SEN

SEND : Support for parents

St Bede’s R.C Primary School SEN Information Report

(and contribution to LA SEND Local Offer)

“One in Unity, Rich in Diversity”

St Bede’s aims to offer children an educational experience where staff will strive to identify and remove barriers to learning and create an environment in which every child is encouraged to reach their potential and ensure quality, access and achievement for all.

At St Bede’s Primary School we strive to be an inclusive school. Inclusion is central in the Catholic ethos and values of the school – a philosophy, which covers every child’s rights and entitlement to the very best experiences education can offer.

In its aim to move towards becoming totally inclusive, the school is committed to constantly reviewing and evaluating its practices, systems and curriculum provision.
Links to key policies e.g. SEN and Inclusion policies 

Our Core Offer

• High quality teaching is personalised to meet every child’s need. This is the first step in supporting children who may have SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities). All children are challenged to do their very best. Teachers are responsible for the progress of ALL pupils in their class.
• All children will be taught a broad and balanced curriculum; adapted to the needs of each individual. Where children require extra support, specialist resources or extension materials will be provided wherever possible.
• Pastoral and social support is available for all from teachers and teaching assistants. All children are known well by their class teacher, who develops strong relationships with them. Good behaviour and work is rewarded, with praise being a key element of this.
• Your child can express their views in several ways, including school council representatives, directly to members of staff, school buddies and peer mentors.
• We manage medical needs by working closely with parents and healthcare professionals. We listen to and act on their advice, providing staff with training when needed. Supporting Children with Medical Needs guidance.
• We run a wide range of extra curricular clubs including art, sewing, hockey, football, gymnastics and dance.
• We have a designated SEND governor who is Marianne Taylor.

St Bede’s has a wealth of expertise from its staff over and above the qualifications needed for their jobs. Specialist services are always used when the need arises and the school feels it needs more support or advice to ensure a child fulfils their potential.

Specialist Services used by school:

• Educational Psychologist.
• Occupational therapists.
• Speech and Language therapists.
• Hearing impaired services.
• Visually impaired services.
• CAMHs – Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service.
• School nurse.
• Daisy Chain – ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) support.
• Rainbows – for children who have experienced loss.

This is not an exhaustive list, and school will always endeavour to engage with services to support our children.

Assess

• Identification – Your child will be identified as having SEN and/or a disability if they have significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age, or if they have a disability preventing or hindering the use of educational facilities provided for children of the same age.
• First steps – If from our rigorous tracking and monitoring of your child’s progress, it becomes apparent that he/she is not making expected progress then you will be invited to a meeting with their teacher and Mrs Peacock and Mrs Webb (DHT/SENCo). Where appropriate your child will be involved in this meeting. At the meeting we will begin to explore the possible barriers to learning and you will be asked how we can best support your child. We may also agree how you can best support your child at home.
• Observations and assessments will then be carried out and, if required, input from specialist services may be sought with your permission.
• Support at this level will be known as “Targeted support” and strategies will be jointly devised to guide staff in guiding your child to achieve their learning outcomes. Proven, effective interventions will be used.
• If, despite this level of support, it is determined that further support is required your child may be placed on our school’s SEN Support Register and a “One Plan” will be devised. A One Plan is a document to support the child, taking views from the child and parents, as well as including advice from outside agencies if they are involved.
• EHCPs (Education and Health Care Plans) will be used when a child’s needs are deemed more complex and require the input from a range of outside agencies. An EHCP helps to determine the level of educational, social and health support the child needs in order to meet the learning outcomes we have jointly identified.
• If you are concerned about your child’s progress or that you child may have SEND, please contact our SENCo Mrs Webb or our DHT Mrs Peacock on 01325 466411.

