At Micklands Pre-School, we create an environment where your child can 'Create, Explore, Imagine and Learn'. We offer a warm and friendly welcome for both children and parents. We encourage family involvement and are community focused. We constantly strive towards improvement. We provide your child with a happy, safe and nurturing atmosphere. We inspire to foster total development individualised to your child’s needs. We offer a broad range of educational opportunities and provide experiences that enrich your child’s social, emotional, physical, intellectual, cognitive and creative abilities. We aim to foster your child’s uniqueness and individuality. We provide a diverse, vibrant programme your child works towards common goals within the Early Years Foundation Stage. We set the foundations of your child’s first steps on their academic journey which can serve as the basis for all future learning.
 
Micklands Pre-School is a place where your child learns to enjoy school and to love learning through play. We promote educational learning skills irrespective of gender, cultural background or disability. We are committed to providing positive role models for all children in our care. We aim to instil morals and values to enable your child to continue through school with the necessary skills to promote life-long learning. We advocate a sense of belonging and strive to develop self-esteem through fun, love, respect, teamwork and equality. We celebrate our success with a great pride. 

Updated May 2023

Home Visits
Families joining pre-school will usually be offered a home visit. This is an opportunity for your child's keypersons to visit you in your own home. We will use this visit as an initial information sharing opportunity. We will spend time getting to know you and your child and finding out about your child's interests and development.
 
Keypersons
Our unique keyperson teams means that your child will be allocated two key persons. Their role is to monitor and support you child's learning and development through your child's interests and in play based environment. They key persons make constant observations of your child's development and will set appropriate next steps targets.
 
Monitoring tools
We use a number of monitoring tools to measure individual children's development and progress. This allows us to ensure that all children are making appropriate progress based on their individual targets and next steps. We also use our shared learning journeys to take account of skills and progress made at home, ensuring we have a true picture of your child's development.
 
SENCO
Our Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator is Claire Parker who  has undergone training in specific areas of special needs and her experience allows her to support individual children and families.

The SENCO will make referrals to other professionals outside of the setting if they feel your child requires further support or does not appear to be making the expected levels of progress.
 
Other professionals
Our pre-school works alongside other professionals in both health and education. There are referral routes we can implement with your consent if we feel your child needs assessment and support in a specific area of development.

Shared learning journeys
All children who attend Micklands Pre-School have an individual 'Tapestry' on-line learning journey which records photos, observations and comments, in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage.  This builds up a record of your child’s experiences during their time with us.

The benefits to yourselves as parents from Tapestry being online means you will have secure access to your child’s Learning Journey via a website which you login to using a unique user ID and password. (Please note each parent only has access to their own child’s Learning Journey).  You will be able to view all of your child’s observations, photographs and even video from their time at our pre-school. You will receive an email telling you when a new observation or piece of work is available for you to view. This will enable you to follow your child’s individual progress closely and you can reflect upon achievements with your child. Staff will reference your child’s learning to development matters so you will know which area of learning your child is achieving in and the age-band they were working in for that activity.

 In addition to viewing our contributions, we encourage you to add to it by uploading your own photos and comments so that we as a staff find out about activities your child really enjoyed and the learning they get up to at home. You can also comment on observations made by us.

Keyperson meetings
We have an open door policy and one of your child's keypersons should always be on hand at drop off or collection for you to speak to. This is an opportunity for short, informal chats. More in depth meetings are also available at any time but an appointment would need to be made.
 
SENCO meetings
If you or your child's keyperson has a concern about any element of your child's learning or development, we will hold a meeting with the pre-school SENCo to discuss next steps and appropriate levels of support.

We will get to know your child before they start with us through home visits, meetings with you and with other professional who are involved. We offer a flexible settling in routine that enables you to stay with your child until we are all comfortable that they are happy. 

On-going observational assessments will be used as a starting point within the first weeks at pre-school.  These observations will be linked to the EYFS stages and ages of development, allowing us to determine individual next steps and targets for your child.

Your child's keypersons and our SENCO will work together to make sure that the environment, routines and activities support your child's needs. Half termly staff SENCO meetings ensure that all practitioners are made aware of individual support required which provides a consistency of care.

We use many different resources, tools, teaching methods and strategies which are chosen and tailored to meet the individual child's needs. 

We will also implement any  tools and resources suggested by other professionals that may be working alongside your child.

