How does Little Monkeys Day Nursery know if children need extra help and what should I do if I think my child may have special educational needs?

Key Worker: The role of the Key Worker is to help each child settle into nursery and to help build trusting relationships with the staff. They are also responsible for completing the child’s Learning Journal, observing if key milestones are being achieved and putting in a plan of action, together with parents, if there are any concerns. All key workers and staff work in partnership with parents at all times. This involves regular informal discussions as well as more formal discussions, all of which help with great partnership working.

EYFS: The nursery works to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) which sets out an educational framework outlining key developmental milestones for all children at different stages of their school lives.

LEARNING JOURNALS: Each child will have their own Learning Journal which tracks their development against the EYFS Development Matters section. The Journal contains daily observations, pictures, art work and comments from parents charting a child’s progress against all 7 areas of the EYFS. The seven areas are:

1. Personal, Social, Emotional Development
2. Communication and Language
3. Physical Development
4. Literacy
5. Maths
6. Understanding the World
7. Expressive Arts and Design

SENDCO: The Nursery has two trained SEND-CO (Special Educational Needs and Disability Co-ordinators) whose specific role is to ensure that children are developing in line with laid down guidelines and if there are any concerns that these milestones are not being met, then a meeting will be arranged with the parents to discuss a plan of action.