises is used to successfully share information and best practice with other Early Years settings by hosting high quality training and workshops; ‘Tremendous Twos meetings’ and Learning Communities (run by Essex Early Years) along with hosting the Essex Network Meetings for the NDNA (National day Nursery Association).  We have also provided a venue for First Aid for parent(s) and carer(s) and for the EFWS to meet with parent(s) and carer(s) for 1 year and 2 year developmental checks included Integrated 2 year Reviews.

Additionally, neighbourhood groups are invited to use the facility, e.g. childminder groups, nannies and grandparent groups; further helping to make links with the community and work in partnership. Jesters’ vision is also to create opportunities for students and apprentices to work within the setting, benefitting from learning best practice from Jesters’ staff and ethos which works well across our settings.

Jesters regularly attends local events in our community working with the local schools, community centres, churches, parish councils and so on. We are proud to be part of such vibrant communities.

Partnering with Essex ActivAte to provide FREE school holiday clubs for eligible families.
We are extremely proud to be partnering with Essex ActivAte to provide FREE school holiday clubs for eligible families. Working alongside Active Essex and local communities by participating in the Holiday Activities and Food Programme during selected school holidays. The scheme is designed to provide eligible children and young people with completely free, fun activity sessions and provide a tasty nutritious hot meal whilst learning about food, nutrition and healthy choices, and accessing our superb quality holiday childcare.

We work with lots of organisations in our local community but here are just a few:

• Danbury Parish Council
• Woodham Ferrers & Bicknacre Parish Council
• Beaulieu Community Centre
• Essex Library Services
• Essex ActivAte

Jesters’ work closely in partnership with The Essex Family and Wellbeing Service (EFWS) for Early Intervention to offer our settings in Bicknacre, Danbury and Beaulieu as an outreach centre for parent/child groups; e.g. Sensory Play, Babies and Bumps and Rhyme Time, and also as a venue for children’s developmental checks.

Jesters works with the Health Visiting Team to run baby clinics for new parents and use the facility for integrated reviews to help isolated parents and invest in the Early Intervention Ethos. We promote and use EFWS leaflets to inform parents on topics such as weaning and potty-training and work with Essex Early Years speech and language team to deliver the Talk, Listen and Cuddle project.

Parents are invited to join a parents’ forum; working together on projects that benefit the nursery and the local community. We work in collaboration with Essex Early Years Special Needs Team including Inclusion Partners and also external partners like Paediatricians, Speech & Language Therapists to effectively address specific needs for children and ensure Jesters promotes diversity and offers equality.

Jesters works with The Community Dental Services to educate our team and families on the importance of good oral health hygiene from an early age. Our team are trained yearly on this and relevant lessons take place throughout the year to educate the children on good oral health hygiene.

We work with an experienced health professional Sue Welby of Little Life Steps to provide regular hand washing lessons to the children to ensure our children understand the importance of thorough hand washing to prevent the spread of infection.

Useful healthcare links:

• Essex Family & Wellbeing Service
• Essex Local Offer
• Home Education Advisory Services
• National Childbirth Trust
• Provide
• NHS Mid Essex CCG
• EWMHS for Southend, Essex (Colchester) and Thurrock | NELFT NHS Foundation Trust
• Essex Youth Service