Happy Stars Day Nursery Local Offer

How will Happy Stars support my child while joining the setting? How will Happy Stars Identify if my child has Special Education Needs or Disability? And what should I do if I have any concerns?

When joining Happy Stars your child will be allocated a key person, who will play a very important role in your child’s life, the key person role is to ensure that your child’s feel safe and secure in there environment, and they are a parents first contact.

The key person first introduction to yourself and your child is during a home visit before your child starts at the nursery. The home visit allows the key person and parent to discuss the child interests, stage of development and any concerns the parents might have.

Parents are provided with a welcome pack during this visit and relevant policy and procedures are discussed. During this visit parents are asked to fill out an information form about their child and this is used to gain, as much information on the child before they start Happy Stars, and this will support the initial assessment process for your child.

Your child will be allocated visit dates and these dates are worked in partnership with the parents, visit dates can be extended in order to meet the individual needs of a child.

As soon as your child starts Happy Stars, an initial assessment will be carried out over the first two weeks of your child time at Happy Stars and enables your child's key person to monitor what stage of development they are at, using the early years foundation stage and other appropriate checks. Developmental assessments are on going and termly trackers allow your child's key person to monitor all children's development.

If you are worried about any areas of your child's development you should speak to your child's key person or the nursery manager. Who will then speak to the nurseries Special Educational Needs Co-coordinator, who with permission may seek further advice from other professionals.

You can also contact your local health visitor or GP for advice.

How will Happy Stars support my child during their time in the setting and how are the resources allocated and matched to children with Special Education needs and disabilities?

An initial meeting will be arranged with your child's key person, manager and nursery SENCO. The concerns will be discussed and strategies will be put into place. An individual plan will be set up. This will be reviewed in six weeks. At this meeting, review of current targets will take place and it will be discussed if we should seek additional advice from outside agencies and with parental consent referrals will be made.

Resources in the setting are careful selected for children's age, stage and development needs. However additional resources will be acquired if a child has specific requirements.

How will Happy Stars support my child’s learning and how will I know how my child is doing.

The nursery feels strongly about working in partnership with parents in order to support their child's learning. Regular communication is always delivered at the end of your child's session and the nursery also communicates through the following ways:

• Individual profiles - a learning journey that monitors your child's development through observations, planning and assessments. These are accessible to parents online.
• One to one key person meetings - these are done twice a year in order for parents to discuss and support their child's learning. Next steps will be developed together. However meetings can be arranged at any time through out the year at either parties’ request.
• 2 Year old progress Checks – These are done with your child’s key person and the parent and will form the basis for early intervention if any concerns may be discussed – the report should be shared with the child’s Health Visitor.
• EY-Log   - weekly updates are posted on to EY-Log. It provides information about your child's week including activities they have participated in and suggestions on how to continue this learning at home. Home activities are sent home twice a month this includes the benefits and encourages the parents to give feedback and send pictures.
• Daily Feedback - Your childs key-person will provide daily feedback on how your child’s day has been and any development discussions.

Parents play a huge role in supporting their child’s learning at nursery, and at Happy Stars we feel it vital to offer parents a number of opportunities to participate in various events and activities taking place in nursery e.g play and stay session, family events, trips out in the local community and further a field. We also encourage parents to share their own skills within the nursery, and parents can come and do an activity with the children for e.g cooking, doing a musical session and some gardening

What support will there be for my child’s overall well being and how will their views be taken in to account in order to meet their needs? How will my child be included in activities outside the setting trips? And how does Happy Stars manage the administration of medication

Children's well being at happy stars is paramount the environment is careful organized to ensure children's well being is met to the highest standards. The environment will be assessed and adapted to meet your child's needs where possible. Your child’s key person, through daily observation and communication verbally and non verbally will be able to take your child’s view in to consideration when planning for your child’s overall experience at Happy Stars

We believe all children have the right to access all activities and learning that takes places. We will adapt activities to ensure all children can participate and are provided with equal learning opportunities. This includes activities that take place outside the setting. These activities will be careful planned to ensure your child can fully participate. Risk assessments will be carried out before the trip and if necessary one to one support will be arranged. Places of visits will be informed of child's needs if required.

If a child requires medication we will obtain information about the child’s needs for this, and will ensure this information is kept up to date.

We follow strict guidelines when dealing with medication of any kind in the nursery and a copy of the nurseries medication policy is included in the nursery welcome pack.

Medication will be administered by a fully trained First Aider

Happy Stars is set on ground level, the building is wheel chair accessible with a disabled toilet allocated on the ground floor. Children have access to free flow play opportunity, which is accessible to all the children, activities and the environment is adapted in order to suit a child’s individual needs. The garden has a ramp, which allows wheelchair user to access most areas of the garden.

How is staff at Happy Stars helped to support children with SEND and what training do they have? And how will they prepare for my child to transfer to a new setting

There are two staff members with SENCO training and in house training is delivered to other staff members to ensure the continuity care is delivered throughout the nursery. The SENCO’s work closely with the Local Authority advisory teachers, local Authority Early Years Inclusion Support Co - Ordinator and other professionals in order to develop their knowledge and further there training when working with children with additional needs.  The SENCO and any key person working with children with SEND will attend any relevant training delivered by the Local Authority.

A practitioner working with a child with SEND will be allocated additional time to support their role. When a child is due to transfer to another setting

How will Happy Stars help the transfer to a new setting?

 When a transfer to a new setting is required, a transition meeting will be arranged, this meeting will include the nursery SENCO, the child’s key person, Parent, Nursery Manager, the Local Authority Early Years Inclusion support Co-ordinator, outside agency and the new school representative.

The meeting will discuss the arrangement that will be put in place in order to deliver a smooth transition for the child. All relevant documents will be discussed in the meeting and all relevant

information will be provided to the new setting, provided permission is sought in advance from the parent.

Who can I contact for further information

 Joan Byas                                                              Teresa Jones

Nursery Manager                                                   Nursery SENCO

What should I do if I want to make a complaint?

If a parent would like to address a complaint – they should follow the complaints procedure located on the nurseries parent board or in our policies