Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND)

Local Offer

 

Collingwood Pre-school-Local Offer

 

"The purpose of the local offer is to improve choice for families by providing information about services available for young children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

All Early Years settings in Essex are expected to identify and support children with special educational needs to make the best possible progress. Early Years settings are supported to be as inclusive as possible by the LA so that the needs of young children with SEND are met."

 

How our setting knows if young children need extra help and what our parents/carers should do if they think their child may have SEND.

The Manager will arrange an induction session with the parents or carers before the child starts pre-school. The family is introduced to the child's key person and they have the opportunity and are encouraged, to share their child's strengths and any concerns they may have.

We offer home visits to all new families with verbal and written information. Home visits have helped children settle more easily into pre-school and gives the parents/carers another opportunity to share any concerns they may have.

The family is asked to complete the About Me page on their child's Tapestry journal before they start pre-school.

 

The first meeting between the family and the key person will focus on the 2-year-old progress check (if appropriate) and a discussion on the developmental progress made. This meeting will focus on the three Prime Areas. The key person will gain further knowledge of the child's learning and development in his/her home environment and the progress made since starting pre-school. 

 

How our setting supports young children with SEND.

Our pre-school Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) is Vicky Benefield. She supports our staff team and will liaise with other professionals to support the child and their family when identifying a specific need.

Support and advice from ECC Inclusion Partners can be sought with parents’ permission.

Reports from health care professionals such as health visitors, speech and language therapists also identify children’s individual needs.

The setting welcomes parents and professionals sharing these reports with them in order to plan appropriately to meet those individual needs.

The pre-school team plan an individual programme of support and monitor the progress made. They ensure the curriculum planning for those individual needs is in place and that the appropriate resources and activities are available.

Information is shared regularly at meetings with the parents/carers and with other professionals, where permission has been granted.

 

Where a child is identified as having a special educational need and/or disability provision will be put in place. We follow a process in which earlier decisions and actions are revisited, refined and revised in light of the growing understanding of the child's needs and what supports the child to make good progress. 

Provision will be matched to individual needs through a personalised plan known as a 'One Plan'.

The Graduated Approach - Cycle of 4 stages of action:

• Assess

• Plan

• Do

• Review

At each stage, the parents/carers will be asked to contribute their insights to the assessment and planning.

The views of the child will also be sought in an age-appropriate manner.  The intended outcomes will be shared along with our action plan.

The evidence of progress is shared at the One Plan meetings.

 

How our setting creates learning and development opportunities for individual children with SEND.

Every child is an individual and learns and develops in his or her unique way. 

With this at the forefront of our planning and teaching, key persons and all staff deliver a curriculum to suit each child's individual needs.

Activities and resources can be adapted to suit individual children and staff have the knowledge and ability to differentiate teaching to suit individual needs. This is done by individual teaching and small group activities. When the whole class comes together appropriate support is planned for individual children, ensuring inclusion and the opportunity for all children to have access to all learning experiences.

 

In pre-school each area of learning and development is implemented through planned, purposeful play and through a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activity. Play is essential for all our children’s development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, think about problems, and relate to others. We encourage our children to learn by leading their own play, and by taking part in play which is guided by the adults on session. The staff team make judgements about the balance between activities led by children, and activities led or guided by adults. We observe each child’s emerging needs and interests, guiding their development through warm, positive interaction. As children grow older, and as their individual development allows, key persons and staff will assess how to increase the balance of activities led by adults, to help children prepare for more formal learning in their reception classes.

 

Staff will ensure that in planning activities for children with SEND they are reflecting on the different ways in which children learn by observing the three characteristics of effective teaching and learning which are:

• · playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’;

• active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements; 

• creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

As set out in the SEND Code of Practice "early year’s providers should understand the interests, strengths and motivations of children and use this as a basis for planning around them. They should also support children so that they are included in social groups and develop friendships, particularly when they are transferring from pre-school to school. They should ensure they engage in activities alongside children who do not have SEN in the education setting and be encouraged to participate in wider community activities."

This is part of our day to day practice within our pre-school.

 

How our setting works in partnership with parents/carers.

In our pre-school we recognise that SEND is everyone’s responsibility.

 

Key persons and all staff form excellent relationships with our parents and carers. We are proud to highlight this to our community as one of our strengths, noted in previous Ofsted inspections. 

Key persons will work closely with parents and carers from the first contact with them. This enables early identification of any SEND issues and staff are confident and sensitive when discussing this with parents or carers, and everything is discussed in total confidence.

 

Our SENCo will work closely with the key person, parents/carers and child, discussing the One Planning process. This support will continue all through the child's time at pre-school with regular meetings arranged to discuss development, evaluate progress and plan for the next steps in the child's learning and development. Where outside professionals and agencies are involved our SENCo will liaise with all parties giving support and guidance where appropriate.

 

Parents and carers are encouraged to share information at every opportunity, giving the key person a full account of their child's learning and development in the home environment. Where parents do not have contact on a daily basis with pre-school every effort is made to keep them informed of their child's progress. This can be done through the Tapestry journal or through telephone contact, at a suitable time for all parties.

 

Children's progress is tracked using the Early Outcomes and Development Matters. Best-fit judgements are made against the 'outcomes' and the next steps are planned from those evaluations. Senior staff attend the local Cluster Group (ECC) meetings and pass on information on parent training and learning events.

