Olive Tree Montessori - Pre-school

Schools extended Local Offer response

Teaching and learning

• At the Olive Tree Montessori, you will be invited into the nursery with your child for an information sharing session prior to your child’s start date. During this session you will be able to discuss your child’s individual needs with the SENCO and how as a nursery we can support your child if needed.
• In this session we will try to gain a wider picture of your child’s need and will record if other professionals or agencies are involved in order to support your child’s learning and development in the nursery.
• Your child will be allocated a key person who will be responsible for planning for your child’s individual needs and ensures they focus on what the child is achieving. If your child is not meeting the age and stage of development, the key person will plan your child’s next steps for development within the most appropriate age group.
• If the key person observes that your child needs more support in a particular area, they may plan small targets in order to further support your child. This is an Individual Educational Plan (I.E.P). If the key person observes your child showing an interest in a certain resource or activity, the Key Person will incorporate the chosen activity with the child’s next steps to enable them to engage in their learning and ensure it is of interest to them.
• The Olive Tree Montessori works alongside the ‘I TALK’ programme which monitors a child’s speech, language and communication skills. This form of monitoring supports early intervention with regards to communication, speech and social development. It can also be implemented within a child’s next steps for development and parents/carers are involved throughout the process. The setting also operates on an ‘open door policy’. This ensures parents/carers are aware that they can share any concerns or opinions at any point throughout the day by either telephone, email or in person. In addition to this, the setting offers open evenings for parents to view their child’s development records, parent evenings and appointments with your child’s Key Person can be made on request, meeting the needs of your personal work commitments.
• At the end of each day, practitioners will share feedback with parents/carers and any concerns would be raised on a daily basis.

Identifying and assessing Special Educational Needs

• If a Key Person has a concern regarding your child, they will communicate their concerns with the SENCO. Following this a meeting will be arranged with you as the  parent/carers in order for you to gain a more in-depth understanding of the concern if this is needed and discuss the relevant next steps.
• The SENCO would share information with you as the parent/carers and sign post you to relevant professionals or agencies if needed. This may involve the management team asking for parents’ consent.

Involving parents and children/young people in planning and reviewing progress

By engaging children in learning opportunities, the practitioners will implement opportunities incorporate each child's individual interests. Every 6 weeks each child's key person will complete each of their key children's' achievements and what the child will be working towards over the next 6 weeks, the child's parents will also be involved in this process. These are through observations and next steps and will be shared on Famly.

On collection, the Key Person’s share what the child participated in and what the child’s interests were for that day with parent/carers.

Additionally, the nursery encourages parents/carers to update Famly and share their home learning into the child’s learning journal. The process involves parents taking observations of their children at home which may further extend their learning that has taken place at the nursery of showcase something new within the home environment. This involves parents within their child’s learning and allows the child to feel valued and confident by sharing home experiences with the nursery with their peers and Key Person’s. 

As part of our planning for our children we record the child's current interests, this is reviewed regularly in line with change of interest.

The setting works in close partnership with multi-professionals. The setting has a strong and consistent partnership with speech and language therapists, educational psychologists, community paediatricians and the local borough’s Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO). The setting also works in regular partnership with our local children’s centre – Penn Road, who offer additional support to children and their families.

The nursery offers parents evenings, dental information events, paediatric first aid courses and are involved in a wide range of local community events. 

Additional support

Each Key Person is eager to develop their knowledge and expertise to ensure every child has the opportunity to reach their full potential at the Olive Tree Montessori. This includes additional training and care, above and beyond duty, to meet the needs of each child. In addition, specialised equipment and additional resources are supported within the setting to meet the needs of the child.

The setting is accessible to all children and families. The entrance and building is accessed on flat ground with a large door entrance. There is a small ramp from the nursery to the outside environment, which is also accessible to meet the needs of all children.

Extra activities

At the Olive Tree Montessori, we take the children out to Manor Park Play Field (next door to the nursery), to the local parade of shops which involves a post office, grocery shop and a pharmacy on a regular basis. We also take children out on day trips such as Iver Nature Centre, Odds Farm and Copas Farm.

The nursery works in partnership with outside agencies to allow the children to participate in a variety of experiences within the setting such as Zoo Lab and local figures within the community. These experiences often tie in with different topics or the nursery theme such as ‘people who help us’ or ‘animals’.

The children participate in an allotment project where once a week they walk to our local allotment and grow vegetables all year round. The children participate in a movement class on a weekly basis.

 

Meeting social and emotional needs of children/young people

To support the child’s needs, the nursery may offer additional sessions or less hours to enable the child to become more familiar and confident around peers. 

Each of the Key Person’s would ensure that the child is always involved. The nursery may contact additional services with the consent of parents/carers to enable the setting to further support the child’s needs through other services. This may include speech and language therapists and play therapists.

The nursery works closely with a variety of professionals to support children's identified needs for e.g. physiotherapists, occupational therapists, paediatricians, health visitors, sensory consortium and SEBDOS which supports the nursery with behaviour management plans

Keeping up to date with knowledge and skills

Each Key Person completes regular training and participates in the completion of a level 2 course in autism. This ensures that the knowledge of the team remains at a high standard.

The nursery has a list of mandatory training each year which includes, safeguarding, paediatric first aid training. The team also attend in house funded training to support particular areas of interest to the setting or those that meet the needs of children and their families.

Transitions

During the time of transition to school, the SENCO would liaise with the child’s parents/carers, as well as the next setting prior to the transition in order to support the child’s next steps. This allows information to be shared and any additional questions that arise can be answered, either from parents, Key Person’s or teachers.

In addition, the SENCO will gain consent from the parent/carer to complete a transition report for each child and share it with the setting the child is moving to. The report includes areas of achievement, likes, dislikes, family set up, languages spoken, individual needs and additional comments.

 

Helpful contacts

• Nursery contact number: 01753 574 591
• Nursery out of hours: 07746 074073
• Nursery Manager: Maryam Ali
• Email: manager@olivetreemontessori.com
• Nursery SENCO: Aqsa Muzaffar
• Slough Family Information Service: 01753 476589, fis@slough.gov.uk.