Growing Places @ Merryfields

At Growing Places each child is assigned a key person, and adult in the room who supports the child to settle into the setting. The key person is the point of contact for the parent to share any concerns they may have about their child's development. The key person will also complete termly reviews of children's development and share these with parents highlighting if they feel children would need any additional support.  

The setting SENCO will work with a child's key person, parents and any other professionals working with a child to write an IEP (individual education plan) this details the support needed and intervention to be put in place to support the child whilst in the setting. The key person is then responsible for ensuring the support plan that is in place is completed. This is then reviewed every 6 weeks. 

All team members at Growing Places have accessed training on supporting children with additional needs, along with more specific training that may be necessary to support individual children in the setting. 

All learning opportunities are planned with individuals children's needs being considered, through their agreed IEP. This is reviewed half termly ensuring that all children have equal access to enhanced opportunities offered in a way that suits their individual learning style and need. This is different for all children and may include one to one time with their keyperson, working in small focussed groups and on specific targets or implementing strategies to support their development. We work together with all agencies involved as well as parents, recognising that they know their children best, to achieve a consistent approach that allows the child to make the best progress. 

The whole staff team reflect monthly on how the children are learning together and changes are agreed for group learning. 

All children's progress is reviewed half termly , both by their key person and SENCo to ensure that opportunities are appropriate and changes to environment, resources, and opportunities are made when required. The Manager of the setting also reviews progress of the children termly to ensure progress is being made and identify in gaps in staff knowledge or training and then accesses training or other support for the identified team members. 

We share this with parents regularly both informally daily and more formally at sharing week, when parents can make an appointment to discuss their child's individual progress and see some of their learning. 

We believe that a child will only make progress in their learning if they develop secure attachments to their key people in nursery and the pod family helps this. Part of the settling in sessions is to allow the key people to build a trusting relationship with the parents, which helps the child feel safe and secure. We ask about all of the child's needs and an individual care plan is written up and agreed between us. This is shared with the key pod family and any other team members as necessary eg. dietary needs, toileting, feeding or medical needs. We ask parents to let us know of any changes and will invite professionals in to help us deliver the care appropriately, if unsure of any processes. 

The care plan is reviewed termly and updated as necessary to ensure we are delivering the highest standards of care. 

We share any accidents or when medicine is given or any other daily events with parents on a daily basis and encourage parents to do the same with us. 

We work closely with the Inclusion team at Hampshire County Council and health teams, including; SEN inclusion HUB practitioners, Portage, Occupational therapists, Speech & Language Therapy Team, Specialist nurses & welcome the support of other agencies. It develops our teams understanding, knowledge and confidence in dealing with all children. 

We also have 3 internal specialist lead educators; 1 Children & Adults Learning Coordinator, 1 lead educator in Physical Development and 1 in Outdoor play provision. It is the lead teams responsibility to support team members in considering all children's different ways of learning and how they can offer the same opportunities in various ways to support the individual learning needs and styles. 

As part of our induction training team members complete a training on supporting children with SEND and inclusive practice which we access from the pre-School learning alliance. Our setting SENCO's have all attended the SENCO induction training and SENCO support groups. We regularly review company training needs and identify gaps in knowledge and access training to support professional development or to support a child's specific needs e.g. Makaton training, autism awareness.  

All trips are risk assessed and where needed adapted to ensure all children are able to take part. We are committed to ensuring that all children have equal access to enhanced opportunities  

Our setting environments are designed to be flexible. When planning or developing the space the team would be mindful of the children that use the space, the space is then reviewed termly to ensure it continues to meet the children's needs. For example the furniture can be easily moved to create larger walkways. Our sites are fully accessible. 

We are well experience at supporting transitions to school ensuring we work with the parents and SEN team to ensure children get the best placement in their next stage of education life. We support parents and the children through the whole process along with the new teachers who will work with the children ensuring they know the children well. We will complete social stories, setting visits, host the new teachers to help the children feel confident with their next stage.  

The environment and resources are carefully considered at the start of a new school year, and then reviewed monthly as team members reflect on how children are learning, and when new children join the nursery. We take information from parents about a child's interests and needs, observe them closely for the first 6 weeks and develop a full picture and shared summary of where they start their learning journey with us. This allows us to identify any changes that are required to the environment, resources or opportunities on offer to meet their individual need and to enable them to learn and develop in the group.   

This is discussed within the pod family and with parents and any additional resources that are required would be purchased or accessed through the inclusion team.  

This would be reviewed at each reflection meeting; input from other agencies may highlight or suggest other specialist resources or equipment that would benefit the child and we would purchase or access what was necessary for nursery and support parents by signposting if necessary.

If a child is in need of additional support in the setting then the Manager along with the setting SENCO and parents will discuss what support is needed to ensure the child thrives in the setting. 

This may include additional staffing requirements, equipment, resources. A risk assessment is completed along with an IEP (individual education plan) when team members complete an individual support strategies they record this on a monitoring sheet, which is reviewed by the SENCO termly to judge whether the support in place is making impact.  

We believe the best approach is when all parties involved are working together so will collaborate with parents and all other agencies working with the child to ensure their is consistency in the approach. 

We welcome parents to be as involved as they would like to be. We share photographs and observations through an online journal (Tapestry) and encourage parents to share with us what their children are doing at home. This gives a much more holistic picture of the child's development.   

The child's pod people will share the child's day with parents informally, daily and parents are encouraged to share and celebrate their child's achievements and any other events in the child's life at these meetings or more formally, they are invited to sharing meetings termly. These are group meetings when the pod parents all get together with the pod team to share what they have been learning or investigating that term. They are also invited to make a separate appointment during these sharing weeks, if they would like to discuss their child's individual development and make any changes to IEP targets. We are happy to be flexible to meet around working commitments and can always facilitate a discussion with the key person, Manager, Lead educator or SENCo.  

We encourage parents to come into the setting to see what we do, what is on offer for their children, ask questions and learn more about our approach to learning and development. Parents can volunteer, be part of the parent committee supporting the nursery to raise funds for extra's or join the board of trustees, who are more involved at a strategic level.  

All parents are welcomed to to be involved as much as they would like to and we have previously supported parents with placements to develop their own professional career pathways.