Hi, my name is Alison Shires and I am the Inclusion Manager for Snapdragons.

I have worked in the early years sector for over thirty years. I have been the Manager at our Atworth nursery for the past five years, after leaving my role of 22 years as Senior Early Years Inclusion Adviser for Wiltshire Council.

As early years providers, we want each child in our care to have the best possible start to their nursery education. Snapdragons welcomes all children and, for some of the children in our care, this will mean additional support, training or resources are required to ensure they can develop in all areas learning and development covered by the Government’s document “Early Years Foundation Stage, Development Matters”.

In each of the nurseries we have a named Special Educational Need and Disability Co-ordinators, known as SENDcos. SENDcos have attended specialist training provided by the local authority in your area. They will be able to support you and your child to access the appropriate professionals to help. In nursery they will support you and your child’s key person to implement appropriate support. We will monitor and evaluate their progress and share this with you at regular meetings, that you will be invited to attend.

My role in Snapdragons as Inclusion Manager is to support the nursery SENDco in their role, in addition to the support they receive from their Local Authority.

I am here to support you the parents / carers. Please contact me you should you need to discuss any concerns, worries and successes of your child at alison@snapdragonsnursery.com