LAYING A SECURE FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE LEARNING
We are sensitive to the individual development of each child and ensure that the activities they undertake are suitable for the stage that they have reached. Children need to be stretched, but not pushed beyond their capabilities, so that they can continue to enjoy learning. This is achieved by observing the children in a systematic way, we use an online system of recording observations and assessments called 'Tapestry, to monitor progress on their learning journey towards achieving the Early Learning Goals as set out in the “Early Years Foundation Stage”. Your child’s online journal  is always available for you to view and contribute to. We believe that it is important to work in partnership with parents/carers and welcome everyone to play an active role in supporting the child’s learning journey.
 

The Areas of Development and Learning comprise:

Prime Areas:
Communication and language
Physical development
Personal, social and emotional development

Specific Areas:
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design

More information regarding the Early Years Foundation stage can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2  or alternatively at

 the setting.

At Runnymede Pre-school we use development Matters to support us in delivering the Learning and development requirements. This is a non-statutory curriculum guidance and you can find out more about this at :

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974907/EYFS_framework_-_March_2021.pdf 

 The children are constantly encountering new experiences and seeking to understand them in order to extend their skills, develop their confidence and build on what they already know. The foundation stage is continued in reception classes in primary school. The foundation stage is based on seven areas of learning.

Three Primary Developmental Areas

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

This area of learning is about emotional well-being, knowing who you are and where you fit in and how to feel good about yourself. It is also about developing respect for others, social competence and a positive attitude to learn.

Communication and Language

The ability to communicate gives children the capacity to participate more fully in society. We will help your child to learn to talk confidently and clearly, enjoying stories, songs and rhymes. They will learn to link sounds with letters, develop writing skills, and become familiar with books.

Physical Development

The children will learn to improve skills in co-ordination, manipulation and movement, develop a positive sense of well- being and begin to recognise the importance of keeping healthy. They will have access to enjoy opportunities of outdoor play in our garden area and walks in the local area.

Four Specific Areas
Literacy

The children will learn to link sounds with letters, develop writing skills, and become familiar with books and text.

Mathematics

Your child will develop an understanding of mathematics through counting, sorting, matching, seeking patterns and making connections. We will encourage learning about numbers, shapes, space, and measures through games and activities.

Understanding the World

Children in this area of learning are developing skills and understanding that help them to make sense of the world around them. This forms the foundation for later work in science, history and geography. They will find out about past events in their own lives and those of their family. They will also find out about different cultures and beliefs.

Expressive Arts and Design

Children will be encouraged to express their thoughts, ideas and feelings, imaginatively using a wide variety of different materials and equipment including sand, water, paint and music.

Setting Provision

Runnymede Pre-school provides sessional, term time provision, 9am - 3.00pm Monday to Friday;  for children aged from 2-5 years, our setting operates an open door policy where parents/carers are free to visit and speak with our Managers, our SENCO- Sarah Debenham, key persons and practitioners. For further information or to discuss any queries/concerns please contact our Mangers/SENCO on the above contact details. All of our setting's policies including our complaints policy can be found on this website or a paper copy is available in our setting.

Accessibility and Inclusion

Our setting is located on the ground floor of Runnymede Hall, the building is wheelchair accessible and all on the one level, large parking spaces are available and situated nearby in the adjacent car park. Toileting facilities are wheelchair accessible and we have nappy changing resources/area for those children who require it.
We provide visual resources in our key areas by the means of labels, pictures and photographs. Our practitioners adapt the visual environment to meet the needs of their key child.
Pre-school newsletters, information regarding application for a place can be provided in languages other than English and we have one practitioner who has received Makaton training. Our policies and procedures can be made available in large print as well as additional languages. Talking point aids have been used to assist children with their communication to help promote understanding of our environment and resources.
Our setting SENCO is sensitive and approachable when discussing requirements to meet a child’s additional needs, working closely with our Managers, SENCO support, area SENCO, practitioners, outside agencies, parent/carers and children ensuring that the child and their parents/carers needs are fully met (Area SENCO offers valuable help, support and advice).
We have a parent/carer notice board displayed within the Pre-school foyer and in our small hall where the children are collected to ensure all relevant information is easily available, which can also be found on our website and Facebook page.
Our practitioners plan daily to enhance our provision/resources so that the environment may be adapted indoors and outdoors to provide play to suit each child's needs. We make every effort to ensure our environment is fully inclusive.

