Early Years Specialist Provision at Croyland Nursery School celebration

An Early Years Specialist Provision in Wellingborough – named ‘Sunflowers’, which opened last September held a celebration on Wednesday 10th July to mark the success of their first year.

The provision - established by North Northamptonshire Council and Croyland Nursery School (part of the Foundations for Children Nursery Schools Federation) – provides specialist support for young children with moderate or significant communication and social interaction difficulties.

The provision aims to implement adaptations and modifications to the curriculum and teaching approaches to enable the children to make excellent progress. The children will then move onto primary schools or specialist provisions with an understanding of the adaptations required for their continued success. With a high number of children not able to access their school place at statutory school age and children starting school without a clear plan of what support is required, the need for units of this type is increasing.

The Executive Head, Lyndsey Lambert and the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator for the school, Jo Summers, led the celebration, at which the progress of all the children in the unit was shared. Deputy Mayor, Cllr Viv Wilkinson was joined by a large gathering from the local community including Cllr Lora Lawman; chairman of North Northants council, early years professionals, members of Wellingborough Town Council, families and staff to celebrate the success of the children. After the event, Cllr Lora Lawman said “I was in absolute awe listening to your presentation and hearing of the wonderful improvements that were made in the life of the case studies shared and the examples you gave. Seeing the improvements in the physical, psychological and mental wellbeing of the children was outstanding. 6 or 12 months improvements in their abilities is just absolutely wonderful and sets them on a better path of equal opportunity in later life”. She also commented that “it is only possible through the dedicated and hard work of you and your staff and I can only congratulate you on these outstanding achievements”.

This year there have been 11 children accessing the provision, aged 3-5 years - all making exceptional progress. All of the children have now got an Education, Health and Care Plan which maps out the support they need in their education setting.

It is hoped that the success of this pilot provision continues and that there will be opportunities to grow this model across North Northants, so that all children have an equal opportunity to develop their talents and thrive.

Croyland Nursery School has been part of the Wellingborough community for over 80 years, providing high quality, inclusive education for young children. The school - and Federation - have grown and evolved to meet the changing needs of the community and society with an ethos of inclusive practice, ensuring every child’s unique learning journey is understood and celebrated.