On this page you will find a whole-host of information about our Nest provision. This page is designed to be as informative as possible and suitable for a range of audiences. It is a place to celebrate the wonderful work that takes place in The Nest!
Putting a face to a name – contacting the Nest team
Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Nursery team, who are always available to help:
Miss C Dalton – Teacher
Miss V Griffiths – Specialist SEND Teaching Assistant
Mrs A Alass – Specialist SEND Teaching Assistant
Mrs M Clarke – Specialist SEND Teaching Assistant
What makes our Nest special?
The Nest is an enhanced provision base at Florence Melly that supports pupils who have SEND, particularly those with communication and interaction difficulties. The overall intent is each pupil engages, achieves, and makes the most personal progress they can over time to enable them to have the most fulfilling, enjoyable, and independent life possible.
Our bespoke curriculum provides the opportunity for pupils to access a broad and balanced curriculum at a differentiated level meeting statutory requirement. For each pupil, their next step will be based on their assessed previous skills and knowledge rather than for their age or year group; it will be highly personalised. At Florence Melly we are committed to using high-quality texts as the beating heart of everything we do in order to develop a genuine love of reading. This is also embedded in the Nest as all learning centres on a core text half termly. The Nest provides high quality teaching. Alongside this, staff identify the strategies that each pupil needs to access the curriculum and engage to achieve and make progress. This is individual to each pupil. Strategies include: Intensive Interaction, structured visual support, PECS, now & next boards, multi-sensory delivery. English and maths are taught through 1:1 adult led activities and timetabled input sessions. They are based on careful assessment of pupils’ abilities and needs and their progressive sequenced next step of learning. The planned curriculum units enable pupils to access a wide range of creative and exciting planned activities to extend and build on known interests and motivations. The curriculum themes also enable repetition to sustain each pupil’s achievements. There is an intensive focus on all aspects of communication, personal outcomes and engagement through all aspects of learning.
The aspiration for all pupils in the Nest is to achieve their potential in all aspects of their development. Our pupils have additional needs such as: autism, physical disabilities, sensory impairments, complex medical needs etc.; therefore, we work in a highly personalised way to ensure that all pupils can achieve the most they can. Our Nest teacher regularly assesses each pupil’s abilities. Staff work collaboratively with parents/carers and any linked professionals to target the next key steps in priority areas that include communication/understanding, personal and social development and key skills. As a result of this, the outcomes of the curriculum are highly individual, and we celebrate personal achievement. Progress for our pupils can be demonstrated by:
- Pupils making progress towards/achieving their intended outcomes set within the EHCP annual meetings. These outcomes are informed by any relevant professionals working with the pupils.
- Pupils making progress towards outcomes on termly learning plans.
- Progress measured using PIVATS.
- Using existing skills in a wider range of contexts.
The Nest curriculum map
*This section is currently being updated by the Nest team. Please pop back soon for further updates.
The Nest timetable
Each day of the week has a specific focus and all provision promotes:
- engagement and enjoyment
- communication and understanding
- personal and social development including increasing awareness of self, their own emotions and relationships with others
- independence including life-skills
Messy Monday
Messy Monday helps to stimulate children’s curiosity and develops their knowledge. With messy play, the sensory experience also helps children to understand their senses. By exploring how things feel, smell and taste, this type of play nurtures an awareness and understanding of the world that surrounds them. Messy play also encourages Communication and Language Development as it enriches relationships through social interaction. As some young children can’t explain things verbally, it allows them to share their discoveries in different ways through the use of objects and gesture.
Therapy Tuesday
Attention Autism (Bucket Therapy) is an intervention model designed by Gina Davies, Specialist Speech and Language Therapist. It aims to develop natural and spontaneous communication through the use of visually based and highly motivating activities. Bucket Therapy helps children: to engage attention, to improve joint attention, to develop shared enjoyment in group activities, to increase attention in adult-led activities, to encourage spontaneous interaction in a natural group setting, to build a wealth and depth of vocabulary and most importantly to have fun!
Friendsday Wednesday
Taking turns is an important part of Communication and Language Development for young children. When children learn to take turns, they learn the basic rhythm of communication, that back-and-forth exchange between people.
Tasty Thursday
Research shows that if children enjoy eating healthy foods, they are more likely to eat them for life. Sensory food education can help address this, as evidence suggests it can increase children’s willingness to try new foods. Sometimes a child may have tried a food at home and disliked it, but can find that the food becomes more appealing in a new setting, surrounded by friends and trusted adults. Sensory food education takes place away from mealtimes, with trusted adults and peers. Asking children open-ended questions, such as ‘what does celery sound like?’ captures children’s innate curiosity and enables them to feel free to explore foods. Tasty Thursday specifically uses two golden rules to empower children: no one has to try, and no one has to like. This removes expectations and pressure to eat the foods, meaning children are more likely to try and potentially enjoy what’s on offer.
Funky Friday
On Funky Friday, we engage in activities to improve fine and gross motor skills, language skills, coordination and handwriting. Funky Friday helps children to develop strong, flexible fingers, hands and arms. It promotes better hand-eye coordination, differentiated movement and manual dexterity. The skills children acquire support independence and the development of life skills.
In addition to our daily focus, the children engage in the following on a daily basis:
- Continuous provision
- Hello and welcome through the use of signs
- English input
- Maths input
- One to one target time
- One to one phonics time
- Storytime
- Songs and rhymes
- Snack time using communication boards
- Now and next boards
- Sensory circuits
- Zones of Regulation
The Nest Twitter (X) feed
The Nest alumni
Class of 2023/24
Class of 2022/23
Connecting and keeping up to date!
We use multiple platforms to communicate to parents/carers and we are proud of our vibrant Class Dojo, Twitter (X) and Flickr feeds. If you haven’t already, please take a few minutes to sign yourselves up so that you can enjoy the wonderful, memorable learning experiences we provide for the children each and every day:
Follow us on Twitter (X): @flomellynews
Follow us on Flickr: florencemelly
Follow us on Class Dojo: Sign up here!
