Entering in the morning
Before 9:00am
Until 9:00 there are two dedicated team members on the door of the building, who will welcome your child and take them to their classroom. You will say goodbye at the gate. The team member on door duty is from a different class each day, so will not necessarily be from your class. If needed, at the beginning of the year someone from your child’s class can be called down if they need this support to start with. We strongly recommend that all of the Leopards are in class by 9am – as this will help them to get the most out of the day. Later than this and they will miss the morning meeting and the start of activity time.
After 9am
The main entrance is staffed until 9am. After this time, you need to call the Classroom phone and ask a team member to come out to the street, via the main door to get your child. The team member may be busy, for example changing the children, running activities or taking the children to the garden or another part of the building, so arriving after 9am may mean that you have to wait a bit until someone is available to come and get your child. It will usually be someone from the Leopard’s class that comes out to get your child, although sometimes they may ask for help from another team member if they will be engaged and unavailable for an extended period.
Leaving your buggy with us
Many of the Leopards will now be too old for buggies! But, if you still use one and you wish to leave them with us, fold them and store them in the buggy parking area at the front of the building. You need to stack your folded buggies neatly from the back first. A reminder, we take no responsibility for the safety or security of your buggy. If you choose to leave your buggy at the gan, this is completely at your own risk. Please read the full information about buggies by clicking here. Any buggies that are not folded will be removed from the buggy parking. We are aware that some buggies do not fold, and sadly we cannot accommodate a parking space for these. You will need to tie this up in the street nearby to the gan (or example in Mazeh square there is a bicycle parking that can be used), or take it back home with you.
What to bring
On the first day of attendance in the Leopards class you need to bring a new drinking cup, clearly labelled with your child’s name (in English). You should also bring any dummies (pacifiers in American English!) and sleep toys that you wish your child to use at gan. However, if your child is now self-sufficient without these items, we strongly recommend not bringing them!
Please note, NONE of these items will leave the gan again! These items stay with us for the year (or until they need replacing). If you wish to give your child a dummy for example when you pick them up, you need to have one with you. The items such as bottles, dummies and sleep toys that you provide us with, stay with us and do not travel between home and gan.
There are no nappy changing facilities in the Leopards classroom. We know there are still a few last children who have not yet transitioned to using the toilet, we will continue to support those children as they transition in the next few months. In the meantime, a staff member will take them to the Armadillos changing area when a change is needed. Please bring 15 nappies if this is relevant for you, and 1 packet of baby wipes, and a changing table cover (ideally not disposable, it could be a ‘tetra’ for example). All these items should be labelled with your child’s name in English.
All children in Leopards will require a Wet Bag, and 2 – 3 sets of spare clothes, that we can change your child into if they get dirty or wet. For some children, we will need to change them multiple times a day, and there are other children who manage to stay clean for the entire day! All clothes should be labelled with your child’s name in English.For the children who are out of nappies already, please bring extra spare underwear as there may be more ‘misses’ in the first month of being in a new classroom.
Please do not send anything else that is not listed here. Please do not send a bag with the children with other things in it, such as spare water bottles, or toys or other items from home. We do not have the space to store additional bags or belongings, beyond what is listed above.
Communication with the team
At drop off
You can send a whatsapp message to the classroom phone with any key information you need to pass on.
During the day
If something happens during the day that the team want to inform you about, they will call you or send you a message or voice note from the classroom phone. If you wish to speak to a team member (either your child’s key worker or team leader); then please send a message to the classroom phone, stating who you want to talk to, and what you would like to talk about… and someone will call you back as soon as possible
Weekly feedback
Each week you will receive a voice message (between 1 and 3 minutes) of extended feedback regarding your child. This will be sent to you by the key worker, team leader or another classroom based practitioner. If you child is new, during the settling period you will receive more detailed feedback daily, either face to face, recorded or by telephone.
Calling or messaging the gan
Click here for the phone numbers of your class, the administrator, late club, Friday club and the manager!
You can send a Whatsapp message or call the gan phone for your classroom during day. The team cannot always reply to messages, or answer the phone immediately because they may be involved in care or learning activities with the children. Staff are asked to try and respond to all parent messages within two hours. If your call is urgent, or you need to talk to someone immediately, you may call the admin office on +972 54-6271708 or the manager on +972 54-6982969. The administrator or manager can go directly to the classroom to alert the staff to your need for an immediate conversation.
