Dungaroos Preschool

At Dungaroos we will allocate your child with a key person who will build a strong relationship with them and monitor their development through observations. Our Key persons have an excellent knowledge of the stages of child development. We will use guidance from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), Development Matters and the Early Years Outcomes to help us identify whether your child may need extra support. We will always speak to you as parents/carer of your child to find out whether you have any concerns about your child's learning and development.

Our Special Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) is Julie Taylor, with your consent she will liaise with other professionals who can give advice regarding the best way to support your child in order for them to reach their full potential. Other professionals we have contact with are Speech and Language Therapists (SALT), Services for Young Children area inclusion Co-ordinator (Area INco), Portage (a home visiting educational service for pre-school children with additional support needs and their families), Health Visitors and Lanterns. We will encourage you to contact your Health Visitor if this is appropriate.

You can speak to your child's key person or SENCO at any time for advice and guidance. You can also email or phone us to discuss. We will always look into any of your concerns and seek ways to assist you and your child.

At Dungaroos, your key person and SENCO will work together with you as the parent/carer, to create an educational programme for your child. We will include any advice given by outside agencies, such as the ones mentioned in section 1.

Your child's key person will work closely with them following and Individual Education Plan (IEP) that sets targets designed to be achievable to enable your child to progress. Your child will be part of a weekly language group if needed.

We will liaise regularly with you as a parent/carer to keep you informed of your child's progress, so you are of what takes place in nursery. We will also work on plans which can be used at home too, so that we are creating a consistent programme between home and nursery.

We will judge the effectiveness of any educational programme by the outcome of your child, reviewing progress with you at regular intervals and making any necessary adjustments to what we can do to support further. The SENCO will also report to our planning meetings and discussing how your child is progressing so we can identify where additional support and resources are needed.

Where we have identified a need, we will use all the information and evidence we have gathered from our observations to produce an Individual Education Plan (IEP). These plan to focus on what your child’s interest are, what your child can do and what your child needs to progress in. Once these are answered, and with supporting evidence a plan can be achieved. We use an on-line system called Blossom to record observations and link progress to the Development Matters statements. If your child is receiving support from outside the setting, such as Speech and Language Therapists or Occupational Therapists (OT), we will include in your child’s IEP activities suggested by these agencies that will support their learning. In all cases an assessment of your child’s progress will be made at intervals that match their needs and the IEP will be reviewed every 6 weeks.

We have systems in place for referring children for further assessments e.g., Early Help Assessment and Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessment and will do so in liaison with parents as needed.

We plan our activities around children’s interest so they are exciting and relevant and will differentiate (adapt) these activities, so they meet the different needs of the children. This will ensure that all children are able to participate in nursery life as we believe this helps the children to progress to their best potential in a happy environment.

We use our online journal (Blossom) to track where your child is with regard to their development. This is achieved through regular observations by your child’s Key Person. If you have access to the internet, you can view your child’s Blossom records at any time using your app. You will b e provided with access at nursery or print you a hard copy. The Nursery Manager reviews all observations that are made, and the Key Person also has a meeting with the Manager or Deputy every term to review how each of their key children are progressing.

If you child is 2 years old when they join Dungaroos we will carry out a statutory 2-year progress check (if not already done elsewhere). This is completed in co-operation with you as the parent/carer and can help to highlight, at an early stage, any concerns about your child’s development.

We have an open-door policy and want you to feel comfortable in speaking to your child’s Key Person or the SENCO at any time, as well as at a formal parents evening which is held termly.

To help you to support your child’s learning at home we will share with you what your child has enjoyed doing at nursery, particularly when beneficial to achieving the aims of the IEP. If possible, we will allow you to borrow resources so you can continue learning at home.

Dungaroos operate a safer recruitment procedure to check the suitability of staff to work with children. All staff receive regular training in child protection. The Manager, Julie Taylor, is responsible for safeguarding children and attends regular training and support meetings to stay up to date with legislation. Four times a year staff have individual or group supervisions meetings with the Manager or Deputy to discuss the children in our care. This provides an opportunity to raise any concerns about a child or adult in the setting, although staff are encouraged to raise any concerns as they arise.

We aim for all staff to have a relevant and up to date training in First Aid.

We believe in a consistent approach to managing the behaviour of children in our setting. Staff training in behaviour management and working together to provide a positive environment. Parents are kept informed of all concerns and, if needed, we will work together to achieve a positive outcome for the child. We have policies and procedures in place for administering medicines to ensure that staff achieve appropriate training, as necessary, to meet the needs of individual children.

