Angels Day Nursery

At Angels Day Nursery, we know that every child in our care is special and unique.

We believe that every day is a learning day and that learning is all around us.

We provide high-quality, inclusive care and education including strong shared values, policies and practices, giving every child the best possible start in life.

Using WellComm right from the start

We use WellComm from the very beginning of a child's journey with us. When the children and parents come for the settling in session, we ask the same 10 questions that are on the WellComm sheet that are relevant to their age. This allows us to gain the vital starting information that we need. If this identifies a concern, we will share with parents how we will support their child’s speech, language, and communication.

Following this initial assessment with parents, we then screen children again once they have settled to see if they are showing the same level of speech and language development at nursery as they are at home. This allows us to ensure that the child has not been over or under assessed in the first instance.  If children are scoring red or amber at their chronological age, we will speak to parents and send home activities from The Big Book of Ideas, as well as use the ideas to support practice in nursery.

Professional development and the role of the key person

We train all of our staff in how to carry out WellComm screening as we recognise that it is more beneficial for a child to be screened by their key person and this also ensures accuracy. We also do a screening as part of the 2-year-old check so that we can be sure that children are given the correct support if their language is not quite where it should be.

Knowledgeable and responsive practitioners

We find the key to our success with speech and language is to make sure our practitioners know our children inside out, communicate with them well during the day to close any vocabulary gaps, work in partnership with parents, have a language-rich environment with plenty of stories/songs/rhymes and rapidly put into place action plans if children do need the extra support.

We also promote WellComm at parent workshops. We find WellComm has played a crucial part in helping the educational recovery since COVID.