Lime Tree Day Nursery

We have one specialised staff member who is special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) within each setting. This individual is supported by the setting manager who is SENCO qualified. We also have an area SENCO who oversees all the additional needs are met for every child across the company, this staff member is highly qualified within SEN and works closely with all outside agencies across the boroughs to ensure all the settings are meeting the individual child’s additional needs.

We have inclusion policies in place that every staff member adheres to ensuring that every child’s development and targets are met at their own pace and they plan accordingly to meet their needs and further their development at a pace that suits the child. We also have an open-door policy as any child can attend the setting.

How do we offer support to children or young people with a special educational need or disability?

• On a child’s registration at nursery we get the parents complete a development record from the early year’s foundation stage, to find out what the child can do at home. At this point we talk to the parents and find out if any health professionals are involved with the family, which we will contact in due course or if the parents of the child has any concerns, the child’s key worker works closely with the parents and any information is passed to the SENCO. We then begin to observe the child in setting and assessments begin.
• As a setting we observe, assess and plan for each individual child and monitor their progress throughout their time at nursery, this will highlight any concerns we may have about the child’s development. We work with the early years foundation stage(EYFS) and send out monthly letters to our parents of what we need to work on that month, with ‘what to expect when’ as we find our parents understand this more, then they can share what their child has done at home over their parent link (First Steps), which the key worker will link up to the early years foundation stage (EYFS).
• We strongly believe that we need a strong parent partnership to gain strong bonds with the children, We then share all observations and termly reports with our parents and they can see them through the parent link (First Steps) and also share with their key worker what the child has done at home, which we assess termly but monitor all the time. We also send out letters ‘what I like to do at home’ so we can use the child’s interests within nursery.
• We have a routine at nursery to make the children feel secure as they know what is coming up next as it’s the same every day, it is important to us that the children feel safe and secure. We do group times, adult led activities and play alongside the children within their own playing to extend their learning some more. We also provide three nutritious meals a day with healthy snacks in between, which the children self-serve.
• We work closely with local schools sharing the last report completed on the children.
• We try to do visits to each school to help settle the children before their transition by implementing activities within the last term of the school year such as, providing school uniform in the home corner or books of what the school looks like.
• We will discuss this with the parents, SENCO, and the nursery manager to find out how much support is required.
• We encourage parents to be involved all the time whilst their child attends nursery as it is essential for us to build a relationship with them as parents know their child better than anyone else.
• We have frequent events throughout the year for our parents to get involved in.
• Our main means of communication is the First Steps parent link as this as has all the child’s development and information regarding what their child has been doing each day, they attend nursery.

What specialist training, experience and expertise do we have relevant to children with special educational needs and disabilities?

Here at Lime tree we work closely with different health professional such as Health Visitors, Speech and Language Therapists (SALT), ASDAT, Family Support, Paediatricians and the local schools around the area.

Our Nursery staff have had training in Elklan, Language ladder, Makaton, welcomm, Improving outcomes for pupils on the Autism spectrum, musical interaction.