Fairlands Day Nursery

At Fairland’s our SENCO plans and oversees the support that is required for your child to enjoy and develop at Nursery eventually transitioning into School. You, the parent/carer, the SENCO, the Key Person and possibly the BECo, will work together to produce Individual Educational Plans (IEP) aiming to provide staff with a target set specifically for your child to achieve over 6 months. All staff involved in your child’s care would be informed of this as they work as a team to encourage and teach your child to develop and meet the target set. These targets will usually be achieved with small group work, language groups and weekly 1:1 time with the Keyperson. These methods ensure that your child is included at all times. As we liaise with the external agencies involved in your child’s care, targets often reflect information which we receive from assessments conducted by SALT, EP’s, Portage, OT’s etc. This will ensure that we all work together to achieve the best outcome for your child. Regular meetings are held, involving you the parent/carer, to discuss the care currently provided and see if any changes need to be addressed. Then the next steps will be planned to provide the best support for your child. We pride ourselves on our openness when communicating with parents regarding their child. The SENCO’s discuss and report to management daily if necessary regarding progress or concerns of the children within our Nursery, to ensure that all needs are met and any concerns voiced.

Throughout our Nursery we use the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to plan and assess every child’s development and individual needs. For more information please see http://www.early-education.org.uk When we plan our daily activities we plan for each individual child, including their stage of development, support required and their interests. We aim to ensure that every activity is readily accessible for all children, it is also at this stage that we will plan the level of supervision for each activity to ensure that we have the correct support available. This includes risk assessments being carried out.

We aim to openly support all parents with their child’s needs and development and are always available for you to come and discuss anything regarding your child, we will offer support and practical advice where possible. Every child has an Adventure File which is located in their classroom. This file is a collection of art work, observations, Significant Moments and Photographs. Next steps are identified during the observations and progress summaries which can help our parents at home to support their child. We actively encourage our parents/carers to contribute to their child’s Adventure File and daily Communication books so that we are all working together to support their child’s development. Adventure Files can be viewed and discuss with any member of staff on a daily basis. If your child has an IEP which includes targets to support your child’s development, meetings will be arranged involving the Key Person, and any external agencies required to suit your times. With an open door policy in place we offer parents the opportunity to arrange a meeting to discuss their child’s development, special educational needs and any concerns at a time that best suits them. This is also a perfect time for parents/carers to view/discuss and ask questions regarding their child’s Adventure File.

Each member of staff within the setting has a duty of care to provide for all children. This includes nappy changing, feeding, cleanliness and ensuring that your child feels comfortable, happy and safe. As all members of staff are first aid trained they are all responsible and able to administer medicines. Our policy for administering medicine can be found on our website: http://www.fairlandsnurseryschool.co.uk/ All medical conditions are regularly reviewed and updated informing all members of the nursery staff of any changes immediately. In every department we have allergies, medical, dietary and special requirement boards displayed. Management ensure that all members of staff are kept up to date with relevant safeguarding training. Our BECo works with staff and parents to support them with children struggling with behavioural difficulties. Every child’s individual interests, views and culture is observed through their behaviours and actions during play and interaction with other children and staff. We use this information to plan activities and devise IEP’s to ensure that the child has their own say in their development.

Currently we have children receiving specialist care from many external agencies, however if we are not yet using the service that your child requires we will contact the correct external agency through our Area INCo to ensure they are receiving the relevant support required. At present we work closely with SALT, EP’s, Lanterns Outreach, Area INCo’s, our local Children’s Centre and the Early Year’s Advisory team.

We currently have four members of staff qualified in the role of SENCo, they have all completed the relevant SENCo induction training. We also have a designated BECo who has completed the Positive Approaches to Challenging Behaviour training. Along with 8 other members of staff who have completed an in-house training course tailored to the behavioural requirements of the setting. Both our managers of the nursery have attended and completed Thomas Training, this is a course designed to support parents and practitioners with children on the Autistic Spectrum. All members of staff attend regular Makaton training sessions; Makaton is signing which supports children with limited or no speech. As a team we have recently had a visit from our local SALT (Speech and Language Therapist) who gave us a brief training of encouraging early years speech and the different stages of development. As a setting our training is always ongoing and any training that is undertaken is automatically fed back to the rest of the team via our weekly team meetings.

