Who are the best people to talk to in this school about my child’s difficulties with learning\Special Educational Needs or Disability (SEND)?

The 2015 SEND Code of Practice states that schools need to set high aspirations and outcomes for children through Quality First Teaching. They are entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum to reach these aspiration, achieving their best, becoming more confident and make a successful transition to adulthood.

The class teacher

Responsible for

• Checking on the progress of your child and identifying, planning and delivering any additional help your child may need (this could be targeted work or additional support) and letting the Special Education Needs/Disabilities Co-ordinator (SENCo) know as necessary.
• Personalised teaching and learning for your child.
• Ensuring that the school’s SEND Policy is followed in their classroom and for all the pupils they teach with any SEND.

The SENDCo: Mrs K Henshall

Responsible for

• Developing and reviewing the school’s SEND policy.
• Co-ordinating all the support for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND)
• A thorough transition with feeder primary schools and their Year 6 teachers.
• Close liaison with Pastoral Leaders and Form Tutors
• Ensuring that you are

1. involved in supporting your child’s learning
2. kept informed about the support your child is getting
3. involved in reviewing their progress

• Liaising with all the other people who may be coming in to school to help support your child’s learning, e.g. Speech and Language Therapy, Educational Psychology.
• Updating the school’s SEND register (a system for ensuring that all the SEND needs of pupils in this school are known) and making sure that records of your child’s progress and needs are kept.
• Providing specialist support for teachers and support staff in the school, so that they can help students with SEND in the school to achieve the best progress possible.
• Referring to outside agencies in order to gain further advice and strategies to support students both in school and at home

The Headteacher: Mrs R Hudson

Responsible for

• The day-to-day management of all aspects of the school; this includes the support for students with SEND.
• The Headteacher will give responsibility to the SENDCo and class teachers, but is still responsible for ensuring that your child’s needs are met.
• The Headteacher must make sure that the Governing Body is kept up to date about issues relating to SEND.

School contact telephone number: 01244 371475

We provide effective interventions for students with a variety of needs;

SLD (Severe Learning Difficulty)
MLD (Moderate Learning Difficulty)
SpLD (Specific Learning Difficulty)
SLCN (Speech, Language or Communication Need)
C&L (Cognitive and Learning)
SEMH (Social, Emotional and Mental Health)
ASC (Autistic Spectrum Condition)
VI (Visual Impairment)

HI (Hearing Impairment)

Consulting parents and young people / assessing and reviewing progress towards outcomes

• Meeting with SENDCo or other staff when requested
• Review assessment after each data catch

Approaches used when teaching young people with SEND

• Quality First Teaching
• Adaptive teaching
• Aspirational target grades

Class teacher input, via excellent targeted classroom teaching (Quality First Teaching).

For your child this would mean

• That the teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and all students in their class.
• That all teaching is built on what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
• That different ways of teaching are in place, so that your child is fully involved in learning in class. This may involve things like using more practical learning.
• That specific strategies (which may be suggested by the SENDCo) are in place to support your child to learn.
• Your child’s teacher will have carefully checked on your child’s progress and will have decided that your child has a gap or gaps in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to help them make the best possible progress.

Specific group work

Intervention which may be

• Run in the classroom or a group room.
• Run by a teacher or a teaching assistant (TA).

Specialist groups run by outside agencies, e.g. Speech and Language therapy

SEND Code of Practice 2015: School Support (K)

This means a student has been identified by the SENCo/class teacher as needing some extra specialist support in school from a professional outside the school. This may be from:

• The Local Authority central services, such as the Autism Service, Behaviour Support Team or Sensory Service (for students with a hearing or visual need).
• Outside agencies such as the Education Psychology Service (EPS),and speech and language therapy or Paediatrics

If you have concerns about your child’s progress, you should speak to:

• Your child’s form tutor
• Your child’s progress leader
• The schools SENDCo

If your child is identified as not making progress, the school will set up a meeting to discuss this with you in more detail and to

• Listen to any concerns you may have.
• Plan any additional support your child may need.
• Discuss with you any referrals to outside professionals to support your child

The school budget, received from the LA, includes money for supporting children with SEND.

The Head Teacher decides on the deployment of resources for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, in consultation with the school governors on the basis of needs in the school.

The Head Teacher and the SENDCo discuss all the information they have about SEND in the school, including

• The children getting extra support already,
• The children needing extra support,
• The children who have been identified as not making as much progress as would be expected.

From this information, they decide what resources/training and support is needed.

The school identifies the needs of pupils with SEND. This identifies all support given within school and is reviewed regularly and changes made as needed, so that the needs of children are met, and resources are deployed as effectively as possible.

School provision

• All teachers are responsible for teaching students with SEND and ensuring Quality First Teaching.
• SEND Teaching Assistants mainly working with either individual children or small groups.
• Family Support workers offering support for students
• Pastoral support where pupils can access mentoring, or receive Emotional Literacy support via a qualified ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant)
• A specialist teacher who can provide key intervention for students with SEND
• Access to Platform For Life Counselling.
• Specialist 1:1 Mathematics teaching assistant

Local Authority Provision delivered in school

• Autism Service
• Educational Psychology Service
• Sensory Service for children with visual or hearing needs
• Information Advice and Support Service (IASS) for parents/carers
• SALT (Speech and Language Therapy)
• Education Access Service

Health Provision delivered in school

• Additional Speech and Language Therapy assessments when required
• School Nurse

The SENDCo’s job is to support the class teacher in planning for pupils with SEND.

