This article, focusing on the borough’s early education provision, is being published in partnership with Newham Council’s Year of the Young Person, marking the achievements of young people and highlighting services and support groups aimed at them.

A number of Newham Council's nursery schools have been recognised for their high-quality work around inclusion in the community.

Nursery schools recently received annual reviews for their Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM) Award flagship school status, which the council says proved a major success.

The IQM Award provides UK schools with a nationally recognised validation of their inclusive practice and ongoing commitment to developing educational inclusion, with "flagship school" the highest of three award levels.

One IQM report said: “They have been great through a very difficult time.

“Transition was brilliant and they took time and effort settling my child in.

“They were flexible and responsive and understanding of what needed to happen, especially in these times.”

Another school was praised for providing “a safe and supportive environment”.

The council says it is committed to ensuring children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) achieve the best outcomes in their early years, through nurseries, schools and beyond.

Additionally, all seven maintained nursery schools in Newham have been assessed as good or outstanding by Ofsted.

Six of these nurseries deliver the Best Start in Life (BSiL) children centre services within their local community.

The seventh provides the SEND Hub and early years resource provision for the borough from Ronald Openshaw Education Centre in Stratford.

Two area special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) are based at Newham’s BSiL SEND Hub.

The team also includes a practice support practitioner and children centre development officer.

They provide support and guidance across private, voluntary and independent early education and childcare providers, childminders and children centres.

This comes after an Ofsted report praised Newham Council's children's support services for making "significant improvements".

Visit https://families.newham.gov.uk for more information on maintained nursery schools, children centres and the SEND Hub in Newham.