Most children and young people in mainstream schools will have their special educational needs met through good classroom practice. This is called Quality First Teaching.
Early Identification of Need
A special educational need can be a number of different things. For example, a child may be having problems with reading, number work or behaviour, which can be helped by putting extra support in at school and by working in partnership with parents. It may also be due to a disability which makes it harder for a child to use the same educational facilities that the school provides for the majority of children. For some children this may be a temporary difficulty, while others may have a long term need for special help.
Types of special educational needs can include:
- General Learning Difficulties – children whose learning progresses at a slower pace
- Social and Emotional Difficulties
- Cognition and Learning Difficulties (difficulties with reading, writing and spelling or maths)
- Communcation and Interaction Difficulties
- Speech and Language Difficulties
- Delays with gross or fine motor skills
- Other Physical or Medical Needs/Conditions
All of our children’s needs are identified and met as early as possible through:
- observation, assessment, target setting and monitoring arrangements (cycle of assess, plan, do and review)
- listening to, and following up , parental concerns
- listening to and taking into account the child’s views, wishes and feelings
- the analysis of data including baseline assessments linked to the EYFS to track individual children’s progress over time
- reviewing and improving staff understanding of a wide range of needs and effective strategies to meet those needs
- liaison with schools and other settings on end of year transfer
- exchanging information from other services across education, health, care and the voluntary sector
- involving an external agency, and the Educational Psychology Service (EPS) as a minimum, where it is considered that a special educational need may be significant and long term and may require more in-depth and frequently reviewed cycles of assess, plan, do and review.
- data on progress is stored and analysed through iTrack. Pupils needs are discussed and decisions are taken as to which intervention is needed.
SEN Support
Where a pupil is identified as having a special educational need we follow a graduated approach which takes the form of cycles of “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.
This means that we will:
- Assess a child’s special educational needs
- Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes
- Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes
- Review the support and progress
As part of this approach every child with SEN will have an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs. Parents/carers and child/YP (where appropriate) views are integral to the this process.
A small percentage of children and young people with significant and/or complex needs may require an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Children with complex difficulties in any/more than one of the four areas MAY be eligible for an EHCP assessment. This should be discussed in detail with the SENDCo. The process of applying for an EHCP takes up to twenty weeks and requires a vast amount of evidence to be submitted to the LA. Currently we have four children in our school who have an EHCP . An EHCP does not mean the child receives one to one support in school, but some children do need extra support across the day including unstructured times . Each case is dealt with on an individual basis.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer
Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEN
If teachers have a concern about a child this is recorded on a short note.
A short note is shared with parents who can respond to the teacher’s concern and add their own ( if applicable )
If children receive more than one short note across the year it is discussed with parents whether they may need a SEND Support Plan
In agreement with parents, the child will then be placed on SEND register and given a plan with outcomes on
Children may be taken off the SEND register if they make progress or their needs change, this will always be discussed with the parents
How we respond to parental concerns
We always encourage parents to come in and discuss any concerns with us face to face. Children who are working with number of agencies will have termly review, even if they don’t have an EHCP so that parents have a chance to discuss any concerns about the provision their child is receiving. All parents of children with SEND are invited in three times a year to speak to staff. We strive to ensure access to appropriate high quality teaching, differentiation and intervention for all of our SEND children. All planning is monitored by the SLT, books are collected in frequently and learning walks take place daily across the school to ensure high standards for all of our learners , including those with SEND .
For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.
