Early Years Local Offer response

Learning and development

Systems and strategies we have in place to identify children that may require additional support

Amanda is the settings experienced SENCO and she has over twenty five years experience. Since Setember 2020 there has been a new training course which Amanda is attending and when completed she will be NVQlevel three trained all SEND. 

 We at Sandcastles believe that all children deserve the best start in their journey to learning and developing and we feel that at Sandcastles every child will be given that support.

We use makaton signing on a daily basis's with children who have communication difficulties

Visuals are used daily and the toys have labbelled visuals to support all children to find the toys that they would like to play with.

Speech and Language support as advised by outside agencies.

Thrive and Emotional First Aid trained- This is talking about feelings and the importance for children to identify their feeelings  ( and brain development and how different experiences can effect each child differently).

we work closely with outside agencies if required e.,g. Health Visitor's, Speech and Language therapist the early yeras inclusion team and if needed a peadritition.

How we identify and support children's learning and development needs

Through observations, play and through tracking their stage of development alongside the EYFS development. We are then able to plan for the child's individual needs through their interests, needs and abilities.

 

Links we have to other agencies

We have links to the early years support team, speech and language therapists, health visitors, Child and mental heath team and the local children centre. These teams are here to give us support and advice with different challenges that occur within our setting.

How we support children transferring to school

Starting in April the children that will be going to the local school (Connor Downs) will go down for a visit each week with several members of the playgroup staff. Within the visit the children go into the classroom , play with different actitivites that the reception class has on offer. The teacher makes sure that she gets to know all the children , what there interests are by talking with the children and the playgroup staff. The teacher and occasionally her teaching assistants will come and visit the children at playgroup. In September there will be the deputy from the playgroup that accompany's the new children down into their new setting, and she stays there for two weeks to help the children settle in. If there are children from outside the area that will be going to a different school the manager makes contact with the relevant person to organize a visit. Also the school offers parents a stay and play together session every Thursday afternoon starting from the May.

Welfare

Specialist skills or training our staff have

Janice - BAHons in Early Years and Education, alongside twenty five years experience. The setting also has in place an Early years Thrive Practitioner who is able assessment for the child's social and emotional well being. Amanda -deputy, also the settings SENCO, has twenty five years experience working with children with special educational needs, and as from September 2020 is working towards her NVQ3 in SEND and holds a  level 4 childcare qualification. There are 2 other members of staff that are trained to NVQ 3, one member trained to level 2. All staff have been trained in first aid, child protection and food hygiene

All staff have had the WRAP training and the Prevent duty.

Support we offer regarding children's health and well-being

We can now offer the Thrive emotional development for well-being and learning and Emotional First Aid support 'Sports for tots' comes out once a week to offer different physical games for the children to get involved with. Healthy range of snacks, and we encourage the children through play to discuss different senerios that may occur that we can talk about.

Ways we inform parents about how their child is being supported

Through daily contact each day when they drop their child of and pick them up at the end of the day. We have a digital photo frame in the waiting room which shows the parents while they are waiting to pick up their child what activities they have been playing with. We have a parents notice board and we give out a newsletter every half term. We offer parents consultations every term, and discuss with the parents about home learning and the child's learning journey.

We have lots of photographs of the children playing on display with a write up to include what areas of developments their play is covering and how parents can link this to their child's play in the home environment.

Our complaints policy

We have a complaints policy which if necessary  we follow the procedure within our policy, unless it can be dealt with by discussing the issue with parents, if not it will go to the committee.

Access

Alterations we have made to make our building accessible

We would make every effort to access specialist equipment and adoptions required when needed.

Facilities we have for personal care

We have a nappy changing facilities,. One of the toilets has been changed to a small children to use without needing support.

Specialist resources we have

 

We are working towards setting up our own sensory corner, which will provide a calm place where children will be able to access with an adult. This will include different types of sensory equipment e.g. light box, coloured lights, bubble machine, and different types of textured toys for the children to play with.

How we include all children in activities, such as trips

All trips are open to every parent/carer within the setting, we do recomend that all parents come along and have fun with their child.