Policies and Management

Management Committee

A parent management committee - whose members are elected by the parents of the children who attend the pre-school - manages the preschool. The elections take place at the pre-school's Annual General Meeting. The committee is responsible for:

• employing and managing the staff;
• making sure that the preschool has - and works to - policies which help it to provide a high quality service; and
• making sure that the preschool works in partnership with the children's parents.

The Annual General Meeting is open to all the parents of the children who attend the preschool. It is their forum for looking back over the previous year's activities and shaping the coming year's activities.

Policies

We are very pleased that our Ofsted report (November 2014) highlighted that our policies, and the procedures we use everyday, ensure the welfare of the children at our group is at the forefront of our working practice. They said:

"Safeguarding is effective. The manager and all staff have a detailed understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities. They fully understand what to do if they have any concerns about a child's welfare"

"Staff place a high emphasis on ensuring children feel safe, secure and welcome. Children show high levels of well-being. The pre-school is full of happy children." OFSTED (2019)

The preschool's policies help us to make sure that the service provided by the preschool is a high quality one and that being a member of the pre-school is an enjoyable and beneficial experience for each child and their parents.

The staff and parents of the preschool work together to adopt the policies, and they all have the opportunity to take part in the annual review of the policies. This review helps us to make sure that the policies are enabling the pre-school to provide a quality service for its members and the local community.

Below are some of the policies and procedures we adhere to:

For all other policies or for any questions you have please feel free to contact us.

Special needs

Our Manager/ Senco is a qualified level 3 Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator and will work with Children, their families and Key Person to support children requiring extra support. They will also refer them to Specialist services such as Speech and Language therapy; Communicationand Interaction Teams; The Early Years Special Intervention Teams (EYSENIT). They will apply for additional funding to get the right amount of support for your child whilst they are at Preschool and work with your child's key person to Plan, Review and Do (through the graduated approach) appropriate activities and interventions to help your child to develop and challenge their abilities enabling them to get the most our of Preschool provision, supporting their learning journey to school and for the rest of their lives. As part of the preschool's policy to make sure that its provision meets the needs of each individual child, we take account of any special needs which a child may have. The preschool works to the requirements of the 1993 Education Act and The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (2015). See here for our Identification, Assessment and intervention Policy for Special Educational Needs.

Key persons

The preschool has a key person system; this means that each member of staff has a group of children for whom they are particularly responsible. Your child's key person will be the person who works with you to make sure that what the preschool provides is right for your child's particular needs and interests. When your child first starts at the preschool, they will help your child to settle in and throughout your child's time at the preschool, they will help your child to benefit from the preschool's activities.

"Staff work closely with parents to ensure children feel confident about starting pre-school. Staff continue to work closely in partnership with parents throughout children's time at the setting". OFSTED (2019)

Memory Books

The preschool keeps a 'record of achievement' for each child, through a "Memory Book". Staff and parents working together is one of the ways in which our pre-school works in partnership. Your child's 'Memory Book' helps us to celebrate together their learning and development, to plan for providing care and stimulating activities which your child needs to support their well-being and to make progress.

Ofsted reported in our inspection July (2019)

"Staff make accurate, ongoing assessments about children's progress and use these well to plan how to meet their individual needs."

OFSTED (2019)

Your child's key person will work with you to keep this record. To do this you will collect information, together, about your child's needs, activities, interests and achievements. This information will enable the key person to identify your child's stage of progress. You will then decide on how to help your child to move on to primary school with your key person.

Learning opportunities for adults

As well as gaining qualifications in early years care and education, the preschool staff take part in further training to help them to keep up-to-date with thinking about early years care and education. We regularly employ an apprentice to support the Early Years work force going forward, working with Local colleges such as Abingdon and Witney and Active Learning. Annually we have work experience students as well as student placements from college.

The preschool also keeps itself up-to-date with best practice in early years care and education through the Early Years Alliance's magazine, 'Under Five' and publications produced by the Early Years Alliance. The current copy of Under Five is available for you to read.

From time to time the preschool holds learning events for parents. These usually look at how adults can help children to learn and develop in their early years.