SEND

SENDCO – Miss F Hickling

As SENDCo I co-ordinate all of the specific provision that is put in place to support children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

I am responsible for writing and implementing the Special Educational Needs Policy.

I work with class teachers, providing advice and support. Together we monitor pupils’ progress and arrange further or different provisions if progress is slower than expected.

I also liaise with a range of external agencies who can give us specialised advice and support.

If you have any concerns about any SEND matter, please contact me. You can ring the school office on 01773 822278 to arrange an appointment or contact me by email at SENDCO@eli.srscmat.co.uk.

We have written about how we can provide help and support for our children with Special Educational Needs, this is called our “School Offer” and you can click on the questions below for more information. This information can also be seen in our ‘School Information Report’, found on the right side of this page.

Our local authority of Derbyshire has also made a “Local Offer”. You can click on the link on the right of the page to take you to the authority’s website where the offer is published.

We strive to maintain our reputation for building positive relationships with parents and carers and recognise the importance of these relationships. Please feel free to come and talk to us and we can all discuss the next steps to take together.

Your first port of call is your child’s class teacher. If you still have concerns you could also talk to Miss Hickling, the SENDCo, or our head teacher Mrs. Clemens.

You can speak to teachers at the end of the school day or call the school office on 01773 822278 to make an appointment.

All class teachers plan, deliver and review the work of all children in their class, including the work of those children with special educational needs or disabilities.

The class teacher uses a provision map to set out any support given in the class. This may include working in groups – sometimes within the classroom, sometimes with a TA in a smaller room.

Your child may be given an APDR – Assess, Plan, Do, Review – also known as a Graduated Response.  This document will have specific targets for them to achieve within a specified amount of time, it will include the methods of support we will use in school, and this will be developed with you and your child.

Some children will be referred to outside agencies for further support, such as Speech and Language Therapists, Autism Outreach, Educational psychologist, etc. These outside agencies offer advice for support in school and at home. If it is felt that a child would benefit from being referred to an outside agency you will always be consulted and the reasons and process discussed with you.

Your child’s needs will be talked through with you by the class teacher, this can be done in a number of ways, at parents’ consultation evenings, a quick chat after school, an appointment, or even in a phone call. At these meetings, the class teacher could be joined by the SENDCo, Miss Hickling, or our Head Teacher, Mrs. Clemens.

Your child’s progress will be tracked and measured (as are all children within the school). We track and measure learning by age-related expectations. The class teacher will make assessments during lessons, live feedback sessions, when marking work, and also in more formal style tests.

If a child is not making the expected age-related progress, the teachers will scaffold the work given to the children to provide extra support.

If further support is needed a discussion will take place with parents, the pupil, teachers, teaching assistants, and the SENDCo to decide what further support can be given to aid progress.

When a child’s APDR is reviewed comments are made about the targets to show progress and refer to the next steps. This may mean the target is broken down into smaller steps to make it more achievable or a different approach may be tried – all to try to ensure your child does make progress.

Children with special educational needs are given extra support and/or resources to the best of the school’s ability with the funds available. The class teacher will support children during lessons, teaching assistants may be used to support some individuals or groups. School would also take advice from outside agencies to provide support when specialists recommend it.

If further support is still needed it may be that applying for an EHCP – an Education Health Care Plan – is necessary. The EHCP would be focused upon the specific, complex, and long-term needs of the child and would be done with the child, parents, and outside agencies such as an educational psychologist or the local community pediatrician to name some examples.

All children are able to express their views via the school council; this can be on any aspect of school life. Children can post their ideas/opinions in the school council box or talk to a representative in their class from year 2 to year 6.

Children are aware of their own targets within the class. Children with special educational needs are also set targets, some of these may be on their APDR (Assess, plan, do, review) and they would be able to discuss these targets and know how to work towards achieving them.

If your child has a statement of educational needs or an EHCP (Education Health Care Plan) their reviews will always be asked for as part of the annual review process.

Specialist services are involved when a child has a specific need that their services can support and when it is felt relevant. Services depend upon the need of the child, however, the services may include: local community paediatrician, Speech and Languages Therapists, MATs team (Multi Agency Team), Family Resource Workers, Education Welfare Officers, Local Inclusion Officers, Educational Psychologists, Support Service for Special Educational Needs, Behaviour Support Service, Autism Outreach, Support Service for Visually Impaired, Support Service for Hearing Impaired,  Support Service for Physically Impaired and Social Workers.

These are just a sample of the services and expertise that could be used. If necessary, school would take advice on the service most appropriate for the needs of the child.

The Derbyshire Local Offer is available at http://www.derbyshiresendlocaloffer.org/

Our staff receive regular professional development sessions and INSET days, some of which are on training for Special Educational needs. Some training is done as a whole staff group; other training is when a member of staff is sent on a specific course for a particular need.

Please refer to our ‘School Send Report’ on the right-hand side of the page to see the latest training received by staff.

Our aim is for all children to be fully included; this may mean making some reasonable adaptations. We would discuss the needs of your child with you. If you are worried about an upcoming trip please call in to see your child’s teacher and express your concern. All trips have a risk assessment carried out before leaving school. Health and safety will not be compromised and all members of staff taking part in the trip will be aware of the risk assessment.

When the time comes for your child to move to a new class, we will ensure there is a transition process. All children will take part in transition lessons to visit their new class for the coming academic year.

Where needed, children will be given the opportunity for extra visits; these may be done when the next class is empty so that they can have a good look around with a teaching assistant talking them through the new environment. They may also wish to have photographs of themselves taken in this new classroom with their new teacher, these would be made into a passport booklet which they would be able to take home with them through the summer holidays and which they can talk to their parents about.

When children first start school and join our EYFS class the children will be invited to join the class and have preschool visits in the afternoons.

Our EYFS staff and SENDCo can also go to see the staff and SENCo of the nursery or preschool to find out more about your child’s special educational needs.

For transition to secondary school, we work with your child and their next school. They would have visits as part of their class or group and may need extra visits to be arranged, these can be with you on parents’ evenings and open evenings or with a TA during school hours. We would also take this opportunity to encourage the secondary school to introduce a key person (such as a form tutor or a teaching assistant) who will be spending some time with your child in their first few weeks.

Your first port of call is your child’s class teacher, appointments can be very informal with a quick chat after school, a discussion at a parents consultation evening or an appointment can be made for a longer and more detailed discussion.

If you still have concerns you could also talk to Miss Hickling who is the SENDCo, or our head teacher Mrs. Clemens. You could pop in after school or call the school office on 01773 822278 to make an appointment. We want to continue with our reputation of building positive relationships with parents, please come and talk to us and we can all discuss the next steps to take.