SEND Information Report 2024-25: our part in the Local Offer

Low Hall is an inclusive maintained nursery school in Walthamstow and we welcome children with a wide range of special educational needs and disabilities to our playful learning activities. Our educational provision has been judged outstanding by Ofsted, and we have been awarded the Inclusion Quality Mark. The IQM assessor recommended that we work towards becoming an IQM Gold Mark for Special Educational Needs in the coming year.

We support all children, regardless of their starting point, through our Ordinarily Available Provision. Some children need more support, which they receive from our SENDco (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator) and our team of highly-trained SEND Teaching Assistants. We fund this through notional SEN Inclusion Fund (SENIF) funding. If we need further advice, we then apply for a higher level of SENIF funding, asking advice from other agencies. Occasionally, children will need an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). If they have not made progress after all the levels of support, these children are usually two years behind developmentally or have a life-changing medical disability.

We continue to improve our facilities for all young children and their families. We create an atmosphere of calm engagement with the natural and social world built on mutual respect. We treat all children as equal. Each child has a unique identity and a unique way of living and learning and developing alongside other people. Therefore, children with SEND follow the same curriculum as all the children, however they are assessed using SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) targets that are created to fit their individual learning and development needs. Their progress is reported directly to their parents in regular meetings.

Our team of experienced early years educators and teachers know how to encourage young children to talk, communicate and learn in social groups. They have been very successful in helping children with language, learning and physical disabilities by individually tailoring support towards their needs and abilities and continuously building on their learning.

We work closely with parents to make each young child’s first experience of school enjoyable and beneficial.

It is very important that you let us know as early as possible if you know your child will need specific support from experienced staff or if you are worried about your child’s learning and development. This is because research confirms that early intervention ensures the best outcomes for children. If you would like to discuss your child’s needs you can make an appointment to meet the SENDco, Nalinee Sabaroche by emailing school@lowhall.waltham.sch.uk or calling 020 8520 1689.

From September 2024, Waltham Forest are funding a small number of places in the SEND Centres of Excellence, in the three Maintained Nursery Schools, for children who are under NELFT, who have complex needs and may then require a special school primary place. For this academic year, we have been asked to select children that are already in our schools, that are in receipt of SENIF, who we are in the process of applying for an EHC plan. This funding will ensure that the maintained nursery schools are funded from the beginning of the school year for this small group of children, so that we can maintain the costing of the SEND team that we already have in place, with additional training and support from Educational Psychologists and Speech Therapists. This money will be agreed year on year via the Waltham Forest Schools Forum. Our aim is to work closely with the Early Years SEND Pathway Team to ensure that complex children are offered nursery placements in advance of their start, then working with Waltham Forest, to ensure that they are then offered Special School or provision-based places as they move up to Primary School.

Speech and Language Therapy

The Speech and Language Therapist (SALT) holds a drop-in speech and language therapy session at the Queens Road Family Hub, 1.30 -3.30. If your child has speech and language delay, the SENDco may arrange for you to meet the SALT in nursery to discuss how to support your child. The SENDco, the SALT, or you yourself can refer your child for speech and language therapy at Wood Street Health Centre.

We work closely with the Early Years Inclusion Pathway Team, who are based at Wood Street Health Centre to ensure that local children access the right nursery age provision for their needs. Once at Low Hall Nursery School we follow the advice of local doctors, Educational Psychologists, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and other health professionals. We will be developing this in great detail this year as we work with the Early Years Inclusion Pathway Team to develop the Centre of Excellence, ensuring that children who have had support via the health teams and the early years services are given places at one of the three Centres of Excellence.

As the needs of individual children present themselves, the SENDco will arrange training for the nursery team from relevant professionals.

Educational Psychologist

We have links to an Educational Psychologist (EP) who will observe children and give advice and support to staff and parents.

Lead professional

The SENDco usually acts as the lead professional working with the other agencies that may have input in your child’s care and education.

Starting Nursery School

In line with our nursery school admissions and transitions policy, we ensure that two- and three-year olds in our area are able to take up their entitlement to a free early education place for fifteen hours per week. When allocating places, we consider the specific needs of children who have an identified special educational need or disability. We work with families who would like their child to attend more than the core school 15 hours to assess whether we can support the child’s needs to the high standards we expect.

