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Bedford nursery wins national communication award

Haven 2000 Nursery in Bedford has been named Early Years Setting of the Year at the 2012 Shine a Light awards for its work in helping young children to communicate and express themselves from a very early age.

The awards, orgnanised by the Communication Trust, celebrate best practice and excellence by individuals, projects and organisations supporting children and young people’s communication.

As part of Haven 2000 Nursery’s communication development strategy, its staff use a signing system called Makaton. This visual speech aide, which was developed for children with special educational needs, can also be helpful if English is not the child’s first language or they are simply too young to speak. The signing system is used by children’s TV star Mr Tumble on the BBC.

 ‘We are extremely proud to have our work recognised with this award, but more importantly we have seen the benefits to the children and their families’, said Maria Riley, nursery manager of the family-run nursery, which was rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.

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