Wrexham’s Pre-Schools Lead The Way

Wrexham’s Pre-School provision has been recognised for developing the health and well-being of young children.

Pre-Schools in Wrexham have been accredited under the Welsh Government’s Healthy and Sustainable Pre-School Scheme.

The Scheme is aimed at pre school childcare provision that includes nurseries, playgroups, child minders and family centers and actively promotes and protects all aspects of health. This includes Nutrition and Oral Health, Physical Activity/Active Play, Mental and Emotional Health Well-being and Relationships, Environment, Safety and Workplace Health and Well-being.

Rossett House Day Nursery, Brambles Day Nursery, Garden Village Playgroup and Dean Road Family Centre are the first settings in Wrexham to achieve accreditation on the Preliminary Phase and the Nutrition and Oral Health aspect of the scheme.

Each of these settings have worked extremely hard to adapt their menus, snacks, polices and procedures to ensure that the positive messages around healthy eating and oral health are reinforced within the setting and that the children get the best experience from their meal and snack times.

The settings are involved in many exciting projects and initiatives such as Designed to Smile, a National tooth brushing programme and the Tiny Tums Award, a local programme to train staff on nutrition and menu planning to ensure children have balanced and nutritious meals and snacks.

Jonathan Miller, Wrexham Council’s Health  and Well-being Manager  said: “We have been supporting schools to develop as health promoting settings for over ten years and it is fantastic that we are now seeing this work extend into the pre-school settings. The work that the settings are participating in will help give children a healthy start to their lives and reinforce the work that schools are doing.”

Currently 21 pre-school settings in Wrexham participate in the scheme which aims to recognise good practice and encourages establishments to promote health and well-being to children, staff, parents and the community.

The scheme is run in partnership with many agencies including Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Wrexham Family Information Service, Designed to Smile, National Day Nurseries Association, Welsh Pre School Playgroup Association, Mudiad Meithrin, Wrexham Early Years Education and Flying Start Team.