Grass Roots Early Years Provision
Grass Roots Private Day Nursery Tel:01422836280 grassrootsdaynursery@gmail.com
Grass Roots Preschool Tel:01422417659 grassroots.newroad@gmail.com
Learning and Development at Grass Roots
"Play is the highest form of research' - Albert Einstein
How your child will be learning:​
Children in the early years learn by playing and exploring, being active, and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outside.
​The EYFS Framework explains how and what your child will be learning to support their healthy development. Your child will be learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding through 7 areas of learning and development.
Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first. These are:
· Communication and language
· Physical development
· Personal, social and emotional development.
These prime areas are those most essential for your child’s healthy development and future learning. As children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas. These are:
· Literacy
· Mathematics
· Understanding the world
· Expressive arts and design.
These 7 areas are used to plan your child’s learning and activities. The professionals teaching and supporting your child will make sure that the activities are suited to your child’s unique needs. This is a little bit like a curriculum in primary and secondary schools, but it's suitable for very young children, and it's designed to be really flexible so that staff can follow your child's unique needs and interests.
The Learning Environment:​​
At Grass Roots Private Day Nursery we aim to provide a happy, stable and caring environment in which, through play, children aged three months to rising fives can explore, enjoy and progress to their fullest potential at their own pace, through both child and adult initiated learning experiences. We shall promote equality of opportunities and positive attitudes to issues that arise both from a multi-cultural society and from those with disabilities, to help children interact well with other children and adults. Staff will be positive role models and supportive of children’s individuality, culture and learning experiences. This shall be achieved by providing challenging and stimulating experiences in line with our learning and development policy that takes into account a child’s individual needs, their interests and choices, as well as encouraging the involvement of parents and carers, to build on what has been learnt at home. Planning will be based on the Early Years Foundation Stage programme, working towards the Early Learning Goals, covering 3 prime areas of learning, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development and Communication and Language and Four Specific areas of learning Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, Expressive Art and Design as well as children’s interests, building on what the children already know, observation and assessment.
The layout of Grass Roots Private Day Nursery allows children to initiate and put into operation their own plans during child initiated work time. Materials and equipment available for the children to use are easily accessible encouraging independence, appropriate to their stages of development, adequate to support all areas of children’s learning and development, and regularly maintained and replaced. There are places for children to display their work, a visual timetable of the session and an information board for parents and visitors.
Local Offer for Children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) (accessible ONLY in England)
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How does Grass Roots Private Day Nursery know if a child needs extra support?
We have an embedded system to ensure that a key person is allocated to every child. This key person completes regularly observations that are then used to inform the child’s planning around their individual needs and interests. These include interests from home and interests at nursery. The key person completes assessments on every child to identify any support that may be required. These assessments are shared with the parents who are encouraged to add their comments. We then implement a joint approach. When a child initially starts with us we provide settling in sessions where the key person familiarises themselves with the child’s individual needs, interests and abilities. This is the initial opportunity for the parents to identify any needs with the key person so that these can be catered for. The parents and the key person complete an initial starting point of development form on this settling in session to identify any concerns.
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How will the staff support the child?
We have a nursery SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator) that has been trained through the local authority and Grass Roots to support the key person, child and families to ensure that the child’s individual needs are met. We have robust policies and procedures in place which are reviewed regularly ensuring that our resources and environments are suitable and accessible for all. The SENCO will work closely with the key person to differentiate resources, experiences and activities to support the child. They will also work with the key person to provide personal plans for each individual child based around their abilities and interests. The SENCO will liaise with other professionals (with the parents consent) such as Early Years Inclusion Officers, Speech and Language Therapists and Health Visitors to gain further advise in supporting each individual child. The SENCO and the key person will work collaboratively to ensure that these targets and strategies are implemented. The plans and activities will be reviewed by the key person, SENCO and the parents regularly to update plans and provide support for all children.
How are parents/carers included in the child’s education and curriculum?
Parent’s communication is valued and the key person will work together with the parents to ensure that every child’s learning is supported. At the initial settling in sessions the parent/carers will work with the key person to settle the child into the nursery. Throughout this time the key person will review the information sheet to understand the child’s individual routines, needs, interests and abilities. The parents are encouraged to work together with the key person completing observations and activities for home to keep them informed of new interests so that this can be incorporated in the activities that are planned for that child. The parents will be invited to attend regular meetings to review the child’s progress. Every child has their own learning journal that the parents can view at any time. The parents are encouraged to add their views and comments.
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. Grass Roots is committed to the Manager, key person and SENCO working with the parents to provide the best plan for the child to have the best access to all of the resources and activities every day to meet their needs.
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 the nursery the key person will work with the parent to devise appropriate times for the child to settle into the nursery at their own pace. When a child transitions to another room throughout their time at Grass Roots, the key person works with the new key person to relay and hand over relevant information for that child. The child will have a range of settling in sessions into the next age range to secure successful transitions. The new key person will ensure that the child’s interests and needs are catered for and that the child is well adjusted to their new room and peers. When a child is ready to transition to School the new teachers will be invited into Grass Roots 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.
For further information please contact the nursery manager.