St Christopher's Robins

Support for people with disabilities

Access Suffolk

Experience of including people with special educational needs and disabilities

What  does St Christopher Robins offer children who need extra support? 

We have an embedded system to ensure that a key person is allocated to every child.  The key person completes regular observations that are used in planninf around a child's individual needs and interests.  A wide picture is achieved by including information regarding the child at hime, at the setting as well with the insight of other professionals.  The key person uses the assessment to establish any support which may be required along with managers and SENCOs.

These assessments are shared with parents, who are encouraged to add their input, and so a joint input between parent and setting is implemented.  We regularly seek the parents' input and provide information to support.  We approach this by using a home to setting book for daily information sharing about the child's day.

When a child initially starts with us, we provide settling in sessions, where the key persom familiarises themselves with the child's individual needs, interests and abilities.  This is the initial opportunity for parents to identify any needs, interests and abilities.

An initial starting point of development form is completed between the key person and parents upon entry, and this servies to identify any initial concerns.

How do staff support the child?

We have a lead SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator), and supporting SENCO, that has been trained through the Local Authority, and other relevant training.

Both members have dedicated time to engage in training to support children and families to ensure that the child's individual needs are met.

We have robust policies and procedures in place which are regularly reviewed, ensuring that our resources and environments are suitable and accessible for all.

SENCO's work closely with the key person to identify resources, and activities to support the child.

Our planning  is the same as all children in our care is observation based, where we look at how we deliver activities or support to meet individual an child's needs, and engage the child with personal interest and using supporting resources. We understand that to be inclusive, we need to provide activities for all children but acknowledge all needs to enable all children to access the experiences of offer.

The SENCOs will liaise with other professionals (with parental consent), such as Early Years Inclusion Officers, Speech and Language Therapists, and Health Visitors to gain further advice in supporting each individual child.  The SENCOs and the Key person will work collaboratively to ensure that strategies to reach targets are implemented.

The IEP plans and activities will be regularly reviewed by the key person, SENCO and parents to update plans and support for all children.  We aim to keep all care givers up to date and meet regularly.

We believe that partnership with parents is a key role, we give parents time and ensure that they are involved in all aspects of our planning.  This is done through daily home books, My Learning Journey, home observation sheets, review meetings and handovers.  We give parents a copy of our plans to build awareness of all our roles and to show how we are supporting the child's development.

How accessible are the environments?

If the family has English as an additional language, they will be encouraged to share key words in their home language for the key person to understand with the child.  Most staff have been trained to 'Talk to my Heart', where the lead SENCO has implemented with the talk talking books.  This was implemented with the parents to foster parent relationship.  This has also helped the book be meaningful to the children.

Both our settings are groung level with easy access for wheel chair users.

Helping with transitions

Transitions are a key time for any child. The key person ensures that these transitions are well planned and supported.

When a child first starts at our setting, the key persom will work with the parent to devise appropriate times for the child to settle into the setting at their own place.  The key person will spend time observing and interacting using one to one time to begin to build a relationship and help the child feel secure.

When a child is ready to transition to school, the new teachers will be invited into School to meet the key person and all relevant transition supporting documents are completed and relayed to the School to ensure a smooth transition takes place for all children.

We plan our school transition in advance, and establish schools being attended.  We look at the needs of children and form a group transition plan which links to all children's own needs.

We also show the photos of the schools which the children will be attending, share stories about new schools, and have uniforms of the schools to show them what they would wear at school. Visits from Teachers and visits to schools with children.

We provide the school with our transition information in getting to know me book.  Our key persons dedicate time to each child to support the transition that is ahead and work with parents and the school to establish positive support.

For further information, please contact St Christopher Robins.

 

 

Contact

Hayley or Kerri

Telephone

07934 245460

Conditions Supported

Autistic spectrum conditions

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