Bevan Lodge Community Preschool

At Bevan Lodge Community Pre School we welcome Early Years children aged from 2 years 9 months to Pre School age.

We welcome children with special educational needs.  Working in partnership with parents, we will do all we can to accommodate any specific needs of the individual children.

We offer an initial visit to the setting to meet the parents and the children.  Prior to attending the Pre School we will arrange a home visit and offer stay and play sessions to allow the children and their parents to get to know us and for their allocated key person to get to know them, to help support their transition to Pre School and in so doing help to ease their anxieties and answer any questions.

If your child is identified with SEND your KP works with you to collect information about your child and their needs on a Personal Plan. They will use this information to write an Individual Support Plan (ISP). This tells you, your KP and other staff what we need to do so that your child can take part in all the activities at pre-school and what activities will help them to make progress and develop. Our SENCo helps the KP write the plan and makes sure it is reviewed regularly. You read and sign the ISP so you know what our plan is for your child. When your child comes to pre-school their KP makes sure they are able to do activities which are on their plan.

Our SENCo will seek advice and help from our Area Inclusion Co-ordinator (INCo) and work with her to get additional support for your child from other services as appropriate, if necessary. If your child needs more specific support and assistance, they may be allocated a specific member of staff to work and play with them at every session. This usually only happens when a child has significant physical needs requiring assistance with their development and learning. All children are given the opportunity to play equally within the setting meeting all our staff alongside all the other children at the pre-school.

Our SENCo will further support the child and their families with the forth coming transition to Infant school arranging transitional meetings at the earliest opportunity to help support a smooth transition to school.

On occasions and (EHCP) Educational Health Care Plan will need to be applied for to further provide assistance and support as the child continues their educational journey onto Infant School.  Our SENCo is able and competent to support this application process, working closely with multidisciplinary professionals.

We follow the revised Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum (2021)  Our staff are all trained in Early Yeras and competent in using the curriculum to plan activities for individual children through observing children’s play, behaviour, learning styles and stage of development. Staff work closely together by sharing their observations of your child with your KP. Your KP uses all the information they have about your child to build a picture of your child and assess what stage they are at. They decide what your child needs to do next to progress and develop.

At Bevan Lodge we use Tapestry to create a digital individualised learning journal for each and every child.  Your child's key person will create the journal which you will be able to access at your leisure on your own devices to see their learning and progression whilst at Bevan.

Your key person will establish appropriate next steps to support and enhance their progression in their learning and development.  Your child's ISP will reflect these developmental steps. We have a wide variety of activities and experiences which can be differentiated to meet the needs of all children inclusively at every session at Bevan Lodge. Your child will be free to choose which activities to do with staff supporting their choices ensuring the activities are appropriate for all children to have a go. For instance, some children may paint with their fingers, some with sponges and others with brushes. We have a wide range of toys or other equipment which may help enhance your changes experiences with us providing differentiation with all activities inclusively. 

We use visual timetables, pictorial signs, a choosing board as well as specific photos, to help your child understand the routines of pre-school and communicate their needs to staff, and to encourage them to explore different activities through a “first” and “then” approach.

We share information with you:

• At parents' evenings twice a year with their KP

• Through a digital record (Tapestry), called a Learning Journey which includes observations and assessments made by the KP

• By talking to you whenever you drop or collect your child or at another convenient time

• In regular written summaries of their progress and development, shared with parent/carer

• On the child’s next steps, including ideas for activities to do at home to help them explore and learn

• On written ISPs

• In reports from other professionals who visit pre-school to assess your child You can share information with us by:

• Adding information about their activities and interests outside pre-school to the Learning Journey or through a holiday diary.

• Sharing new information about your child when you drop off or collect them

• Helping us liaise with other settings or a childminder, if appropriate, to find out more about their interests and their progress

• Giving us copies of any medical or developmental reports you have from others involved with your child. If there are several professionals and services involved in supporting your child, we arrange meetings for them to come together with yourself and pre-school staff to share information and plan support for your child. After these meetings a written plan is produced to make sure everyone carries out the actions agreed at the meeting.

If your child needs medical care, a special feeding routine or to be given medicine, we make a health care plan for them to make sure that all staff know exactly what they need and who will do it. We seek specific training for staff to make sure they can look after your child, for instance from medical staff who have cared for your child.

Our Administration of Medicines Procedure includes recording and signing each time medicine is given and we use the same procedure if we need to carry out regular special care, for instance using peg feeding. Personal care, including nappy changing, is completed by familiar staff all of whom have been DBS checked.  Staff can work with you to help with any of the stages of toilet training, as necessary.

We have a quiet area with soft cushions where children can play quietly, read books, and rest if necessary.

We encourage appropriate behaviour in all the children at the pre-school through praise and positive reinforcement of good behaviour. No child is ever punished or excluded from activities.

If your child needs more support for their behavioural development our Behaviour Co-ordinator (BeCo) will work with you to find ways that work for your child.

We can give you relevant information about services in health, social care and education to help support you and your child. We can help you complete forms, make phone calls and arrange visits so your child can be seen by other professionals, and you can receive help and advice. The speech assistant can help assess children and advise on their needs and may also meet with parents to advise on other services available through the health visitor. We can seek support and advice from our INCo asking to visit the pre-school, observe your child and then meet with you to advise on sources of help or therapy for your child. If other professionals, therapists and health care workers are already working with your child, they can visit pre-school to see how your child is getting and to share ideas and strategies for supporting your child.

