Bright Horizons Winchester Day Nursery and Preschool

At Bright Horizons Winchester we recognise parent partnership is vital to children's development. When a child starts at our setting we like to invite all parents/ families into the setting to complete an "all about me" this includes any information or concerns regarding their child's development and learning.  If any concerns are raised or SEND needs are highlighted we will create an Individual Education Plan (IEP). This will ensure the child's needs are met to consistently and the highest expectation. 

At Bright Horizons Winchester we complete regular observations and termly assessment on all children's development. This supports us in highlighting areas of need, or when a child is not meeting the expected milestone. We would then complete a referral with the family and ensure the child is receiving the correct support and interventions. 

We also work closely with the areas health visiting team sharing the child's 2 years checks with them and sharing information. This support muti-agency working, while ensuring the child and family has all relevant support services and interventions in place.

Your child will be assigned a Key Person who will be working closely with you and your child. The Key Person will be teamed with a buddy to support in the key person role. The Key Person will work closely with the Room Manager and Nursery Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator (SENCo) to observe, assess and record your child's development alongside the Early Years Foundation Stage and Bright Beginnings curriculum . Weekly observations of your child will be made of their learning and developmental progress. From these observations , experiences will be planned to support your child’s Individual Education Plan and to support their progress. Our SENCO will oversee all support and monitor the progress of any child who requires additional support.

The SENCO can also gain support from our regional Early Childhood Specialist and the Hampshire area INCO (Individual Needs Co-Ordinator) team. This is external support who we can ask for support and ideas and who will coordinate support from external agencies. 

Every child is unique and we take into consideration your child’s progress to plan and support your child at their own pace. We use the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Bright Beginnings Curriculum as a guide for your child’s development. Experiences are provided at an appropriate level so that all children are able to develop and access them according to their specific needs.

The nursery’s SENCO helps to plan in extra support and interventions where needed. They will be able to provide each child’s Key Person with support and activities for your child within an area of need.

Progress will be evidenced in your child’s learning journal and IEP's  or Individual Behavioural plans (IBP) will be written to support learning in the nursery and in the home. For each child, we celebrate what they can do, their wow moments of achievements and next steps achieved and enjoy sharing in their personal achievements at home and in the nursery. We use the children’s interests and next steps as a starting point alongside introducing new activities and experiences. Alongside regularly reviewing Targeted Plans and IBPs (Individual Behavioural Plans), on a termly basis we review a child’s progress using the Bright Beginnings Curriculum  to reflect on the progress each child has made. Additionally, We regularly review our environment to ensure that it is meeting the all the children’s needs and providing challenges to their learning.

Bright Horizons Winchester offers an open door policy and you are welcome any time to make an appointment to meet with the Key Person, Room Manager, Manager or SENCO to discuss how your child is getting on. We believe that your child’s education should be a partnership between you and us.

Regular daily conversations will provide opportunities for you to discuss progress. Our App (Famly) will provide you with regular daily update on your child's; sleep, food intake, toileting and observations. 

You can also find out information through baseline assessments when you child joins us, parent information evenings where you are invited in to gain knowledge about the curriculum and your child's learning and next steps. We hold two parents evenings a year for you to discuss how your child is progressing.

Two year check: if/when your child is aged two . we will complete an additional assessment to support early intervention and identification. We will pass this assessment on to you and your health visitor . This support muti-agency working, while ensuring the child and family has all relevant support services and interventions in place. 

If your child is on the SEND register they will have a Individual Education Plan (IEP) which will have individual targets.  The targets set are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time scaled). Your child may have or we will support an application for an EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan)  which means that a yearly formal meeting will take place to discuss your child’s progress and a report will be written.

If you child had additional services involved such as INCO, Portage, Speech and Language or Occupational Therapy the nursery , the child's family and the professionals aim to meet regularly to reflect and update on the child's development , current interventions and support.

We feel very strongly that if we had any concerns we would never wait for any of these reviews and support you with any concerns immediately

We are an inclusive Nursery and we welcome and celebrate diversity. We believe that high self-esteem is crucial to a child’s well-being. We have a caring and understanding team looking after our children. Our Ofstead report highlights our values of wellbeing "Children form strong attachments with staff, who know their interest and needs exceptionally well. As a result, children settle remarkably quickly. The well-being of children and staff are priority for the manager as she recognises the impact it has on children's development"

We follow our policies and procedures at all times and these are readily available for families to access, these policies include behaviour management, administering medication, safeguarding and child protection and first aid procedures. All staff, students and volunteers hold a current Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and are given an in-depth induction and  training programme (Bright Arrival) during their probation period. All practitioners attend a variety of training courses throughout the year and are required to share this information with their colleagues. Our practitioners hold a range of qualifications from NVQ Level’s 2 and 3, Level 5 Foundation Degrees and Level 6 Degrees including an Early Years Teacher. All of our staff are Paediatric First Aid trained and have undergone Safeguarding training. 

Within our nursery team we are proud of the expertise and knowledge of our practitioners. We are continually supporting our team in their professional development in order to improve the outcomes for your child. The Nursery SENCo (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) is a Level 3 in Special Educational Needs Coordinator. They additionally  attended courses such as SENCo induction training and attends termly SENCo network meetings and cluster meetings which contain important changes, legislation or new ideas and resources to support children with SEND (Special educational needs and disabilities). We have links with a variety of different specialist services including Area INCO’s, local children’s centers, Early Years Advisory Team, Speech and Language Therapists  and Portage. If we do not currently have links with a service your child needs to access we will ensure we develop those links to ensure they are receiving as much support as possible.

