Key person and individual progress
Key Person Approach
At Little Doves every child is assigned a key person, this initial relationship is key for the child & parent. At the beginning this new attachment is key and is vital for personal, social and emotional development to feel secure in new surroundings, its a great 'check in' for a child thats unfamiliar to peers and environment. Whilst the children have the freedom to move around and self-select their own activities, we offer children an opportunity every session to work one to one or in small groups with a key person, working specifically on their interests ,next steps in line with the early years curriculum especially holding those back and fortth conversations to build on what they know. During every session your child’s individual learning will be supported appropriately and the environment will be carefully planned, working on developing, learning and perfecting their skills. Sometimes within the room the activities will be adult led and sometimes child led. This may involve introducing them to a new activity, refining another or extending their interest or knowledge through observation, assessment and planning their next steps. At Little Doves all children learn at their own pace, where Staff monitor and support each child’s learning. Each child has an individual teaching profile which we use to work through the Early Years Curriculum. Any child raising concerns or having difficulties in any area will be observed and monitored, this will be discussed with parents and strategies put into place to support your child. Occasionally, referral to outside professionals may be needed with parental consent.
Individual Progress - Monitoring Development
When your child starts at Little doves we will offer transition sessions which include an 'all about me ' discussion with your childs key person to get too know your child's interests and needs. Each child joining Little Doves will have their own online learning journey ‘Tapestry’ which will also have records and photographs that reflect your Childs learning and development. It will be full of their masterpieces and photos showing their experiences at Little Doves. This is a great communication to build a partnership between us, yourselves and your child. Parents can add the moments from home related to your child’s learning. This will eventually be passed onto your Childs school as an 'on entry' point. We also keep a child’s profile monitoring observations linked to the early years curriculum we use this to track your children from when they start to plan for what your child 'knows' and how to support 'progression', you will be provided with termly reports which indicates your Childs progression and where they are at including ideas at home to support development in all areas. We welcome Parents to discuss their child’s progress with us, we value your opinions, views and concerns about your individual child, after all you know your child best and this can only assist us in supporting every child’s individual needs. We provide regular parent evenings and an open door policy for discussion.
Integrated reviews (Two -year checks)
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A two year check is a mandatory check between the ages of 2 and 3 years of age, we complete these at around 27/28 months, this is a joint check between the setting, health visitor and parent. Parents will be asked to fill out an ‘all about me’, health visitors will make their own assessment either in your child’s home or at nursery. Little Doves will provide a picture of your child’s development reflecting on physical development, communication and language development and personal, social and emotional development using their information on your child and your parent view.
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Passports to school- Getting ready for the next stage
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We have strong links to all our local schools, our nursery is situated in between many villages, all our local teachers from comprehensive and private visit our nursery to make transition links, we will transfer information about your child to make the transition to school as smooth as possible. Each child has a 'paasport to school' created these are filled out by child’s key person and you as a parent to get a full picture of your childs next teacher/setting to get to know the whole child.
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Before starting school, we provide opportunities for children to take part in ’bubble ‘group these are carefully planned group times to promote managing feelings and speaking and listening skills. We introduce ‘Duncan’ our puppet who is going to school and we touch on scenarios and use this a s a talking point.
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We practise getting changed and dressed for physical education, carrying dinner trays/ plates, using a waste system to clear our lunches a way, we practise dressing frames including velcro, buttons, zips. We look at stories about the different schools, what does the school look like? What is your uniform? Who is your new teacher? This all supports your child emotionally for the next steps ahead. The children create 'chatterboxes' to share with peers, little doves staff and new teachers, this can have interest related objects in it, photographs, favorite items, collected items its a talking poiint and we find it supports the confidence to share and talk.
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