// Your Child's Assessment
A child may stay at the centre for as little as one year if joining us at the age of three, or as long as four years if joining us as a baby.
Your child may join us for Nursery Education in which case, the
Borough’s admission criteria will be applied, or for childcare, in which case the Centre’s Daycare criteria are applied.
A small number of children are referred to the nursery by the Early Years Multi-agency Panel for particular support and intervention.
Another small group of children with social communication
difficulties are referred for inclusion in the Centre by the local
authority.
We are sensitive to the varying needs of families and where possible try to base decisions on the sessions children attend on the needs of parents and families. In particular we try to support the needs of
single parents who are in full-time study or employment.
Please talk to your key person in the first instance who will speak with one of the link co-ordinators to see if changes can be made.
// Achievement & Opportunity
The learning environment at Eastwood will be free from prejudice and without discrimination. It will provide opportunities for children to seek new challenges and practice and consolidate developing skills. It will offer a wide range of experiences and a stimulating
environment.
Achievements will be recorded daily and the information collected on a termly basis and registered on each child’s profile. Your child’s profile is available for you to see at any time and is a particularly
useful source of information for all of the staff members who will
support your child’s learning development. The profiles also inform OFSTED, the Government body monitoring the quality of our work.
If you are requiring the free education service provided by Eastwood, your child’s Key person will ask to make a home visit in order to give you opportunity to talk about your child in your own environment. We find these visits very useful in gaining knowledge and
understanding from you about your child’s learning and hope that you will feel comfortable in sharing what you know with us away from school.
After your child has attended for six weeks, you will be invited to meet your child’s Key Person in nursery for feedback on general
progress being made. There will also be Open Days when you will be invited to speak to your child’s Key Person about your child’s
Development & learning. For those parents with children preparing to move to their local primary schools in September, we shall also explain how the school supports the initial links being made between your child and staff members both here and in the receiving schools.
We believe that careful transition arrangements between schools is in the best interests of children and their families.
We write full reports on children’ s progress at least once a year and these are given to parents at the end of the Summer Term.
Those children moving to another school are given their Learning
Journey books on departure. This is a carefully prepared record of a child’s learning journey and children and parents are asked to
contribute their comments about this journey so that they form part
of this exciting and precious record.
Children receiving a free education service will have their annual reports forwarded to their receiving Primary Schools.
// Support from other services
In addition to the school team, some children may have contact with professionals from services in the Health Trust and Local Authority, as well as support from a range of therapists.
Educational Psychology
The Educational Psychologist works within the learning environment with teachers and professionals, observing learning behavior and style. The Educational Psychologist is involved in assessing a child’s special needs. Following her observations, findings are summarized and ways forward suggested.
The Educational Psychologist also offers support and advice to
parents as appropriate. Parents are an essential part of such
discussions where decisions are made about particular strategies for instance for supporting a child’s special needs in the home.
Physiotherapy
Physiotherapy is given individually or in groups, to children identified by hospital Consultants as needing therapy. Children are always
examined and assessed before a plan of care can be commenced in school. The Physiotherapist identifies physical difficulties and plans
programmes of care working closely with the staff teams, other
therapists and parents regarding continued physical management of individual children at home and school.
The Physiotherapist prepares centre and home management
programmes advising of progress and informing us of changes in
physiotherapy intervention and involvement.
Speech & Language Therapist
Support and development of children’s communication is a very
important part of everything we do at Eastwood.
Children are seen individually or in groups to assess and develop all aspects of communication. This includes attention and listening, play, understanding and use of language and interaction skills.
The Speech and Language Therapist and her assistant works as part of our staff team so that children’s speech, language and
communication development can be appropriately supported in daily learning routines and action plans.
We look to working with parents very closely in this area of
development, in order that strong links between home and school can be encouraged and developed as fully as possible.
Music Therapy
The Music Therapist works with any child who may benefit from
expressing themselves without words. She aims to help the child
express their emotions, build self-confidence and develop their
listening, concentration and social skills.
Parents are asked to give their consent for the Music Therapist to work with their child and she is available to talk with parents about progress being made.
Play Therapy
Play Therapy is an effective therapy that helps children change their behaviour, clarify their thoughts about themselves and build healthy relationships. In Play Therapy, children enter into a dynamic
relationship with the therapist that enables them to express, explore, and make sense of difficult and painful experiences.
Play Therapy helps children find healthier ways of communicating, develop
fulfilling relationships, increase resilience and facilitate emotional literacy.
Play Therapy helps children understand muddled feelings and
upsetting events that they have not had the chance to sort out
properly. Rather than having to explain what is troubling them, as adult therapy usually requires, children use play to communicate at their own level and at their own pace, without feeling interrogated or threatened.
Dance Movement Therapy
Dance Movement Therapy is a way of using expressive movement as a process to increase awareness and develop emotional, physical and cognitive integration. DMT encourages the potential for full
development and growth of each individual using verbal and
non-verbal means of communication. DMT is adaptable to a wide range of people, from children to adults. Emotional, physical,
cognitive or ocial aspects may be emphasised according to the needs of the child. the overall aim however is expression, integration,
communication, empowerment and increased self awareness.
DMT can be used in individual work with a child or with a group of children. As with other creative/therapeutic work, children are
enabled to express themselves with and without words.