Batford Nursery School and Day Care

At Batford Nursery School, every child is treated as a unique individual. Each child has a ‘key person’ working alongside a teacher. A fundamental part of the key person’s/teacher’s role is to develop a trusting and sensitive relationship with both parents and children and to enable respectful sharing of information.

If you have any concerns about your child’s development you can ask for a time when you can discuss this in private with your child’s key person/teacher.  Alternatively, you can arrange to speak with the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator(SENCo) – Ms Laura Butler.

Reports from other professionals, such as health visitors, paediatricians and speech and language therapists, help to identify your child’s individual needs.  We welcome parents and professionals sharing these reports, in order for us to plan appropriately to meet your child’s needs.

At Batford Nursery School, ongoing observational assessments are made of all children against our curriculum aspirations. These are linked to the Development Matters ages and stages of development and this, in some cases, can help to identify individual needs. If your child’s key person/teacher has identified a possible individual need, they will discuss it with you in private, and plan together with you to support your child’s learning and development.

The SENCo will offer support and advice to your child’s key person and other staff in our setting. She will also liaise with other professionals if necessary to seek advice and support in identifying individual needs. Support and advice will be sought from the Herts Early Years’ SEND Team, always with your permission.

For more information about the arrangements for admission for children with disabilities, please see our admissions policy which can be found under the ‘Admissions’ section of our website.

Every child at Batford Nursery has a key person as well as an overseeing teacher. On starting at Batford you will be given an ’All about Me’ sheet to fill in about your child.  This will help us to share information about your child’s strengths, interests and needs.  We will continually work with you to support your child, listening to you and your child.

The SENCo can explain how children’s individual needs can be met by using an Individual Support Plan. We also access advice from other Early Years’ professionals, including specialist teachers and educational psychologists. The SENCo will explain who may be involved and their roles in supporting your child.

Observations, assessments and evaluations all contribute towards Individual Support Plans and your child’s key person/teacher/SENCO will oversee the targets on the plan.

Your child’s key person/teacher will be in most sessions your child attends, fostering a relationship with and gaining an understanding of your child. They will identify individual needs and plan next steps, accessing additional support from other professionals where necessary.

We will work in partnership with you, reviewing the targets set on the Individual Support Plan, planning new ones together and giving ideas to use at home to support your child. We promote an ‘open door’ policy to ensure we are welcoming and respectful to all.

We constantly involve every child in their education, enabling them to make choices and engage in activities/experiences that are of interest to them. Through ongoing observations and knowing your child, we will have a clear understanding of what your child enjoys and their level of wellbeing and involvement.

If necessary, your child will have an Individual Support Plan made for them by the SENCo and key person/teacher based on the child’s needs.  They might also have an ‘IAELD’ (Individual Assessment of Early Learning and Development) which shows their development within each key area of learning. 

In addition each child has a ‘Tapestry’ Learning Journal, which contains observations, individual plans, targets and photographs of your child’s progress, interests and development.  You will be given a login name and password to access the Tapestry website so that you can access your child’s online Learning Journal from home. You will also be able to comment on the observation and send in any home learning via the Tapestry app or website.  

We will differentiate the curriculum as appropriate, for example, making use of a visual timetable to support children to understand the nursery routine and make choices of where they’d like to play. 

The SENCo will seek additional training for staff, if appropriate, to meet your child’s needs.

At Batford Nursery school assessment systems are in place that are linked to the 'Development Matters' curriculum which 'consists of everything you want children to experience, learn and be able to do' (Development Matters Non-statutory curriculum Guidance for the early years foundation stage 2023). Batford Nursery School also has its own set of Curriculum Aspirations which will be shared with you (and can be found on the website).

Every key person/teacher plans for their weekly activities based on each individual child’s targets and needs – weekly planning is displayed within the nursery.

Regular review meetings are held to discuss your child’s Individual Support Plan targets. These meetings might also focus on how parents can support their child at home. 

Termly parent update meetings are held with the child’s key person/teacher & SENCo.

