Home From Holme

About Me

My name is Claire Di Virgilio. I live in Ossett with my husband Gianpaolo. We have 6 wonderful children, the youngest being 9 months, then 7,12,13,14 and 21 years.

Here at Home from Holme our curriculum follows the EYFS framework which sets the national standard for the learning, care and development of babies and children up to the age of 5. The EYFS outlines seven areas of learning, these are broken down into three prime areas:
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
And four specific areas:
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

At Home from Holme our intent is to provide all children with a safe, secure, stimulating and fun environment. We strongly believe that everything your child does, sees, touches, hears, smells and tastes is the curriculum because this is how they are learning about their world. We encourage the children to express their own thoughts, feelings and interests as we believe these play a vital role in their personal learning and development journeys. We work closely with parents and carers to ensure that we are always well informed about what the children’s current interests are enabling us to incorporate this into their learning.

We encourage children to learn through play and first hand experiences by offering a wide range of activities and resources both indoors and outdoors. We regularly visit the local library, market and participate in community events.

We promote healthy lifestyles, including oral health and reinforce this by offering the children healthy meals and snacks and encouraging them to make healthy food choices on their own. We ensure that children have daily outdoor play and children are encouraged to drink water and not juice within the setting and we regularly discuss oral health and engage in role play and other activities to support this.
Mental wellbeing and self-confidence are very important to us at Home from Holme. For the children to learn and develop effectively it is important they feel safe, secure and happy within their learning environment, which is why we have dedicated areas for children to be able to express and discuss emotions, worries and anxieties both independently and as part of a group encouraging them learn to self-regulate their own emotions and feelings, promoting positive mental health and a positive, happy environment for all children to thrive in.

By the age of five we are confident that all children will have gained the vital knowledge, skills and experiences needed to confidently transition into a school environment and continue to flourish and build upon their existing skills.

We pride ourselves on offering a clean, safe and smoke free environment. We are within walking distance of the library, parks, soft play areas, local toddler groups, local markets and local shops and are frequent visitors to them all.

My husband Gianpaolo works alongside me within the setting, he holds a full enhanced DBS check, valid paediatric first aid Certificate and level 3 advanced safeguarding. Gianpaolo has over 16 years childcare experience.

I also have an apprentice Scarlet who is also fully DBS checked and hold’s a valid paediatric first aid certificate and a level 2 safeguarding qualification.

All assistants have been checked and accepted by OFSTED for their suitability to work with children.

I run my setting professionally so myself and my assistants will regularly attend relevant meetings and training events to refresh our mandatory training.

I strongly believe in building and maintaining positive and professional relationship with parents, and carers.
I recognise the importance of parental involvement in a child’s early years and look forward to working together as a team to meet your child(ren’s) full potential.

At present i pick up and drop off at local schools and nurseries, these are, South Parade Ossett, Dimplewell school in Ossett and Southdale school in Ossett. There is the possibility of other nearby schools if requested dependant on availability.

My current availability is Monday – Friday 7.00am – 18.00pm, should you require something different, let me know and we will try to come to a suitable arrangement.