Local Offer for Children with Special Educational Needs and/ or Disabilities
At Little Adventurers we take very seriously our responsibility to all children’s learning and development. Our emergent and flexible curriculum offers support to each child as they move through the nursery, supported by caring and responsive practitioners.
We recognise our responsibility to work with children at differing ages and stages of development and to offer each child experiences and activities that will be tailored to meet their specific needs, always seeking to offer a stimulating environment both indoors, in our garden area and in the local area around the nursery.
On entry each child is allocated a key person and a buddy, whose responsibility is to get to know each child, to plan activities that will support strong learning and development and to document evidence of learning to ensure each child makes progress in learning. Parents are offered time and space to get to know the key staff and raise any concerns about development.
Regular assessments to ensure progress is maintained are undertaken and these may bring to light concerns about an aspect of development.
What do we do when concerns have been identified?
Key staff will meet regularly with parents and offer feedback about progress in all areas of learning. Where concerns are raised by key staff or parents this will be discussed and a plan put in place to offer extra support for the child in the key areas, thus ensuring a cohesive approach between parents and nursery. Individual plans for children are reviewed regularly with parents to ensure a cohesive approach is maintained as well as amendments and updates made as children progress and develop.
Key staff will be supported in their role by the nursery Special Needs Coordinator (SENCo), accredited by Havering council, to ensure that extra support offered is pertinent and consistent.
Regular reviews of policy and practice are undertaken by the senior management team working with key staff to ensure that our learning environment and curriculum is responsive to and respectful of each child’s needs and interests and adaptations made wherever possible. All resources, activities and learning experiences are differentiated for each child so that all have equal access.
What extra support will be offered?
The SENCo will liaise with outside professionals such as health visitor or speech and language therapist, with parental permission, where necessary in order that maximum support is offered. Key staff and parents, in conjunction with the setting SENCo will assess the impact of extra support offered and update plans regularly.
At all times parents will be at the heart of our provision for children as we recognise that they are the experts on their child and their invaluable knowledge and input will be sought throughout their child’s time with us.
Transitions
At Little Adventurers we recognise that transitions are pivotal in encouraging children to feel safe and settled and will work hard with parents to ensure that the settling period is sufficiently long and responsive to both parents and child. As children move through the nursery they will be offered settling visits with their current key person and parents will be offered meetings with the new key person during this initial time. When the time for transition to school approaches, the school teacher will be invited into the nursery to meet the children and key staff will prepare children for this next transition.
For further information please speak to the nursery manager.