Every child develops at his/her own pace – and it’s wonderful to see children develop, learn and grow up. We all know that some children do well in one area before they do well in another area. There’s no single development-plan that children follow – and they certainly don’t follow “standard development” in any set-order. Children learn and grow at their own pace, in their own way. It’s just the way it should be – free and individual.
Children who have a “delay” in something usually then catch up with all the other children when they are ready.
However, there are some occasions when children would benefit from a little extra support – either to help them catch up, or because they struggle in certain areas.
The whole purpose of the “let’s be sure” plan is to make sure that we give every child the best possible opportunity. As the school director, I want to be 100% confident that we’ve not missed any areas of concern. If there is suitable and appropriate support which would help a child, I want to be sure the child is offered that support – whether it’s on a permanent basis, or even if it’s just temporary.
For example, our director is red/green colour-blind. I was lucky that my older brother was also colour blind- because when my mother was teaching me the colours, it was great that she recognised why I was always mixing them up. My older brother wasn’t quite as lucky as my mother didn’t recognise what the problem was – so she spent hours, if not days, trying to teach him colours he couldn’t see – and of course that wouldn’t have been much fun for him!
I’m also dyslexic; but wasn’t recognised as dyslexic until I was 9. It’s very simple, before I was recognised as being dyslexic I was bottom of the class in every subject. However after I had been given support for an hour a week for just 6 months, I was first of the class – and stayed so for the rest of my school life. I went on to be awarded a scholarship to attend university in Japan. If I hadn’t been given the right support, goodness knows what would have happened to me. In my mind being given the right support as early as possible can change a child’s life.
We hardly expect signs of dyslexia to become obvious with such young children – but for me the lesson is clear: if we spot a weakness, I want to make sure we rule out the possibility of it being anything serious or long-lasting. So that’s why I’ve launched the “Let’s be sure” plan.
The plan aims to:
- Make sure every child is thriving in all areas of development & enjoyment at their own pace
- Get expert advice often, to make sure nothing serious is being missed – it’s better to be safe, than to miss out on providing support when it could really help a child- and even change their life for the better.
- Ensure Early Intervention
If we talk to you about our “let’s be sure plan” – it may well be nothing to worry about. We’ll talk to you about what we’ve seen. We may decide together with you to ask an expert to come in and observe all the children and see if the expert thinks there’s anything to follow-up. We always make sure the children think it’s just a normal day at school. Hopefully we’ll get the all-clear after one or two observations. But if there are recommendations, then we can all be reassured to know the child will receive the all the support he/she needs.
Finally, it’s important that as a nursery, we receive the right support to help your child. We benefit greatly from support from the local authority.
Please also refer to:
- Positive Children’s Behaviour Policy
- SEN Policy – Integrating children with Special Educational Needs