S

Stanah Sunflowers Pre-school

Lambs Road

Thornton/Cleveleys

FY5 5JR

01253 850890

 

E-Mail: stanahsunflowers@hotmail.co.uk

Age Range: 3-4 Years

Name of Contact: Miss Debra Elrick (Nursery Manager)/

 Mrs Elizabeth Shaw (SENCo Team) Michelle Wraight (SENCo Team)

 

About the Setting

       Our setting is situated in a semi-rural area, and is surrounded by farmland and houses in front of the building. At present the majority of our children are from a white ethnic background, however recently we have welcomed more children from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Our pre-school provides a welcoming and caring environment and reflects social and cultural diversity and is equally accessible to all. We are made aware of children's religious and cultural background through our initial registration form.

                    Sunflowers pre-school is situated within the infant school building the rooms consist of three open through rooms with direct access onto a large outdoor physical play area. The middle room has a large sink for adults to wash items in and two small sinks for children to wash their hands in after activities and before snack time. There is also a water fountain for children to access independently throughout the day, when they are thirsty. Rooms are lit by strip lighting, and two of the main playrooms have very large windows which provides plenty of natural light as well as skylight windows. Floors are vinyl tiled throughout the three rooms, apart from a carpeted area in one room used for carpet time and quiet reading. All our rooms have height/size appropriate tables and chairs which would accomodate wheelchair access.

          We name each of our rooms Rainbow Room, Snack Room and Quiet Room. The Rainbow is a tiled floor area which consists of sand, water, creative workshop area, malleable area, a creative table and a large role play area. There are large cupboards floor to ceiling that are used for storage and equipment. The Snack Room is the main room for access and entry. This is the room with our parents/carers notice boards. This room is used for wraparound snack time and lunch time meals. There is an area for food preparation, a fridge, a microwave etc. It also has a table for table top activities for during the day. The Quiet room has a large carpeted area with age appropriate comfortable seating and pull down blinds. We also have a large interactive whiteboard on the area. This room has large storage areas and two floor to ceiling cupboards. One is filled with mathematical activities and the other is communication and language activities. Small world activities are set up within this room, plus an ICT area, a comfy story area and a construction building area.

          We also have separate male and female toilets and hand washing facilities which are situated in the foundation department within easy access for our children next to our pre-school.

          We also have use of the large school hall for activities requiring extra space. Off the hall leads out to our fenced and gated secure outdoor sensory garden, this is where we provide all our continuous provision daily. There is safety flooring in this area and a variety of other textured flooring including grass, bark and sand for the children to explore. Set into the soft flooring is an age appropriate climbing frame and slide. There are two large sandpits one at floor level for children to walk-in and another at children's height to play. Planters surround these areas filled with plants and vegetables for children to observe growth. We also have a sensory garden with various herbs and grasses in. For the children to smell, taste and hear.

          The school setting is surrounded by a wide variety of outdoor spaces for children to play.  Giving children the opportunity to explore their outdoor environment. We also play on the grassed hills and a small tree area known as 'Fairy Woods'. In this area we have some play equipment. This includes a mud kitchen, at child level and a dirt pit on the floor.

          The school also has an enclosed meadow area which we can also explore with a seating area, staged platform and small woodland area for climbing and hiding in. The setting is surrounded by beautiful fields where children can play under adult supervision.  Our setting provides open access to the school playground and during our allocated times we can use this area. It consists of a large wooden house, a wooden pirate ship, wooden balancing bridge and climbing area, planters containing a variety of plants and painted floor activities.

         

 

 

 

Opening Times

          Our pre-school is open during term time only and our open dates are the same as our school. We have four options available

Option 1- 8:45am-11:45am

Option 2- 8:45am-1 o'clock

Option 3- 12:30pm-3 o'clock

Option 4- 8:45-3 o'clock

Mixed options are available.

          We offer our pre-school to any child from 3 years of age until they start school. We do offer a before and after school facility, but only for school aged children not for pre-schoolers. Our setting is registered for 24 children per session, with 5 qualified members of staff. The manager of the nursery is Miss Debra Elrick who has ran the nursery for more than 16 years she has many roles within the setting, including the PICO (Parental Involvement Co-Ordinator), Nominated Safeguarding Officer, ELAC (Looked After Children) and a keyworker.

          The deputy is Mrs Elizabeth Shaw, her roles include keyworker and part of the SENCO team (Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator) this role is also supported by the nursery manager.