Our open door policy means you are always welcome to tell us how your child is doing on a daily basis and provide ongoing two-way communication between us. If appropriate, we set up a home/ school communication book.

If parents/carers work or are unable to attend with their child, we can arrange telephone calls or emails to update you on your child’s progress.

Our practitioners are welcoming and friendly, providing an inclusive, sensitive and positive approach to your child’s learning journey.

Practitioners provide good role models for positive behaviour and are consistent in the day-to-day care of all our children. We adopt the Hertfordshire Therapeutic Approach to Behaviour (TAB).  All staff are trained in this approach.  Please see the Behaviour Management Policy for further information.

Each child is assessed when they start the nursery in relation to their wellbeing and involvement.  This is to ensure we identify children who would benefit from some extra support or nurture.

Personal health care plans can be put in place if necessary and staff will be trained in giving the appropriate medication for your child if required. Should your child require regular prescribed medication then a named member of staff will be responsible for the administering of this and you will be required to fill out and sign a ‘medication administration form’.

Activities will be adapted to ensure your child is able to interact fully with their environment. Visual strategies-such as a visual time table can be used to help children understand routines.

At Batford Nursery School, we use ‘Makaton’ signing to help emphasise language to those children who may benefit from a visual prompt. This tool is used throughout the Nursery on a daily basis and is encouraged through song, story and a ‘sign of the week’ for children to learn.

The Nursery has a variety of safe and quiet areas to retreat to if your child is tired or needs some quiet time to themselves. The Nursery is able to undertake personal care such as nappy changing. 

All staff are qualified or have accessed child development training and have experience working with the Early Years age group.

We benefit from having a working partnership with the Family Centre operated by ‘Inspire All’. The Nursery works with the centre and we are able to access the advice and support which they offer. This support might be given directly to parents in relation to any concerns they have expressed e.g. in relation to behaviour, financial worries or toileting issues.

Hertfordshire Family Centre Service,
Sopwell House, Mandeville Drive, St Albans AL1 2LE.
Tel: 0300 123 7572

Working closely with you and your child will enable us to build stronger relationships and further understand your child’s needs.

Our SENCO attends termly network meetings to keep up to date with the latest SEND information and news. 

We are supported by the Hertfordshire Early Years’ Service, a service which helps Early Years settings and Childcare practitioners provide the best possible experience for all children. The team will support practitioners in meeting children’s individual needs through offering phone advice, observing individual children in the setting, suggesting ways to support individual needs, planning next steps with practitioners and parents, and signposting to training.

Parental agreement will always be obtained before the Early Years Team become involved with any individual child.

 We have regular contact with the following professions;

• Speech and Language Therapist.


• Paediatric Occupational Therapist.


• Paediatric Physiotherapist.


• Educational Psychologists.


• Specialist advisory teachers.

We also have a partnership with Loreto Drawn Together, a charitable organisation that provides a Parent/Infant and Under Five Specialist Service offering emotional support for parents and infants, delivered largely through art therapy to identified children in our setting.

Our SENCo, Ms Laura Butler, attends termly network meetings to keep up to date with the latest information and news. Laura has completed the national award for SEN coordination.

One of our ‘Learning Support Assistants’ has completed additional training on working with children with SEND.

Eight members of staff hold Early Years qualifications (Level 3).  All included SEN modules as part of their training.

All staff regularly attend training. A record of staff training is kept on file and relevant training can be viewed on request.

If you are a parent/carer who has English as an additional language, we can support arrangements to offer additional language help in relation to any meetings/consultations, e.g. by involving another family member who may speak English.  Signs, posters and pictures will be translated or dual languages used.

We have an accessible toilet with wheelchair access and our doors leading out to the garden are wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair – there is a slight slope to the outdoor area to allow free flow outside into our garden. The garden is flat in many areas and suitable for all children to access.

We can explain the limitations of the building and would make reasonable adaptations to existing resources to ensure all children can access them.

You can read our Accessibility Plan by following this link.

We will assign a key person/teacher before your child joins us for his/her settling in sessions.