Plan

• The first point of contact is the class teacher, who has overall responsibility for the welfare of your child.
• All teachers are teachers of children with SEND. We regularly train all our staff to equip them with suitable strategies and approaches to help them to meet a wide range of learning needs.
• We have an extensive range of different SEND resources and interventions available. These are closely matched to the needs of our children and their progress is monitored by the class teacher, the SENCo and staff with specific curriculum responsibilities.
• Our team of support staff are deployed where they can best serve children’s needs.
• Where a child fails to make adequate progress, despite carefully planned additional help, we seek advice from relevant outside professionals. These include: Educational Psychologist, Occupational Health and Speech and Language therapists.

Our procedures are in line with the SEN Code of Practice (2014).
Mrs A Webb (SENCo) should be consulted for advice if you have any concerns.

Do

• Our teachers are skilled at adapting teaching and learning to meet the diverse needs in each class.
• Daily planning takes into account individual children’s needs and requirements and is annotated and adapted according to need. Explicit reference is made in the teachers planning to the needs of those children identified with SEN and/or disabilities.
• Differentiation is approached in a range of ways to support access to the curriculum and ensure that all children can experience success and challenge in their learning.
• Grouping arrangements take into account the different skills and abilities of each child. This ensures that learning is maximised.
• Additional adults are used to help groups and individual children with the long term goal of developing independent learning skills. The class teacher monitors this support to avoid students becoming over reliant on this.
• We fully encourage parental support and offer opportunities for individual meetings with parents/carers to provide clarity and recommendations on how they can support their child at home.

Review

• Homework is given regularly and your child may have the opportunity to access computer programmes to support their learning at home through the school website. You are encouraged to support your child’s learning at home.
• Reading record books are used to support communication between home and school and you are encouraged to use these to communicate with staff where appropriate.
• Progress meetings are held each term where you can meet your child’s teacher to discuss and look at their work in different subject areas. An opportunity is provided in the Summer term for you to discuss your child’s end of year report.
• Parents who have children on the school’s SEN Support Register will be given the opportunity to review their child’s Individual Education Plan at these meetings. Your child will be involved in reviewing their targets at appropriate times throughout the term, with the class teacher or a teaching assistant, and in the setting of new targets. Parents will be informed of any changes to the Individual Education Plan, and are welcome to arrange an appointment with the class teacher and/or SENco to discuss them.
• We aim to ensure that all looked after children expect and experience the same outcomes as their peers. For children with SEND who are looked after by the local authority, we provide the same equal access to all areas of the curriculum. This is systematically overseen by the school safeguarding officer.
• If your child has an EHC plan, you will be invited to an annual review of this plan at least once a year.

At St Bede’s we follow a graduated approach of support, as detailed in the SEN Code of Practice, which may be found at SEN Code of Practice 2014.

Meeting Identified Needs

There are 4 primary areas of SEN

• Speech, Language and Communication.
• Cognition and Learning.
• Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties.
• Sensory and/or Physical Development.

For many children their targets will be linked to learning and will often be specifically related to literacy and numeracy. However, for other children they may be related to social interaction, communication with children and adults or emotional difficulties. The most important factor is that the targets and support provided are particular to the needs of each individual child.

• Speech, Language and Communication.

The following is a snapshot of our expertise, but is not an exhaustive list:

• Access to small group and/or individualised interventions to develop skills in communication and interaction with others. E.g. Blast; an Early Language Intervention.
• Differentiated curriculum.
• Differentiated delivery.
• Planning for different learning styles: eg visual, auditory and kinaesthetic.
• Illustrated dictionaries/word banks/thesauruses.
• Use of different writing frames.
• Talk partners.
• Daily phonics for children.
• Labelled resources and equipment.
• Individual mini whiteboards and pens.
• Visual timetables/individual visual timetable if required.
• Displayed targets.
• Interactive whiteboard in each classroom.
• Input from Speech and Language service.
• Input from ASD Outreach.
• Mentoring and buddy systems.
• Planned transitions. Eg. advance notice, familiar resources.
• Cognition and Learning.

More information at Darlington Borough Council