Our Local Offer
At Sunbeams Day Nursery, we treat all children as individuals and provide flexible care and routines to meet their needs.
Here is information about what support and services Sunbeams Day Nursery provides for children and their families with Special Education Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND).
FAQs
Your child will have a key person and a secondary key person who oversee their learning and development. This includes observations, assessments, 2yr progress checks and reports. Their regular interaction with, and knowledge of your child help them to identify where extra support might be needed. As a small setting, all members of staff working at Sunbeams will get to know your child.
Each term, you can meet your child’s key person for more formal feedback on their progress and to discuss, in more detail, any concerns that either party may have.
You can also share any thought or concern with our Manager, or our SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator).
All staff at Sunbeams will work hard to build a positive relationship with your child and develop knowledge of their individual interests and needs. This will help staff to provide tailor-made, quality care and support your child’s well-being and development when at nursery.
Our setting SENCO can offer additional support, strategies, and suggestions to help identify any extra needs your child may have. We can also contact additional agencies and other professionals as needed.
At Sunbeams, we will arrange individual programs to settle your child into nursery, for when they need to move from room to room, or to school. We aim to be flexible to meet their needs as best we can.
Your child will be respected as an individual and their learning and development will be supported in a way that is appropriate to their needs and stage of development. We will plan activities and provide resources based on each child’s interests, needs, learning and development.
The security and safety of all children is a high priority for us, and we carry out regular health and safety checks, risk assessments and policy and procedure reviews.
We promote healthy living and provide lots of opportunities for physical exercise for all children. We follow an Early Years Nutrition Program and provide balanced and healthy meals and snacks throughout the day. We will consult with you closely to provide for any special dietary requirements, as necessary.
There are small slopes and some uneven ground in the outdoor area, but this is still accessible to pushchairs, wheeled toys and our evacuation cot.
Our rooms are open plan with a flexible layout and moveable furniture.
Resources in each room are stored in low level units and are easily accessible to the children.
Child sized toilets and sinks are easily available from our Toddler room, Pre-School room and garden.
Support might include:
- Specific planning for on-going activities and resources for your child. An Individual Support Plan will be put into place for their care.
- Our nursery SENCO can access support from South Gloucestershire SENCO and may need to communicate with any other settings involved with your child’s care and development.
- You will always be included in any decisions made to refer your child to other agencies for support.
Before starting at Sunbeams, we gather as much information about your child and home routines as possible. This can include a home visit, should you think this would be useful. All of this knowledge is used to inform the support and care that we provide for your child.
A flexible plan for settling in visits is agreed with you in advance. This could include several visits before your child starts so you can leave them for short periods of time.
When moving on from Sunbeams Day Nursery we ensure that all information is shared with the new setting/school, including support plans, strategies and your child’s learning journals for example. Liaising with a new setting or school we can, with your support, offer meetings, visits, or share appropriate resources for your child during the settling period.
Verbal feedback is shared with you or whomever you have arranged with us to collect your child. Some children also have communication diaries to share written information between home and setting on a regular basis.
Our online learning journal, ‘Tapestry’, allows you to contribute to your child’s on-going observations, assessments, and next steps.
Staff regularly share knowledge, activities, and resources with parents to support home learning. We have a lending library and activity resource bags that all children are encouraged to take home as appropriate.
A selection of open ended and natural resources are available in all areas of the nursery.
Specific resources to meet an individual child’s needs can be sourced and provided where possible e.g., borrowed from the local authority, hired or purchased. We have also hand made many resources and activity packs to meet children’s individual needs.
All staff treat children as individuals and vary their care and provision to meet each child’s individual needs.
Children with a special education need or disability will have an individual support plan in place. This will be shared with all staff and include details of the support and strategies being provided for your child.
Key people in the room work together to provide care and support learning and development for all children. Knowledge and information about children is regularly shared between staff and all may contribute to observations and assessments.
‘Staff are exceptionally well qualified and use their experience to develop impressive strategies that support children with disabilities and those with special educational needs’. Ofsted August 2016
We will talk to you about all opportunities for your child and involve you in planning and risk assessing as needed.
We have a setting Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) who oversees the provision for SEND children and offers support and guidance to key people as needed.
We work closely with the Local Authority to access additional support e.g., from the inclusion team, Speech and Language specialist as required.
We can make referrals to appropriate external services and with your support and permission, communicate with other professionals to provide specialist care and provision where needed.
All children are treated as individuals and the provision and care they receive at Sunbeams is flexible to meet all children’s individual needs and interests.
‘Staff carefully plan experiences that take into account the needs and interests of each child’. Ofsted August 2016
The Setting SENCO and Leadership Team have attended various training courses on supporting children with SEND and the role of the SENCO.
All staff are given regular updates and reminders on changes to SEND policies and procedures as well as information about the SENCO role.
Key staff at Sunbeams have attended Makaton training and shared this with the whole staff team. All staff are encouraged and supported to be using Makaton to support communication with all children in the nursery.
All key staff have paediatric first aid training.
At Sunbeams Day Nursery your child’s key person, other key staff, the setting SENCO and nursery manager are always happy to meet with you to discuss your child’s needs, care and learning.
Our policies and procedures contain more detail and further information for example: Inclusion, supporting children with SEND, promoting positive behaviour and working with other agencies. You can ask our Manager to see these policies
You can also contact your local children’s centre or doctor’s surgery GP/health visitor for support or additional information as required.
Various events throughout the year will be organised to include parents e.g., activity weeks where parents join in sessions/activities at nursery with their child.
Our parent newsletters and regular emails offer two-way communication and often ask parents for their involvement, suggestions, and feedback on what we are doing.
Parents are encouraged to contribute to their child’s learning and development by sharing information from home, adding home observations to tapestry, borrowing home activity bags and much more.
