Mallards Wood Daycare

Education Offer

Overview

Mallards Wood is committed to the inclusion of all children. All children have the right to be cared for and educated to develop to their full potential alongside each other, through positive experiences, to enable them to share opportunities and experiences and develop and learn from each other. We provide a positive and welcoming environment where children are supported according to their individual needs.

The nursery believes that all children have a right to experience and develop alongside their peers no matter what their individual needs. Each child’s needs are unique, therefore any attempt to categorise children is inappropriate.

The nursery is committed to working alongside parents in the provision for their child’s individual needs, to enable us to help the child to develop to their full potential. The nursery is committed to working with any child who has a specific need and/or disability to enable every child to make full use of the nursery’s facilities. All children have a right to a broad and well-balanced early learning environment.

Mallards Wood is a two story houses with a conservatory extension and a pre-school extension at the end of the garden. The babies are situated upstairs across two rooms in a multipurpose area and the two year olds have the whole bottom floor including the conservatory extension with free flow access to the outdoor area. The pre-school children are in the extension at the back with access to the same outdoor area. Both buildings have access to disabled toilets and all rooms have separate nappy changing areas.

The furniture in the nursery is adjustable and activities are carried out on the tables and floor. It is arranged to accommodate children with mobility difficulties.

The outside area has safety flooring and artificial grass. The outdoor area is assessable at all times in the day and there are no steps leading to the garden.

We have access to the sensory room at the local children’s centre.

Passageways are kept clear at all times to follow health and safety regulations and facilitate children’s mobility. Play areas have carpets and curtains to reduce noise levels. Steps are clearly marked with white and yellow strips and all doorways around the nursery are marked with yellow and black strips for visibility.

Identifying children's needs

We believe in early identification of difficulties and in appropriate intervention to support children’s progress, learning and development. Parents and carers are involved and kept informed at all times. Children who are experiencing difficulty with their learning are identified through discussion with parents and carers, observations, routine health screening and discussion with colleagues.

All assessment is play based and follows the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Curriculum milestones.

Outside agencies may be involved when children do not progress at the expected rate despite additional individual planning to support the area of need. This is done with written consent from parents and carers.

These agencies are: Local Authority Inclusion/SEN Advisor or SEN Coordinator; SEN Early Years Panel (additional information on the remit of the group can be found on the Redbridge Local Offer website); Educational Psychologist; Speech and Language Therapist; Occupational Therapist; Physiotherapist; CAF Team and others.

These agencies will be contacted to provide suitable strategies to support children who have additional needs in a particular area of development. The agencies may also be involved in the child’s transition to other settings and to school.

Some children are provided 1:1 support through SEN/Inclusion funding which is used to assist with their development. One member of staff is allocated to support the child during the daily activities. The aim of the support is to help the child to develop the relevant independence skills and may be withdrawn once the child reaches the expected progress.

When a child has a recognised condition or ongoing medical needs, relevant information is sought from parents and carers on admission and kept in the child’s confidential folder. Confidential reports and records of progress and reviews are securely stored. The setting follows the relevant guidelines for data protection and confidentiality.

Records are passed on to another setting/school with parents and carers’ permission.

Dedicated contacts

The setting’s Managers Lauren Poole & Gabby Wright are the overall ‘responsible people’ for SEN in the setting.  They are responsible for ensuring that legislation is met. The Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) has the responsibility for the day-to-day management of the SEN procedures. Her name is Lauren Poole

The SENCO has the responsibility to: 

• liaise with parents/carers
• liaise with outside professionals in regards to children’s individual needs
• advise and support other practitioners in the setting
• ensure that appropriate learning and outcomes plans are in place
• ensure that background information is collected, recorded and updated
• take the lead in monitoring and reviewing any action taken to support the child
• ensure that appropriate records are kept for all children with SEND who require outside agencies support

All children are assigned to a Key person, who is also responsible for liaising with the key children’s parents and carers, observing, planning and assessing children’s progress.

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
• Support for communication needs
• Additional support strategies
• EYFS Curriculum planning differentiation
• Support for health needs
• Specific teaching interventions
• Support for behaviour 

Measuring children's progress

Planning for children with SEN is done using an Individual Outcomes Plan (IOP). The IOP identifies agreed outcomes for individual children and targeted small steps. The IOP is reviewed termly with parents and carers and outside professionals when relevant.

All activities are differentiated to meet children’s needs and activities are set to help the child meet their outcomes

A progress report is given to parents at the end of every term with details of the child’s progress across the EYFS. An additional assessment, the Two Year Progress Check, is also compiled when the child is two years. This assessment covers the child’s attainment and progress in the Prime Areas of the EYFS (e.g. Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Communication and Language; Physical Development).

The Steps to Outcomes tracker for children with SEN is also used to monitor progress. This is based on the EYFS Prime Areas of learning and Development and their online learning journeys.

Support and training for school staff

Staff have had training in delivering activities to children with SEN and how to support their development.

Accessibility of the school

Drawers are at the children’s level with pictures and labels displayed to ensure children know where to find toys.

All activities are at children’s levels, either on carpets or height adjustable tables.

Toilets are assessable with sinks and tissue dispensers at children’s reach

The outdoor area is assessable for all children and adults, without steps.

Changing areas are discretely located within each room.

The garden area is fully accessible to wheelchair users and to people with gross motor skills difficulties.

Inclusion

All activities are planned according to children’s abilities and levels of development

One-to-one support is given to children who require it

 A risk assessment is completed daily and for outings to ensure health and safety is maintained at all times.

One-to-one support is provided for those children who may require intensive support to access learning activities.

All activities are differentiated according to children’s level of development.

Visual time table, Now and Next board and Fobs are displayed and used to ensure that all children are included.

Transition arrangements

Children are transitioned into rooms with their key person; who will spend time with them and ensure they are settled in.

When children are starting school we ensure transition meetings are carried out and the children’s new school is aware of any SEN the child has.

 We encourage parents and the key person to visit the school if possible and the child to be given special books with pictures to show the child what their new school is like.

The setting will pass all relevant transition records on to the next setting/school (with parents and carers’ permission).

Support and training for parents and carers

What support and training is available from your setting to parents and carers? Place an ‘x’ as relevant and add supplementary information in the notes box           

We value parent and carers’ expertise and deep knowledge of their own children. Parents and carers’ comments are included in assessments and reviews.

The setting has an ‘open door’ policy, offering informal chats as necessary and formal meetings are bookable too. Information is shared with parents and carers through the use of communication books, parent’s evenings, breakfast mornings and emails and memos.  

We involve parents and carers in provision through planning, implementation of strategies and identifying learning and development outcomes for their own children.

We work in conjunction with other agencies and refer parents to out local children’s centre who provide parenting support programmes such as Parent Gym and Healthy Eating.

We organise parent’s workshops at the end of each term on matters relating to child development, play and learning.

We work in conjunction with other agencies to provide parenting support programmes such as Parent Gym and Healthy Eating.

• Parent consultation
• Links with children centres
• Parent workshops
• SENCo
• Coffee mornings with parents
• Home visits

We use other forms of communication too, such as visual timetables, key fobs with symbols and visual aids to assist those children with speech and language and social communication development delays.