We are an independent nursery with places for children from three months to five years old. Where children who attend the Orchard Day Nursery have Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND), the Nursery will make every reasonable effort to ensure that these children are able to be fully included in the life of the Nursery and access the same opportunities as all other children.
THE SEND Code of Practice 2016 defines a child under compulsory school age as having a special need when he or she “has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age or has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others at the same age in mainstream schools.”
We cater for all forms of Special Educational Needs, as long as we can offer a provision that is suitable for the child’s ability, aptitude or SEND.
We have a strong belief in the value of inclusion. We consider that all children, including those with SEND have a unique contribution to make. We plan carefully to differentiate provision to ensure that all children can access a full range of rich educational experiences. We believe that the child’s family should be fully involved in the process of planning for and supporting their child with SEND and that our role is to ensure families have full access to information regarding their rights and entitlement.
There are four areas which broadly cover the areas in which a child may have additional needs:
- Communication & interaction
- Cognition
- Social, emotional or mental health difficulties
- Sensory and/or physical
In addition to these four areas, the following are also acknowledged as areas where a child could have additional needs:
- Disability
- Health
- Speaking English as an additional language (EAL)
- Being a Looked After Child
- Being the child of a member of the Armed Forces
Where a child joins the Orchard Day Nursery with additional needs already identified, we will work closely with the child’s parents / carers and all professionals already engaged in supporting the child to maintain existing support arrangements at the Nursery.
It is acknowledged that the needs of children should be identified and met as early as possible to limit the impact of such needs on the child’s development. To this end, all staff maintain a responsibility for observing evidence which may indicate the needs of a specific child which are not currently being met and raising such evidence with colleagues and management as appropriate.
Where the Nursery staff identify potential additional needs, a discussion will be held with parents / carers as soon as possible. The purpose of this discussion would be to keep parents / carers informed of staff’s observations, and to discuss whether similar needs have been identified in the home environment.
When a child has additional needs, we will take all reasonable and practical steps to implement changes to the Nursery’s environment and operations to meet these needs. This may include, but is not limited to, the procurement of specialist equipment such as a walking aid, the re-configuring of furniture layout, acquisition of additional resources such as books in other languages, and training for staff to be able to meet the needs of the child. The welfare and care of other children will never be compromised as a result of making such changes.
Children with additional needs will, as far as possible, be treated in the same way as all other children. All staff qualified to act as ‘Key workers’ will be trained sufficiently such that any of them are able to have a key child with additional needs.
The Orchard Day Nursery has a designated Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator (SENCO) who is responsible for ensuring that children with additional needs are having their needs met, that children with additional needs are not discriminated against, and for providing support to other staff in relation to identifying, responding to, and supporting additional needs.
