Welcome to Maple Class

Our Nursery SEND Provision class offers 15 hour and 30-hour sessions to 2,3- and 4-year-olds who have been identified as needing a low arousal learning environment which focuses on early communication and interaction skills. The morning session starts at 8.30am and finishes at 11.30am, the afternoon session starts at 12.10pm and finishes at 3.10pm and our full day session starts at 9.00am until 3.00pm. The number for each session is limited to twelve children who are supported by up to five adults.

There are three areas which provide a learning space for the children. The indoor space stretches across two rooms. One of which is designed to offer a sensory environment which provides opportunities for emotional regulation, social communication and transactional support. The resources in this room meet the needs and interests of the children and are adapted and changed to enable children to achieve their full potential. In this calm space, adults use Makaton signs and objects of reference to develop and support children’s early social communication needs, encouraging children to also communicate their needs with an adult in this way. The space is used to support co regulation to meet children’s sensory needs so they are therefore ready to learn.

The second indoor learning space in Maple class offers a variety of continuous provision areas for the children to access throughout the school day. This includes books in the reading corner, paint, play dough and crayons in the creative area, building with blocks in the construction area, exploring in the home corner and sand and water play. Resources such as cause and effect toys are used to develop joint and shared attention skills. Resources are carefully chosen to engage the children in their learning, which reflect their interests, and in doing so, meet the needs of each unique child. This room also promotes opportunities for social communication and transactional support in order to develop early communication skills. The adults in the room are consistently modelling to the children, using Makaton and objects of reference and visuals to move children’s learning forward. Resources are carefully placed to support and develop children’s communication skills through requesting.

Situated across the corridor from Maple class is our light and sound sensory room which children can be taken to to support them with regulation. Children can be taken here to further meet their sensory needs if they need a change in environment.

Children also have access to an outdoor learning environment. In the garden there are opportunities for using climbing equipment, as well as exploring the water, playing in the huge sandpit or swinging in the hammocks to support self-regulation.

Routine in Maple class is important for our children, so visual and auditory cues are essential when helping children to know when it is time for snack, lunch time etc or when transitioning from one space to another. Therefore, when the children arrive at school for their session we greet them with our hello song accompanied by bubbles. At the end of the session, we sing our goodbye song to signal to the children that they are going home. This is used alongside an object of reference such as their coat. Throughout the school day when children are choosing, all staff are using the same Makaton signs to ensure consistency and to encourage and develop early communication throughout the whole of the learning environment.

The team in Maple class are led by Miss Atherton, who is a qualified HLTA. Miss Atherton, and the team in Maple, take time to get to know the children and adapt approaches to match children’s individual interests. We are very flexible and experienced in accommodating a wide range of complex needs. Your child will be assigned a key person who will get to know them extremely well. During the key person time, the member of staff working with a child will identify the next steps in learning. The team work closely with the school SENCO and our specialist SEND teacher Dr Helen Bibby, who has provided training on Intensive Interaction, Attention Autism and blank level questions. The staff will be using their voice, body and face to develop early communication skills. Some activities will be child led and others adult led depending on the support children will need in moving their learning forward. Also, interventions such as speech and language therapy take place and our private SALT will be working alongside the team to offer advice and next steps.