Early Years Providers Local Offer

We are a pre-school setting in the market town of Harleston. The nursery is situated in the grounds of Harleston Primary school; however, we are a community nursery supporting families from surrounding towns and villages. We are registered as a charity and are managed separately from the school.

We have close links with all the surrounding schools, to support all our children in making healthy transitions into their chosen reception class. We also work closely with our other setting, which is in Alburgh, sharing resources, training and expertise.

We offer stay and play sessions during our holiday clubs (in the mornings 9.30-11.30am) for parents and carers to come with their young children. These sessions provide opportunities for families to meet, familiarise themselves with the staff and nursery setting, and make use of the available resources. Please contact the setting for more information.

Families do not have to be registered with the setting to attend the stay and play sessions. Our community stay and play sessions are particularly beneficial to children preparing to start at the pre-school, as the support smoother transitions into the setting.

Through the daily routines, opportunities and experiences, we aim to support all the children that attend our setting. To enable them access to high-quality early years childcare, which will support each child to make suitable progress within the Early Years Foundation Stage.

We provide a safe and stimulating learning environment, both indoors and outside, children are encouraged and supported to develop in all areas of their development; emotionally, physically and intellectually.

Our staff have a great deal of experience, working with children and their families with a variety of complex needs and disabilities. We work alongside other professionals and health care workers to ensure that the needs of all our children are met.

4. What outcomes does your service aim to achieve for children and young people with SEND and their families?

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) are included in all aspects of pre-school life. They will be supported and encouraged to achieve their full potential during their time with us, enabling each child to feel they have made a positive contribution.

Staff work closely with families to ensure that strong partnerships develop so that both children and their parent/ carers feel valued and supported.

Please indicate if access to your service requires a referral, and/or assessment of need, and who will undertake this. Can families self-refer?

Our nursery is available to children from the age of 2 years, parents/carers are advised to make contact and or visit the setting prior to their child’s 2nd birthday to ensure that a place can be made available as required.

Children can start as soon as they reach the age of 2 years old and a place is available. We are happy to work closely with other professionals to support the needs of the children attending the setting. We welcome and encourage visits to support information sharing, which enable us to understand your child needs fully.

We strongly recommend that children and their families attend some of our stay and play sessions prior to starting at the pre-school. This enables children to become familiar with staff and the organisation; and also helps parents to get to know the pre-school and staff before leaving their child for the first time.

The pre-school has a wide range of resources to support children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities. We have close links with outside agencies, e.g. sensory support which ensures that we have access to professional support, information and guidance. We have a stable staff team, well trained and experienced in working with children and families with SEND. The building is easily accessible, via a ramp, which ensures children or adults with reduced mobility can move about safely.

We work closely with parents and carers to ensure their needs and the needs of their children are met at the setting. We communicate through a variety of means; face to face, formal and informal conversations, emails, and newsletters, via phone or text. However, we are able and willing to adapt our methods of communication to suit the needs of our service users as required.

BSL is used widely at the pre-school for all children to support language and communication; pictures, displays and technologies such as the i-pad are all aids for developing and building on communication.

Harleston Preschool, alongside our Alburgh setting, is registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. We are also registered with OFSTED.

We have in place, a working agreement with Norfolk County Council to provide free childcare entitlements, under the 15-hour funding scheme for eligible children aged 2 years. We also offer universal 15-hour funding for children aged 3 & 4, and 30-hour funding for children whose parents qualify for extended funding.

All our staff hold a relevant childcare qualification and have the experience of working alongside children with a hearing loss and/or impaired vision. We also have experience in Autism and Speech and Language and ADHD, amongst other needs and disabilities.

We are committed to supporting all members of our community and staff are always willing to seek out knowledge and information to support the children in our care as required.

All staff are trained in paediatric first aid and have the training to support behaviour management; this training is regularly revisited and ensures that staff have access to the most up to date information.

The setting can be contacted on 01379 853403, and the manager is Jayne Rayner

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Both the setting manager; Jayne Rayner or Trustee; Katy McNamara can be contacted for any matters arising. We have a setting complaints procedure in place, details of which can be found in our foyer.

OFSTED can also be contacted if you do not feel that your complaint has not been addressed appropriately.

Regular use of the settings evaluations provide opportunities for parents and carers to have a voice in the pre-schools daily routines, management and organisation. Good working relationships with all our stakeholders, encourage and provide opportunities for feedback and ideas for setting development.

We have extended our opening hours to suit the needs of our families, and we have developed our Holiday clubs to provide good quality wrap-around care.

We are committed to ensuring that our setting meets the needs the families of today, listening to the views and wishes of our parents and carers ensures the setting develops appropriately.

We are focussing on speech and language; key staff are accessing innovative training which will be cascaded down to all staff, to enable us to help improve the outcomes for our most disadvantaged children.

Parents can pay by cheque, cash or bank transfers; we do accept direct payments via online banking.

Morning sessions are; 8-9am -12.45pm (or 1.30pm if staying for lunch) Afternoon sessions are; 1.30pm – 5pm (we are open to 6pm if required) All-day; 9am-3.15pm (hours can be extended as required). Our hourly rate is £3.40 for all ages, including holiday and after school clubs as well.

We can provide some flexibility for children attending the setting outside of the times stated.

Parents are invoiced at the start of each term; however, payment can be made monthly or weekly as required.

We are registered to accept 2, 3 and 4-year funding; additional funding may be sought from Norfolk County Council, to support the additional needs of individual children as required.