Caversham Nursery School is an Outstanding Nursery situated within a purpose built single storey, easy access Children’s centre, The Nursery School that opened its doors on 21st April 2009 at this new site, with the new Daycare opening in May 2009.

We re-registered in August 2014 as we changed our name and merged with the Maintained Nursery School and we are no longer under the Children’s Centre registration.      

We take children in receipt of 2 yr funding.

We are a fully inclusive nursery that is currently able provide 35 full time equivalent places for under 3’s which takes into account the staffing levels and floor space available and up to 24 extended service places for children attending the inventors room (3-5 yrs.)

Updated Local Offer - May 2018

When we offer your child a place you will be offfered a home visit where you can discuss your child's needs and any worries you may have about them starting nursery. 

Once your child starts with us their key person and buddy will monitor and support your child’s development through observations. This information is used to plan appropriate activities and experiences for your child taking into account their interests, needs, likes, dislikes and preferred learning style. This enables us to identify and intervene at an early stage if there are concerns about your child’s progress/development. We would work closely with you and any other professionals involved in your child’s care to support their individual needs.

The staff team are supported in their work with children who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) by the setting’s Inclusion Manager who is a qualified Special educational needs co ordinator and can provide or access information to support children who have additional needs.

We work in partnership with you and we have a range of ways in which we would keep you informed of the support we are providing for your child.

During your home visit and subsequent transition visits we will discuss the best way we can support and care for your child.

Your child’s key person or buddy will be your main point of contact and they will talk to you

about your child’s day and the progress they have made.

Your child will have an online learning journal that wil be completed by their key person. You have access to this at any time and we ask that parents add their own observations from home and make comments on the key person's observations.  Each child has a focus week approximately 6 weekly and as part of htis we ask you to complete a questionarre and then have a meeting at the end of the week to discuss your child's progress and to consult with you about the best way to support your child.

We sometimes use a communication book shared between nursery and home as this can be an extra tool.

We would encourage you to share your knowledge of your child with us and information from any other professionals involved in supporting your child.

We provide a wide range of activities and experiences for all children's individual needs through the use of observations and really getting to know child, by spending quality time with them by following their interests and needs.  This means that we are fully inclusive and able to support children appropriately.

Depending on each child's needs we are able to offer a wide range of strategies to support them. for example putting in place personalised visual timetables, using signs and developing behaviour plans or individual education plans. This is all done in partnership with parents.

Being that we are within the children’s centre we can access the health team as well, the speech and language team for additional support and advise as appropriate. We also have professional access to the educational psychologist for either anonymous advise or for an arrange consultation regarding a named child if appropriate.  

We believe that by working with all relevant professionals gives a much better and holistic picture of children and we welcome visits from specialists working with individual children and we try to visit them if they attend another setting or to relevant appointments. 

We have procedures in place to ensure any information shared with other professionals is only done so with the consent of the parents and in line with our confidentiality policy.

The staff team are supported in their work with children with special educational needs and disabilities by Kate Wiggins our Inclusion Manager. If your child requires additional resources or additional support, the nursery will make an application to Reading with your agreement Borough Council’s Early Years Inclusion funding panel. This panel will consider a child’s need and if appropriate and funds allow they will award money or services to the nursery to support the child.

This funding could be used to provide additional resources or support workers who will be employed by the nursery and supervised by Kate and the child’s key person.

Your child's Key Person continuously observes your child to help them monitor their progress and ensure that the activities we provide meet their individual needs and help them to progress. They will be responsible for keeping their online learning journal updated and will complete a tracking document which also helps them to monitor your child's progress. You have instant access to your child's online learning journal.  We also offer regular meetings with yourself to discuss how well your child is progressing within the nursery.   You are also invited and encouraged to contribute to these journals by adding observations from home or making comments on those uploaded by the key person.

These records are also used to provide information for your child's transition record when they move to a new setting or on to school.

In addition, as part of the EYFS, we are required to provide you with a written summary of your child's progress between the ages of 24 months and 36 months. This check will detail your child's development

in three prime areas, which are:

• Physical,
• Communication and language
• Personal, social and emotional.

We also comment on their learning style by commenting on their characteristics of effective learning and plan next steps with yourselves.

This document can be shared with your health visitor to help give them a full picture of your child's progress when they carry out your child's developmental Review.

We follow children's interest and as part of this we would plan activities for each child as a follow on from observations. We have introduced in the moment planning whereby the child leads their learning and the team move this forward during each interaction.  

The nursery is committed to providing appropriate and high quality care and education to all the children who attend. We believe all children, including those identified as having special educational needs, have a common entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum, which is accessible to them and fully inclusive. The nursery will work with you and any other professionals to understand your child’s needs and where possible make reasonable adjustments to allow full access for your child to these entitlements.

Our building is fully accessable for the with mobility difficulties or wheelchair users.

We have a robust transition programme that ensures that your child will be supported by their key person during a time of transition.

Their individual needs will be taken into consideration and their family consulted throughout the process whether this starting at the nursery or moving through rooms. When your child moves on to school the key person will prepare a final observation giving an overview of your child and their progress, which will be shared with you before being passed on to school or new setting.

The online journal which can be downloaded together with their tracking data showing where they are in their development. We send off the children's last observation (that focuses on their characteristics of learning) together with their Data Tracking showing their development to their school or new setting. We hold parent meetings at different times of the year explaining the process of application and transition to school for your child. 

During the transition period professionals from the school or other setting are invited into our nursery to meet the child here. We also offer to make a visit to the new setting during the child's transition visits. This is done in consultation with you. 

In addition to this special activities designed to prepare your child for the transition, will take place in the term before a child starts school.

Every fortnight the nursery Inclusion Manager meets with the room leaders to review the progress of the group of children who have identified Special Educational Needs. During these meetings we evaluate the progress each child has made and assess if our strategies to support them are working or if they need to be reviewed.

If your child has a individual education plan, it will be reviewed regularly by the SENCO and key person to assess what progress a child has made and to plan their next steps. This information is shared in a meeting with you and you will be asked to comment on their progress and to contribute to the formulation of their next plan.

The child’s key person and the nursery SENCO are always available to listen to your comments and views on the SEN provision.

Pat Pearson is our Administration and Business Manager who can be contacted on 0118 9375429 or on admin@cavershamnursery.reading.sch.uk We also have a detailed website where you can get lots of information www.cavershamnurseryschool.co.uk  If you wish to discuss any special needs your child may have you can discuss this with our Lead teacher and Inclusion Manager Kate Wiggins.

We believe that the very positive and open relationships we have with parents ensures that the majority of them feel able to be open and honest with us about their views and that we listen and take them into consideration when reflecting on our practice and future plans.

We use any feedback constructively to review and improve our practice, put on parent workshops, sessions and contribute to the development plan for the nursery.

We have a complaints procedure that all parents receive a copy of when they join us.