The Avenue Day Nursery

At The Avenue all staff are committed to early identification of special educational needs.  Progress checks are carried out for our children after they turn 2 years old to identify gaps in their learning and development.  We observe and evaluate each child on a daily /weekly basis and note this information within each child’s Tapestry Learning Journal.  The Learning Journal is a document produced for each child attending the setting which is monitored and progress is tracked and shared with parents and carers.  A letter is attached to the child’s next steps report requesting parents/carers to contribute to their child’s Journal by informing us of what their child is particularly enjoying at home and asking if there are any areas they would like the Nursery/Pre-School to focus on.   This process gives parents and carers the opportunity to be directly involved with their child’s learning and development and also gives regular opportunities for parents to voice any concerns they may have.

If you have a concern about your child’s progress or believe they have a special educational need, this can be discussed with the Manager (Sophie Hickman) or your child’s key person.  Sophie is also our Inclusion and Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (INCO/SENCO). An appropriate play plan may be produced in consultation with parents and children and would incorporate activities that would help the child, drawing on the child’s interests and the discussions with parents.  This initial plan is known as a` Play Plan’. Your child’s key person would produce this with the support of the Inclusion and Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (INCO/SENCO).  If required, and agreed with parents we will also contact the Hants Area Inclusion Team for their support and work alongside other agencies.

Our SENCO/INCO oversees all staff training to ensure staff maintain and enhance their continuing professional development. All training attended is cascaded during staff meetings ensuring continuity of care is maintained throughout the setting and enabling us to support the staff team if any concerns are raised about a child’s needs and development.

The level of support provided depends on the needs of your child. When the Play Plan is written all staff working with your child will be aware of their particular needs but the child’s key person would have overall responsibility of ensuring the Play Plan is carried out and to discuss progress with you about your child. This Plan would indicate the support your child needs throughout the day focusing on the child’s particular needs. The Plan is regularly reviewed in consultation with you to see if the needs have changed in any way.  The progress of each individual is tracked in the child’s Learning Journal as mentioned above and this is continuously reviewed to ensure progress is being achieved.

We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage guidelines set by the Government in addition to planning and implementing activities that meet one individual child’s interests and needs. We ensure that we incorporate the seven areas of learning for each child and provide a wide range of resources and opportunities both indoors and out.

Regular observations and assessments take place which feeds into the planned activities for each individual as well as the class activities. Every 6 weeks (or termly as a minimum dependant on how often a child attends the setting) the key person will look at each child’s development and set out the child’s next steps for the forthcoming 6 weeks.  The next steps will be small developmental steps, which the key person feels the child can achieve within the 6 week cycle. The key person will produce a report that is passed to our SENCO/INCO who monitors each child’s development reports and sends the report out to parents/carers requesting their feedback ensuring we work in partnership with parents to match your child’s needs and enabling parents to continue to support the next steps at home. Any concerns will always be discussed with parents and the key person and also sometimes with the SENCO/INCO.

We are always happy to discuss children’s progress or concerns with parents and believe this is really beneficial for everyone concerned.  We have an open door policy within the Nursery/Pre-School where all our parent/carers are welcome to discuss their child’s progress at any time.  You have the opportunity to have informal discussions with your child’s key person every day on drop off or pick ups and if more time is needed an appointment can be made to discuss progress.

Throughout the year we hold parent/carers consultations, giving you the opportunity for one to one time with your key person to discuss and review your child’s progress observed within our setting.

We really value and understand the importance of working in partnership with parents/carers when sharing observations from home on Tapestry, day to day conversations, and completing your child’s progress on their termly reports.  Your child’s key person will complete the report and a letter is sent requesting your feedback to ensure we are supporting the correct next steps for your child during their time at Nursery/Pre-School. This document supports parents/carers in their child’s learning, outlining what we have observed and what we are planning for their child to encourage their next step development that parents can also continue to support at home.

Your child’s wellbeing is at the heart of The Avenue’s core values. Our vision is to provide a home from home environment for all our children, providing a loving, stimulating, safe, secure and happy environment where children can learn and grow to reach their full potential.

On starting at the Nursery/Pre-School we will ask you for all relevant information regarding your child’s health and developmental needs and dietary requirements in our All About Me form. This provides us with key information about your child’s current routines, family information, comforters, sleep routines etc. enabling us to have a good understanding of your child before they start at our setting to ease the transition for both you and your child.  We hold regular staff meetings so we can ensure all staff are aware of any specific needs of individual children to support their well-being across the setting.

The Manager and senior staff administer medication when prescribed by a doctor and we ask parents/carers to fill in our medication form when dropping off their child in the morning. We undertake ‘opening up’ checks on a daily basis before the Nursery/Pre-School is open to the children, to ensure that the setting is safe both inside and in the garden. The Manager and Deputy Manager work together with all staff to ensure each room in the morning and afternoon are risk assessed and all resources and equipment are safe for use. They are also aware of the activities during the day ensuring they are suitable and stimulating for our children.

Our setting has numerous policies to support our children’s wellbeing which include Equal Opportunities and Inclusion, Health and Safety, Behaviour Management and Safeguarding. All staff complete safeguarding training and are Paediatric First Aiders and will assist the individual in the best way possible.  Our Manager (Sophie Hickman) is our designated Safeguarding Officer and ensures procedures are followed at all times and staff are trained and maintain daily safeguarding practices.

All our key person staff are qualified to at least level 3 in child care as a minimum and complete regular training both in-house and externally assisting in their continued professional development.  We work with the East Hants Services for Young Children (SfYC) team, which gives us access to information, guidance, support and training in the Early Years and gives opportunities to our staff to further their qualifications and attend continuing professional development courses (CPD).

Our Manager attends regular meetings with Hants SfYC which is cascaded to all staff.

