The Magic Tower Montessori Nursery School (part of Egg Day Childcare)

In order to determine whether your child needs any extra support the nursery’s SENCo and BECo will observe them in the nursery and look at their developmental milestones to see whether we feel that they are performing at the expected levels for their age. We do this in response to a parent or Key Person raising concerns.

The Key person’s role is to get to know the child, ensure they are happy and settled within the nursery, plan and track the child’s developmental progress. The Key Person is the member of staff that has the closest bond with your child. We will ensure that we speak to you to determine whether you have any concerns regarding your child’s development.

 If your child has attended another setting we will also contact them to speak to them about any concerns and any other settings your child may attend such as preschools or/ childminders, etc. Once we have collected all of this information we will look into liaising with outside agencies to help us to determine how best to support your child such as SFYC an Area InCo, SALT, OT’s, EP’s. We may suggest speaking to your health visitor or your GP about e.g. getting a hearing test or pediatrician referral started.

If you have any concerns regarding your child please speak to your child’s Key Person, a member of the management team or come directly to one of the nursery SENCo’s as we want to give your child as much support as possible and we will be able to give them better support if you are voicing your concerns.

Our nursery SENCos will plan and oversee all support needed for any child needing extra support at nursery. Your child’s Key Person will work with your child to ensure that progress is being made and following an Individual Education Plan (IEP) which will have been devised by parents, the SENCo and Key Person;- possibly the BECo if their involvement would be beneficial. This will then be carried through within language groups and small group work with your child throughout the week and will be completed as often as your child’s needs determine.

We will also liaise closely with any outside agencies such as SALT, Portage, OT’s, EP’s etc to ensure we are all working together on the same targets to give as much support to your child as possible.

We have regular meetings with parents of children with additional needs to discuss their progress and next steps. Parents are also invited in at any time an outside agency comes in to work with their child to ensure they get to see them to discuss progress and/or concerns. We pride ourselves in our openness with parents and they feel that we are always available to speak to when they need it.

The SENCo’s reports to the managers with children’s progress and requirements. The manager then reports to the group manager in weekly management meetings to inform them of the children with special educational needs and disabilities their progress and any additional support/ resources they may need.

Throughout the nursery we use the Statutory Framework for the Early Years and Foundation Stage. For more information on the EYFS please go to: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/early-years-foundation-stage

We are also an Montessori Nursery School which means we combine a mixture of small group work, whole group work and 1-1 with each individual child to meet their needs. When we plan activities for the children we plan for each individual child to ensure we are using their interests to support areas of their development. For whole group activities we ensure that all activities will be differentiated to suit each child’s needs and that all children will be able to access it and it will suit their stage of development. The level of supervision and support will also be differentiated based on the activity and the children involved and their needs. All of this ensures that every child is included and able to learn at their own level.

We are completely open to support all parents with their children’s needs and development and are available for you to come in to discuss anything you may need and offer support or practical advice. We understand the pressures of work commitments and while we like to have frequent meetings, if telephone or email conversations work best please inform us.

Every child has a written Learning Journal. On this we record activities from each week along with photographs, next steps and link your child’s achievements to their EYFS milestones to track their overall development. We also offer suggested activities to be carried out at home using the Montessori Home Learning Bags. We have regular reviews to share the journal with the parents to ensure we have a holistic view of your child’s development both at home and at nursery. The key person of each child and head of class reviews all children’s milestones once every half term or more frequently if required.

Tracking is completed every 3 months by the core team working in your child’s room. Together they discuss your children’s development including achievements over the last 3 months and areas of development for the next 3 months. The key person takes the lead and incorporates feedback from the team when making a final judgement if your child has ‘met’ their developmental milestones expected by for their age. Any areas ‘Not Met’ will be discussed with the SENCO and Nursery Manager, with a support plan being put into place if needed. Any concerns will then be discussed with the parents if progress in the areas of concern are not evident.

If your child has additional needs and they have an IEP (Individual Education Plan) this will have targets on it to support your child’s development. We will have meetings with you every 6-8 weeks to discuss progress made and the next steps we want to put onto the IEP.

This is in addition to a full parents evening where all parents are invited to meet with their key person once a year to discuss their progress and developmental needs. This normally takes place in March. We also carry out a 2 year progress check in line with early years regulations which are completed within 2 months of your child turning 2. If a child joins us after they have turned two and a 2 year progress check has not been carried out at another setting, then we will review their development milestones on their baseline assessment when they start and discuss can concerns that arise with parents.  

The Nursery Manager and Deputy Manager are responsible for administering all medicines. If a child needs support that we were not trained to give we would ensure training is attended the appropriate courses with the appropriate staff. 

During your induction to the nursery, a care plan will be completed which details all of your child’s medical needs including any medication and emergency treatment they might need. This is then reviewed with the parents any 3 months and share with the staff in your child’s room.

