Frittenden Pre-School

Frittenden Pre-School believes that all children are regarded with equal value and children with special needs are supported and cared for depending on their requirements.   We have a responsibility to ensure positive attitudes towards diversity and difference, so that every child is included and not disadvantaged.

On admission, you will be asked to fill in a form which details your child's likes and dislikes and also a section about how you feel your child is developing. At Frittenden we offer a home visit with your child's key person, which helps us to really get to know your child and inform our planning.

Sarah Davies is our Senco and is up to date with training on Senif and attends the regular Local Inclusion Forum Team meetings. We are a small setting and pride ourselves in our close relationships with our families. If a parent has any concerns at all regarding their child's development, they are warmly encouraged to speak with Sarah, as well as their child's key person.

Sarah Davies will oversee and plan any Individual programmes, along with your child's key person so that strong and positive relationships are built with your child and you.

We ensure:

• Daily informal contact with your child's key person
• Opportunities for meetings at your request throughout the year
• Detailed Learning Journals with photos and observations of how your child is developing through the year
• Parent consultation evenings
• Collaboration with you on any extra planning we put in place eg. a targeted plan

Frittenden Preschool strives to help children learn from an early age to value diversity in others and grow up making a positive contribution to society. By liaising with the local inclusion team and following Best Practice Guidelines for the EYFS we aim to be effective in our provision for children with special educational needs.

Using the Early Years Foundation Stage as our Framework, each key person plans for your 'unique child'. We observe, assess and plan for your child in three prime areas and four specific areas.

Personal, social and emotional development- we link with local specialist advisors and health and voluntary sector providers for advice and support. We use targeted small group or individual activities to promote well-being and resilience. Our staff attend specialist information sessions.

Communication and Language- we provide a language rich environment tailored to the needs of current children. We use targeted small group activities such as those recommended in the 'Every child a talker' programme. We provide ideas and resources for parents to use at home and work in line with speech and language therapy advice.

Physical Development- We offer an accessible environment and lay-out to meet families current needs. We offer free flow play with frequent and regular access to outdoor spaces. We are aware of environmental factors that have a sensory impact on children such as noise, colour, lighting etc. We build links with specialist therapists. We can provide for a range of dietary requirements.

We use a mix of Birth to Five Matters and Development Matters to ensure that children are meeting their developmental milestones and all staff are well educated in EYFS and the developmental stages.

We plan our environment to improve the conditions that will enable children to listen and attend and give full involvement in their learning. Our preschool is full of natural light with a wall of glass doors that can be opened fully to allow for amazing free-flow play. Our walls are painted in neutral colours to promote a sense of calm, we have rugs and lots of cushions to minimise noise levels and encourage a sense of well-being. Our toys and resources are in storage areas which are clearly labelled with text and pictures.

We have a wide range of resources appropriate to support children's development at all levels. Our SENCo will work with key persons to ensure specialist equipment is obtained if necessary. We may be able to claim extra funding for this if your child is receiving extra support from outside agencies.

All staff are trained in early years practice. We use the Best Practice Guidance document to support our teaching. The book is divided into universal, targeted and personalised levels to enable us to support children in the four broad areas of need. These areas of need are identified in the SEND Code of Practice and compromise:

• Communication and interaction
• Cognition and learning
• Social emotional and mental health
• Physical/sensory difficulties

Regular meetings will be arranged to discuss your child's progress, during these meetings you will be involved in planning their learning objectives with the staff. 

If your child is making insufficient progress through a targeted plan, the SENCo or key person may discuss the need to refer to other services, such as speech and language therapy with you. If your child begins to receive support from outside agencies, the targeted plan will be changed to a personalised one.

If required, your consent would be obtained to refer to the Specialist Teaching and Learning Service through the Local Inclusion Team Forum (LIFT) meeting which is held six times a year. If the referral is accepted, a specialist teacher would then visit your child to provide additional advice and guidance and may make referrals to other services, such as health and would support your child's transition to school. You would be consulted at all stages.

All our staff are regularly encouraged to complete training and in the past where we have received children with a condition we are unfamiliar with, our SENCo has researched information which was then shared with staff. 

We adopt the key person approach at Frittenden preschool. 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 share their Learning Journal with you during parent consultation evenings informing you of your child's progress. This gives you an opportunity to talk about any concerns. If you are unable to make the dates, individual appointments can be made to speak with your child's key person.

We make an overall assessment of your child 3 times a year. We also do the Progress Check at Two, this check gives us the opportunity to discuss with you your child's starting points and the progress they have made since starting. If your child is delayed in any area of development, we will discuss this with you and you can also discuss this with your health visitor. 

Our commitment to inclusive practice is at the heart of our work at Frittenden. Your child's key person will ensure that any planned activities are suitable or adapted to meet your child's needs. 

We revise our health and safety risk assessment regularly to take account of any new children and potential conditions that may cause children to be at risk.

On trips out, members of staff will carry our first aid bag, children's emergency details and any specialist resources or equipment we may need. We welcome parents to help out by accompanying us on trips and outings.

Frittenden Pre-school has disabled access with no steps to negoitiate or any raised levels. We are a small, purpose built pre-school, attached to the primary school. We have a disabled toilet and space to change nappies.

Our tables and chairs are at a low level, as are our painting easles and craft trolleys. Our sensory table is on wheels and can be moved.

Frittenden Pre-school offer home visits prior to your child strating with us. They will also be invited to attend a session with a parent/carer before they start and parents/carers are encouraged to stay after the starting date to help settle their child in for as long as they would like to.

Once a child is ready to leave us to go onto school, we pride ourselves on the good working relationship we have with Frittenden Primary school (where most of our children go on to). In June we hold a parent consultation evening, where the Reception Teachers and the school Senco (if applicable) are available to chat through any transition concerns with parents and appointments can then be made to go into school to continue the discussion. We also prepare a transition grid for the school focussing on Charcteristics of Effective Learning for each child. Individual plans will also be forwarded and any other information on your child's level of SEN.

We go into the school reception class at least once per week in the summer term before the child starts, to visit the children, get to know the teachers and read stories. We also spend a lunchtime in the school hall with the whole school eating lunch with the current reception class.

The transition from pre-school to school works extremely well and we have had lots of positive comments on how we achieve this at Frittenden. 

Before your child with SEN starts at the pre-school, we will do a home visit to ascertain just how much care is needed and any adaptations to our environment can be made. Please note: As a result of Covid 19 we are currently not doing home visits but can organise Zoom meetings as an alternative.

Parents are involved in every stage of this process and are encouraged to help finalise/ suggest improvements and help us to assess our provision for their child.

We ensure that:

• We attend LIFT meetings and SENCo forums
• We evaluate training
• We hold regular staff meetings
• We produce parent questionnaires and surveys
• We review our policies and procedures

The manager and Senco:

Sarah Davies by telephone on 01580 852100 or email at mail@frittendenpreschool.co.uk

We are able to offer:

• home visits (Currently offering Zoom meetings instead)
• additional settling-in visits with parents
• arrangements for assessment for additional funding such as the SEN Inclusion Fund (SENIF)
• applying for funding under the Disability Access Fund (DAF) and how it might be used

Please refer to our policies on our website at:

www.frittendenpreschool.co.uk for more information. These are also available to view in the Parents Information Folder.

We always welcome constructive feedback, we are currently in the process of completing a parent questionnaire asking about the service we provide and how we can improve.

We have a section on our Facebook page where parents can leave reviews and we are currently adding a testimonials section to our website, where parents who have left the setting have been asked about their experience and thoughts on their time at Frittenden Preschool.