Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Centre of Excellence status.
No Ceiling to Achievements
Sheringham Nursery and Children’s Centre is very inclusive and outward looking with a dedicated, highly skilled staff, led by an inspirational Headteacher who states there is no ceiling to children’s achievements, especially for those who have additional needs. This vision is shared by everyone encountered on Assessment day, including staff, parents and Governors.
The staff are a strength of the Nursery and Children’s Centre. It was pleasing to hear comments from a mixed group of staff members, saying that they feel very proud and privileged to work in the setting. They know that they are changing the lives of local families due to the long-lasting impact of the transformational work that they do. Governors describe the staff as highly skilled in forming positive relationships with families and children.
Open-Door Policy
The school has an open-door policy which even extends to parents whose children no longer attend the nursery: they are always available for the local community. A member of the Senior Leadership Team is on the gate every morning as parents/carers arrive with the children to give a friendly welcome and be available for discussions if needed.
The Nursery consists of three classrooms – one is a separate provision for two-year-olds whilst the other rooms are for three and four-year-olds. No children have one-to-one support as research has shown that it is not the most effective way for pupils to become independent and develop the skills for learning. Class teachers have overall responsibility for all children, a quarter of whom have additional needs. There is a team of four LSAs who run short intervention sessions for short bursts throughout the day, this is very specific and targeted work. They use intensive interaction, attention autism, boxclever language work as needed.
Early identification of needs is key, and this is fostered by the excellent practice of the Children’s Centre. They have stay and play sessions for toddlers as well as a baby explorer group. They are four highly skilled family support workers who support families for Sheringham Nursery as well as other families in the local community.
Support
Sheringham Nursery and Children’s Centre belongs to The Research Schools’ Network: a network of schools that support the use of evidence to improve teaching practice. They are the only maintained nursery school in the country to have this designation.
In addition, they are an East London Stronger Practice Hub. The school work in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation to create exemplifications to add to their Early Years’ evidence store.
Part of the school’s role is to disseminate high quality practice across London, so they work in partnership with many settings to develop their practice. They are continually updating their practice, running research projects for the EEF as well as welcoming many professionals from the UK and international settings.
Bike Project
The school has started a Bike Project run by the Assistant Headteacher. The children go to a local playground to practise riding their balance bikes. The school has purchased all the bikes so that the children can take them home at weekends and during the holidays to continue practising the skills.
Bikes have also been donated to parents who don’t have a bike at home. One target for all pupils is that they will all be able to ride a balance bike before they leave the Nursery. Our Assessor saw this activity as the children were leaving the school grounds, a reluctant child was supported by his parent showing him the Now and Next board, he responded by picking up his bike and joining his peers. It was very gratifying to see this strategy being used by a recently empowered parent who now feels much more confident about helping her son to regulate his behaviour.
All children wear a badge every day with their name and symbol representing their class, this is a great idea as all staff and visitors can address the pupil by name which is more inclusive for them. They get their badge as they start the day and can also access a snack if they like when they arrive, snacks are available at any time. There are pictures/ symbols of the food that is available each day and pupils are encouraged to ask/sign for food which develops their independence skills. There is always a choice of food.
Communication Core Board
The school buys in one day a week speech and language therapy. A child who doesn’t find transition easy was happily following a trail of bubbles made by the therapist so that she would move to the language activity. This was very creative and great to see!
The school has appointed a specialist HLTA for SEND. Her role is to model for the teams and checking that the approaches are consistently being used in all classrooms. It was great to see how herself and a child with significant needs interacted and took turns to have a meaningful conversation about blowing up a balloon through the use of a communication core board.
Members of staff all benefit from 45 minutes developmental training each week, to discuss current research findings and how they are implementing this in their practice.
The Headteacher makes sure that all pupils who need an EHCP or SEN support plan have them in place before they leave the setting. This was highly praised by the SENCo of the local primary school who describes very thorough transition arrangements as well as commitment of the Nursery school and Children’s Centre to do joint planning with parents and the primary school to make the first term at primary school as successful as possible.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team please telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm)
or email: [email protected] for further details.