The Team
Your team leader is the lovely Kinga (who almost everyone already knows and loves!) – this is her 7th year leading a team at Rainbow! She will be closely supported by a new team member – Joy, and by Shelly who is moving up with the children from Crocodiles. Janice from Crocodiles will also be temporarily with the team until she flies to Australia for a month, and when she returns she will join the Pandas class and a team member will join Leopards.
The Daily structure
The day structure in Leopards has more structure and focus that lower down the gan, but the children still have the opportunity to choose what they want to do, and where they want to play. There is a good balance between planned activities, optional activities (flow in and flow out) and free play.
The class is divided into two halves; the younger half are the Red and Blue groups and the Older half are the Green and Yellow group. The time table is planned in such a way that they follow two different daily routines. Each half has set inside and outside time, has planned time in the Rainbow Room (this is an indoor physical play space with climbing equipment and a range of physical development resources), the Mitbachon (the children’s kitchen) and the classroom. A favourite part of the day for many of the children already know from Armadillos, is the famous activity rotation, where there are 4 adult focused activities happening simultaneously, and the children cycle through all 4 activities in the space of an hour (in their colour groups), spending 15 minutes on each station! The activity stations are based on Maths/Science, Language/Music, Physical development/movement and Cooking! This takes place between 9:15 and 10:15… so we STRONGLY reccomended not arriving at gan between these times, as it will be challenging for the children to enter in the middle of activity time. The staff in the classroom also cannot answer the phone during these times.
Please click the link here to download the daily timetable so that you can see the times and organisation of the day.
Sleep time & Rest time
After lunch is when the children take their nap. The entire back classroom is transformed into a sleep room. If children have rested for 30 minutes and do not fall asleep, then they can get up again to play. Staff are always present with the children whilst they sleep, and will support any children who have difficulty falling asleep. See the day plans to check the timings of the day. (Link above). Some parents ask for ‘sleep limits’ with their children at this age, but this is something that we strong recommend against doing, as children usually sleep for as long as their bodies need to recuperate from a busy morning! Please see our Sleep policy for more details and arrangements in relation to parents’ requests for sleep limits.
Pick up
Pick-up before 3:45pm
If you wish to pick up your child before 3:45 it is always a good idea to message the classroom phone in advance, with your expected pick up time. This is so that the team can help make sure your child will be broadly ready and available at that time. So for example they are not in the middle of water play, or a cooking activity in the Mitbachon! When you arrive at the gan, you should come to the main gate, call the staff in the room (not message) and ask them to bring out your child. If you left your buggy with us, please collect it and have it fully erect before your child comes out.
Please note, in the Leopards class, there is NO PICK UP BETWEEN 3:45 and 4:30
The 4:30 pick up
This is when most of the Leopards are picked up!
The children will come down at 4:25 and will be ready to be released at 4:30.
The RED and BLUE Group are released out of the back door from the Pandas Classroom, and the GREEN and YELLOW group are released from the backdoor of the Crocodiles classroom.
Pick up is very quick from the Leopards, and is usually over in under 5 minutes! One of the team stands at the door to the classroom, and calls the child to come out as they see you. Please take your child from the classroom door, and then move away as quickly as possible so other parents can get to the door to take their child. If you need to talk to a team member, please wait until the other children have all been picked up.
To access the Pandas or Crocodiles – you need to enter through the gates on either the right or left of the building. Walk through the garden areas and onto the deck to the classroom door.
Please exit the garden as quickly as possible after to have your child, and avoid gathering outside the gan, as we want to keep it as clear as possible… we have 150 children to get out safely! You can wait across the road in Mazeh square to meet other parents, play or gossip! Please avoid giving children any food or snacks until you have left the gan, and please do not allow your child to play on any equipment in the gardens during pick up. We also ask that you do not bring bicycles or animals into the gan garden areas.
Late pick up charges
We ask you to arrive on time to pick up your child, and if you wish for your child to stay late, then you make advanced arrangements for them to stay for the late club. Click here to see how to make a late club booking. Parents arriving after 4:30 or, if they have pre-booked late club after 5:30 are charged a penalty of 10 ILS per minute, per child (as per terms and conditions).
Friday Club
For children who are not new, and attending Friday club, you can attend as normal. For new children starting with us this year, you won’t start Friday club immediately, as it will be too stressful for your child. We use different rooms and have a different team working on a Friday, so it is important that your child is totally settled and comfortable with the routine and gan before they start attending Fridays. We recommend that this is at the end of the 2nd or 3rd week; but please liaise with your child’s team leader and key worker to agree when they are ready.
Calendar for this year
Please click this link to download the calendar for this year. It has our closure days and other important dates.
Some pictures of the Leopards Classroom!
