A Bedford-based nursery's strategy for developing children's communication skills has won it a major award.

A family-run nursery in Bedford has won a prestigious national award for its work in helping young children communicate and express themselves. Haven 2000 was named early years setting of the year at the Shine a Light Awards, organised by the Communication Trust, just before Christmas.

Good communication is of paramount importance to the Haven 2000 staff - whether with the children and their families or between themselves. When a child joins, an assessment is undertaken to gauge their communication skills and language development. An individual plan is created for them and progress is monitored.

'We observe against the ECAT (Every Child a Talker) monitoring criteria which we find really useful,' says nursery manager Maria Riley. 'We assess the children against all the communicative areas of the EYFS, looking at speech, sounds, articulation, listening and understanding.'

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