Phase 1

Our Early Years provision offers a service designed to meet the needs of children between the ages of 3 to 5 years of age.  As in any other Early Years setting the children have access to the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum which we carefully deliver through the framework of Conductive Education.  We have an exciting and interesting topic cycle that ensures that the children access a full range of activities.

Children will access a full range of subjects outlined in the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum.  Children should mostly develop the 3 prime areas first. These are:

• Communication and Language
• Physical development
• Personal, social and emotional development

As children grow, the prime area will help them to develop skills in 4 specific areas.  These are:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design.

Our curriculum is differentiated to meet the highly individualised needs of the children in our school.

Our aim is to help children reach their potential and thrive, as well as helping parents and carers and families gain greater understanding of how any motor disorder, such as cerebral palsy, effects their loved one. We can teach techniques to help address children’s needs and focus on play and the use of toys to help keep children engaged.

The focus in our Early Years class is learning through play, and we believe that the children learn best when they are engaged and motivated.  The Conductor Teacher will plan a variety of adult led activities throughout the day which the children will access with the support of our highly experienced staff.  There will also be the opportunity for child led and free play activities.

We operate on a high staff child ratio which enables each child to receive the necessary help they need to fully access their environment.  The children will first and foremost be encouraged to be independent and will give appropriate facilitation to equip them with the skills to do this.  Each child in the Early Years has a key worker who will take responsibility for ensuring that the children settle well into our setting, build close relationships with parents and ensure that the children are making the required level of progress.

Our school provision can link in with either a mainstream or other specialist provision or can be a dedicated stand-alone service for your child. For children who access Paces as a split placement school, (i.e attend Paces for part of the week and an additional school for the remainder of the week) we will develop effective working relationships with staff in the additional setting to ensure coverage of curriculum etc.

We firmly believe on the importance of early intervention and aim to help children to develop their movement skills, speech and communication skills, cognitive functions, intellectual skills, self-care, emotional and social skills. The confidence and self-esteem the child gains as a result of this increased control will also have a positive effect on his/her ability to interact with their peer group.