• The school provides training annually as part of schools staff Continual Professional Development (CPD) and support to enable all staff to improve the teaching and learning of students, including those with SEND.
• Students who do not currently require action are monitored at each half term
• Students who have additional educational needs, requiring additional provision are discussed
• Students who have more complex additional needs and who hold an Education Health Care Plan are reviewed to check the support is adequate and effective.
• A confidential list of names of those students who have additional needs is compiled and this information is disseminated to all teaching staff via the SEND register, updated based on need.
• Information around SEND and Quality First Teaching strategies are available to staff.
• Individual teachers and support staff attend training courses run by outside agencies that are relevant to the needs of specific students in their class, e.g. from the Autism Service.

We make the following adaptations to ensure all pupils’ needs are met:

• Adapting our resources and staffing
• Using recommended aids, such as laptops, coloured overlays, visual timetables, larger font, overlearning etc.
• A key stage pastoral learning mentor will be on hand to ensure students are able to access the daily learning based on their emotional needs.
• There is a Homework club specifically to support pupils with SEND students and allow them to access their Homework.

Your child’s progress will be continually monitored by their subject teacher and reports will be issued twice a year.

The progress of students with an EHC Plan will be formally reviewed at an Annual Review with all adults involved with the child’s education. Those with top up funding will be reviewed formally with parents before the funding is due to cease to ensure continuation if needed.

The SENDCo will also check that your child is making expected progress in line with their ability progress within any individual work and in any group that they take part in.

Regular book reviews and lesson observations will be carried out by members of the Senior Leadership Team to ensure that the needs of all students are met and that the quality of teaching and learning is good.

The severity of individual pupil need determines the frequency of involvement of parents and carers and the number of meetings required to be held. Parents and carers are, however, always welcome to make an appointment with form tutors, pastoral leaders or SENDCo.

The form tutor and progress leader are regularly available to discuss your child’s progress, or any concerns you may have. They will also be able to share information with members of staff about what is working well at home and school, so that similar strategies can be used

We recognise that transitions can be difficult for a child with SEND, and we take steps to ensure that any transition is a smooth as possible.

If your child is joining us from another school:

The SENDCo will liaise with your child’s primary/other school to discuss your child with the class teacher and the SENDCo.

The transition process involves:

• Early identification of of students who may require further support with the option of additional transition visits
• Data collation – KS2 Sats – Teacher assessment
• Staff visit to Primary schools where possible
• Full day cohort visit
• Literacy assessment (spelling/reading comprehension)
• Y6 student/parent/carer transition evening
• All data shared with teaching and TA support staff
• Communication with the Pastoral Leader and Form tutor.

KS4 and Post 16:

• Students are provided with careers guidance.
• The school provides support around the different transition phases (between key stages/further education/training).
• We will share information with the school, college, or other setting the student is moving to. 

We recognise that some students have additional emotional and social needs that need to be developed and nurtured. These needs can manifest themselves in a number of ways, including behavioural difficulties, anxiousness, and being uncommunicative. Students with SEND are also encouraged to be part of the wide variety of clubs to promote teamwork/building friendships etc. We have a zero tolerance approach to bullying.

For those children who find aspects of this difficult we offer:

• Family Support workers
• School Mentors
• Pastoral Year group team
• Social Skills
• ELSA sessions
• Access to Platform for Life counselling Sessions
• Young Carers support
• Social skills group for Key Stage 3 at lunch time
• Lunch club to develop social skills and confidence
• IDL (International Dyslexia Learning) sessions

If your child still needs extra support, with your permission the SENDCo/Family Support will access further support through the TAF process.

Mentoring: This programme will be personalised according to the needs of the students.

SALT: A programme which will assist students to improve their working memory and to improve their vocabulary choices.

Social Skills: A programme designed to assist students to improve their social interaction with peers and adults around them.

ELSA: Is an initiative developed and supported by educational psychologists. It recognises that children learn better and are happier in school if their emotional needs are also addressed.

IDL: International Dyslexia learning. IDL is a computer based program designed to develop an increase in reading and spelling ages. It also develops confidence and self-esteem for those pupils with dyslexia or dyslexic type difficulties.

The school has disabled access and elevators as we are a new build school. The corridors are large enough to comfortably navigate around and disabled toilets are situated on each floor.

The resources of the SEND department are fully accessible for all students.

Enabling students with SEND to engage in activities available to those in the school who do not have SEND. All of our extra-curricular activities and school visits are available to all of our students, including our extensive after-school clubs. All students are encouraged to go on our residential trips and all students are encouraged to take part in sports day, school plays, special workshops, etc. No student is ever excluded from taking part in these activities because of their SEN or disability.