As part of our Nursery induction all team undertake training in Safeguarding, Manual Handling, Health and Safety , 0-2 year olds training and behaviour training.  Each member of our team are qualified in Paediatric First Aid and food hygiene.  Our team have regular reviews which includes identifying training needs and areas for development within our provision. Our Nursery SENCo has completed the L3 SENCo award  and attends regular support meetings and Cluster meetings to continually reflect on changes in practice. In the nursery we also have team who have or are working towards Early Years Professional Status, Early Childhood degree (L6) and Qualified Teacher Status.

We have our own outside area which we use on a daily basis for the children; all of our activities are adapted to ensure all of the children will be able to access them based on age, height or developmental stage. This area is shared across all of the age groups and we also have a rooftop baby garden for the youngest children. Our Nursery room and Pre-School have there own free flow garden to which the children are able to access all day and in all weathers. 

When going out of the nursery we plan and assess each trip individually. Risk assessments are carried out prior to any nursery trips to ensure no-ones health and safety will be compromised. Through assessing the destination, reviewing the ratios, preparing the equipment needed, planning the route and the mode of transport we ensure that we are meeting all the children’s needs. We lower the ratio on all trips (1:2 for under 2's , 1:3 for 2yr olds and 1:4 for over 3's). We also have specific trip equipment such as nursery buggies, high vis jackets for children to wear, walking rings, nursery phones (without cameras), nursery vans and trip bags with medications and First Aid equipment to ensure that we can meet the needs of the children to take part in the trip.

The nursery is in a converted public house and is situated on two floors with the Baby and Transition rooms upstairs. We have wide doorways and a large entrance area which leads to each of the Toddlers, Nursery  and Pre-School rooms. We have stairs to the Baby and Toddler room with child height handrails. There is disabled access to the building though the pre-school  room, which has wide opening doors and a small step from the road.  We communicate with parents whose 1st language is not English by celebrating appropriate festivals and cultures. We would like to develop parent meetings to support parents to meet other parents with similar languages and hope to encourage parents to start their own forums.

Smooth transitions are important, these occur when you are joining us, between age groups or moving on from us to join school. Each transition is recognised and supported. When a space is confirmed we plan settling in visits. It is important for your child to experience the environment and for you to share key information with the team in the room. We encourage you to provide us with key information regarding routines, likes and dislikes, care needs and medical conditions. We encourage families to come for at least 3 sessions and more if necessary.

Your child’s Key Person will work in conjunction with the Room Manager and Nursery Manager to assess development and discuss with you when a move is likely to be best. We plan trials/visits between rooms. If your child has specific care needs which need support we invite you to come in to share or demonstrate this with the new room team. If a child is transitioning to school we contact the school to make links, prepare the children through the activities and write a transition report. For children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) we work with the school to plan a transition which meets your child’s needs; we would also arrange either an IPA (Individual Partnership Agreement) or a Transition meeting to get all of the professionals working with you and your child together to ensure that support is put into place before they start school.

Within the setting we have four age groups; Babies, Toddlers, Nursery and Pre-School. Each room is set up with appropriate resources for this age and stage of development. If a child needs additional resources we ensure these resources are available in the room for them to access freely, this can be through sharing between rooms, applying for funding for specific resources. Equipment and facilities to support children and young people with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) will be secured through observations, record keeping and referrals to outside agencies who, if appropriate will put targets and funding in place. This helps and us to put together, IEP and set small achievable targets to help and support the child and the family. We ensure that all children’s individual needs are met to the best of our ability with the funds available.

All children will need different types and levels of support throughout their time with us. All children have trial sessions which can allow for previous support to be shared. If your child is joining us with a known special educational need or disability our welcome process for all children is an important time to share the level of support you child has been receiving and to share any previous involvement with external agencies so that we can plan the support from the start. All children have a Key Person and throughout your child’s time with us your child’s Key Person will observe and make a decision on whether your child will benefit from targeted specific additional support. The Key person will discuss this with parents, the nursery SENCo and Manager. We regularly monitor how well the support we have put into place is supporting your child and the progress they are making through regular observations, reviewing targets on IEP and looking at how they are achieving their developmental milestones. We have regular meetings with parents to discuss their progress. We may reduce additional support if we feel that they have made significant progress and are no longer in need of the support. We have daily opportunities for parents to speak to your child’s key person to discuss progress made. There is also the opportunity to have a termly parent consultation to provide an opportunity for you or your child’s key person to discuss support in more depth.

We encourage parents to be as involved in the nursery setting as they can be. Primarily we encourage all families to keep us updated on a daily basis when dropping off and collecting your child through talking to your child’s Key Person and/or Room Manager about changes in daily routines and next steps which have been developing. There are lots of ways you can be involved further such as contributing to your child’s learning journal and celebrating milestones with your child’s Key Person. You can arrange to come in to help with specific activities including people who help us week, celebrating festivals and attending coffee mornings. We invite all of our parents/carers to be involved in their child’s learning through regular daily discussions about what the children are interested in and achieving as well as asking you to contribute regularly through termly newsletters. We hold lots of special occasions and evenings that parents are encouraged to attend such as Mother’s and Father day events, cream teas, sports days, Christmas Nativity’s and we will hold regular parents information evenings . We formally survey all parents every 6 months to find out their views on all aspects of the nursery. We are always striving to work in partnership with our parents and it is something we are continually trying to develop and encourage.