St. Martin's Pre-School

Parents of all children that start at St.Martins Preschool are asked to complete an "all about me form" this help's the key person (who will be there to support your child and monitor your child's progress) find out about your child's development needs and interests.   This enables them to plan activities to continue your child development and help to ensure a smooth transition to preschool.  Your child's key person will assess their starting points, this baseline will be key to seeing how they progress.  In line with the Early Years Foundation Stage we will be able to identify if extra support is needed to help support your child.  

Each child has a progress check completed at 2 years old which is a statutory assessment. This may be the time where any delay in development can be discussed  and appropriate next steps planned.

Our Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator or SENCo, together with your child's key person will ensure that our families have the best possible support.  Families are always welcome to speak to us about any concerns and we value their views and know that they will know their child better than anyone else.  Being there to support families and work together with them is important to us and provides the best way forward to ensure successful outcomes.

At St.Martins we feel that children need to establish a secure bond with an adult to help them feel secure and confident in their new environment.

This key person will get to know you and your child from the very first visit and build up positive relationships. There are many ways that you are involved in how your child is being supported, these include; 

• daily informal chats
• detailed learning journals with photos and observations
• three times a year an invitation to discuss your child's progress and any extra support they might need
• weekly learning journal entries which helps us to record and evidence your child's development
• meetings to discuss any extra planning we feel might be helpful to your child, such as a targeted plan 

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is an educational framework which allows key persons to plan for your 'unique child'.  We observe, assess and plan for your child in three prime areas and four specific areas.

Communication and Language

We provide a 'language rich' environment and help to engage children with their preferred interests

Targeted small group activities

Working closely with speech and language therapy advice

Daily stories and songs

Personal, social and emotional development

Supporting targeted small group or individual activities to promote well-being and resilience.

Seeking specialist advice when necessary.

All our staff attend regular training and also staff meetings to help support all our children.

Physical Development

Our preschool building is accessible to all and our outside area has a large decking area and path which makes it suitable for wheelchairs and walking frames.

We have links with specialist therapists.

We understand how important it is for children to be as independent as possible and the building and outside space was designed with this in mind. 

Environment

The preschool has many windows so benefits from natural light and we have a quiet room where children can go if they need a bit of calm, or a quiet space to sleep. The indoor space has different areas, the book corner, which is cosy and has its own sofa, the role play area which is changed regularly to reflect the children's current interests.  Our planning is always led by the children's current interests and toys and books can be accessed by the children from clearly labelled storage areas with text and pictures.

Resources

We constantly review our resources to make sure they are appropriate to support children's development at all levels.  Specialist equipment is obtained when necessary and our staff are always thinking of ways to improve our resources and environment.  We have made our own bench to facilitate children that are less able to get up from the floor, making it possible for them to become more independent.  A small pathway was also made so that less abled children could more easily get to the waterplay area by themselves.

Teaching strategies

All staff are trained in early years practice and our Manager and Deputy have the further qualifications: The Foundation Degree in Early Childhood Education and Care and have also completed the advanced SENCo professional development programme.  Our Manager has the teaching certificate in education and comes from the background of being a trained learning disability nurse, she has been in childcare education now for 25 years.  We use the Best Practice Guidance document to support our teaching.  This document was written by the Specialist Teaching and Learning Service and it sets out a range of teaching strategies which can be used to support children e.g. the use of visual resources and Makaton signing.  

Our preschool likes to work in partnership with parents and carers, we believe that by working together it is possible to achieve the best results for your child.  We are here to support you and your children.  We will always keep you informed about how your child is getting on and if you feel you may need help at home or parent training,  we can help you get this support.

Our Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) policy sets out the graduated approach we use to support children.

If your child is not making sufficient progress after a targeted plan has been implemented then we would discuss with you the need to refer to other services, such as  speech and language therapy.  If there was more than one area of concern you might be advised to refer to the Specialist Teaching and Learning Service through the Local Inclusion Team Forum (LIFT), this would only be done with your consent.  If the referral is accepted,  a specialist teacher would visit your child and provide additional guidance and advice and would support your child's transition to school.  You would be consulted at all stages.

If we are aware that a child attending our preschool has additional needs, we are always keen to meet with you and your child to discuss how best to support you both before your child is due to start.  A home visit can be arranged, so that we can make sure that we have everything in place to support your child's transition to preschool.  We can also provide additional training for staff if necessary and apply for extra funding to further support your child.  Making sure we can provide the best possible start to ensure a good transition.  As parents/carers you may like to accompany your child and stay with them initially or for them to attend for only a small amount of time, until they become accustomed to their new environment.  We are very flexible and understand that it takes some children a while to settle.  Obviously at present with COVID restrictions this may not be possible.  

The key person is responsible for guiding, monitoring and supporting the physical and emotional development of children in our care and this is especially important when children have special or additional educational needs.

Your child's key person will invite you to see your child's learning journey and hear about their progress, also this is a good time to talk about any concerns.  Three times a year there is a progress check and more for the under twos.  The progress check at Two will often highlight if there are any concerns and it will give the opportunity to discuss how your child is progressing from their starting points.  If there are any areas of development delay these can be discussed and additional support can be put in place.  If additional support such as a targeted plan seems not to give enough progress, these are always monitored carefully, further support can be enlisted from other services, that we can discuss with you.

We ensure that all children are able to come on our trips.  We plan the outing and do a risk assessment to ensure that we can plan for all eventualities.  It is important to us that all children are included.  With additional adult support it has been possible to make trips to the local church to collect conkers with children with limited mobility.  We have also visited the small wooden area and joined the forest school for marshmallow toasting on the camp fire, no-one was left behind.

The setting was purpose-built on one floor and the wide opening doors means they are suitable for wheelchair access; the open plan environment also ensures ease of movement.  The outdoor area is accessible from two exits and the surface is suitable for children using wheelchairs and frames.  The toilet area has no steps and is on the same level.

Children that require additional support are helped by the setting applying for extra funding, so that we can ensure we have an extra member of staff on hand.  We encourage children to be as independent as possible, but where extra help is required, we are on hand to help.  We are always delighted to have parents/carers help and involvement.  When we make visits to the local schools to aid the children with their transition to that school we are lucky to always have parent volunteers eager to help.  When the parent/carer fills out the application form for nursery, we ask if they would like to be involved in any extra activities or help out at all in anyway.

We have close ties with our two nearest schools and visits are made to these schools with small groups of children that will be starting in September.  This year it maybe more difficult with COVID 19.  We also provide a transition report and a one page personal profile, this gives the school useful information about the child's interests, likes and dislikes.  Having as much information as possible makes it easier for the schools to help make the child's transition to school easier.  When children have had the chance to see and visit the school with their friends it really helps them to feel more comfortable with the change.  

We provide school uniforms in the role play area for children to dress up in and photo books about their local schools.  

The teachers from the local schools usually visit their key children at our nursery, we hope that maybe able to happen this year as normal. 

SENCo forum meetings

LIFT meetings

Staff meetings

Staff appraisals

Parent meetings

Annual questionnaire

Review of policies and procedures

Please contact the manager Sheryl Hastings or the deputy manager Rose Heley.

We are always keen to have feedback and at our parent meetings ask for their views and opinions.  We have tried using a suggestions box, but so far find using the questionnaire the most effective form of getting feedback.  We use this feedback at our staff meetings to discuss and improve any areas bought to our attention.  For example, one constructive comment suggested the entrance area was very busy and a bit frantic on occasions in the morning.  We were able to move the role play area to make the entrance more open, giving more space.  We also opened the gate a little earlier in the morning which helped too.