          Michelle Wraight is part of the SENCO team and also has the responsibilities of the ENCO (Equality Nominated Co-Ordinator), keyworker and nominated first aider which entails ordering appropriate resources and equipment. This role is also supported by the manager in case of absence.

          Other staff include April Reynolds and Tricia Huggard who are also keyworkers and Cath McCarron who supports keyworker staff by observing and assessing the children. All our staff are trained in Peadiatric First Aid and Food Hygiene. We are also happy to provide students the opportunity to come and train with us and offer them a welcoming and supportive work environment.

          The nursery manager is responsible for all the business aspects of the setting and the overall running of the facility. This is supported from all the staff on role and a very supportive committee, who assist in the decision making and supporting the manager to ensure the pre-school runs successfully and efficiently.  We are a very committed work team and the majority have all worked together for over 10 years, which helps the pre-school to run successfully. New staff are welcomed into the pre-school and are given an informative induction program by the nursery manager. This helps staff to settle in quickly and become a valuable member of our team.

          All our rooms are displayed using all the children's work making it very colourful and inviting to children. Toys and resources are made available for children to reach at their own leisure and they are asked frequently what activities they would like to play. Our rooms are well resourced with age appropriate activities and the continuous provision is enhanced weekly with equipment relating to our topics.

          Our policies are shared with staff/students during their induction period. Copies of our policies are given out to parents to read, a questionnaire is attached to this which gives parents the chance to ask questions. Our policies clearly state the procedures that will be followed if necessary. We ask our parents to sign our policy document to show they have understood and they consent to this.

 

Accessibility and Inclusion

Our facility has sloped pathways with a handrail leading up to the infant building. The building is also equipped with efficient width doors for wheelchair access.  We also have a private disabled bathroom available for children and staff with wheelchair access and a changing bed. The toilet is fully equipped with handrails either side so the children can use this independently if required or with assistance from staff if needed. It has an alarm facility in case of an emergency.

          Our school car park has allocated disabled spaces for staff and parents to use. It is up to the head teachers discretion who gets allocated with these spaces, and this must be approved before parking in these areas. Our pre-school has no onsite car parking for our parents/carers, but it has plenty of very close off site parking.

          Access into the building is via a coded locked door which is also equipped with height appropriate door handles for added security, to ensure children cannot let themselves out unsupervised.  

          On entering our setting we have an enormous notice board this shows parents/carers who staff are with staff pictures and names, OFSTEDs complaints procedure and contact details, insurance documentation, registration certificates, policy document poster, OFSTEDs latest inspection report, tax relief voucher information, Lancashire school places information, emergency contact change reminder, our ethos, holiday dates to take away and funding information. Leaflets are available for parents to take away these include drop in centres in their area, swimming lessons, Taekwondo classes, dance classes, Tumble Tots etc. We also have a further notice board which has further information on for children with additional needs. This board is updated regularly with the local children's centre 'Whats On' guide. Information is also displayed on our windows. Parents/carers can also see our giant keyworker flowers showing photographs of each child, with a photograph of their keyworker in the centre and individual staff planning sheets which all staff add too during the day when individual children choose which activities they would like to play. Activities are planned from our next step findings, which are displayed on the petals of keyworker flowers this ensures each child is making steady progression though their own areas of interest.

          We proudly boast the relationships we have with our parents/careres. A member of staff are there to greet the parents each day on opening the door for the arrival and departure of their children. Parents/carers are given the chance to speak to staff daily as we have an open door policy and will always try to make time for our parents in privacy if required. If parents/carers struggle with communication or written materials, their child's keyworker with verbally talk to them on a regular basis or use the internet to translate the information for them.

 

Identification and Early Intervention

 As soon as a child starts Sunflowers they are allocated to a keyworker adult this is whom the child has particularly taken to. . Each parent/carer is asked to complete an 'All About Me' book with their child immediately after they start at Sunflowers. It is then up to the child's keyworker to assess this booklet and start to work on areas they may be struggling with. This also provides a general starting point to a child's progress and offers the child's keyworker individual knowledge about that child e.g. fears, likes, dislike etc. Activities are planned from this for individual children straight away and the majority of children begin to make steady progression on a regular basis.

