Velmore Preschool

We strive to ensure that all the children have a positive settling in period where they receive support from their key person whilst they are with us. This ensures your child will feel emotionally and physically secure; it helps build confidence within the setting. Key persons are available to speak to the Parents / Carers at any time of the day; we regularly communicate and have an open door policy so that any Parent can discuss their child’s progress at any point.
Prior to starting we ask the Parents / Carers to fill in an ‘All About Me’ form which allows us to see what stage of development they are at, what they are doing at home, interests and language. All of this information guides us in supporting activities which are relevant to the unique child.

The activities with the sessions are child led which ensures that their interests are followed and that learning is enhanced through this. We offer enhancements to these activities to ensure that the next steps are planned. We offer a safe environment which allows your child to explore and investigate at their own pace.
Our observations which we take from your child playing and learning allow us to highlight areas of development that may need to develop.

Observations are taken during the session when children are playing and engaging with each other. These observations are placed in their learning journeys and are then assessed so that we can extend their learning and interests. If we highlight an area for concern then we will raise this with you and discuss the best way forward. Where English is used as the second language then we will document our findings and pass these on in plain English as well as talking to the Parent. We have some resources which are available on loan to Parents, e.g. the Pants book to help with PottyTraining.

We are all responsible for ensuring your child is safe and secure; both emotionally and physically.
All staff are checked by the Disclosure and Barring Service and are safeguarded trained. We take risk assessments before each day to ensure the safety of your children.
The children know our Preschool rules which help them to stay safe and to enjoy their time with us.
We are all Paediatric trained in first aid.
All medication is stored in a secure place away from the reach of children. We keep a record file where we note who requires medications, the dosage, time of administration, who has administered, witnessed and signed by the parent at the end of the session. We ensure that we have permission to take photographs of your children prior to doing so and we are registered with Data Protection.

We are constantly gaining additional training to ensure that all of our staff has the best knowledge available. The expertise and specialist services we can access are referring children to have a hearing test or to the children's centre to get an outreach worker to visit you at home. If we think a child needs speech therapy then we can refer to a speech and language therapy assistant or speech therapists. We can refer to PORTAGE for behaviour. We can involve our area Inco who can come and see your child to see if they think anyone else needs to be involved e.g. portage, Thomas outreach programme (TOPS) . We are happy for the professionals to visit your child in the preschool or send us reports and we can work on the next steps of your child's development.

Our SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) has SEN (Special Education Needs) induction and SEN induction plus training, she has attended several other courses which include Makaton, hearing impaired training, Let’s share the care together with parents and visual awareness. She attends all the SENCO termly support meetings.

>When we organise any outings we always send home a letter informing the Parents / Carers of the details, we also ask for Parents / Carers to join us.
We ensure that the areas we visit are wheelchair / buggy accessible.
We carry out risk assessments prior to any visit.

We have a smooth concrete slope leading to our double doors which both open outwards. We have 2 toilets of which one has disabled access. Our outside area is assessable by a concrete step but can also be entered by returning through our front doors, through the car park and by our 2 side gates. The inside gate always has two bolts locked of which the upper bolt is not reachable by children.

We offer a home visit prior to children starting with us. We welcome visits into the setting prior to starting to familiarise the children with our Preschool. We always ask the Parents / Carers to stay for at least one session to ensure that the child is happy and feels secure with the surroundings.
We welcome and encourage the feeder schools to visit the staff and children so that they get to know each other prior to starting school. We also encourage local schools to visit us during other times of year so that the children can feel confident. We also invite the Lollipop Man from the main feeder school to join us in a road safety session prior to transferring to school. During the second part of the Summer term we add school uniforms to our dressing up.
If a child is moving to a new setting we will send the child's learning journal home with you, to be passed on to the other settings. We are happy to speak to the new setting to let them know how your child is developing. We send copies of your child’s record of developments to the school with parents’ permission We can do transition meetings with the school. Velmore preschool can organise a meeting with the teacher at a convenient time with parents to discuss any worries or concerns about their child. The school inclusion coordinator will usually attend the meeting. If any other professionals are involved they may be invited.

We can apply for additional funding for children who have Special Educational Needs. We have a yearly budget that has been used to train staff, for example in Makaton, and Inclusion funding can be applied for to support your child in our setting if required.

We will observe and make a decision on whether your child will benefit from extra support. We will take any additional information form the Record of Development sheets or information from the 2 year check.
An IEP (Individual Education Plan) will be devised for your child with your input. This will be discussed and reviewed to see what impact the additional support has had on your child, and to put into place further plans to support your child.

We welcome Parents to come and share our sessions by reading, offering to talk about their profession or hobby.