 

How our setting supports the well-being of young children with SEND.

The pre-school has daily risk assessments in place for the indoor and outdoor environment. All equipment is checked regularly, the grounds are checked daily before outdoor play commences and all activities are checked to ensure suitability. Children's safety and security are paramount within our daily policy and practice. Our Risk Assessment Policy is available to all our parents and carers.

 

Promoting positive behaviour is embedded in our practice. 

Our Policy Statement:

“We believe that children flourish best when their personal, social and emotional needs are understood, supported and met and where there are clear, fair and developmentally appropriate expectations for their behaviour.

As children develop, they learn about boundaries, the difference between right and wrong, and to consider the views and feelings, and needs and rights, of others and the impact that their behaviour has on people, places and objects. The development of these skills requires adult guidance to help encourage and model appropriate behaviours and to offer intervention and support when children struggle with conflict and emotional situations. In these types of situations, key staff can help identify and address triggers for the behaviour and help children reflect, regulate and manage their actions. We appoint a member of staff as behaviour coordinator to oversee and advise on the team’s responses to challenging behaviour.”

 

All our children are taught about positive behaviour with due regard to their age and stage of their individual development. 

 

 

 

 

 

The health, safety and welfare of the children in our care are paramount.

Children with a special need or disability would have their needs discussed fully with our SENCo, the pre-school Manager and the child's key person. A risk assessment, where appropriate, would be conducted with the parents or carers.

 

Where medication is to be administered it is recorded in the 'Medication Book', the parents check and sign that the details recorded are correct and when the child is collected the parents sign the book again to acknowledge the medication has been given. 

A member of staff will record the dosage, time and date the medication was administered and another member of staff will co-sign the medication book too.

Where a care plan is in place staff all staff on session would be aware and meet all the child's needs as part of their duties on session.

If a child has 1:1 assistance this also would be carefully planned to ensure all personal, medical and learning needs were met.

 

As with all children on session the views of children with SEND would be sought, either with contributions from themselves, using a variety of ways to suit the individual child, or through their parents or carers.

 

Staff training and experience in supporting young children with SEND.

Our pre-school SENCo has undertaken training in the Code of Practice and this has been cascaded to the staff team. 

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Specialist services and expertise accessed by our setting.

Our pre-school has links with the Inclusion Partners,  Speech and Language Therapists and the Manager and Deputy Manager regularly attend meetings organised by ECC.

 

How our setting includes young children with SEND in community-based activities and outings.

Our pre-school would liaise fully with the parents or carers to ensure that any activity or outing was fully risk assessed.

Each situation would be planned carefully with every consideration taken into account re: physical, medical, personal care, emotional, travel and environmental issues such as access.

 

Our accessible environment.

Our Access Audit is reviewed each year. An action plan is drawn up where necessary.

Our Equality Impact check is also reviewed annually.

Our building has a ramp to the main entrance with a tactile surface.

There are disabled toilets in the main school building.

When we have had parents where English is not their first language we have been fortunate to have their relatives interpret for them.

If this was not the case we would endeavour to access an interpreter for them.  

Where resources for children with SEND are required we would research them and use the help and information that can be accessed on the Essex County Council website.

 

How our setting prepares and supports young children with SEND when joining the setting and when transferring to another setting or school.

Our pre-school offers introductory sessions and home visits from the Manager and SENCo.

A strategy for the introduction into pre-school is planned with the parents or carers enabling all needs of the child to be met.

Where children leave to attend another early years setting, reports and information will be transferred (with the parents'/carers permission) and contact made with the child's next key person.

Where children leave to start school, in the reception class, information (with the parents'/carers permission) will be passed on and meetings arranged for a smooth transition to take place.

 

How our setting organises its resources to meet the needs of young children with SEND.

In our pre-school, we have planned opportunities on session for targeted support for children with SEND.

This is part of our daily rota which staff follow on session. A member of staff will be allocated time to spend with the children, supporting their learning and development towards achieving their planned outcomes.

Where individual support is in place, the member of staff works with the child, supporting their i needs, and she/he works with the SENCo and key person where appropriate.

Our past training has helped us in adapting our current resources to meet the needs of the child and we would adapt the environment (wherever possible) to meet any physical or sensory needs.

 

How we decide on appropriate support for young children with SEND.

This is done with the full participation of the child, parents or carers and any other professionals already involved in meeting the needs of the child. Through observations and discussions, we would assess the child's needs, decide on the outcomes and discuss the support that needs to be implemented. Parents will be encouraged to reinforce and contribute to the planning support.

A clear date for review will be arranged with all parties.

Meetings are arranged at convenient times for all involved to evaluate the learning outcomes for the child.

 

How we involve all parents/carers in our setting.

Parents, carers and their families are welcomed into our pre-school with warmth and kindness from all staff and management committee.

They have many opportunities to become involved with pre-school through:

• helping on session

• sharing a particular interest or ability with us

• sharing ideas on our themes and curriculum

• questionnaires

• suggestion box

• at parent/key person meetings

• joining the management committee

• helping with fund-raising activities

 

Who to contact for further information.

The Manager, Louise Dumas, is the first point of contact for Collingwood Pre-school.

The pre-school SENCo is Vicky Benefield.

Please see the Contact page on the website at collingwoodpreschool.com

 

Essex County Council Local Offer can be found at:

www.essexlocaloffer.org.uk