The Village Pre-School, Upham

At The Village Pre-School, Upham our ethos is based solely around each individual child, their stages of learning and development and personal potential.  By observing children and building up close relationships with their families we are able to build a holistic picture which will help us understand each child's specific needs.  Whilst remembering that each child is an individual and has a unique personality which will develop at difference ages and stages.  

Each child at our setting will be allocated a Key Person who will be your first point of contact, each of our Key Persons work closely within a Key Family ensuring that at all times there is someone from your child's Key Family in the setting

By developing strong relationships with our families and constantly observing children we are able to identify any children with possible special educational needs and those that may require any additional support.  Our Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator (SENCo) will work with all children who start with us at Parrywood Pre-School, Eastleigh who already have a specific need.  The SENCo will liaise with the Area Inclusion Co-ordinator at Services for Young Children to help us determine and plan how best to support your child.  These plans may include co-ordinating with external agencies for example Speech and Language Therapists, Educational Psychologises, Occupational Therapists and Portage.

Your child's Key Person will work with your child to ensure that progress is being made and that the Individual Education Plan is being followed.  Your child's Key Person will support them in various ways throughout the Pre-School day through small language groups, small group work and when required on a 1:1 basis.  This support will be completed as required to meet the needs of your child and to comply with their Individual Education Plan.  We will work closely with other agencies involved with your child to ensure continuity of care and that we are all working towards the same goals and targets.

We will meet regularly with parents of children with additional needs to discuss their progress, development and next steps.  The SENCo reports at our regular staff meetings to inform the staff team of the progress of our children with special educational needs to ensure that all staff are aware of the support in place for our SEND children as well as their Key Person.

We constantly observe how children learn and develop through their current interests.  By completing observations we can develop the next steps in a child's learning by ensuring we have appropriate activities and resources available that address a child's needs and interests.  Remembering that children develop at different ages and stages and therefore within our continuous provision we ensure that a variety of recourses and equipment will be made available to support every child's needs and development. 

We ensure that whole group activities are differentiated to suit each individual child's needs and that all children will be able to access this and it matches their stage of development.  All children at The Village Pre-School, Upham have their own individual on line learning journal.

We hold regular meetings with parents of all children, we have an open door policy which means that at any times parents can come in to discuss their child's learning and development with us.  We have more formal parent/teacher meetings on a regular basis to update next steps and any individual learning and development plans.

For children who are aged 2 we carry out and complete, together with the child's family a statutory two year learning and development check, this is done in conjunction with the two year health check currently completed but the child's health visitor if the need arises.

We believe that the health and well being of children attending our setting is paramount.  If any child has prescribed medicines which require administrating during the session, we ensure that two members of staff complete this together.  This ensures that the correct amount of medicine is witnessed and all of our policies and procedures are adhered to with this administration. All medication is stored in a secure place.  A record of all medications administered, including dosage and time given will be signed by the staff member administering the medicine, the staff member witnessing the administration and the parents.  All our staff are trained in first aid and either training of Auto-injector administration and specifically medical needs is given when appropriate for the needs of our children.

If any child requires extra behaviour management support this is done by using distraction techniques firstly.  We positively praise the children continually and build their self-esteem.  We have found that by increasing confidence and listening to the children, this empowers them and they will share with us their feelings and their own personal views not here learning.  This is done daily, but specifically during circle times and small group play.  Other strategies that are available for use are visual time tables, sand timers and encouraging children to be helpers for our different areas including snack preparation and table setting at lunch time.  

All of our staff have current Disclosure and Barring Service checks which are updated annually and checked on a regular basis.  All staff attend annual Safeguarding Training.  Our policies and procedures are reviewed and updated annually. 

We have one member of staff qualified to Early Years Teacher level with two further members of staff holding appropriate Degree Level qualifications and 1 member of staff holding a Foundation Degree.  All other members of staff are qualified to Level 3 with 2 members of staff working towards this qualification.  1 member of staff is a qualified LEGO based therapist runs weekly sessions for children.  We work closely with a number of outside agencies including the Area inclusion team, Speech and language therapists, Specialist advisory teachers, Portage, Educational psychologists and the local Services for Young Children team.  If we do not currently have links with a service that 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.

