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
Our school is committed to the early identification of pupils with SEND. We use rigorous assessment processes and track pupil progress between assessment points. Observations of pupils and the views of parents/ carers and pupils also inform the early identification process. We aim to be proactive in our identification of need but parents/ carers can raise a concern with any member of school staff at any time.
When a concern is raised, the SENCO will liaise with the class teachers to clearly identify the child’s strengths and any areas of difficulty. The teacher and SENCO will meet with parents to explore these needs which will be documented on a Short Note and some next step actions will be agreed by all involved.
In deciding whether to make special education provision to support educational, social, physical or emotional needs, we:
- Work in partnership with parents/carers, pupils
- Consult with relevant external agencies
- Use assessment tools & materials
- Use observations
- Use Short Notes
We monitor the progress of all children over the four broad areas of need; Communication and Interaction, Cognition and Learning, Social, Emotional and Mental Health and Physical or Sensory. This may be done from analysing assessment and tracking data, the use of special assessment activities, general observations around school or in class and/ or if a parent or child has reported a concern. Staff will communicate any concerns to parents and to the school SENCO, who will become involved further in the identification and assessment process. This provides the basis and starting point to a graduated approach for identifying and supporting pupils with SEND. Further information can be found below.
It is possible that these actions may include the need for further specialist assessments from external agencies eg. Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, CAMHS, the Local Authority SEND Advisory teams. With the consent of parents, the teacher and SENCO will make a referral to the necessary agency for further assessment or support. The Short Note will be reviewed according to need. A decision will then be made collaboratively on whether to:
- continue with a Short Note to identify and monitor progress towards outcomes or
- to move to a SEND Support plan with a more detailed approach to identifying the child’s needs, outcomes and the provision necessary to meet those needs. At this stage, the child’s name will be added to the school’s SEND register.
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 – Ongoing in school assessments are used to determine how pupils are progressing. Where more specialist advice is needed to ascertain specific details of need advice will be sought from professionals and more specialist and specific assessment materials may be used to provide accurate assessments and details of need.
- Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes -Class teachers and the school SENCO will act upon the advice of any professionals involved and meet with parents/ carers and children to determine the most appropriate outcomes to be identified on the child’s support plan to best meet their needs and ensure that they make progress. A holistic view of strengths and areas of difficulty will be identified and outcomes matched to ensure that support is in place to address the areas of difficulty. The support plan will identify what needs to be in place to meet the child’s needs and ensure that they make progress. Class teachers and support staff, under the guidance of the SENCO, will plan appropriate teaching and learning activities, modifications and differentiation of the curriculum and interventions to ensure that the child makes progress towards the outcomes.
This support could take the form of different learning activities for the child, specialist resources, a specially designed programme of learning, the use of ICT equipment, adapted resources or an additional adult to provide a higher level of support. Additional resources will be put in place as necessary and levels of adult support will be appropriately matched to the needs of the child. Additional support may be planned as part of whole class teaching, on a 1 to 1 basis or as part of a small group and may be provided by either a teacher or teaching assistant. The impact of quality first teaching and interventions is measured as part of the whole school monitoring process and is a prominent focus of individual pupil progress meetings. Individual interventions are also monitored for their impact.
- Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes -Children with SEND will follow the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum. Curriculum will be differentiated and adapted as necessary to meet the child’s needs. Where a child is able, they will be assessed using the standardised national assessment systems. An application will be made for adjustments to the assessment materials if this is appropriate. If a child meets the criteria for disapplication, parents will be consulted and an application to withdraw the child from the assessments will be made. School will use their own internal assessment systems to ensure that the child is making progress and that provision is effective. Children with SEND who are working below the expected standard for the curriculum that they are working within will be assessed using the Key Stage 1 and 2 Pre-Key Stage Standards.It may be necessary to make adaptations to the physical environment. This will be done on the advice of other professionals and in liaison with parents/ carers. For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the school policies section of our website.
- Review the support and progress – Support Plans will be reviewed at least 3 times a year on a termly basis. Where necessary, the school SENDCo will contact parents to arrange an earlier review of the support plan and agree next steps. At each review, an evaluation of the impact of the support that has been put in place will be made through the use of assessment data, feedback from observations, the views of the child, their parents and class teachers and the use of assessment information and data. A joint decision will be made to either cease the SEND support plan or continue with the support plan. Where needs are complex and the support plan is not having the desired impact upon progress and meeting the child’s needs a decision will be made to consider seeking further advice or support and/or making an Education, Health and Care Assessment.
As part of our SEND approach, every child with SEND will have an individualised SEND 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 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. This is usually for a very small minority of children who have complex needs.
School currently has a number of interventions and support, which can be utilised and adapted as required, including:
- Speech and Language support via NHS therapists or Mable Therapy.
- Therapeutic interventions to support SEMH (including, Lego Therapy, Play Therapy, Therapeutic story writing, Relax kids)
- Small groups and one to one support for specific areas of intervention and targeted work by teacher and/or teaching assistant, under the direction of the class teacher and SENDCO
- Individual programmes such as Power of 2, sensory programmes or language interventions
- IT resources such as a laptop to develop touch typing.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer
Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEN
Assessments used by the school and in conjunction with outside professionals may include:-
- Social and emotional assessments such as a Boxall Profile
- Hearing tests
- Eyesight tests including tests for Meares-Irlen (visual dyslexia)
- Sensory profile assessments
- Cognitive assessments
- Social communication assessments
- Speech and language assessments
- Physical assessments via an occupational therapist or physio therapist
- Medical assessments
For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.