Albany Infant and Nursery School

At Albany Infant and Nursery School, we aim to make provision for a wide range of special educational needs. The site is accessible for children and adults using wheelchairs or large pushchairs and we have adult and child toilets and sinks suitable for those with disabilities. We are continually building up our collection of resources for a wide range of special educational needs. These include resources for children with reduced mobility, sight impairments and sensory requirements. Our staff are highly competent and have up-to-date training for manual handling, working with children who are blind and MAPA.

We have a rigorous assessment process for all children from 3-7 years. On entry into the nursery and continually throughout Foundation Stage, Year 1 and Year 2, teachers assess all children. These take the form of formal assessments to measure the ability and the child and the progress s/he is making each term, as well as informal assessments that on a daily basis oversee how each child is thriving and learning.

Teachers will look at the level of development for each child and check these against the expected levels of development for children using government guidelines. If teachers are concerned that a child is not making a good standard of progress or that a child is working at levels significantly below expected guidelines for his/her age, they will liaise with the SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) and devise a programme of support or ‘intervention’ to help the child and ensure that the gap between the ability of the child and what the expected ability should be, is narrowed or closed.

The SENCO will help to work out a structured programme of support between the school and the parents. This may include further differentiation of the curriculum, directing parents and staff towards ‘Early Help’ support. This may involve working with other professionals like ‘’The Healthy Families Team or speech and language therapists. Following a period of intervention (say, one term), the SENCO, parents and the class teacher will assess how successful it has been.

We will then decide whether further intervention is needed or not. At this stage, we may look to providing additional support for the child so that s/he can access the curriculum with 1:1 support to help him/her succeed. Further professionals may become involved in working with the child at this stage if necessary. 

The effectiveness of provision for all children is assessed and monitored regularly. Children are assessed daily in nursery and school to ensure that they are coping well, thriving in the learning environment, and making good progress. Throughout the term, teachers will monitor how the child is learning – including gross and fine motor skills, speaking and listening, reading, writing and mathematical skills.

Teachers check the level of progress a child makes against the expected/recommended levels. The assessment coordinator then measures and analyses the teachers’ findings and reports this to the headteacher, teachers, and governors each term. Along with these reports, the assessment coordinator provides recommendations for staff in order to help those children who have special educational needs.

In addition to this, children with special educational needs may have their own ‘provision map’. This is a special timetable that shows an individual program of work for a child. Teachers, teaching assistants and 1:1 support staff use this daily to ensure that the child’s needs are being met fully and appropriately. Personal Learning Plans show individual targets for each child, these are evaluated every term and updated to ensure that good progress is being made.

The school will know how your child is doing because of the assessments, monitoring and evaluations of the programme of work that are designed to track the progress and attainment of all children as described in section 3a above. Parents are kept informed of all aspects of your child’s learning.

Parent-Teacher meetings are held every term and mid-year (in Foundation stage) and end of year reports are sent out to parents. Teachers also regularly meet with parents throughout the term to let them know how their child is getting on and how they can help. All parents receive information at the start of each term explaining what topics and work will be covered and how they can help their child.

For children with special educational needs, provision maps, behaviour plans and other individual help plans/guidelines are shared with parents and they receive copies of these too. The SENCO holds formal termly meetings for all children who receive additional funding to help with their education or physical disabilities.

Alternately, if a formal meeting isn’t necessary, parents have the option of contacting the SENCO at any time if they would like a meeting, up-date etc about their child, or just to discuss any concerns. Parents and other professionals are invited to these meetings.These are sometimes called ‘Multi-Agency Reviews’ or ‘Progress Reviews’ depending on the nature of the meetings and who is invited. At these meetings, professionals and parents share their views and give reports on how the child has progressed over the past term and what we aim to do in the next term. 

Our SEND aims at Albany Infant and Nursery School are:

• To provide equality and excellence in order to promote the highest possible individual standards of achievement
• To prepare children for life in a society of diverse abilities by encouraging them to embrace and celebrate diversity
• To ensure that all pupils take part in all school activities if possible and that they feel safe and well supported
• To ensure that pupils are involved where possible in the planning and decision making about their learning
• To take a holistic approach (via a Graduated Response) to identifying needs and supporting children and parents

Our objectives, regarding children with SEND are:

