Little Bear's 2 Nursery

Education Offer

Overview

We aim to provide a high quality service, where all children feel valued and their individual needs met. Staff work with parents to provide activities which meet the children’s next steps and interests.

The emotional well-being of the children is as high on our agenda as safety aspects and our aim is produce a home style environment to encourage the children to explore and learn but also to develop a positive image about themselves.

Little Bear’s 2 is a purpose built 96 place nursery setting with Little Bear's Club offering 70 out of school care places with a large garden.

The nursery is divided into 4 base rooms and has a large garden. The garden can be accessed via the preschool, hallway or playgroup and has a single step and has artificial grass safety surface. The Preschool, baby room, playgroup and a disabled toilet are on the ground floor.  There are 2 base room upstairs for the under two’s. The rooms are air conditioned and are fully equipped to meet the needs of the EYFS. Furniture is arranged to accommodate the needs of the children and staff plan floor level activities. Passageways are kept clear at all times to ensure unencumbered access. The under two and preschool rooms have direct access to child appropriate toilets and wash basins. The baby room has both a milk kitchen and baby change area.

Identifying children's needs

We understand the importance of identifying specific needs early and in making appropriate action to support the child’s progress. Little Bear’s tracks each child’s progress and hold regular meetings with parents to discuss their child’s progress and permission sought for us to seek help externally if appropriate. Our SENCO would observe the child and ascertain what kind of support would be required. Dependent upon the need and obtaining parents’ consent our SENCO would contact the Area SENCO for support. All assessment is play based and would follow the EYFS milestones.

These agencies are: Local Authority Inclusion /SEN Advisor or Sen Co-ordinator: SEN Early Years Panel (SEYP): Educational Psychologist: Speech and Language: Occupational Therapist: CAF Team and others. Please refer to the Redbridge Find website for further information regarding these services)

These agencies will be contacted to provide additional support. Some children will be allocated SEN Inclusion Funding and require 1:1 support. The aim being to develop the child’s independence and to ultimately withdraw the support once appropriate.

When a child is identified as having additional need, whether educational or medical, relevant information is sought from the parents and kept in the child’s confidential folder. Confidential reports and records of progress and reviews are securely stored. We follow the guidelines for data protection and Confidentiality.

Records are passed onto other settings or schools only with the parents/carers written permission

 

Dedicated contacts

The SENCO has responsibility to

• Liaise with parents/carers
• Liaise with outside professionals in regards to the children’s individual needs
• Advise and support other practitioners in the setting
• Ensure that appropriate learning and outcomes plans are in place
• Ensure background information is collected, recorded and updated

SENCO Officers: Kaushaliya (Kay) Bhudia and Maryam Shahzada

Involving children and their families

• Parenting advice
• Regular contact between parents/carers and the setting
• Planning and review meetings
• Advice on how to support learning at home

Range of support available

• Partnership working with other professionals
• EYFS Curriculum planning differentiation
• Support for behaviour

Measuring children's progress

Little Bear’s works with external agencies and will work to deliver a specific programme to support specific children. As part of our normal practice each child’s progress is regularly monitored and tracked to ensure progression. We liaise regularly with parents and would arrange meetings to update both parents and agencies alike. The frequency of these meetings would depend upon each child’s needs and progress.

In principle we create an IOP (Individual Outcomes Plan), which identifies agreed outcomes for children with SEN using a targeted small step approach.

The IOP is reviewed termly with parents/carers and outside agencies as appropriate.

All activities are differentiated to meet the needs of the children and to allow full access to the curriculum.

A progress report is given to the parents at the end of each term detailing the child’s progress across the EYFS. Little Bears’ undertakes the Two-year-old checks which focuses on the prime areas of the EYFS only, Personal, social and emotional development, communication and language and physical development.

These details are recorded in the child’s individual learning journal.

Support and training for school staff

As we are a small setting our nominated SENCO is suitably qualified and attends all Redbridge SENCO Forum meetings.  Both the SENCo and the staff team attended Autism awareness training run privately via the Sycamore Trust.

Accessibility of the school

Little Bear’s is in a converted private hospital and has 2 floors, the second floor accessible via a staircase. Each base room has exclusive access to children’s bathrooms. There is a disabled toilet on the ground floor.

The garden is accessed by a small step onto an artificial safety grass surface.

All resources are kept at a height accessible for the children. All resource boxes are labelled with both photos if not transparent and text labels.

Inclusion

BSL Sign Language and Makaton are used within the setting.

All activities are differentiated to meet individual childrens needs.

All activities are risk accessed and equipment chosen on the basis of suitability. Staff attend regular training to help improve their activity ideas.

Transition arrangements

Transition is managed internally through our settling in programme.  Schools are invited to meet their new children in our setting. We use story and role play to further acclimatise the children to the transition to school.

We encourage parents to come and visit with their children, so children gain a sense of the environment, staff and children and are more comfortable when they start with us.

Support and training for parents and carers

• Parent consultation
• Parent workshops
• SENCo

Further information

Please contact us using the details provided.