The nursery has a policy for administering medicines which can be viewed when visiting the nursery. Senior staff will regularly update the rest of the team in weekly senior meetings regarding any medical conditions to ensure everyone is aware of them and how to best manage any situation.

We will ensure all staff working with the nursery receive relevant up to date first aid training along with all staff receiving safeguarding training. Our safeguarding officer will also run in house training to update staff on any changes to the safeguarding policy discovered on the safeguarding cluster meetings attended.

Our BeCo works with staff and parents in supporting children with behavioural needs. We will put strategies in place to support them and the other children in the nursery including them in all activities in an appropriate way. Children may be given a behaviour plan to outline the support we will be giving them and we will discuss and review this along with parents.

The children within our nursery have their own opinions and can contribute to their learning and development. To do this we observe them showing their opinions through their behaviour and actions. As children get older and are more able to verbalise we ensure we take their opinions into account when planning activities and completing IEPs or behaviour plans.

We have links with lots of different specialist services due to our current children receiving support. If we do not currently have links with a service your child needs to access we would ensure we develop links with outside agencies or specialists your child needed to ensure they are receiving as much support as possible. We currently work with SALT, EP’s, Lanterns Outreach and the Early Year’s Advisory Team.

Our nursery SENCos has completed their SENCo induction training and Makaton training alongside some of our key staff who have worked with children who have additional developmental needs. Within the company we also have other SENCo’s who have received training from the local authority including Thomas programme which is a course designed to support parents and practitioners in supporting children on the Autistic Spectrum.

We provide regular training to staff working with children who have additional needs via ourin-house training programme. This are adapted depending on the needs of the children at the setting following feedback from both staff and parents.

We also have a Group Manager who oversees our setting, she has a large array of SEN experience and training. She used this knowledge to provide on the job training to staff when support children with who have additional needed

All of our activities are adapted to ensure that all of the children will be able to access them in their own way. When going out of the nursery we lower the ratio to ensure we have enough staff to adequately supervise the children and we base this ratio on individual children’s needs to ensure they have enough support to take part in the outing.

A risk assessment is carried out prior to any nursery trips to ensure everyone’s health & safety will not be compromised and that we have the correct number of staff to adequately supervise the children. In the unlikely event the we determine it is unsafe for a child to take part in this activity then we may ask for parents to come with us on the trip if possible or alternatively we will provide activities for the child within the nursery.

The nursery building is across one level, it has disabled access doors and corridors. There is access from the two classrooms into the garden allowing provision of free-flow. We have nappy changing facilities in our classrooms and appropriate level toilets for the children in all of the classrooms.

We are very open to adapting our environment to suit any and all children’s/parents needs where possible.

We encourage all children to visit their school before starting, We try to work closely with the school/new setting and invite them to come in to see the children in the nursery as well as visiting the children at home with their parents. For children with SEND we would encourage the school to arrange more visits for the child to the new school to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible

We begin to do school based role play, tell stories, use social stories and do lots of activities to promote the transition to school. We endeavor to get some of the local school uniform and pictures of the local schools to familiarize the children with their next step to school. We will speak to the new school/provision to give them as much information about your child as possible and send the school the latest report and characteristic of effective learning, as a parent you will have the opportunity to contribute to this.

If your child has SEND we may arrange an IPA or Transition meeting to get all of the professionals working with your child together to ensure the school or new provision knows how best to support them and what they may need to put into place before your child starts with them.

The nursery has two rooms, these are designed around the needs and requirements of the children. The rooms are set up with the correct resources for the age/stage development of the children including Montessori resources. Each room is set up with the correct resources for the age/ stage of development. If a child needed additional resources we would ensure these resources were in the room for them to access freely. The nursery also discusses with parents their view on resources needed for their child and ensures they are onsite to help the child develop appropriately.

We ensure that all children with SEND needs are met to the best of our ability with the funds available.

Your child’s key person, SENCo a member of the management team, parents and any other outside agencies will discuss what support would be appropriate for your child’s needs. All children will need different types and levels of support so this will be based solely on your child’s needs. We will monitor how well the support we have put into place is helping your child and the progress they are making through regular observations, reviewing targets on IEPs and looking at how they are achieving on their development tracking. We have regular meetings with parents to discuss children’s progress. We may take away the additional support if we feel that your child has made significant progress and is no longer in need of the support.

We encourage parents to be as involved in the nursery as they can be. We have many different strategies to develop positive partnerships with parents as this allow us to create a holistic view of the child. There are lots of ways parents can be involved such as; Nature walks, parents to school week, parents meetings, cake sales, parent packs are given out at the start, sports day, special activities with parents such as music week, languages week, celebrating different festivals and home link boxes. We formally survey all parents once a year to find out their views on all aspects of the nursery and send our regular mini surveys through the year. This allows parents to give an anonymous view and to help us to develop our practice in line with parent’s views and opinions. We are always striving to work in partnership with our parents and it is something we are continuously trying to develop and encourage.