Our team develops the social and communication skills of children and provides a safe and secure environment in which the child can learn. They build and maintain relationships with parents/guardians to further support pupils as well as operating within multi-agency networks to ensure the correct support is available.

Staff attend Early Years Foundation Stage training and training recommended to us by Hants SfYC and pass their knowledge onto their colleagues. We contact the SfYC team by parent agreement when additional support is needed and welcome Speech therapists, Play workers, Physiotherapists, Occupational therapists, Portage and other agencies who will support the child with their development.  

If a child has Special Educational Needs and Differences a conversation will be had with the child’s parents regarding any forthcoming activities or trips. Depending on the need of the individual, a plan will be made based on that discussion and a full risk assessment will be undertaken, taking all the children into account.

The Nursery/Pre-School is located in a mostly ground floor open plan building situated in a central town setting.  In our Petersfield setting there are two main stairways leading up to the rooms upstairs on the first floor which is currently being used for dining at lunch and tea time. The baby, toddler and preschool are located on the ground floor. At our Steep setting there is a disabled access and all areas are on ground floor level with good wheelchair space including the toilet areas.

There is easy parking access at the front of our buildings, both leading to a main front entrance with wide door opening through lockable/security pin code access doors.  The gardens are also fully accessible to wheelchairs/pushchairs.

Upon registering your child to start the Nursery/Pre-School, parents will complete an application form providing us with all parent/carer/emergency/Doctors/Dentist and any additional information initially required before you child starts with us, such as any dietary requirements, known allergies, medical needs or conditions etc. This information is passed to the Manager who will then contact you to arrange your settling in sessions which are completed prior to your child starting at the setting to ease their transition.

We aim for children to feel safe, stimulated and happy in the Nursery/Pre-School and to feel secure and comfortable with all staff.  It is of paramount importance to us that all children should be treated with great care and consideration.  We also want parents to have confidence in both their children’s continued wellbeing and their role as active partners, with the child being able to benefit from what the Nursery/Pre-School has to offer.

A new child should feel comfortable, cared for and integrated into the life of the The Avenue as quickly as possible.  We offer 4 settling in visits to all children starting Nursery/Pre-School, these are free of charge and usually arranged between 1 to 4 weeks before the start date.  During visit one, we invite you to bring your child in for a visit whilst you stay and have an informal chat for around an hour with your allocated key worker and complete the child’s All About Me form. This form is designed for us to learn as much as possible about your child prior to them starting so we can ensure we can follow their interests when settling them in to the environment, for example if your child particularly likes a certain toy we ensure these are set out during their visits. The second hour of visit one might involve the parent leaving the child to play in their new surroundings. On the second settling in visit you will bring your child for another session to play where you will leave your child to become accustomed to the new surroundings. If more visits are required we will work closely with the parents in order to assist in the settling in process.

If a child attends more than one setting we contact the other setting to gain information regarding the child’s interests and development and we would provide the same information to the other setting, ensuring a clear development plan.

When your child is ready for school we will invite their new teacher to our setting where they can meet the child’s key person and discuss your child’s development and next steps. All Learning Journey information will be handed over to their teachers at school.  We offer liaison with Reception teachers to try and ensure that transition for the children is as smooth as possible.

All areas of the Nursery/Pre-School are well equipped with a range of specialist Early Years’ resources to support the children’s learning needs. These resources are regularly reviewed by the Manager and Deputy Manager and if additional specialist needs are identified these will be looked into on an individual basis by the child’s key person and supported by the management team.

All areas of the Nursery/Pre-School are well resourced. We use books from our local library and have our own family library for children to take books home. We arrange for additional resources to be used by the setting for any additional developmental needs.

Staff plan activities and equipment around the children’s developmental abilities to ensure all children’s experiences are full of learning through a play based environment.

The Next Steps in learning are identified for all children in all areas of learning. For the under 2’s we concentrate on the three prime areas of learning which are ‘Physical development’, ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Personal social and emotional development’.  We will produce a report alongside your next steps in learning sheet which is entitled ‘Your child’s progress check’ which is completed between the ages of 2-3 years. Where additional needs are identified a play-plan is written after meeting with parents. This plan is regularly reviewed by the key persons, INCO/SENCO and parents.   Your key worker will work closely with you and outside agencies to ensure your child is receiving all the additional support required.

During each year we plan Stay and Play sessions when parents can come into the Nursery/Pre-School to see their children play and learn. Our Christmas festivities involve children performances where parents can join in activities too. We carry out an annual parent/carer questionnaire to measure our performance and to help ensure we are meeting our parents’ needs and fulfilling their expectations. This also helps us to identify and focus on any areas of concern that are identified and strive for continuous improvement. Feedback can be completed anonymously if wished to help ensure feedback is honest and impartial.  We share these results to parents/carers and in particular highlight where we have addressed areas of concern.

In the main reception areas we also have parent/carers comments box which you can access and provide feedback at any time.

Parents can speak informally with practitioners on a daily basis at drop off and pick up time where practitioners and parents/carers can communicate all aspects of their child’s time. Through this dialogue parents are aware of the learning taking place within the setting and can continue this development at home. To support this further we have a Newsletter each term, informing parents of what the children have been enjoying and what we have planned over the next few weeks of activities enabling parents and carers to follow this further at home.  Within the newsletter we will often follow themes such as the change in seasons. For example when in Autumn we may ask parents to collect autumn objects on a walk with their children which they can then bring in. We really encourage and value parent partnership and recognise this partnership in learning forms the best outcomes for the children.  Throughout the year we have parent evenings and occasional talks/socials.  We are always looking for parents who are willing to come in and share some expertise e.g. vets, nurses, dentists, firemen, policemen, scientists, engineers …and school teachers!