• To identify the needs of pupils with SEND as early as possible. This is most effectively done by gathering information from parents, education, early years settings, health and care services
• To monitor the progress of all pupils in order to aid the identification of pupils with SEND. Continuous monitoring of those pupils with SEND by their teachers helps to ensure that they are able to reach their full potential
• To make appropriate provision to overcome all barriers to learning and ensure pupils with SEND have full access to the National Curriculum. This will be co-ordinated by the SENCo along with all staff and will be carefully monitored and regularly reviewed in order to ensure that individual targets are being met and all pupils’ needs are catered for
• To work with parents to gain a better understanding of their child, and involve them in all stages of their child’s education. This includes supporting them in terms of understanding SEND procedures and practices, providing regular updates on their child’s progress, and providing annual information on the provisions for pupils within the school as a whole, and the effectiveness of the SEND policy
• To work with and in support of outside agencies when the pupils’ needs cannot be met by the school alone

At Albany Infant and Nursery School we have adopted a whole-school approach to meeting the needs of all pupils. As a school we will ensure that all children can participate in learning and the wider school provisions. The SEN Code of Practice makes it clear that all teachers are teachers of pupils with special educational needs.

All teachers are responsible for identifying pupils with additional needs and, in collaboration with the SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator), will ensure that those pupils requiring different or additional support are identified at an early stage. Assessment is the process by which pupils with additional needs can be identified. The school curriculum is regularly reviewed by the Curriculum Coordinator together with the SENCO to ensure that it promotes the inclusion of all pupils.

This includes learning outside the classroom. 

The school regularly seeks advice, as appropriate, around individual pupils, from external support services through the termly ‘Springboard meetings’, Early Help Unit and the Family Services, and the Family SENCO to ensure that the curriculum is matched to the child’s needs. 

The provision maps (see section 3a) ensure that the curriculum is tailored to your child’s individual needs if the usual differentiation that teachers plan for, is not sufficient.

Progress is the crucial factor in determining the need for additional support. Where teachers decide that a child’s learning is a concern, the SENCO is the first to be consulted. The SENCO will liaise with all school staff to agree further teaching approaches or additional support. ‘SEN Support’ is used to describe any support a child with SEND may have. We have broken this term down into three terms that describe the stage of the monitoring and identification process. The three stages of ‘SEN Support’ are:

Class Concern: The teacher identifies the child causing concern (e.g. lack of progress). The child is identified in Pupil Progress Meetings & selected for intervention e.g. ‘Closing the Gap programmes’. The child is identified on the school tracking systems for all pupils and on systems for evaluating intervention programmes. Some children might benefit from some personalised strategies (e.g. a child with communication and interaction issues might benefit from a friendship group). 

SEN Concern: The child will continue to cause concern despite intervention. Staff may feel the child might have a Special Educational Need underlying their lack of progress or their challenging behaviour and will begin to gather evidence. The class teacher follows the Local Authorities guidelines to help the child and ensure the correct intervention is made available. SEN support: The child has an identified SEND as defined by the 2014 Code of Practice. Provision for these children will follow the Graduated Approach cycle of Assess, plan, Do, Review to ensure that their support is appropriate and effective.

The SENCO, after assessing the support already undertaken for the child may decide, in consultation with other professionals and parents, to make a referral for funding in order to support the child on a 1:1 basis so that s/he can access the curriculum more fully and make progress.

The SENCO and the head teacher have the responsibility for devising risk assessments and guidance/policies for all staff regarding taking children with SEND out of school. These assessments and policies ensure that all possible practices can be put into place to enable every child to be as fully involved in the out of school curriculum as possible.

Teachers, when organising school trips will inform places to be visited if there is a child with SEND so that they can be prepared and organised for the visit too. Sometimes teachers will invite the parent to come along and support their child on visits. Our SENCO has also devised a Manual Handling Policy that all staff adheres to.

When using the school grounds (playground, outdoor equipment etc), again, risk assessments are undertaken and teachers will ensure that adequate numbers of staff are available to supervise children. In the event of a fire practice or for any reason with which the school building has to be evacuated, all children with SEND requiring individual practices to be put into place have a PEEP (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan). These plans are revised termly and all staff working with children who have these plans are fully aware of the requirements of the child.

The aims of our school, regarding SEND are:

• To provide equality and excellence in order to promote the highest possible individual standards of achievement
• To prepare children for life in a society of diverse abilities by encouraging them to embrace and celebrate diversity
• To ensure that all pupils take part in all school activities if possible and that they feel safe and well supported
• To ensure that pupils are involved where possible in the planning and decision making about their learning

The SENCO at Albany Infant and Nursery School is Mrs. C. Wood. (0115 9179212)

The SENCO holds the SEN Accredited Award. Several members of staff have accessed the following training to help with children with SEND or mobility restrictions:

• Emotion Coaching
• ELSA – Emotional Literacy
• Sensory Needs Training
• CBR trained staff (formally MAPA)
• Pediatric First Aid
• Good Autism Practice in Schools
• PIVATS Assessment Training
• Working with children who have hearing impairment 

Previous Training

• Diabetes injections
• Cortisol (thumb prick) Testing
• Basic Physiotherapy & Stretching Exercises
• Working with a child who is blind
• ASD Levels 1 &2
• Portage Training (assessments for very young children)
• Working with children with Dyslexia
• Working with children with Down Syndrome
• working with children with a physical disability

The School recognises the important contribution that external support services make either by assisting to identify and assess and provide for pupils with SEND.