Transitions

Before the child starts our Pre-school parent/carers are made aware of our open door policy and are invited to visit with their child on as many occasions as possible, this enables the practioners, Managers, SENCO to gather and record all information, such as, needs, likes, dislikes for both the child and their parent/carer. This settling in period ensures the setting is able to meet the needs of the child in a caring, safe and suitable environment. One Plans can be devised if appropriate.
When preparing the child to move onto primary school, if appropriate, a one planning meeting with the family and all professionals involved is arranged with the SENCO, key person, parent/carer and relevant outside agencies involved with the child to ensure the transition to their new school runs smoothly. The school teacher is invited into our setting so that a good relationship can be developed between the child and their new key person also with parent/carer permission our learning and development knowledge of their child will be shared to ensure the next steps for the child are in place before they start.

Specialist staff Qualifications

Sarah Debenham - Designated SENCO & Deputy Manager

Catherine Vickers - SENCO support, Safeguarding support and Manager

We ensure our knowledge is up to date with legislation, guidance and know how.

Identification and Early intervention

Our parent/carers are regularly kept up to date with their child's progress in all areas of their development and learning. The child's 'Learning Journey' begins even before their first day at Pre-school, with our 'Starting Point Profile' completed in partnership with the parent/carer and key person on one of the many visits you and your child will have the opportunity of. At these visits there will be discussions with your child's key person, SENCO and Managers regarding meeting your child's individual needs. The visits also allows your child to become familiar with the routine, environment, practioners and bond with their chosen key person. The 'Tapestry online learning journal' provides a timeline of development by the means of observations, photographs and regular assessment of the child's next steps. This is an important resource for the key person, SENCO and Managers to ensure the setting provides planning to meet each child's individual needs, and if your child is not meeting their developmental milestones and/or the amount of support needs to be changed, these processes will ensure early identification and intervention. This is also a valuable line of communication between home and our Pre-school, especially if parents/carers are unable to regularly visit or collect their child from the setting. The Learning Journey's assessments are completed using the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) Development Matters guidelines. The regular assessments will identify early intervention and children who are not meeting their developmental milestones and strategies to support the child will be Assessed-Planned-Actioned-Regularly Reviewed, ensuring that parent/carers are able to support their child's progress at home working in partnership with our setting. Parent/carers are equally involved in creating their child's Tapestry journal by adding observations and photographs etc., so the key person is made aware of the child's likes/dislikes and achievements at home. Our policy is for our Pre-school and parent/carers to work in partnership, this helps us to achieve a strong, trusting relationship between our setting, the child and their family.
We hold supervision meetings which is one of our opportunities for Managers and key persons to discuss concerns/progress of children's development, staff meetings and our morning start up chats ensure all staff are aware of each child's individual requirements. If the parent/carer has concerns or worries regarding SEN, our setting will arrange a meeting to discuss the way forward. We then follow a graduated response system in accordance with our SEN policy;
SENCO supports staff in using observations to identify your child's strengths and interests and develop next steps to enhance their learning development.
The child's progress will then be monitored and reviewed regularly.
If a child requires additional support in any areas of their development, with the parent/carer's permission a targeted learning plans put in place, recording short targets for the child.
Planning the environment and resources will then be differentiated so that we can meet the child's individual needs.
Parental consent will also be sought to submit a 'Request for Guidance' from the local SEN inclusion Teacher.
 

We work in co-production with parent/carer's of children with Special Educational Needs so that we can create and maintain a positive partnership and an enabling environment, ensuring parent/carer's are informed at all stages of assessment, planning and provision reviewing their child's progress.
Our SENCO ensures regular meetings with all practioners E.g. Health Visitor, Speech/Language Therapist etc. concerned in your child's care, this is to ensure the child's needs are agreed, addressed and targets are met by everyone concerned in caring for your child. Parent/carer's concerns, opinions and agreement are sort every step of the way before we implement planning requirements in our setting.
Point of contact for additional information - Sarah Debenham our SENCO or your appointed Key Person.

Further advice and support can be found from our local Children's Centres, who if required offer workshops at our setting. 