We have worked with: the portage service who share activities done at home so pre-school staff can build on them; the physiotherapy service who visit our premises to advise on adaptations for a particular child; occupational therapy who help us to adapt routines to suit individual children; specialised health teams who have trained staff to be able to take care of children’s complex health needs; speech and language service who invite staff to attend with parents and children so that speech and language development activities can be continued at pre-school.

Our staff are trained and qualified in caring for Early years children which includes inclusion and disability awareness training, and safeguarding training at an appropriate level.

All members of staff have a current paediatric first aid qualification.

Our SENCo has specialist training in autism and safe physical intervention and shares this knowledge with other members of staff. She attends regular local support groups to keep her training and knowledge up to date. All staff know some British Sign Language signs and some Makaton signs and these are used within the pre-school. We have trained staff in anaphylaxis awareness and using an epi-pen. Staff will undertake this sort of specialist training, if necessary, so we can meet your child’s needs.

When we plan any activity at pre-school we consider all of the children and their individual needs which may need to be considered for a specific trip, taking into account physical abilities, health care requirements, including allergies, and behavioural and cognitive development. We complete a risk assessment for all trips and special activities which helps us to establish how to make the trip inclusive for all children to enjoy or how to make the activity safe for them.  Key Staff will talk directly to parents e.g. to check ingredients or to understand how a child may react to an animal. When your child is going to go on a trip with pre-school or taking part in a special activity, away from our premises, your KP talks to you first so you understand what we are planning and how we can work together to plan. We may ask you to join us in the activity, if we think this will make it better for your child, or we may ask you to provide special equipment e.g. your child’s buggy. If your child has a serious medical condition or allergies, we will make sure we have trained staff and medicines with us, and your KP will always share the details of the activity with you so you can tell her if anything concerns you.

Our pre-school is on the ground floor of a detached house, with three large rooms, a toilet area and a large, enclosed garden. The children’s toilet area is small, but we have large areas we can use for changing and if necessary, the adult toilet may be more accessible.

The garden is on one level and accessed by two steps from the rear of the building but can be accessed from the side without using steps.

The front entrance is accessed by two wide steps. If your child finds anything difficult in our premises, we will work with you to make changes or so they can access the pre-school. We do not own our own premises but will work with our landlord and try to obtain grants or fundraise to make major changes.

For parents/carers whose first language is not English we will seek support from Hampshire's Ethnic Minority Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS) for translations and interpretations of our information, and we are happy to meet with them with a friend who can interpret for them.

To help your child settle:

• staff visit you at home

• your child visits pre-school at least once

• come to our stay and play session; your child can play while you complete essential paperwork and discuss any concerns you have with your KP

• plan with your KP what will suit your child best If your child does not settle easily, we have a very gradual 5 Step Settling programme which we may use.

When your child leaves pre-school:

• we complete a digital learning and development summary to their new setting

• we speak to staff to share information about your child’s development, needs, progress at pre-school, friends and the activities they enjoy

• if they have complex needs, we set up a specific transitional meeting at the new setting to share necessary information.

• staff from the new setting may visit your child at pre-school so they can see them playing in a familiar environment

• we can accompany you and your child to visit their new setting

• there are activities for all the children, e.g. school uniforms to dress up in, changing into PE kits, sharing packed lunch time together. Whilst your child is at pre-school professionals working with them may feel that they will need special help at infant school or need a specialised infant school and apply for your child to be assessed for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This includes detailed reports on your child and their SEND and gives their new school lots of information to help them.

Some of our annual budget is always allocated to SEND and from this we may pay for equipment and resources, or for staff to attend training, to accompany children to therapy or to meet with visiting professionals and attend meetings. For some children with SEND we are able to claim additional funding and we use this to directly benefit the child. This means that if your child has complex needs and would benefit from a member of staff working directly with them for some or all of their time at pre-school, we will use this funding to help provide this. We may also use this funding towards buying special equipment or toys which we think would help your child’s development. In rare cases we are able to obtain special additional funding to support a child, for example to pay for a full time signing teacher to accompany a profoundly deaf child.

When a child has been identified as needing additional support, either before joining pre-school or at pre-school, we meet with you and complete a Personal Plan, which tells us what their strengths and difficulties are and who is/will be involved in helping them. From this we identify development targets for your child, and we assess what special provision they need to reach these targets. These are written onto an ISP. Support is provided initially by staff at pre-school but we may ask the INCo to visit and advise whether other professionals should be involved. If your child has complex needs and there are lots of professionals involved in their care, we meet with them in a Team Around the Child (TAC) meeting and work together to identify the type and amount of support needed for your child. ISPs are reviewed by the KP and the SENCo each half-term so that new targets and strategies can be put in place for your child.

The progress of all children at pre-school is monitored termly by assessing their learning and developmental progression. This information is used to assess whether any individual children or groups of children are not making expected progress, and to see if the support we are giving your child is helping them.

We are a community run pre-school and rely on a voluntary management committee (usually parents) to oversee the running of the pre-school. This committee reviews all our policies and supports our managers in decision making and development. It also raises valuable extra funds for the pre-school to replace toys and equipment. We strongly encourage parents/carers to be involved in the pre-school, both in the formal management and fund raising, and more informally in day to day school life. Parents come in to help children change their library books, to read stories, to share aspects of their working life, to bring pets to visit, and they contribute by making playdough and helping to prepare activities. We hold an annual Families Fortnight to encourage all family members to visit the setting.

Christmas and summer events  and end of term fun day.

KPs work closely with parents/carers to ensure that each child’s development and interests are fully understood. We try to be available as often as possible to talk to parents/carers and welcome contributions to their records which celebrate the child’s achievements or milestones in their life.