>When planning activities and trips it is our aim to ensure that all children are included, it is a priority to consider all ages and developmental stages of the children. We ensure that the staff to child ratio is considered to provide a supportive level of care for any children with any additional needs. Risk assessments are carried out prior to any trip to ensure everyone’s safety including staff. In the unlikely event that we determine it is unsafe for a child to take part in a particular activity then we may ask for the parent/carer to come along for extra support to ensure that the child does not miss out of the opportunity.

Our Nursery consists of two buildings. Our baby department (9 months – 2 years) is on the first level in the main building – this consists of a sleep room, 2 play rooms, a toilet area with nappy changing facilities and a free flow outdoor area. This department is easily accessible through the top entrance. Our lower Nursery situated in the main building is occupied by our 2 – 3 years old. This department can be accessed through its own entrance door. It has two playrooms an outdoor classroom, two toilet areas including nappy changing facilities and a food preparation area. All of which are all on the same level. In our annex building Pre-school occupy one main playroom and a library room. They too have their own playground and toilet block. All areas of the setting are easily accessible with ramps and facilities have been adapted for children’s heights including toilets and sinks.

We work closely with all our feeder schools to ensure a smooth transition for the children to their primary school. We openly welcome the teachers to come and visit the children in the nursery to get to know their interests, talk with their key person and spend time playing with the child. With children that have special needs our SENCo would arrange either a transition or IPA meeting with the professionals involved in their current care, the parent/carers, key person and the new school. At this meeting current support strategies would be discussed and an action plan put in place to ensure continuity of support is provided at school. We also find that it is beneficial for the child to have a photographic book of their new school, showing pictures of: the playground, new classroom and teacher, where they hang their coats, eat lunch etc. During the final term at Pre-School we convert the role play area into a school classroom, this encourages the children to dress up in their new school uniform and engage in play. We arrange a display with photographs of their new school, their new teacher and photographs of the other children who will be attending the same school.

Within our setting we have three departments and one sensory room. Each department is set up with age/stage appropriate resources for their individual development. Should a child have special resource requirements, we would ensure that these are available in their department for them to access them freely. The sensory room is available for all children to enjoy on a daily basis. This is where different sensory activities and small group work is carried out.

Working alongside the parents/carer, the setting and external agencies involved in your child’s care will discuss what type of support would be appropriate for your child’s needs. Your child’s key person, the settings SENCo, BECo, Area INCo and any other external agencies will work together with you, to ensure that your child has the best support available. As there are different types and levels of support we would work together to ensure that your child has the best strategies in place to meet his or her specific requirements. We will regularly monitor the support put in place to make sure that it is helping your child to progress. This is done through observations, reviewing targets on IEP’s, and looking at their level of achievement on the development scale. With regular reviews of the monitoring processes a decision would be made as to whether additional support is required.

We encourage all parents/carers to be as involved in the setting as much as possible. We have an open door policy and encourage parents/carers to have regular stay and play sessions whenever they are able to. We find it very helpful when parents/carers contribute to their child’s adventure files and communication books as it helps us to work together to support your child. We also like to involve our parents with nursery activities such as “People that help us”. We invite all parents into the setting to talk about their jobs, show us their uniforms, tools and vehicles. We have regular events throughout the year where we invite parents/carers, family and friends to the nursery. Such as: Summer Fete, Christmas Fayre, Sports Day, Graduation Day etc. We provide all parents with feedback forms to ensure that we are meeting their needs as well as the children. This also helps us to review our practise continuously. We take pride in our current level of working in partnership with parents/carers and it is an area in the setting that we are continuously developing.