The Redway School Nursery Review

A toy box brought to the family home gives Redway's nursery its distinctive starting point. Through Home-Link, staff get to know a child before planning their move into nursery, so parents' knowledge helps shape the provision from the beginning.

The nursery belongs to The Redway School in Milton Keynes, a special school supporting children with severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties, including complex medical needs. Its Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) department serves children aged two to five in groups that bring together different abilities. Learning is planned around each child's development and interests, making individual needs the starting point for the day.

Play carries the curriculum. Staff choose equipment and adapt their communication, social and behaviour strategies to help each child participate. Indoor learning and outdoor activities both feature in the daily plan, giving children different spaces in which to explore and practise skills.

The EYFS combines learning to communicate, move and build relationships with early number work, literacy, creative expression and understanding the world. At Redway, these areas are shaped around the child rather than treated as a single pace everyone must follow. The spring topic named on the EYFS page is In the Garden and Growing. Links with school events include Creative Arts Week and Harvest Festival, bringing early years children into shared activities.

Home-Link's toy-box activities may include music, stories, messy play and sensory exploration, giving families examples of nursery learning at home. Families can experience examples at home before their child starts. In June 2023, Ofsted found that early years adults used children's interests skilfully to develop communication, including expressing a wish for more and making choices. These are practical steps towards having a say in everyday life.

Progress and early reading. The June 2023 inspection also identified unfinished work across the school on tracking small learning steps and extending the foundational reading programme to all phases. These were school-wide concerns, relevant to conversations about how a child's learning is assessed and planned.

Settling begins with an introductory home visit and an All about me form once a placement has been agreed. Weekly follow-up visits involve a Home-link Teacher and Specialist Teaching Assistant, with the latter becoming the child's key person. A Speech and Language Therapist or Multi-Sensory Impairment Teacher may join when appropriate. This gives staff time to understand the child alongside their family.

Parents can remain for the first nursery sessions as part of an individually planned transition. Each child has a key person who also works with occupational therapists and physiotherapists, connecting emotional support with specialist input. Home-school diaries and the Evidence for Learning app provide channels for exchanging observations and photographs after the child settles.

Food also creates opportunities to communicate. Across Redway, children are encouraged to request snacks using their own communication methods. The school describes lunch ingredients as fresh and locally sourced. Snack time therefore has a learning purpose as well as a care role.

Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Treat the next placement as a separate admissions question: all Redway admissions go through the local authority's Special Educational Needs Department. Discuss the Reception-stage placement through that route rather than assuming nursery attendance settles it.

The school's admissions process is based on assessed needs and education, health and care plans. Familiarity with nursery staff and participation in school events should be considered separately from the decision about a future place.

Visits are welcomed. For an enquiry or to arrange a visit, contact info@theredway.net or telephone 01908 200000. Existing families also have a dedicated parent email address, parents@theredway.net.

At the main site on Farmborough, Netherfield, visitor parking uses marked bays outside reception. Buses and people carriers operate during the day, and entrances must remain clear for emergency access. Use the designated bays when visiting.