We continue to build strong working relationships and links with external support services in order to fully support our SEND pupils and aid school inclusion.

Sharing knowledge and information with support services is key to the effective and successful SEND provision within Albany Infant and Nursery School. 

When it is considered necessary, colleagues from the following support services will be involved with children with additional needs: 

• Medical officers
• Speech and Language Therapists
• Physiotherapists
• Hearing impairment services
• Visual impairment services
• CAMHs
• Social Services
• Physical Disabilities Support Service
• Educational psychology service

In addition, important links are in place with the following organisations: 

• Local playgroups/mother and toddlers’ groups with the aim of providing continuity between home and school
• Healthy Families Team/Children’s Centres
• Specialist Outreach Services
• Social Care
• Nottingham Children and Young Peoples Services
• Early Years/Targeted Support Agencies

Our school and nursery site is accessible for children and adults using wheelchairs or large pushchairs and we have adult and child toilets and sinks suitable for those with disabilities. We are continually building up our collection of resources for a wide range of special educational needs. These include resources for children with reduced mobility, sight impairments and sensory requirements. Much of the resources/equipment for children with SEND can be stored in the classrooms as it is used on a daily basis.

Please see sections 2, 3b, 3c, 3e above regarding the involvement of parents.

In addition to the points above, we always consult with parents regarding the support a child with SEN has. We will always obtain parental permission to discuss a child with other professionals and if it is likely that other agencies and professionals are to work with your child, we will always seek to obtain parental permission for involvement. Parents are always invited to the regular Progress Meetings or Multi-Agency Meetings (held each term) and the teacher and/or SENCO liaises with parents regularly to keep you informed of how your child is doing.

All children, (those with SEN and those without) are involved in all aspects of the school and nursery curriculum. In the foundation stage, children are actively encouraged to devise their own ways of investigating, playing and learning, with guidance from practitioners.

When a child is old enough or is able to, they are consulted about the support they receive. This often takes the form of a pupil questionnaire (verbally, written or drawn). Children have the opportunity to say what they think helps them to learn and how they like to learn. These questionnaires are then used in staff appraisals to ensure the best possible support is in place. Sometimes, children take part in ‘before and after’ questionnaires so that staff can measure the impact of the intervention.

When Multi-Agency or Progress Reviews are held, if children are able to, they are always invited to come and speak and tell everyone what they have been doing, what they have enjoyed and how they are helped at school. This is very informal, however children do not have to take part in this if they do not wish to. 

In the first instance, it is always advisable to speak to your child’s class teacher. If this is not feasible, speak to the SENCO or the head teacher. Hopefully, any issues can be resolved quickly and easily. However, if you still feel that you are unhappy with the provision your child receives at Albany Infant and Nursery School, please refer to the Complaints section of the school’s SEND Policy. This is on the school website, or a paper copy will be obtained for you.

The link governor for SEND is fully aware of the SENCO’s role. The SENCO meets annually with the link governor for SEND to discuss the children’s provision and progress. The link governor also is informed by the assessment coordinator of how children with SEND make progress. The assessment analysis is shared with this governor at an in-depth meeting at the end of the school year and each term, the SENCo and assessment coordinator report to the governing body to inform and up-them on the provision for children with SEND and the progress that has been made.

We operate what is called ‘a graduated approach’. This approach works like this:

1. Any pupils who are falling significantly outside of the range of expected academic achievement in line with predicted performance indicators and grade boundaries will be monitored
2. Once a pupil has been identified as possibly having SEND they will be closely monitored by staff in order to gauge their level of learning and possible difficulties
3. The child’s class teacher will take steps to provide differentiated learning opportunities that will aid the pupil’s academic progression and enable the teacher to better understand the provision and teaching style that needs to be applied.
4. The SENCO will be consulted as needed for support and advice and may wish to observe the pupil in class.
5. Through (b) and (d) it can be determined which level of provision the child will need going forward.
6. If a pupil has recently been removed from the SEND list they may also fall into this category as continued monitoring will be necessary.
7. Parents will be informed fully of every stage of their child’s development and the circumstances under which they are being monitored. They are encouraged to share information and knowledge with the school.
8. The child is formally recorded by the school as being under observation due to concern by parent or teacher but this does not place the child on the school’s SEND list. Parents are given this information. It is recorded by the school as an aid to further progression and for future reference.
9. Pupil progress meetings are used to monitor and assess the progress being made by the child. The frequency of these meetings is dependent on the individual child’s needs and progress being made.