          Each child takes home a parent communication bag fortnightly. Their keyworker will write relevant information sheets indicating our topic details and an outline of up and coming events for that half-term, progress comments or any concerns.  Parents/carers are encouraged to write comments back, send in certificates or badges and add photographs of activities they have done outside of pre-school. All the information that is given by parents/carers is added to the child's learning journey and is assessed. The parent communication bag also gives them chance to voice any concerns about their child if they do not want to come in and do it verbally. This communication link will explain how parents/carers input into a child's learning is so important to us. If a child was failing to progress the keyworker may suggest activities they could do at home with their family members. We also have a Facebook page which is updated regularly to inform parents/carers of things happening in Sunflowers. The page requires parent/carers to request to join.

          Our parent and carers are involved from the very beginning when they apply to the nursery by filling in a registration form. Our registration form is very informative and gives us a very clear idea of the child's weekly routine. It asks questions such as 'Who has parental responsibility for the child?' and 'Does the child live in two or more different households?' This may seem a little invasive but it is very important as a practitioner to know the child's background. It helps to build up a picture of the child's life and also ensures everybody in contact with the child receives all relevant information, because we all play an enormous part in a child's life and value that learning begins at home and we can extend on the wonderful job that parents/carers have already begun. Our registration forms also asks about nationality, ethnic background and the language most spoken in the child's home. We need this information, not in order to discriminate but to provide our parents/carers with as much information as possible before their child starts at our setting. Information may be needed to be translated into another form e.g. language, brail or verbal not written. Our registration form also asks parents/carers to specifically clarify if there are any special requests/requirements which we need to be aware of prior to the child starting the group e.g. fears, changes in circumstances, siblings, shared housing, dietary requirements, religious needs/beliefs or any words the child may use to help them communicate their needs. We ask parents and carers to specify changes that may have occurred in a child's life no matter how small they are, they can have a massive impact on a child and may be a reason to why a child is displaying certain types of behaviour e.g. sadness, tiredness or is over excitable. It is also vital on this form that permission is gained or declined to share photos of the children e.g. for newspapers, websites, school photographs etc. If this is not authorised it is vital that all staff are aware of this as this may be a safeguarding issue (ELAC-Looked After Child) which privacy of the child's name MUST be kept confidential to the setting as is all our information stored on every child. Parents have the opportunity to write additional information on the registration form, but may wish to do this verbally when they are invited to come and have a look round the setting and meet the team, see what activities are on offer and observe the welcoming environment their child will be coming to. The manager gives them a welcoming chat and asks them if they have anything they would like to discuss or have any concerns regarding their child.

          Children are monitored and assessed closely by individual key workers and by other staff working in the setting. The children each have a learning journey and this records progress through observation e.g. post-its, pictures, photo observations, written observations and collections of work. A tracking system is in place which is colour coded and shows keyworkers exactly how much progression a child is making through our half-termly topics and clearly shows which areas they may be struggling with or need to visit from their next steps. Details of our Leaning Journeys will be clearly discussed with parents/carers when their child starts at Sunflowers. Parents can also speak to staff on a daily basis and also make an appointment to speak to staff at a more convenient time. Parents/carers can communicate by telephone and staff may send questionnaires home to fill in and return. Staff are always at hand to try to help resolve any problems or issues whenever possible, and support our parents/carers giving guidance and helping in any way we can.

          Children's progress is very closely monitored in our setting and if we felt the child was not making sufficient progress or was struggling in a particular area e.g. speech and language development, personal and social development or physical development, we would look closely at what procedures need to go into place. Strategies may need to be put into place which may include a 2 year check, a TLP (Targeted Learning Plan). A TLP would be put into place and closely monitored half-termly. All staff and parents/carers will have a copy of each individual child's TLP's to ensure we are all meeting the child's needs and the child is gaining the opportunities to contribute positively within the group. The majority of children start to progress once they have matured a little but others may still be showing delay which may result in the child showing signs of frustration. We would invite parents/carers into the setting on a regular basis and share their child's Learning Journey, assessments and TLP's. With our parents/carers permission outside agencies may need to be contacted e.g. speech and language therapists, SEN inclusion team (request for guidance). A SEN All About Me profile would be completed if needed. This involves the child's comments and feelings and any other persons involved to share input. Sunflowers staff are all aware that some children have special educational needs and/or a physical disability that requires particular support and assistance. We are very dedicated to taking appropriate action to ensure all our children are able to easily access our setting, and are made to feel welcome and that all our activities promote their welfare and development. Sunflowers pre-school is committed to the integration of all children whilst in its care. We also believe that children with special educational needs or a physical disability have the right to play, learn and develop to their full potential alongside other children whenever possible. Every child will have access to the same facilities, activities and play opportunities as their peers. It is within our interest to identify individual needs and to take pro-active step alongside parents/carers and other statutory professionals or agencies. Our ethos is all children should be able to play a full active and equal part in our setting. It is the managers and SENCO's role to ensure all up to date SEN training is undertaken to ensure our knowledge is consistent with the current legislation and guidance.