Our SENCo has received appropriate training for her role and is qualified in Early Years Education to foundation degree level.  Staff regularly attend SENCo support meetings help by the Area inclusion team who supply valuable advice and recourses to help support out children and their families.  

Staff are continuously updating their professional development by complete training courses.  These have included Makaton, Autism Awareness, Behaviour Management, Childhood Illnesses, Language Development.

We have had experience of working with children with a range of specific needs.  These have included children with social communication difficulties, behaviour and speech and language delays and children with complex medical needs.

All of our activities are adapted to ensure that all children will be able to access them in their own way.  when going out of the setting on local visits we ensure we have a high child to adult ratio.  

To support the individual needs of children to share these experiences but who find change of routine challenging or upsetting, we use a range of resources which include visual clues, pictures and leaflets of where we are going.  All all times, with the close liaisons that existing with out families, we endeavour to put in place details of strategies to ensure the enjoyment for your child occurs during any trips we arrange.

Risk assessments are carried out prior to any trips and outings to ensure that everyone's health and safety if not compromised and that we have the correct number of staff to adequately surprise the children.  We value the strong relationships we have with our families and we regularly ask for parent helps to assist not he outings and trips to reduce our ratios and to further strengthen out parent partnerships and relationships.

Our setting is fully accessible both inside and outside as it is on one level.

Within the setting we use visual timetables and photographic and picture clues to support all of our children in identifying and learning routines.  

Staff are Makaton trained and we use the signs and visual clues and drawings as a source of communication for any children that finds communicating difficult.  For parents and carers that have English as an additional language (EAL) we encourage the key person and parent to create a communication fact sheet that has key words translated from first language to English so that we communicate with the children using key important words form their first language. 

In consultation with parents and other agencies involved with the children we will ensure that the appropriate equipment, resources and care will be in place prior to entry so as to make the transition into our setting as smooth as possible.  Meetings with appropriate agencies  will take place prior to starting to ensure that a good transition is managed.  Taster aspersions will be arranged whereby you and your child can visit is to familiarise yourselves with our routines, the layout, the other children and the staff.    We will also ask you to complete a number of forms including an "All about me" form which is kept at the setting to help your child settle in.

If your child has come from another setting we will liaise with them to ensure the correct and relevant information is passed on to ensure a smooth transition and we can ensure continuity of care.

For transition to school we have built good working relationships with the local feeder schools where by induction programmes include several visits to the school and the school staff visit the pre-school setting.  Towards the end of the summer term the setting staff will write transition reports to pass on to the new setting.

If you child has SEND and Inclusion Partnership Agreement (IPA) or transition meeting may be arranged for all the professionals working with your child, the setting and the feeder school or new setting to attend to ensure the school or new setting knows how nest to support them and what needs to be put in place before your child starts.

Each child in our setting is individually assessed and resources allocated form various sources including speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, resources libraries or alternative sources based on needs of the children and appropriate funding sources.  the funding and resources allocated enable the child to achieve their full potential by providing one to one support, the purchasing or specialist equipment and appropriate toys and resources to aid development or create individual pectoral support aids.  Funding and resources are always considered through close liaison and collaboration with all that are involved with the child and are considered on an individual and unique basis.

Our SENCo and Early Years Teacher liaises with the Area Inclusion Team and families to discuss together and decide the best level of support and outcomes for the child.

Through partnership with families, and IEP is drawn up in collaboration and discussion with the Key Person, SENCo and parent to ensure small workable steps can be achieved.  The amount of support required is dependent upon individual needs and is decided through a collaborative approach.

Strong parent partnership is the main ethos of our setting.  We have an open door policy which means that as a parent we appreciate that you may need to talk to use about anything from time to time.  Families form the basis of our ethos and we ensure that all our families are fully included.

We encourage parent participation and contribution to our planning board and parents are encouraged to add ideas and current areas of interest shown at home by their children.  Contribution to your child's learning journey and participating in our monthly parent coffee mornings are other ways that you can be involved in our setting.   We welcome parent volunteers in the setting to help with activities like cooking, snack time, sharing books and art and craft activities.