Bolton Start Well

Early Years Support provided as part of the Primary Whole School Review Visits

What happens on a review?

Whole school reviews are organised through the Primary Team. The early years provision in school is evaluated and strengths and areas for development identified as part of the whole school review.

Outcomes of EYFS element of review:

• Supports strong leadership and management; and
• Good or better outcomes at the next Ofsted inspection/self-evaluation as good or better.

Personalised Support Visits

These visits are available for:

• Schools with Nursery provision who self-evaluate as vulnerable to Requires Improvement in a particular area;
• Schools graded as Requires Improvement or Inadequate by Ofsted; and
• Schools can request additional support to look at a specific issue or concern.

Support may be specifically linked to priorities in the neighbourhood. Providers can request additional support to focus on a specific area of EYFS practice or they may be contacted by the Start Well team. We aim to support providers to embed Every Child training into practice.

Visits will be agreed with school leaders and will be organised according to what has been identified. For example, a learning walk, focused discussion, co-delivery of a practitioner development session, leadership coaching, joint observations of practice, or any combination of these. The number of support visits will vary according to need. If appropriate Networking groups will be facilitated for providers to share practice.

EY leads will be offered support to develop an action plan that will secure improvement. Activity will be recorded on a note of visit and other resources such as audit tools and templates can be provided.

Outcomes of personalised support visits:

• Every Child training is embedded;
• Supports leaders and managers to evaluate their provision and know how they can improve it or maintain its high standards;
• Key priorities, actions required, success criteria and timescales are clearly identified and addressed; and
• Working to improve outcomes for all children including the most vulnerable.

Quality of Education Discussion Visit

Purpose:

This focused discussion will strengthen leaders’ self-evaluation of the impact of provision on progress and outcomes.

This visit will support the leader to embed Every Child training offer and requests may be prioritised according to local outcomes. These visits may have a focus that is very specific to the setting and/or linked to priorities in the neighbourhood. Providers can request to focus on a specific area of EYFS practice or they may be contacted by the Start Well team. We aim to support providers to embed Every Child training into practice.

What happens on this visit?

This will be a focused discussion with the Early Years Lead about children’s progress from starting points and how well they achieve. The discussion will cover different groups of children (such as boys, girls, children who are eligible for EYPP, children learning EAL, etc) and agreed areas of learning.

This will provide an opportunity for supported self-evaluation of the impact of provision on the quality of the curriculum provided for the children in the EYFS.

The Quality of Education discussion visit will take approximately 2 hours. Strengths and any development points will be recorded in a note of visit that will support self-evaluation and improvement.

Outcomes of progress and outcomes discussion:

• Supports strong leadership and management;
• Self-evaluation judgements for Quality of Education;
• Improve outcomes for all children including the most vulnerable; and
• Narrow the attainment gap.

SEND Support Visits (application support / monitoring / Outreach SEND support)

Purpose

These visits will support the SENCO to ensure SEND pathways are utilised effectively for children in nursery or 2 year-old provision within school.

What happens on these visits?

Start Well SEND visits have the following purposes:

1. The SEND Outreach Support Teacher will provide support and advice to the setting SENCO around Bolton processes, the SEND Code of Practice and offer signposting to other agencies as appropriate to meet the needs of individual children;
2. The SEND Manager will support providers to complete applications for Inclusion funding, including understanding of Early Help processes in Bolton;
3. Inclusion fund monitoring visits from the SEND Manager will help the SENCO to track progress to intended outcomes.

Supporting Transition for children with SEND

• Transitions can be a difficult time for children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities. Moving up into a different room in nursery or on to school needs to be carefully planned for and managed to support the child’s individual needs.
• You will be supported to plan the transition for children with SEND in your school, with opportunities for questions and discussions.

Outcomes of SEND support visits

• Improved use of Early Help process / pathways in Bolton;
• Supports practitioners to implement actions for individual children with SEND; and
• Improves outcomes for most vulnerable children.