At Low Hall Nursery School, we find our stay and play sessions, ‘Visiting Day’ a positive way to introduce our setting. We work closely with the relevant health professionals at this time so we can plan a smooth transition for your child into the Nursery School. The more we know about your child’s needs before they start Nursery School, the better we can help them cope with changes. We operate a key person system so that every child has a named member of staff who helps them settle in and keeps in regular contact with parents/carers to talk about the child's learning and developmental progress.

The SENDco will liaise with anyone else who has been working with you and your child before they start Nursery School. Whenever possible she will attend meetings with the Wood Street Child Development Team and prepare reports and plans for children with special educational needs or a disability. Please contact Nalinee, the SENDco at Low Hall Nursery School, if you would like to discuss your child’s needs with her.

Special Educational Needs Early Years Practitioners

If your child has special educational needs or a disability, they will be allocated some time to work with a Special Educational Needs Early Years Practitioner who will implement a programme that is tailored to their needs. These members of staff have received training on a wide range of SEND. They will be given advice from the SENDco, the Educational Psychologist, and the Speech and Language Therapist, as well as other outside agencies. These very experienced practitioners deliver intervention groups such as social groups and ‘Attention Bucket’ daily.

Advice can be sought from specialist teachers from the Lime Academy Hornbeam School (Brookfield Campus), Whitefield School and Joseph Clarke School. If your child has a condition that we are not so familiar with, we will seek out a specialist to advise us as to how best to support your child.

At nursery we use Makaton signing and Picture Exchange Communication system (PECS) signs and symbols to support communication when appropriate, as well as other communication tools. The SEND team receive ongoing training in a range of different specialist programmes including Attention Autism and Colourful semantics. We produce SEND Support Plans in partnership with parents and carers and then we use those to assess children and celebrate the children’s progress.

Education, Health and Care Plans

If your child has complex needs which are likely to be long-term, we will discuss requesting SEN Inclusion Fund (SENIF) funding and/or applying for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) with you. EHCPs detail the support a child needs and how this will be provided. We will do this in partnership with parents, carers and the Local Authority. Please note that the Local authority makes the final decision to issue an EHCP for your child, if they feel that your child will need it. We will support parents to develop the plan for their child in partnership with all relevant agencies e.g. the Health Visitor, Speech Therapist and Educational Psychologist.

The Waltham Forest Local Offer sets out the advice and support which the Local Authority provides. It has information about rights, benefits and support, as well as links to many different organisations.

Resources

We use specialist equipment and adapt resources and the environment as appropriate for children with SEND. At Low Hall Nursery School, we have visually- and sensory-stimulating resources which we use to motivate the children. We also use interactive resources with the children. Staff are trained in the use of PECs and other communication systems.

At the Nursery the outdoor provision is used just as much as a learning environment as the indoor provision, with children able to access physical activities and experience the natural environment. We have a dedicated Forest School Area and Forest School accredited staff. We promote strategies to enhance self-esteem and modify behaviour, independence and a “can do” attitude to learning. We help children to view themselves as successful learners. We use strategies to help children understand appropriate behaviour and manage their own behaviour and to begin to self-regulate their own behaviour.

Starting Primary School

Smooth transition to Primary School is very important to us. We can support and give advice to parents to complete the Primary School Admissions Form.

We will support you to arrange visits to schools which have specialist provision if your child has complex learning and development needs. We discuss your child’s needs and strategies which worked successfully for your child at Nursery School with their new teacher before they start their new primary school.

We will arrange additional visits to your child’s new school in order to help them settle in. The Key Person will attend the first transition meeting with the schools with specialist provision in order to help make the transition as smooth as possible.

Working in partnership with parents

Everything we do at Low Hall Nursery School we do in partnership with you as parents. Your views and knowledge of your child are vital to our success in building a complete picture of how we can best help them.

We recognise that parents have a wealth of knowledge and insight about their young children and we value what you can tell us about your child’s interests, habits and daily routines. We want your child to get the best out of time at school when you are not around. We want you to know what your child is learning, who s/he is playing with and how s/he is progressing. We want to hear your views and ideas for how we can help your child. In order for this to happen we arrange for times when parents and staff can talk together about your child’s Learning Journey and early records of achievement.

We keep advice and details of organisations that families might find helpful on the Get Help page of our website, and email the link to all new families.