 SENCO Support

Our SENCO provides specific support to children with identified additional needs. They also provide support for parents, carers and practitioners to enable them to implement suitable teaching strategies. 

If a child requires additional support outside our normal remit, then the SENCO is able to submit an application for support to the local Early Intervention Panel. This request could include additional funding for one to one support or an additional resource budget. Through other avenues they may also request the support of a family worker or other professional support.

Please refer to 'Shared learning journeys' above.

Our skilled practitioners ensure that all activities are individually differentiated and tailored to the meet the needs and learning opportunities of all children in the setting. Outings are carefully planned and risk assessed  and where necessary, a higher staff ratio is implemented to ensure that all children are able to take part and enjoy.
 

Our building and garden are all on one level with ramp access into and out of the building. We operate from one very large and spacious room with an accessible toilet. Our environment is designed to ensure that children on all levels can access the resources and play environments.

 All types of transitions are known to be times of particular vulnerability for young children, when earlier developmental and social progress is placed at risk. A successful transition to school is important for all children.

We recognise that children sometimes move to another early years setting before they go on to school although many will leave our setting to enter a nursery or reception class.

We aim to provide a stimulating educational program for each child with the purpose of preparing them for a smooth and happy transition to their next setting or to school. We aim to provide a play-based, comprehensive program whilst allowing children to choose a path of learning suited to their individual stage of development and interests. We will endeavour where possible to familiarise the children with the new environment to assist in the transition process.

Throughout the transition process, we involve the child, their parents and the receiving setting or school in this process. We prepare records about a child’s development and learning from their time in our pre-school.  In order to enable smooth transitions, with the parent’s permission we share appropriate information with the receiving setting or school at transfer.

Confidential records are shared where there have been child protection concerns according to the process required by our local safeguarding arrangements.

This procedure guides the process and determines what information we can and cannot share with a receiving school or setting. 

We welcome feedback for all aspects of pre-school and encourage parents to give us this via email, verbally at the door or in written form.

Our practice in all areas is constantly reviewed and any necessary changes made, including our SEN policy.

Our annual parent feedback questionnaire also covers all aspects of pre-school allowing parents give anonymous feedback which is then collated, analysed and an action plan drawn up.  The data from this questionnaire is then fed back to parents via the website and in a newsletter.

We would suggest you call us on 0118 947 1976 and make an appointment to come and view our setting.  This will give you the opportunity to see us in action and ask any specific questions you may have.

We will give you a Registration Form to fill in and our administrator will deal with your admissions application from there.

 We aim to provide the highest quality education and care for all our children. We aim to offer a warm welcome to each individual child and their family and to provide a caring environment in which they can learn and develop as they play.

We believe that children, and their parents, are entitled to expect courtesy with prompt and careful attention to their needs and wishes. It is our intention to work in partnership with parents and the local community and we welcome suggestions on how we can improve our pre-school. 

We will give prompt and serious attention to any concerns about the running of our pre-school and our fulfilment of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). We anticipate that most concerns will be resolved quickly by an informal approach to the Pre-School Supervisor.  If this does not achieve the desired result, we have a set of procedures for dealing with concerns. We aim to bring all concerns about the running of our Pre-School to a satisfactory conclusion for all of the parties involved.

Our approachable practitioners and  open door policy lends itself well to informal and verbal feedback. We encourage parents to tell us how they and their children feel about the setting. Daily chats happen at the beginning and end of every day and although informal, all feedback from parents is taken seriously.  It is passed on to management and committee and is dealt with in a professional manner.

Parent Committee

All parents and carers are welcomed and encouraged to join our proactive and friendly parent committee. The committee are very involved in current pre-school life and keen on shaping the future of our pre-school. They meet termly to review the previous term and plan for the the following term.

Parents who join the committee have voting rights on all major decisions and oversee the work of the pre-school management team.

Annual parent questionnaire

Once a year we send our in depth questionnaire to all parents requesting thoughts and feedback about everyday pre-school life. This is an anonymous questionnaire, allowing parents the opportunity to give both positive and constructive feedback without it having an impact on relationships. The results of this questionnaire are collated and analysed by the management team and all responses are available on the website. The feedback gained through this questionnaire process helps to shape our own regular evaluation and future actions.

Email

We often receive feedback from parents via email and respond to these at the soonest possible opportunity. 

Complaints

We have a complaints process and policy ensuring that all formal complaints are dealt with in a swift and proper manner. Please refer to our "Complaints Procedure" for more information.