          Specific areas of development will be individually planned to support the child and to give them the experiences they need to help enhance their development. Our SEN policy provides the context to support children through the correct SEN procedures. We share our policies with our parents/carers and give them opportunity to ask us relevant questions which they sign to say they will work with us to ensure these policies are met. They may also recommend areas for improvement regarding SEN which we will implement on immediately or if not possible this would be added to our development plan.

 

 

Teaching and Learning

Once the child has been allocated their keyworker, it is the keyworkers responsibilty to ensure the child's interests are being planned for and evidence is recorded in a variety of ways. Evidence is recorded in an individual assessment file for each child. This indicates whether the child Emerging, Developing or Secure at a particular learning outcome. If the child is emerging on a learning outcome this shows indication that the child has participated at a particular activity but needed a lot of guidance and needs a lot more practise. This evidence is dated and placed on the child's next step flower petal and a record of this will also be in the child's assessment file which activities would then be planned for the child to develop this. If a child was developing at a learning outcome this would indicate the child shows good understanding and skill but has not quite achieved it independently this would also be placed on the child's next steps to further secure. If the child confidently achieved the activity with independence and knowledge showing a good understanding of the learning intention, and had already achieved this during numerous different activities, this would indicate to the practitioner that the child is now secure at this learning outcome and activities would be planned to stretch the ability of the child to develop the next steps in that area of learning. This process of assessing each child individually ensures the children are all making steady progression. Lower age range assessment sheets may need to be used if a child is developing at an earlier age range from the EYFS this helps us to identify what age a child is at and activities would be planned for this accordingly. The 2 year check would also help to identify this.

           A parent/carer communication daily diary may be put into place for children with specific needs. This is to share interesting information with parent/carers and also enables them to share information, achievements or places that have visited with us which practitioners could then share with the group at topic time particularly if the child struggles with communication skills. This also gives parents an insight into what their child has particularly enjoyed at pre-school which they can then discuss with their child at home, to help develop children's language skills. Our staff are excellent at differentiating activities to ensure we are meeting individual children's needs. This may be by simplifying or extending and activity. It is the SENCO's role to ensure all appropriate work is completed for a child with SEN this is supported by the nursery manager and all other staff are involved and aware of the individual TLP's. Provision mapping is a system we use to record the progression of individual children's need with SEN and to determine which procedures we need to put into place to further assist the individual child. There are 3 levels which are referred to as waves. Please refer to our provision map attached to this document.

          We send out questionnaires with our Learning Journeys so that parents can comment or make recommendation to improve our practise. This is also acted upon immediately or added to our development plan with ideas with what we can do as a team to implement these changes. Our setting closely liaises with our local children's centre and we share information with all our parents. This has involved parent workshop, parent courses, children's workshops, special events, staff training and in house story sack sessions etc.  Our school which we are attached to also holds parent/grandparent workshops which also involves pre-school parents/carers to join in. Newsletters go out weekly with upcoming events. Parents may be spoke to verbally if necessary. At Sunflowers we value our children's views and opinions. The children are involved in our planning and with support and reassurance quickly become independent learners. Our children are confident to ask for activities they enjoy and we try to make resources accessible for our children to get out and explore.

Quoted by OFSTED 'Our children display exceptional behaviour'. We have many reward systems in place within our setting which definitely help to contribute to this these include stamps, stickers, star charts and star necklace awards. Children receive the star award for many reasons these may include being kind, helpful, fabulous and clever this encourages the children to look after each other and learn to be thoughtful, caring and considerate. Our Sunflowers motto is 'We Share and Care at Sunflowers' At topic time the children have the opportunity to observe their friends receiving the star awards, explanations of why the children are getting them for example 'Today Jack is getting the helpful star award for helping Poppy to zip up her coat' . Children are also asked if they have any friends they would like to nominate for an award, for example - child's voice 'I would like Katie to get the star award because she hugged me when I fell over'. We regularly look at our key children's Learning Journeys together, and celebrate their achievements. Giving the children positive praise and confidence. We ask the children 'Do you remember that activity? What were you doing? What were we learning about?' etc. We encourage children to take their own photographs which contribute to their Learning Journeys under ICT.

          The EYFS identifies 3 Prime areas and 4 Specific areas of learning and development.

