Special Educational Needs and Disability

Article 29: Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full. It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures and the environment.  

Article 23: A child with a disability has the right to live a full and decent life in conditions that promote dignity, independence and an active role in the community. Governments must do all they can to provide free care and assistance to children with a disability. 

At Garretts Nursery School and Enhanced Provision we follow the Government Guidelines which have been outlined in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice 2015 (please follow the link below for further details).

SEND Code of Practice 2015

The Government explain that their Vision for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities is the same as for all children and young people – “that they achieve well in their early years, at school and in college, and lead happy and fulfilled lives.”

At Garretts Green we recognise each child is an individual and will have areas of strength and areas to develop. We respect each child will have different interests, likes and dislikes. We have high expectations for all children and understand children need to feel safe, happy, relaxed and motivated in order to learn and develop through the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)Curriculum.

On arrival to nursery each child will have a keyworker; they will be responsible for ensuring your child is included within a key group. They will also be responsible, with the support of Parents and other practitioners, to identify learning and development needs. We follow the Code of Practice Graduated Response (please see our Local Offer for further details) for all children in order to identify what needs to happen next.

Our practitioners have a wealth of experience with working with children with a broad range of needs and are skilled at making any necessary adaptations with the support of the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo).

At some time during your child’s school life you may find that staff approach you to share information about your child’s learning which shows that he or she is not making the progress that would be expected. This is always a concern for parents, often because they are unsure how to help or what might happen next.

Our school always tries to support parents at such a time. Staff are always willing to answer your questions and offer guidance, reassurance and support.

Access our information here about Special Educational Needs and Disability.

At Garretts Green Nursery School we have a SENCo team.  Our lead is SENCO is Claire Henebury who can be contacted at school via telephone: 0121 675 2284 or email: c.henebury@garretts.bham.sch.uk.  and an Inclusion Manager Alison Harris who can be contacted via email: a.harris@garretts.bham.sch.uk

The role of the SENCo Team is to coordinate extra support that your child may need within the school, and arrange for external support services who may observe, give advice and provide support for your child. The SENCO then coordinates review meetings for Early Support Plan and Education Health and Care Plans with parents, carers and external agencies.

We work with a range of external agencies in order to tailor the best possible provision for your child. These include Educational Psychologists, Speech and Language Therapy, Communication & Autism Team, Pupil and School Support, Area SENCO Team, Early Support, Physiotherapy, Health Visitors and Hospital teams where necessary.

Our school works closely with a number of external professionals and outside agencies. We have excellent support from Birmingham's Communication and Autism Team and from the Special Educational Needs Assessment and Review Service.

In 2013, we were asked if Genium, on behalf of the Autism Education Trust and Birmingham University, could film the good practice seen in our school to develop training materials across the country for the support of practitioners, parents and governors who work with children with autism.

Along with other settings evidence of our practice can be seen on the Autism Education Trust website in their Early Years section.

Visit Autism Education Trust website

Medical Needs

We are able to support the medical needs of children in school through careful liaison with parents and health professionals.

Our staff are trained to administer medicines for allergies and asthma and conditions requiring inhalers. Staff are trained to support children with febrile convulsions and epilepsy.

We regret that staff cannot administer medicines except those prescribed by a doctor. All medicines should be in original containers with the pharmacist's label clearly visible.