Most children and young people in mainstream schools will have their special educational needs met through good classroom practice. This is called Quality First Teaching. This might include sitting them closer to the front at story time, using visual props or providing larger, simpler resources at group times.
Early Identification of Need
In deciding whether to make special education provision to support educational, social, physical or emotional needs, we:
- Work in partnership with parents/carers. Parent information about a child is taken when children start at nursery, and regular termly progress information is given to parents.
- Consult with relevant external agencies such as Speech and Language therapy, occupational therapy.
- Use assessment tools & materials.
- Use observations from keyworkers.
- Use advice from a Speech and Language Consultant and Educational Psychology service.
SEN Support
Where a pupil is identified as having a special educational need we follow a graduated approach which takes the form of cycles of “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.
This means that we will:
- Assess a child’s special educational needs through keyworker and SENCO observations and discussions with parents.
- Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes through producing a SEN support plan outlining the additional provision that we will make, with agreed outcomes.
- Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes for example a language support programme. Sometimes this will be in the form of an extra group time, with a small group of children. Sometimes it will be some individual support for short periods of time, for example supporting use of PECS cards to develop communication skills.
- Review the support and progress through keyworker and SENCO observational assessment, use of assessment schemes and discussions with parents/carers.
As part of this approach every child with SEN will have an individualised Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs. Parents/carers and child (where appropriate) views are integral to this process.If parents/carers have concerns they are given the highest priority and a meeting is arranged with the Headteacher, who is also the SENCO.
In evaluating SEN provision, outcomes are evaluated in relation not just to individual children but for the cohort of children as a whole. Regular monitoring of provision by the Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher ensures that all children, including children with SEND receive high quality teaching. Children with SEND access the full curriculum and provision alongside their peers. As the nursery is small, all staff are made aware of individual needs of children through staff meetings so this enables all staff to have a unified approach, for example in supporting behavioral or communication needs. If a child is displaying some immature but aggressive behaviour such as biting, then a risk assessment will be done, to ensure the safety of the other children, whilst also working to support the individual child.
A small percentage of children and young people with significant and/or complex needs may require an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer.
