local offer
What we offer for children who need some additional support: Children and families with Special Educational Needs and or Disabilities. Little Learners Pre-school recognises that all children have a right to be protected from harm and abuse. At Little Learners Pre-school we take this responsibility very seriously and will do our very best to protect and safeguard the welfare of all children in our care. Little Learners Pre-school values the abilities and achievements of individual children and is committed to providing for each child the best possible environment for learning and development. 1. How do the early years setting know if children need extra help and what should I do if I think my child may have special educational needs or disabilities? At Little Learners, we follow the ethos of each child is different, children progress in different areas at different times and meet milestones at different times. By undertaking a cycle of continuous observations on the children alongside the EYFS curriculum, allows us to gauge where the children are in their own individual journey. This helps us to identify children's individual needs and developmental next steps. We use the key worker system in our setting, this role is for the child and the parents. Staff form trusting, sensitive relationships with families to enable respectful sharing of information for the positive progress of your child. If you as a parent have any concerns regarding your child’s development you can speak to your child's key worker. If a specific need has been noted from assessments of your child then staff will arrange a meeting with the parents in confidence and a plan will be devised together to take steps to support your child's learning and development. Our Inco will work with key workers to offer advice and support of next steps if needed. We will liaise with other professionals to seek advice and support in identifying individual needs if necessary. Referrals will be made to the relevant teams should we all feel that this is necessary. Support is offered from the Early Help Team, Health Visitors and Speech and Language Department, GP’s, Educational Physiologists. 2. How will early years setting staff support my child? All children are supported at whatever stage they are at, we pride ourselves on being a very inclusive, nurturing setting, well known locally for bringing on children at their own pace. By using the method stated above, the observation, plan and do cycle we are able to build a full picture of your child’s needs along with vital information from home and the wider family of how best to support your child in the setting. After a period of observation and gathering information on the best way to support your child our inclusion coordinator will also provide little sessions In small groups or 1-2-1 if possible with those children who may need some extra adult time. As a setting we are committed to continuous training in our setting to constantly achieve the best we can for the children in our care. Regular courses are attended or brought inhouse by professionals in the field to keep our knowledge as up to date as possible. The Inco has and Inclusion Coordinator have many years of experience in dealing with many different needs and by following the EYFS and the observation cycle we are able to tailor children’s needs to provide the right level of support. Evaluations will be made throughout the process to ensure we are meeting the needs of the child and their families. Relationships with parents is key so good communication form both sides is very important. 3. How will the curriculum be matched to my child’s needs? We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage guidelines set out by the Government. We plan for each child's individual needs and preferred learning styles, developing, and moving on activities so that children progress and enjoy the activities provided. Children are encouraged to self-select resources and equipment they would like to learn with. Children are encouraged to lead their own learning through play and experimenting we will observe this behaviour and document this for our daily planning and children's next steps. Children are supported by many different prompts verbal or pictorial depending on the preferred learning style. Key workers form close bonds with your child so they can anticipate your child’s level of support that might be needed, if more support is needed, then this will be put in to place for your child. We use an online learning journal that you can access online, you will also be able to add to this yourself so you can let us know how your child is progressing at home, this enable us to build a much more holistic, well rounded picture of your child that we can continually monitor and reflect on your child’s learning and next step development. 4. How will both you and I know how my child is doing and how will you help me to support my child's learning? Because we work very hard to build strong trusting relationships with all our parents we will have plenty of opportunities to have formal and informal meetings to discuss any concerns and progress your child is making. We are always around so do ask if you need to see us. We will ask you for comments on a regular basis to be entered in your child's journal, as above you can add on your own observations of your child’s learning at home. We will make suggestions of how to revisit certain activities, or suggest you do certain things at home your child has made significant progress with. We loan our resources and allow you to borrow books to read at home over the weekend if these things have been of interest to your child. By looking at your child’s journal this will enable you to plot how far your child has developed during their time with us, you can revisit old learning suggestions for constant ideas of activities, use our Instagram page for ideas as well. Our online journal is also used for a two way communication between setting and parents, this enables us to know if you have any concerns or notifications you need to let us know etc. 5. What support will there be for my child's overall wellbeing? When you first start Little Learners, we gather information from you regarding any special dietary requirements, additional needs, health care and developmental needs your child may have. These are put into your child's journal and all staff are aware of the needs your child may have so we can ensure your child is cared for in the best possible way. Most of our staff are first aid trained, all staff have had Child Protection training and all staff have an enhanced disclosure CRB. Medicine can be administered if required by the manager and a medical care plan can be provided should this be necessary. The pre-school room and outdoor play area have a daily visual risk assessment carried out to check equipment and immediate environment is safe. We weekly record our risk assessment of our outdoor play and learning area. The pre-school has a positive behaviour policy and all staff follow this policy when dealing with situations in the setting. We have ' Golden Rules’ in the setting which the staff and children contribute too, these allow an understanding of what is acceptable behaviour. Staff will form good relationships with your child and will be able after a short time ascertain how your child is feeling or will be able to watch put for signs that your child is trying to tell us things. We pride ourselves on our nurturing abilities and are always free to have a cuddle and a quiet story when needed. 