Little Badgers Preschool

Children are identified as having SEN (Special educational Needs ) through a variety of ways: • Key Worker reports child is not making expected levels of progress. • 2 year old progress checks and integrated checks with other professionals • Information or concerns supplied by parents. • Information received from records supplied from previous nursery/preschool or other external agencies. • Health diagnosis • Concerns about child’s behaviour.

Our setting provides each child with a key person and deputy key person who will build up a special relationship with the child and parents/family. The key person liaises with parents regularly exchanging views about child’s progress. The SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) in our setting will oversee all support and progress requiring additional support. The SENCO liaise with outside agencies e.g. Speech and language therapist, Educational psychologist, Health visitor, Specialist doctor/nurse etc. SENCO and/or key person will attend meetings to support child/parents

The curriculum is planned at an appropriate level to support all children according to their individual needs. We endeavour to overcome barriers to inclusions by recognising and responding to each child’s individual learning style: Key person will observe and plan for individual learning styles. Progress and achievements placed in their learning journal and reviewed with parents to update and aid further planning. Sometimes children might be placed in small groups or work individually to allow for differentiation. e.g. An adult might work with two or three children encouraging communication skills or teaching sharing and turn taking skills.

We offer an open door policy, meaning you are welcome to come in and discuss progress or concerns with your child’s key person or SENCO. We can offer advice and practical ways to support your child at home. We aim to build good communication links in partnership with parents/carer’s and regularly meet to talk about any progress, issues, concerns or other support which may be needed. An information book with photographs of the setting and it’s staff which parents take home allow children to become familiar with the setting before your child starts. An individual plan (IEP) will be set up with expectation targets and monitored and reviewed regularly.

We are inclusive supporting children’s physical, cultural, social, intellectual and emotional needs. Key personnel and SENCO would have overall responsibility for your child’s pastoral, medical and social care and would be the first point of contact. The SENCO liaise with other agencies for further help and support if needed, for example help from services provided by Action for children also known as Children’s Centres The pre-school has a policy regarding the administration of medication and where regular medication is required individual health plans are made. We have regular training so that all trained personal are able to manage medical situations. The pre-school works with children to promote positive behaviour. We liaise with ‘Robin’s Oak’ a primary behaviour support team if we need addition help with behaviour issues. The pre-school has a physical handling policy to protect children and the staff Unwanted behaviour is recorded and the adult reflects on the cause of the incident and what strategies might be put in place to stop reoccurrence. We pride ourselves on not excluding children but seek to overcome barriers. We try to keep our pre-school fees affordable to allow children to attend from all social backgrounds. Children share their learning journals in the setting with their key person The environment is linked to children’s choices of activities and resources. We encourage children to talk about their fears, feelings and raise self-esteem to ask for help from an adult.

Our SENCO is qualified and has years of experiences in supporting children with complex needs. E.g. Autism, Asperger’s, epilepsy, haemophiliac, global world syndrome, visual hearing, and behaviour difficulties. The pre-school works closely with many external agencies relevant in supporting children’s needs including:- Behaviour support team, Health visitors, Children’s Centres, GP’s, Specialist nurses, child psychologist, speech and language therapist, Language interpreter, occupational therapist, social services, Locality team, social services, Educational Psychologist, teachers, other pre-schools and child minder’s.

All our staff are first aid trained and some are trained in the administration of an epipen.

Staff have a wide range of skills in identifying children who may need extra support.

All staff accessed inline training in delivering positive behaviour.

Two members of staff share the SENCO role and have qualifications in SEND including Understanding Autism. 

Some of our team have had training in Maketon and one member of staff speaks four different languages.

We include all children in the curriculum including any events and trips, we will provide additional support to enable this to happen. Parents will be asked if they would like to come and help and support their child. A risk assessment is always carried out prior to any off site activity to enable it to happen rather than prevent it.

The pre-school setting has wheelchair access with a  toilet large enough to accommodate changing. We also have access to the school toilets when needed. Double doors allow easy access to our classroom. With a little thinking outside the box we are able to overcome most barriers. Bi-lingual staff are employed at the setting. We use a range of multi sensual activities and experiences, visual time tables, sand timers etc. We liaise with EMAS (Ethnic minority Achievement Service) who are able to assist us in supporting families with English as an additional language.

We encourage all new children to visit the setting with parents and we are very happy for parents to stay for as long as it takes to help their child’s transition. Children are able to attend the preschool even if they do not intend to go to the Holme school. However if they do go to the school it makes for a very smooth transistion. We have produced a book about the setting with photographs showing different areas which the parent can take home and share prior to the child starting the setting. When the child is ready for starting primary school we will help with transition by meeting with the teacher of your chosen school, discussing settling in arrangements and sharing essential information.

Inclusion funding can be applied for in order to support your child in our setting if required. Two year old funding is sometimes available if your child meets the criteria. An allocated proportion of our budget allows for additional resources to be provided if needed.

Decisions about how much support your child will need will depend on observations and assessments from your child’s key person and discussed with parents, SENCO and manager. These observations are linked to the [https://www.gov.uk/early-years-foundation-stage EYFS] and will help to identify what support is needed and included in your child’s IEP (Individual Learning Plan). Other outside agencies and their reports will be included in the decision making process and will determine the amount of support needed. All our staff attend staff meetings and we update and review what new strategies or targets have been put in place.

We encourage parents to take an active part in our setting but if they are unable to do this by coming in, there are lots of ways they can be involved behind the scenes. We acknowledge the parent as the child’s number one carer and understand you know more about your child than we do therefore you will always be included in working with us to identify your child’s needs