PRIME AREAS

PSED-  Personal, Social and Emotional Development

PD- Physical Development

CL-Communication and Language.

SPECIFIC AREAS

UTW- Understanding the World

EAD- Expressive Arts and Designs

MD- Mathematical Development

LIT- Literacy

          Parents/carers receive regular information about the EYFS and how we assess their children in all the areas of learning. We have library activity bags available for hire, which children get to choose. Parents/carers are encouraged to take photos and to write about how they have enjoyed the activities in the bag. We also have a parents library, and the parents are provided with a list of our interesting books to hire. These books include 'A Parents Guide', 'Sneaky Parenting', 'What to Expect in the Toddler Years', 'How to have Happy, Healthy Children', 'Raising Boys' and many many more. We value what all our children say and use this in their individual Learning Journeys, this helps us to plan from their individual likes and interests.

 

Provision and Resources

We are very fortunate to have many resources in Sunflowers, and when we order our resources we always take into consideration how we can meet the needs of all the children in our care. We have full cupboards of age appropriate activities that help to develop all areas of learning. We have a very well resourced communication and language cupboard which are used on a daily basis and are planned for. We have well planned outdoor continuous provision daily which stretches our children physically to develop gross motor skills. Sunflowers is run by a management committee which consists of the support of our dedicated parents. We hold regular meetings and this enables us to discuss what resources are needed. Staff are encouraged to be involved when we put our order together, resource lists are put inside cupboards for staff to write on. This also helps us if resources run out. The majority of our resources are ordered from the YPO catalogue, but we are also given petty cash for resources so that staff can collect resources and be paid for them. These small resources have included torches, mirrors, magnifying glasses, magnets etc which excites children's learning, imagination and development. At Sunflowers we have bank staff who can come in on an as and when needed basis this is useful when our regular employed staff go on training courses or staff may need to attend in house meetings with other professionals or catch up on their paperwork (LJs, TLPs, reviews etc.) Over the years we have purchased a wide range of books and resources to support children with special needs. parents are given relevant information and advice to help support them. Staff are given time to research information online if they are unsure of the answers.

          For children who are under a speech and language specialist, we ask for their information to be shared with us. We can then devise the activities to make them more exciting for example we have made post boxes, feely boxes, race tracks etc so children can physically as well as verbally interact.

          Once a child has been closely observed and we felt the child needed additional help we would put additional support into place. We have a reserve of money for this and can use our additional funds for extra staffing. We also have a reserve for course training which all staff are encouraged to undertake and paid for. This helps to develop their knowledge and skills regarding SEN. Every member of staff has a development file which identifies areas to develop. All our keyworker staff are level 3 qualified and the majority have worked within the setting for 10 years and over. Our SENCO team have worked at the pre-school for over 12 years and has attended all the relevant training regarding SEN and is excellent at recognising children with additional needs. Observations from all the staff help to consolidate this which would then be confirmed by a specialist. Training helps staff to learn how to meet individual children's needs to the best of their ability.  Our setting values that our staff may need non-contact time in order to speak to outside agencies or research information. The manager of the nursery has achieved her NEBS Management award, and received outstanding in leadership during her OFSTED inspection. Quoted by OFSTED 'The manager values the opportunities for staff to further their training skills and supports them in doing so'.

          When we have booked school trips in the past we always make sure we can involve every child so our trips and outings are researched well in advance. Staff undertake a risk assessment before the trip commence to ensure the facilities meet our children's individual needs. Parents/carers are invited to join us on our outings. Which gives them the opportunity to meet up with other parents/carers and have a chat. This helps to develop excellent relationships between our parents/carers and staff.

          If a child moves to another setting, with our parents/carers permission is forwarded to the new setting, this includes registration documents, individual assessment sheets, TLP's, speech and language reports or any additional relevant information.

          When children leave Sunflowers to go to their new reception class a transition document goes with them. Clearly identifying background information, what age level of development they are at in all areas of the EYFS, children's own thoughts and views, a written report from the child's keyworker and parent/carers comments. If a child has a TLP in place the most recent targets will be included in their transition document and any other additional information sent by outside agencies. If required, a transition review will be set up inviting all professional agencies and parent/carers involved with the child before they start school. Our pre-school children have the opportunity to visit the adjoining school on a daily basis for particular activities. This help them develop a very smooth transition into school.

 

We celebrate that our knowledge and past experiences of working with children with special educational needs helped us to receive an outstanding OFSTED report.

 

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are always here to help.