We are delighted to announce that Little Willows Pre-School has been awarded the Kite Mark award in recognition of quality practice that is wholly inclusive.

Little Willows needed to evidence the following:-

• What “targeted” provision can effectively be offered for children with SEND (that is “additional to” or “different from”)?
• How we communicated and worked in partnership with families when their children have SEND?
• To clearly describe how our inclusive ethos and commitment is demonstrated – not only in our written policies, but practically and on a daily basis?

We were thrilled to be one of the first settings in Warwickshire to earn this award.

There will be a presentation of this award in September 2017.

Some background information
Warwickshire wanted to recognise and celebrate the high quality enhanced SEND provision in some of their pre-school settings (nurseries and child-minders).
Dr Zoe Harwood has been involved in researching pre-school inclusion for a number of years, with families and settings. More recently, as recommended by Warwickshire’s SEND Programme Board and agreed by Cabinet (July 2016), there was a proposal to develop a quality mark around effective inclusion in early years.
Settings will need to have a “Good” or “Outstanding” OFSTED grading. However, it is proposed that the inclusion award will not only celebrate good practice in conjunction with OFSTED, but will also raise the inclusive profile of particular settings when families are seeking high-quality provision for children with SEND (for example via IDS, Family Information Service, SEND Voice & the “Local Offer”).
Some parents came up with the “WIncKS” idea, which has now been adopted!