Nearest Children's Centres to our Pre-school:

Little Handprints, situated in the grounds of Thundersley Primary School, Dark Lane, SS7 3PT, tel no 01268 753557

The two year progress check should not be confused with the development review carried out by your health visitor, and both need to be completed. 
Your Key-person should agree with you when to carry out The Two Year Old Progress Check so that ideally you can have a copy to take with you when your child has their health visitor development review. Both the health check and progress check are a means to identify your child's needs accurately.

What is the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Two Year Old Progress Check?

If your child is attending an early years setting, such as a pre-school, nursery or child-minder and your child is between 24-36 months old, the setting will carry out an assessment of your child's learning development as required by the EYFS. The EYFS sets the standards for development, learning and care of children from birth to age five. All registered early years providers are required to follow the framework from September 2021. It describes how your child should be kept safe and cared for and how all concerned can make sure that your child achieves the most that they can in their earliest years of life.
The EYFS requires settings to review your child's progress and provide you with a short written summary of your child's development in the prime areas of learning and development. The Prime areas are Personal, Social and Emotional development, Communication and Language and Physical development. The progress check must identify what your child is good at and any areas where your child might need extra support. It must also record what and how the setting is going to continue to support your child to further develop in each of the prime areas; these are referred to as 'next steps'. The progress check should be completed by your child's Key Person, as they will know best how your child is developing.
For any assessment to be useful and meaningful, including the Two Year Old Progress Check, then all adults working with your child need to share what they know about your child's development, to provide a full picture. As a parent of your child, you know your child best. You are your child's first and most enduring educator and you hold a wealth of knowledge about your child's development, what they like, what they are good at, what fascinates them. For that reason the check must be completed in partnership with you. Together you and the setting will use your shared knowledge and understanding to plan and think about how to support your child's continued development, both at the setting and in your home.

Some ideas of how to support your child's learning and development at home:
Cuddle up and read stories and share a book together
Cook and bake together
Explore the park
Sing nursery rhymes together
Talk about what you see when you are out and about
Plant and grow flowers and vegetables together
Go to the library and choose books together
Paint masterpieces together
Join in activities at your local Children's Centre
We hope you have found this information helpful and if you have any questions please see your child's Key Person.

At Runnymede Pre-school we follow the guidance of the Department for Education and Skills (Primary National Strategy) to promote the knowledge of Letters & Sounds.

Predominantly Phase One of this strategy is focused on the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage), Phase One through to Phase Six is taught up to Year Two. Phase One promotes development largely in Communication and Language, and Literacy, it teaches the children the skills to oral segmenting and blending familiar words.

Phase One is delivered through play - games, stories, rhymes, instruments, music and song. Listening to the children encourages confidence with their talking as well as role modelling how we enjoy reading books.

Further detailed information regarding this practice can be found at www.foundationyears.org.uk

In addition to this we support our children with the Jolly Phonics' programme which is the Literacy programme that our local Primary Schools follow.

The sounds are introduced to the children in this order: 
- s, a, t, i, p & n 
- c k, e, h, r, m & d 
- g, o, u, l, f & b 
- j, z, w, v, y & x

The aim of Jolly Phonics' is to teach a child how to - Learn the letter sounds, Learn letter formation, Blend sounds, and Identify the sounds in words. Further detailed information regarding this practice can be found at www.jollylearning.co.uk

Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) development

Our Pre-school encourage all our children to regard all faiths, races and cultures with respect and tolerance.
We promote the British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect.

Our setting provides opportunities throughout the environment to:
• Enable children to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence
• Enable children to distinguish right from wrong
• Encourage children to accept responsibility for their behaviour and to understand how they can contribute positively to others in their environment
• Enable children to acquire a broad general knowledge of respect
• Tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions and a respect of their own and other cultures
• Encourage respect of other children
• Encourage understanding of the democratic process

These opportunities can be achieved by:
• Including in our curriculum the democratic process (e.g. children choosing their own resources)
• Children electing their own representative (e.g. who role plays a part in a story)
• Children having an opportunity to defend decisions they have made (small group activities)
• Introducing an opportunity to explore all faiths

Our settings objectives are for the children to:
• Have and understanding of how each of us can influence decision-making through the democratic process
• Appreciate that that rules/laws protects us and is essential for our wellbeing and safety
• Understand they have the right to choose their faith or belief
• Understand that their and others choices should be accepted and tolerated
• Understand and deal with discrimination against themselves or others