SEND
All of our nurseries are truly inclusive settings, where all children are welcomed. Our staff have extensive training and experience identifying and supporting children with additional needs, an identified Special Educational Need (SEN) or disability. We have experience of supporting children with Speech and Language delays, Autism, physical and sensory needs, hearing impairments, and more besides.
All children have an assigned key worker, a dedicated individual who gets to know your child the best, and monitors their development on a regular basis. The key worker and each nursery’s Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) will work with you to ensure we provide any additional help your child might need.
We provide additional support in a number of ways to the children who need it – be it through one-to-one work, on an enhanced ratio, or through individual intervention plans. This helps reduce any barriers to learning and participation. Some additional help will be decided in conjunction with the local authority’s Early Years SEND team. They can provide additional advice, and may be able to provide funding should there be a need for additional equipment or one-to-one support worker. Where necessary, children will have a formal assessment of their needs and an Education Health Care Plan can be put in place.
Partnerships
We work in partnership with other agencies to ensure each child has the right support package for them, including:
- Speech and Language Therapists
- Portage
- Health Visitors
- Educational Psychologist and Behaviour Support
- Family Support
- Tweendykes & Northcott Outreach Service
- IPaSS (Integrated Physical and Sensory Service)
- KIDS
- Physiotherapists
Across our 5 nurseries, we work with children with a variety of needs. We can help identify where there is a ’cause for concern’, where children are not meeting their developmental milestones. Additionally, we look after those children who receive additional support funding, as well as those on an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP), where children receive support for their long term education provision.
At Boulevard Nursery we have an ‘Enhanced Provision’ room where children with additional needs can be supported in a quieter space, separate to the main room, which at times may become too overwhelming for them.
Junior’s Story
Junior started Child Dynamix Preston Road Community Nursery in September 2018, when he was 3 years old. He has cerebral palsy and at the time was unable to walk, stand or sit on his own. Before he started in our nursery, we discussed his needs with his family and other professionals to understand how best to support him. We secured additional funding which paid for one-to-one support and specialist equipment.
The intensive support package developed for Junior built on the opportunities that already existed within the nursery, such as the additional staff support, sensory equipment, and one-to-one sessions. Collectively, this additional support enabled him to achieve so much. He was able to move himself into a crawling position, and by using his standing frame and specialist chair, he was able to participate in a number of activities. Junior received regular physiotherapy from his key worker in the nursery as well as from an external professional. He was able to use his standing frame on a regular basis and had constant access to a range of equipment, which meant that as Junior left to attend school he was able to stand, with minimal support, for up to a minute.
We worked closely with Junior’s family and new school to support his transition, having completed a thorough Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) and package of support to help his transfer.
“For a little boy who was told he would never walk – well, we had a walker delivered to the setting! Supporting Junior to take his first steps has been an amazing experience.”
“I love how we have built on the determination Junior and his family have – he truly is an amazing little boy!”
We thank Junior and his family for allowing us to share his story.