Class Concern: The teacher identifies the child causing concern (e.g. lack of progress). The child is identified in Pupil Progress Meetings & selected for intervention e.g. ‘Closing the Gap programmes’. The child is identified on the school tracking systems for all pupils and on systems for evaluating intervention programmes. Some children might benefit from some personalised strategies (e.g. a child with communication and interaction issues might benefit from a friendship group). 

SEN Concern: The child will continue to cause concern despite intervention. Staff may feel the child might have a Special Educational Need underlying their lack of progress or their challenging behaviour and will begin to gather evidence. The class teacher follows the Local Authorities guidelines to help the child and ensure the correct intervention is made available. The school may seek advice and guidance from professionals like sure start children’s centre, the school nurse and speech and language therapists.

SEN support: The child has an identified SEND as defined by the 2014 Code of Practice. Provision for these children will follow the Graduated Approach cycle of Assess, plan, Do, Review to ensure that their support is appropriate and effective. The SENCO, after assessing the support already undertaken for the child may decide, in consultation with other professionals and parents, to make a referral for funding in order to support the child on a 1:1 basis so that s/he can access the curriculum more fully and make progress. At this stage, other professionals may become involved, like physiotherapists, specialist autism teachers and educational psychologists.

We have a very effective transition policy in place and this is on the school website. In addition to this, the SENCO devises individual transition plans for children with SEND and others who may be deemed to be quite vulnerable. These transition plans are a timeline of what will happen prior to your child starting school or nursery. This ensures a good, smooth transition for your child.

Parents and children are encouraged to make visits to our setting before joining us. If they are able to, children can then build up to staying alone without their parents for a session or part of a session, to help them integrate and meet others. Sometimes, our staff make visits to your child’s current setting (if they are transferring) and they will talk to the teachers there and find out about how your child is supported and learns. 

The SENCO may attend Multi-Agency meetings at your child’s current setting too as this helps us to understand what is already in place and who works with your child. It also helps us to see what has happened previously and to then build on this when your child transfers to Albany Infant and Nursery School.

For all new children starting at our nursery, parents are invited to a meeting where they will meet the headteacher and the teachers. Parents are encouraged to attend our ‘Stay and Play’ sessions. New starter packs are given out and parents have a tour around our school.

In addition to the transition plans mentioned above (12i), staff in consultation with the SENCO at Albany, have devised transition plans for all transfers between year groups and key stages. This includes visits, story and milk times in new classes, shared playtimes and assemblies, new teachers visiting your child in their current class/year group and also visits to the junior school to take part in assemblies, playtimes and lessons. These times gradually build up throughout the school year so that when your child finally transfers to a new class or school, s/he knows exactly what it will be like.

Children receiving 1:1 support, as part of their individual transition plans, will make special visits for short amounts of time to their new class with their 1:1 support worker – who will usually transfer to the new class with the child if possible when they move.

As Albany Infant and Nursery School only teaches children up to the age of seven, this is not applicable for our setting.

The following contacts may be useful for you:

If you are interested in finding out how an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) might benefit your child, information can found via the SEND Local

Offer:www.nottinghamshire.sendlocaloffer.org.uk or by speaking to an Education, Health and Care

Plan Co-ordinator on: 0115 9774012 or 0115 9773323 or by contacting Ask Us Nottinghamshire on: 0800 121 7772

The Children’s Centre Service works to ensure young children get the best start in life and that their families are supported to help them achieve this. Our Children's Centre Service provides a range of services for parents to be and families with children under five years old who live in Nottinghamshire.

https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/care/early-years-and-childcare/childrens-centre-service 

Chilwell Childrens Centre : 0115 9773743

A Place To Call Our Own Ltd (APTCOO) – support for parents of children who are disabled:

 Email: enquiries@aptcoo.co.uk  website:

www.aptcoo.co.uk

Tel: 01623 62 99 02

NORSACA is a regional UK autism charity that works with adults and children affected by autism in the East Midlands.

Tel: 0115 976 1805 Website:

norsaca.org.uk 

 Ask Us Nottinghamshire. This was previously known as the Parent Partnership Service. – The service offers advice and impartial information for families with a child with a disability or special educational need.

Tel: 0800 121 7772. Email:

enquiries@askusnotts.org.uk.