We also offer settling in sessions where a parent/carer can stay for part of the session, and offer a flexible settling in period if your child is having difficulties settling in. We will arrange further settling in sessions if needed.

We can provide photos via Tapestry for your child to have at home to become familiar with their key person, staff, the routine of the session and activities being offered.

We aim to visit you and your child in your home environment before starting at nursery.  This gives us the chance to get to know you and your family, and provides the opportunity for you to share with us details of your child’s needs and the involvement of other agencies.  We will work with you to agree a consistent approach to ensure the continuity of care for your child.

We will always meet with other professionals to put in place transition planning/health care plan, or to seek relevant training before your child starts.

We support children with their transition to their new schools. All necessary documentation will be passed onto the receiving setting/school.  A printed Tapestry Learning Journal will also be passed onto the schools to enable the new school to gain a holistic picture of your child. The journal will then be passed from the school to parents. 

If your child should leave to go to another setting we would invite your child’s new key person/teacher and SENCO to attend sessions with your child to help them become familiar with them and to discuss your child’s strengths and needs.

We will hold a transition meeting at your convenience, to plan transition for your child into their new setting or school, giving the new setting time to make necessary plans for any changes they may need to make. We will share targets on your child’s Individual support plans, along with any other information that may be relevant to your child.

It may also be possible to arrange for your child’s key person/teacher to attend settling in sessions at your child’s new setting, to help promote a smooth transition.

The school works closely with an Inclusion Developent Officer who is able to apply to a panel to access the Local High Needs Funding system, which supports children and young people with emerging high needs or who have needs that fall outside the EHCP (Education Health Care Plan) process. The money will come to the school directly from the central SEND team.

The process will build on the school’s ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ processes and it will be expected that there will be evidence of this when schools apply for funding. It is also expected that there will be some involvement of external professionals

We will fund staff to attend specific training and/or purchase additional resources to support your child.

We tend to plan all our activities to be on site, including the very popular visits from Ark Farm and the Owl Sanctuary, so all of our enhanced curricular opportunities are accessible for all children.  If we take the children offsite on short local walks, all children will be included, with 1:1 adult support if required.

Through the observation process linked to our Batford Aspirations, and in discussion with you, the key person, the teacher and SENCo we will identify what support is required.

Extra support will be put in place if necessary, with the aim of enabling your child to become independent within the environment and to access learning at all levels.

Ongoing partnerships with you, other professionals and ourselves will support the decision making process.

Our SENCo will give advice on meeting your child’s needs within the nursery, in consultation with you and other professionals where necessary, with your permission. Our SENCO will also advise you on the process of applying for extra support.

Reports from health care professionals and other professionals, who are working with your child, will be used to contribute to the ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ processes within the setting.

Other professionals working with our SENCo will support the decision-making process to plan targets on the Individual support plan. The plan will always be shared with you and might include how you can support your child at home. As a team, staff also carry out ‘Provision Mapping’, where we look at the needs of the cohort as a whole.

Staff meetings and team meetings within the setting will ensure all staff working with your child know your child’s strengths and needs and how to best support them.

Children in receipt of EYPP funding currently receive up to £388 per child per year. As a school we publish how this is spent and details of its impact on the EYPP page of this website.

You are involved in identifying needs, information sharing, identifying targets as well as formulating the next steps to focus on at home and in the setting. You will be invited to attend review meetings where we will review progress towards these targets. Your permission will always be sought before involving outside agencies.

We actively encourage parental input into the online learning journal, to provide a whole picture of your child’s interests and fascinations.

If you wish to discuss your child’s needs prior to starting at Batford, please contact either Sarah Hedges (Headteacher) or Laura Butler (SENCO).

You are welcome to discuss concerns or progress with your child’s key person, the teacher or SENCO at any time.

We hope that all matters can be resolved informally between us but if you feel the need to raise a complaint, please see our Complaints Policy (also available on the Policies page of the website).

Batford Nursery School, Holcroft Road, Harpenden,AL5 5BQ
Tel: 01582 713872
Email: admin@batfordnursery.herts.sch.uk