Britwell Baptist Pre-school

Schools extended Local Offer response

Special Educational Needs policy

At Britwell Baptist Preschool we welcome children with special educational needs as part of our community.

We recognise the:

• need to consider the individual needs of children when planning our curriculum and we aim to provide a curriculum, which is accessible to the individual needs of all our children
• importance of early identification and assessment of children with special educational needs. We will develop practices and procedures, which will aim to ensure that all children’s special educational needs, are identified and assessed and the curriculum will be planned to meet their needs
• vital role of parents/carers in the identification, assessment and response to their children’s special educational needs. We will work in partnership with parents/carers, valuing their views and contributions and keeping them fully involved in their child’s education.

We:

• believe in the involvement of the child and the importance of taking their views into account
• will make every effort to involve the child in decision-making about their special educational provision
• are committed to effective collaboration between all agencies working with a child and a multi-disciplinary approach to meeting children’s special educational needs
• will actively support and maintain close links with all agencies working with the child.

 

Teaching and learning

All children are observed on their learning and development. These assessments will identify if your child needs additional support.

Your child will be monitored and supported by our practitioners and your child's key person and any relevant outside agencies if required with parental consent.

Each child is allocated a key person when starting preschool discussions with you and your child will take place with their key person and manager to decide best way forward.

We cater for the local diverse community and children with special educational needs such as, speech and language difficulties, English as an Additional Language (EAL).

We welcome and support families with communication barriers and are actively involved with the speech and language ''I Talk'' programme.

Identifying and assessing Special Educational Needs

We follow the graduated approach to children with special educational needs as recommended in the SEN Code of Practice (2014) - assess, plan, do and review.

Observations are made by your childs key person to make a decision whether your child will benefit from additional support.

 

Practitioners work in partnership with parents at all times and will always discuss their child’s progress with them and keep them fully informed about how the setting is seeking to meet their child’s needs. 

The key worker and SENCO will identify a child with SEN and will devise interventions that are additional to or different from those provided as part of our usual curriculum and strategies. Strategies to enable the child to progress will be recorded within an Individual Education Plan (IEP/EHCP).

In consultation with parents/carers, the SENCo will take the lead in gathering information about the child from other professionals who may already be involved with the child such as Health Visitor, Social Worker, Speech and Language Therapists etc.  

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

Parents and the key person work together on their child's learning and development.

Parents evenings are held termly, where parents can discuss in more detail about their child’s progress and what new strategies can be used at home and in the setting.

Planning for the child's next steps and individual needs are also discussed. Both parties review their child’s progress throughout the term and discuss through face to face contact or e-mails/text.

With parental permission, the SENCo may arrange a ‘team around the child’ meeting to discuss the child’s needs with our setting’s Area SENCo.

Additional support

The key worker and SENCo will be supported by external support services or outside specialists such as:

• Pre-school Education Team Teachers
• Educational Psychologist
• Speech and Language Therapists
• Physiotherapists.

Advice by outside specialists will be sought in order to devise a new IEP with more specialist strategies and targets.

A request for help from external services is likely to follow a decision taken by the SENCo in consultation with parents at a meeting to review the child’s IEP.

Extra activities

We have people from the local community visit us during the year such as Community Police.

Children are encouraged to participate in our culture days, picnic with parents, sports day, nativity and leavers service.

During the living eggs experience during summer months children watch either chicken or duck eggs being hatched. 

Visual cards and routines are used to prepare your child and explain what is going to happen on the outing, allowing them to feel comfortable at all times when out of the preschool. 

Meeting social and emotional needs of children/young people

Children with behavioural difficulties are supported by all staff as well as the childs key person by being consistent in our behaviour strategies and following our Behaviour Management policy. The manager is the Behaviour Management Co-ordinator and ensures each child has IEP/EHCP in place to support their need.

Medicines can be administered with parents consent. Policies are in place to support Behaviour, Special Educational Needs, Disabilities and Inclusion. The child, their family, Area Senco, Family Support worker and other agencies if needed work together to ensure the child receives the correct amount of support.

The Preschool has a quiet area to encourage calm down time and visual cards to support children's choice and voice. Emotions and feelings posters are situated around preschool and are discussed in small language groups an during snack times to encourage positive language and social skills and to build self-confidence. 

Keeping up to date with knowledge and skills

Manager is level 6 qualified B.A.Honors Child Development, Deputy SEND and - level 3, designated safeguarding officer level 2 ans 1 level 2 practitioner

We are committed to providing and facilitating attendance at in-service training SEN.  An annual needs analysis will be undertaken to identify the training needs of the setting staff team and of individual staff.

Senior staff have up to date level 2/3 Safeguarding and all other staff have universal Safeguarding training, including prevent and FGM. All practitioners are Paediatric First Aid trained. 

Currently most training is sourced by manager and is attended by practitioners via remote learning from either Early Years team or Preschool Learning Alliance and other outside agencies.  

Transitions

We believe that transition is a crucial time for all children – but particularly for children with identified special educational needs.

 

New children and families are invited to to attend settling -in days before starting at preschool, it allows for parents to meet their child's key person and create a bond with the family, which in time will settle the child when parents decide to leave them. We are committed in working in partnership with both children and parents when settling new children by following the child's need. 

As far as is possible, we will do everything that we can to facilitate a smooth transition for our children moving to other settings. We will invite staff from the receiving setting to transition meetings and will pass information (IEP's, observations, I-talks, ideas for successful strategies etc.) as well as the child's ‘All About Me’ / Learning Journey. As far as possible we aim to show the child their new setting once the transition has been confirmed. Follow up visits maybe arranged if required.

Helpful contacts

Preschool has an open door policy, parents first port of contact is their child's key person, we as a setting actively encourage parents to either ring or come in and discuss their child's progress or any concerns they may have.

Parents are requested to enter preschool by the side entrance door either for visiting and meetings with manager or keyperson, less stressful for child attending.

• Manager: Jo Morris 
• Deputy manager & Senco Lead: Teresa Daly 
• Safeguarding Leads: Jo Morris and Jean Mcginn.

Preschool can be contacted by: 

• email: baptistnursery@hotmail.com 
• tel:01753 822 436
• mob: 07982 317 975.