Follow this link to view our policies and procedures – www.Dungaroos.uk

We believe children have the right to be listened to and have their own opinions. We ensure all children have the opportunity to self-advocate by:

• Including opportunities for small group activities
• Tuning into children’s body language
• Allowing children time to have their say.

If your child needs it, we will establish links with specialists or outside agencies. We have access to Speech and Language Therapists, Educational Psychologists, Lanterns, Portage, Area Inclusion Co-ordinator, and the Early Years Advisory Team.

We are to develop our knowledge of Makaton signs, which we have introduces to the children weekly. All children are taught basic, everyday items and daily routine in the use of Makaton.

Our Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator (SENCO) receives SENCO induction Training and has regular training in issues relating to children with SEN, they attend SENCO support meetings every term which they share with other members of staff, so we are kept up to date with the latest information.

We have a designated Behavioural Management Co-ordinator who has received training in positive approaches to Behaviour Management. All staff have also completed online training - Promoting Positive Behaviour and receive regular in-house training.

We have received introductory Makaton taster sessions and have developed a knowledge of Makaton signing. If a child has a particular need, then we would source appropriate training for staff as required.

We are able to adapt our activities to ensure that all children can access them in their own way. We are fortunate to have a large outdoor space that is relatively flat and easily accessible.

Before going on an outing, either locally or further afield, we carry out a risk assessment. Part of the risk assessment will involve checking access and suitability for all children, and families if they are going to attend too. We have a high adult: child ratio whilst on the premises and this is risk assessed if we go off-site to ensure adult: child ratios are appropriate for local trips and major outings.

Dungaroos rents space from Winchester City Council on the site of Winchester City Football Club (WCFC). The building is single story and doors are wide enough for wheelchair access, although there is a raised thresholds to the outside entrances that would require adaptations. There is an ‘easy access’ toilet. We have basic nappy changing facilities. Entrance to the site is via a side gate to which there is a slight incline, however there is an alternative entrance that is more level and can be used by arrangement. Within the constraints of the building, we would be open to adapting our environment to suit the needs of children and parents if required.

Before your child starts at Dungaroos, we encourage you to bring them into the setting for settling-in sessions. We offer ‘stay and play’ visits for all new children to come together the term before they start and encourage extra visits in addition to this.

You and your child will meet their Key Person at these visits and begin to establish relationships with them and other staff. We provide you with information about the setting to help you settle in and will talk to you about your child’s individual needs.

When your child is ready to move onto another setting or go to school, we will prepare a transition report detailing your child’s progress, their interests, and any special requirements we have in place. If your child has additional needs, we will arrange for a transition meeting the teacher and SENCO at the new setting so we can discuss anything they will need to know about your child. You will be included in these preparations for your child. We aim to send a member of staff, preferably the Key Person, on at least on of the child’s school visits so a familiar face is present. As a way to reduce anxiety about moving not school we introduce activities and books about staring ‘big school’. We have a range of school uniforms for role play and books about starting school.

We operate in one main room with a large open space. We have excellent resources for the ages and stages of development of the children we care for. If a child needed additional resources, then we would seek to meet these requirements to the best of our ability and source additional funding, if we are able to do so.

Key Persons, SENCO, parents, and outside agencies involved with your child will make the decision together about the amount of support your child will receive. Different children will require different levels of support and we will adapt what we do to meet those needs. We will gather observations of the activities we are doing and will review Individual Education Plans (IEP) at least every 6 weeks to assess whether progress is being made and adapt what we are doing accordingly. We will encourage you to be fully involved in reviewing the IEP and will value your input.

We may take away the additional support should you child’s progress reach a stage where the additional support is no longer needed.

One of the main ways that you can be involved in our setting is by sharing your child’s learning and development. Blossom allows you to contribute to your child’s developmental records by adding replies to observations we have made and by adding your own observations about what your child is doing at home.

We encourage parents to come in and help in the setting. It may be that you have a particular skill you would like to share with the rest of the children, or you can come in and read, cook, play games, sing with the children, or support children who share your language if it is not English. We welcome any offer of help.

We aim to organise an outing each year and ensure that is both local and affordable (preferably free), such as to an outdoor site that we can invite the whole family to join us.

We have social events for parents and children and invite parent to join us for Christmas songs, Sports days and Easter Egg hunts.

We have a formal parent evening each term and also ask parents/carers to complete a questionnaire each July to find out your views about the service we provide.

We use an age-appropriate method to ask children their views on nursery life.