In accordance with Admissions, every child is welcome at The ODN, and every child who attends is treated equally, and will have the same opportunities to learn and develop at their own pace.

Where children who attend The ODN have Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND), The Nursery will make every reasonable effort to ensure that these children are able to be fully included in the life of The ODN and access the same opportunities as all other children.

There are four areas which broadly cover the areas in which a child may have additional needs:

  • Communication & interaction
  • Cognition
  • Social, emotional or mental health difficulties
  • Sensory and/or physical

In addition to these four areas, the following are also acknowledged as areas where a child could have additional needs:

  • Disability
  • Health
  • Speaking English as an additional language (EAL)
  • Being a Looked After Child
  • Being the child of a member of the Armed Forces

Where a child joins The ODN with additional needs already identified, The ODN will work closely with the child’s parents / carers and all professionals already engaged in supporting the child to maintain existing support arrangements at The ODN.

It is acknowledged that the needs of children should be identified and met as early as possible to limit the impact of such needs on the child’s development. To this end, all staff maintain a responsibility for observing evidence which may indicate the needs of a specific child which are not currently being met and raising such evidence with colleagues and management as appropriate.

Where The ODN staff identify potential additional needs a discussion will be held with parents / carers as soon as possible. The purpose of this discussion is to keep parents / carers informed of staff’s observations, and to discuss whether similar needs have been identified in the home environment.

When a child has additional needs, The ODN will take all reasonable and practical steps to implement changes to the nursery’s environment and operations to meet these needs. This may include, but is not limited to, the procurement of specialist equipment such as a walking aid, the re-configuring of furniture layout, acquisition of additional resources such as books in other languages, and training for staff to be able to meet the needs of the child.

The welfare and care of other children will never be compromised as a result of making such changes.

Children with additional needs will as far as possible be treated in the same way as all other children. All staff qualified to act as ‘Key Workers’ will be trained sufficiently such that any of them are able to have a key child with additional needs.

The ODN has a designated Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator (SENCO) who is responsible for ensuring that children with additional needs are having their needs met, that children with additional needs are not discriminated against, and for providing support to other staff in relation to identifying, responding to, and supporting additional needs.