Local offer for children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities(SEND) Children and Families Act 2014

Little Learners has a trained nursery SENCO (Special Needs Co-Ordinator) that has been trained through the local authority and Little Learners to support the key person, child and families to ensure the child’s individual needs are met.

How does Little Learners know if a child needs extra support?

Initially we will arrange for you to visit the nursery with your child in order that you can familiarise yourself with our environment and routines. If you have any concerns about your child’s development at this time we will discuss this with you and arrange a home visit if you are happy for this to take place. Your child’s allocated key worker and our Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) will arrange a convenient appointment with you, to get to know you and your child a little better and discuss what support we can offer. We may encourage you to bring your child for further visits to the nursery before starting if this is helpful.

How Parents/Carers included in the child’s education and curriculum?

Parent’s communication is valued and the key person will work together with the parents to ensure that every child’s learning is supported.

If you have reports from health care professionals, such as a health visitor or Speech therapist, please share this information, to help us identify and plan support for your child. All assessments are shared with the parents who are encouraged to add their comments, we then implement a joint approach.

On registering your child we ask to give us as much information as possible including allergies, medical conditions, disability or concerns. When your child begins the nursery you will be given as “All About Me” Form this we use to assess any need and enable to highlight any concerns.

Parents are encouraged to work together with the key worker to understand the child’s individual routines, needs, interest and abilities and to complete observations and share activities from home and nursery.
Your child’s development will be assessed regularly from when they join the nursery and after the first six weeks a ” Settling in Report” will be prepared by your child’s key worker. Your written feedback as to how you feel your child is progressing will be invited on the report.

If your child is under three, your keyworker will also prepare a two year report before their third birthday, to be shared with you and your child’s next setting when they transition. This will report on your child’s personal, social, emotional, communication and physical development. If your child has been identified with any additional needs in these areas this will be recorded in the year report. All children will either receive a two year report or an Annual Report in the summer term.

How will the learning and development curriculum be matched to meet a child’s needs?

Our premises and curriculum will always be adapted to meet the needs of all children where possible and reasonable to do so. Our curriculum is differentiated for older and younger members, so that the older children can receive a greater degree of adult led activities taking into consideration of their age and development into account. All children have access to a broad and balance development into account. We also provide Small Group Work each day to support all children with communication skills, language skills, turn taking, attention and listening to build confidence.

Through ongoing observations and assessments, key workers plan for every child’s individual progress by setting next steps based on their age and development. These can be shared with you anytime with the key worker.

If your child is not making satisfactory progress, then your child’s keyworker in consultation with our SENCO will discuss this with you, as it may be necessary to put some individual targets in place to help your child reach the minimum expected outcomes for their age.

How will you know how your child is doing?

Your child’s targets will form an Individual Education Plan which will highlight their strengths and areas of need with targets to meet the latter. Any progress made following this intervention will be assessed on a six weekly basis. You will be invited by your Keyworker and our SENCO to a meeting to discuss your child’s progress and ongoing intervention. 

If little or no progress is made we may seek support and further advice with the parents permission from other agencies such as a Speech and Language Therapist, Behaviour Therapist, Interpreter for EAL Parents or the Merton inclusion team. Extra funding maybe available to support your child depending on the level of need. Merton Inclusion Officers will come and assess, give advice meet with you and our SENCO and the Keyworker to prepare a report for future support.

How will Little Learners support the child when they transfer to a new school or setting?

When a child is ready to transition to a new School the new teachers will be invited into Little Learners to meet the keyworker and SENCO and all relevant transition supporting documents are completed and relayed to the School to ensure a smooth transition takes place. Also the new School will invite the parents, child and keyworker and SENCO to their setting.

How Little Learners regularly assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the setting in meeting the needs of the children with special education needs?

Our SENCO updates our Special Educational Needs Policy annually. She regularly attends short training courses and Inclusions meetings through the year. Up to date best practise and regulation is then fed back to staff. All staff attend short courses in Language & Literacy and other SEN relation courses including Behaviour Management.