A Typical Session

10am / 12.45pm
Arrival to the Centre!

Children are greeted by their key person and share information with parents and carers about their well-being such as how much sleep they have had, how much to eat and other vital information to enable us to provide personalised care and education. Children are encouraged to settle into the centre with play activities before moving on to welcome time.

10.15am / 1pm
Welcome Time

All children are encouraged to join in the welcome time routine, individual seating is arranged in a circle with a photograph of each child to encourage self-awareness and self-confidence. A sequence of action songs are sung with the children, again encouraging independence and self-awareness. We then sing a short “Hello” song to each individual child, again encouraging self-awareness, confidence and self-esteem.

10.25am / 1.10pm
Activity Time

All children have a personalised learning plan; this may include targets to be carried out as specific play activities such as posting items or matching items or tracking items of a certain size and shape. We work intensively with the children, extending their development at every opportunity using language, modelling, play activities and more. Many of the children require adult direction and support to engage with activities and this can result in a highly structured session, we encourage children to choose their own activity, before requesting they complete an adult chosen activity encouraging turn taking skills and developing concentration. Children may also choose to play outdoors and can communicate this in a range of ways.

11am / 1.45pm
Tooth-brushing Time and Snack Time

The children join together for snack with their individual seating at a shared table and firstly brush their teeth. This is a NHS approved programme to encourage healthy teeth and gums and instil good personal hygiene skills for life. All children have their own toothbrush in a holder, stored in a bag. This is labelled with a name and photograph and again we encourage children to develop independence and self-awareness before brushing their teeth with support or independently, while singing a tooth brushing song.

Then comes snack, this is a huge focus on independence on communication and is rich with opportunities to encourage children to ask for their preferred snacks through their communication skills. This may be verbally, through gestures, Makaton or pictures. We encourage independence by teaching spoon feeding, buttering of toast and using a fork. Due to this, snack time can take a long period of time as the children become eager to be independent.

11.20am/ 2.05pm
Toileting

Nappies are changed throughout the session as necessary and of course the toilet is always accessible, however for children who have not yet visited the toilet or had their nappy changed, this is carried out now.

11.30am / 2.15pm
Activity Time

A further activity time commences and targets may be re-visited during this time if this is appropriate. children continue to choose their activities with a balance of adult directed activities.

Group Time

During the morning a group activity also takes place, we use “In the Moment” or “Retrospective” planning for group activities, therefore the time of this can change daily.

The children often present with different interests each week and dependent on their needs their physical skills can also change weekly according to their medical condition. To support this, we have chosen to plan activities on the day, according to how children are responding. The group activities are designed to offer interaction with peers whilst promoting all areas of learning. On some occasions we may plan ahead to facilitate an activity, for example during the school holidays a child’s siblings were visiting the cinema, prompting discussion about this. The following week we planned to hold a short cinema session, we borrowed a television and turned down the lights planning some healthy cinema snacks such as banana popcorn and fruit. The children chose a Mr Tumble DVD to watch and following the activity we were able to develop the activity into learning some new signs from the DVD!

11.50am / 2.35pm
Home Time

Children join together to say goodbye. During some sessions we may discuss what activities we have done or read a story dependent on the children’s needs. We sing a short song “Goodbye” to each individual child.

12pm / 2.45pm

A Practitioner will collect the parents and carers and bring them into the room. Children are handed over to their key person with key discussions about what activities they have enjoyed, toileting and snack time and other information.

Nursery Education Funded Sessions

Children claiming NEF funding attend for a slightly longer session, starting at 9.30am in the morning or staying until 3.15om in the afternoon. This additional time is utilised for play and learning activities.