What We Offer
“How we meet the needs of children with SEND (Special Educational Needs / Disability)”
We have supported many children with special educational needs over the years. Some have had more complex needs than others. We liaise with outside professional’s for example, inclusion teacher, education authority, HLTA (Higher Learning teaching assistants), child psychologists, speech / language therapists, portage workers and health visitors.
Some of the children have moved onto specialists schools such as Red Marsh or integrated into mainstream schools. We have seen all children with SEND progress and develop when supported by parents / carers and with professional help.
“The Building”
The setting is housed in a large purpose built single storey building, which has access for people / children with disabilities.
We have two rooms (Beehive and Honeypot) The pre-school children occupy the Beehive room while the two-year-olds are in our Honeypot room. Both rooms have their own dedicated outdoor play area.
There is natural light in the foyer / cloakroom. The walls are cream and paintwork is white although displays are colourful and vibrant. Both rooms have non slip flooring throughout, although there is carpet in the registration / story room in the Beehive room. The reading areas in both rooms have mats and pillows / cushions to create comfy areas. The setting has accessible parking spaces available for arrival and departure of children to ensure their safety.
"Resources"
All resources are carefully selected including natural resources to meet specific needs of individual children. Toys are stored in child height units, this helps to create independence. There are pictures and labels to identify the contents of the boxes. Resources are age appropriate and younger children have access to sensory / exploratory baskets. All resources are maintained to a high standard, cleaned and disinfected on a weekly basis. Any resources that do not meet our high standards are immediately discarded.
"Outdoor Environment"
The outdoor environment consists of 100% artificial grass (Everlawn). There is a large metal storage shed with lots of stimulating resources ranging from bikes, cars, tunnels, footballs, hoops and bats.
We also use areas of continuous provision such
as sand, water, paints, dough, construction and
small world play according to child initiated play
and interests. Outdoor play is accessed on a daily basis in all weather's to stimulate children's natural curiosity about the world around them. We have puddle suits available for wet play conditions.
"Identification and Early Intervention"
Children’s progress is closely monitored in our setting. Each child has their own “Learning Journal” and observation, comments, photos and “home links” are added. Progress is monitored using the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) Development Matters. We hold parents / carers evenings each term to discuss progress and next steps.
We also use progress checks for two – three-year-olds. We discuss these with parents identifying any strengths and any area of concern. Next steps for children may involve a specific area of development identified and additional help and support will be given, e.g. speech and language delay. The key person would identify this as a wave 2 (catch up) within our settings provision mapping. Provision mapping identifies ways in which we support / provide for all the children, this is classed as wave 1. For children who require a little bit of extra input this is wave 2, and children who require more specialised intervention would be on a wave 3. We would access outside professionals E.G. educational psychologist, inclusion teacher, speech and language therapist.
If a referral to speech and language was identified this would require parental consent. Another step may be to ask the local authority inclusion teacher to visit the child in the setting for advice and guidance. This is called an RFI (Request for Involvement) again with parental consent. Our SEN policy provides the context for supporting children through these “next steps”, this is referred to as the graduated response. Our SEN policy is available in the setting or downloadable by clicking the link below.
