Fun Box Day Nursery

To start with we will find out as much as possible about your child - likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, immediate and long term needs. We will then write up an Individual Education Plan or an Individual Behaviour Plan or an Individual Health Care Plan depending on your child's needs. You will be involved in writing this plan by giving your opinion, thoughts and consent. We will then follow this plan for an agreed period of time and will review it to see how much progress your child makes. If necessary we will involve outside professionals i.e. Speech and Language Therapist with your consent. We have two appointed Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators who have lots of relevant trainings and worked with many different special educational needs and disabilities. They will advise you and our colleagues throughout this process.

As every early years setting, we are following the Early Years Foundation Stage framework and the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice. This means that we treat every child individually and tailor our activities and planning around their own, unique interests, age and stage of development. For example if your child has a hearing impairment we will use more visual signs, like posters, pictures of her being involved in a certain activity in a certain part of the nursery, choosing board, etc. and sign language with her (we use Makaton signs in our nursery every day but we'd may extend this even more so with a child who has hearing problems).

We will haver regular meetings with you and keep you updated about every little detail of their progress. We have daily hand overs when you can just chat about daily things (like how she has slept the night before, whether she ate breakfast etc.). We also do termly parent events when we sit down with you and talk about your child's digital Learning Journal (Tapestry account) - this account contains regular observations, photos, notes and assessments about your child's activities, interests and development. If an Individual Plan has been written up, we will review this plan with you on a regular basis (frequency depends on the time scale we agreed when writing up the plan).

Depending on your child's needs we will ensure that all our staff members who cater for your child are trained to do so (i.e. if your child has Autism, we will ensure that your key-person received relevant training such i.e. Thomas training ). Upon registration you are asked to provide details of your home routine, your child's likes and dislikes - we will do our best to follow up your routine and use this information to provide continuity with our care. Our key-persons are also first aid trained and all our staff members hold appropriate appropriate qualifications and are well experienced with young children.

Our staff members have experience in dealing with autism, speech and language problems, visual and hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, behavioural problems, mild physical disabilities, dealing with terminal illness and bereavement in the family, epilepsy, general developmental delay, hyperactivity, Attention Deficit Disorder, selective mutism etc. Although we are not specialists in these fields, we have quite a bit of experience in dealing with these conditions. We understand what families who encounter these problems go through and are aware of and know how to use and access specialist services such as Speech and Language Therapy, Area Inclusion Co-ordinator, Occupational Therapist, Child Psychologist, Physiotherapist, Cancer Support, Portage etc.

Makaton sign language training; various communication and language trainings i.e. Boogie Mites, Every Child a Talker; Positive Interaction Project Training, Behaviour Management Training, Epipen Training, Restrictive Physical Intervention Training, Transitions Training, Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator Training, First Aid; ECERs and ITERs, BEEL (Baby Effective Early Learning). Our SENCo is highly qualified - she is a Qualified Teacher and Early Years Professional who has over 10 years of experience with children with special and additional needs.

>We include all children in all activities, there are no exceptions unless you specifically ask us not to. We may ask for your support by either joining us for the trip or ensuring that all equipment and resources needed by your child are fully prepared in his/her bag (i.e. inhalers, extra nappies, medication etc). If we need to adapt our route or destination or means of transportation in order to accommodate your child, we will do our best to do so.

We have wheelchair access to our main room and we also have access to the disabled toilet and a large entrance to our garden. We have visual clues, time tables and choosing boards. We use Makaton signs with all children. We have access to a wide range of support and resources provided through Services for Young Children.

On our Registration Forms we ask quite a few details about your child i.e. likes, dislikes, medical history, additional and special needs, dietary and medical requirements etc. We use this information to tailor our care the best way possible around your child's needs. We provide several settling in sessions during which we observe and engage with your child and start building up a relationship with him/her. Based on these initial information and sessions we will be able to plan and prepare a unique approach towards your child. When your child leaves we will prepare all his/her documents in a file and with your consent we will pass it on to the next setting. We are also keen to engage with your child's future key-persons via personal meetings, phone calls etc. We also provide Transition Notes where appropriate.

If your child requires specialist resources we will look into our inventory to see if we have them. If we do not then will look into funding options to either purchase or rent equipment and resources. In any case we aim to have more than one of all resources to prevent possible conflicts over sharing. In order to tailor our resources and equipment around your child's needs we will liaise with you and other professionals involved.

With any decision involving your child we will ask for your opinion, thoughts, co-operation and support. We will also engage with any professionals who are involved. If your child has the understanding to be involved in decision making we will certainly involve him/her as well.

We engage with our parents daily through the hand over and pick up periods but we also have an open door policy which means that you can come, visit and stay whenever you like. We hold regular parent events when we discuss your child's development. We also organize events, activities and trips where you can get actively involved. We ask for parents' input and feedback verbally, through their children's Tapestry account, annual parental questionnaire. We are also planning on setting up our Parental Advisory Group who'll assist us with our work. We have a website and a facebook page where you can interact with us. We hold open days. Any volunteering welcomed as we deeply believe in working in partnership with parents.