6. What specialist services and expertise are available at or accessed by the early years setting? Our Early Years adviser from County is one of our first ports of call, they are able to provide us with initial support, links to further information or to sign post us to the right service for your family. They will also come in to the setting to share good practice, help observe your child and advise us if needed on filling out the correct pieces of information. We also use in house the Government’s Ordinary Available Inclusive Practice Tool alongside the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. This makes sure we are doing all we can to help support your child in the setting while we wait for your child to be seen by another agency. If we all feel we needed further assistance after we have gathered all the relevant information then we would then with your permission start making some referrals to outside agencies. As you can imagine there are a lot of different forms and some waiting lists are quite long but we will advise you of these at the time. Thankfully, we have quite a lot of knowledge in-house with our Inco and Inclusion Coordinator so we are sure we can make your child feel happy and support in our setting while we are waiting for further assessments your child may need. 7. What training have the staff got for supporting the children with SEND? All staff have received some formal training on supporting children with SEND. We used some of our inclusion funding to have an industry expert in to provide us with whole setting training on Neurodivergent Children, this was very informative and provided us with many learning opportunities. We have also participated in courses from our training providers The Early Years Alliance and WSCC’S early years training courses and have completed training on those platforms. Staff regularly have training sessions to keep their knowledge up to date. Our Inclusion coordinator has worked for many years supporting children in the early years department of a local SEND school so has a wealth of knowledge on how to support a variety of different children needs. 8. How will my child be included in activities outside the early years setting including trips? All activities will be planned around all children's individual needs and abilities. Risk assessments are carried out beforehand to ensure it is accessible for all children to access. Equipment would be sort if needed to assist a child with mobility issues. Policies, risk assessments would be shared with parents to reassure them of our inclusive approach to our learning in our setting. Our setting is all on one level, we have double doors in all areas of the hall, and these can open to make manoeuvrability easier for frames or wheelchairs. The main hall has a ramp up the side of the building up to the entrance doors. We have children's toilets, adult’s toilets, and a disabled toilet. Our setting garden is enclosed and attached to the hall. The setting has lots of experience with families who have English as an additional language. To support your child, with EAL we have dual posters, books, a communication book and staff learn key phrases in your mother tongue. Staff have also had training on how best to support you and we have literature in lots of different languages. We work closely with the local family centre who can offer support groups, translations and many courses and play opportunities for you to attend. We would obviously work closely with the parents to ensure we have a longer settling period until we had formed a trusting, positive relationship with that family. 10. How will the early years setting prepare and support my child to join the early years setting and transition to school. At Little Learners Pre-School, we feel the best way to get a good picture of your child's needs would be to come and have a meeting with you in your home. This is an informal way to get to know your child and your family. We then recommend you come into the setting for several settling in sessions. Your child will have a key worker who will spend time with you and your child listening and playing with you both. Your child's key worker will work through the 'All about me' section from the online learning journal we use to help us build up a picture of your child. After these initial meetings, we will then be able to put any changes, and requirements into place before your child starts the setting. Should any training be needed, meetings with previous settings or information needed from Health Care Professionals we will be able to get these things in place during this settling in time. When your child transfers to a new setting or to school, we will have built up a journal of information to show to the next setting. This will be detailed observations of your child, next steps in learning and development, photographs of learning and achievements. A transition to school meeting will be put into place with you your child’s new allocated school and ourselves. This is an opportunity to share any worries or concerns. Any further support can be put into place at this meeting ready for your child start. 11. How are the early years settings resources allocated and matched to children's special educational needs? Inclusion funding and two-year-old funding can be applied to support the child being included in the setting. A delegated budget will be used to provide additional resources or to adapt existing resources should this be required. 12. How is the decision made about what type and how much support my child will receive? Decisions made about how much support a child will receive is monitored through observations made by your child's key worker, Inco and setting manager. The observations and development of your child will be reviewed and discussed to ensure continued progress. These observations will be linked to the EYFS and with child development knowledge, assessments will be made on the level of support needed. Extra support will be put into place if necessary with the aim of enabling the child to become independent within our environment. Outside agencies will be invited in if necessary, where assessments may be made and care plans written and followed. Support will be put into place to put your child forwards for Inclusion support and funding if the setting and EYPARM have sufficient evidence that your child requires more support than what’s usually required, we will chat with you in detail about this if you attend our setting. Parent partnership working with the setting is essential to ensure the correct level of care is provided for your child. 13. How are parents involved in the early years setting? How can I be involved? Parents are involved daily in their children's learning and development. Parents are greeted every morning at the setting where conversations with key workers can take place if necessary regarding your child's immediate needs. We use online Learning journals which parents can access all the time and are encouraged to comment on their child’s learning. We encourage you to add observations from home to build a holistic picture of your child. This is a lovely way to be part of your child’s day and see what your child has been participating in during the day. Our notice board gives information as well to share things with your child. We have an event every half term where parents are invited into the setting to do something with the children, often based on a theme or a stay and play session. Parents are asked if they have a specific skill that they would like to teach the children we would be delighted if they could come in and share that with us. Little Learners often send questionnaires home for parents to contribute to, this helps us improve our setting by understanding ways in which we can offer more to our families. Planning and policies are available for parents to view if they wish. 14. Who can I contact for further information? Please contact the setting manager to discuss how we can help you as a family get the most out of your pre-school care. If you would like to visit us to discuss your needs please use one of the methods below to contact us. Please email us on - infolittlelearnerspreschool@gmail.com or managerlittlelearnerspreschool@gmail.com or call the pre-school phone on 07955-333791 website-littlelearnerschichester.co.uk, we are also on Instagram littlelearnerschichester Please look on the West Sussex County Council www/westsussex.local-offer.org/ or Family Information website for more information to help you make your decision. Updated September 2024