Our SEND Provision
What types of SEND does the school provide for?
The needs of children with SEND are grouped into 4 broad areas. Children can have needs from more than one area, and their needs may change over time.
AREA OF NEED
Communication and interaction
Children with needs in this area have difficulty communicating with others. They may have difficulty understanding what is being said to them, have trouble expressing themselves, or not understand or use the social rules of communication. Children who are on the autism spectrum often have needs that fall in this category.
Cognition and learning
Children with learning difficulties usually learn at a slower pace than their peers. A wide range of needs are grouped in this area, including: · Specific learning difficulties, which impact 1 or more specific aspects of learning, such as: dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia · Moderate learning difficulties · Severe learning difficulties · Profound and multiple learning difficulties, which is where pupils are likely to have severe and complex learning difficulties as well as a physical disability or sensory impairment
Social, emotional and mental health
These needs may reflect a wide range of underlying difficulties or disorders. Children may have: · Mental health difficulties such as anxiety, depression or an eating disorder · Attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder or attachment disorder · Suffered adverse childhood experiences These needs can show in many ways, e.g. as challenging, disruptive or alarming behaviour, or by the children becoming withdrawn or isolated.
Sensory and/or physical
Children with these needs have a disability that hinders them from accessing the educational facilities generally provided. Children may have: · A sensory impairment such as vision impairment, hearing impairment or multi-sensory impairment · A physical impairment These children may need ongoing additional support and equipment to access all the opportunities available to their peers.
What should I do if I think my child has SEN?
Step 1
If you think your child might have SEN, you can raise your concerns in any one of these ways: · Request a meeting when you see your child’s class teacher at the beginning or end of day. · Send your child’s class teacher an email. · Send the Office an email and your email will be directed to your child’s class teacher. · Call the Office and request a call from your child’s class teacher.
Step 2
Your child’s class teacher will meet with you to discuss your concerns and try to get a better understanding of what your child’s strengths and difficulties are. Together, we will decide what outcomes to seek for your child and agree on next steps. Our plan to address concerns may involve the formal record of a short note to be triggered which documents the action that is to be taken over a 6-to-8-week period.
Step 3
We will implement the agreed strategies and monitor these.
Step 4
Your child’s class teacher will meet with you again to review the impact of the actions. Actions from the short note may have been the boost required to close the gap. However, in discussion with the SENDCo, it may be judged that a SEN Support Plan is initiated. SEN Provision will then follow the Assess, Plan, Do and Review cycle.
What happens if the school identifies a need?
As detailed above, the same process is followed if a concern is raised by the school. All our class teachers are responsible for the monitoring of all pupils, those children who have been identified as having SEND, but also identifying those children who are appearing to be experiencing new challenges. We will contact you to arrange a meeting to share concern and follow Steps 2, 3 and 4 above.
How will school support my child’s SEN?
We will follow the ‘graduated approach’ to meeting your child’s SEN needs.
The graduated approach is a 4-part cycle of assess, plan, do, review.
We:
• 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.
SEN Support
Where additional needs are identified, we work with parents/carers, children and education, health and social care professionals where appropriate to design an individualised SEN Support Plan that outlines the child’s needs, identifies outcomes and formalises provision that is needed to meet those needs. The views of the parents/carers and the child are integral to this process and the plan is formally reviewed at least once a term.
External specialist input
Sometimes we need specialist external input to offer our children the support that they need. Whenever necessary, we will work with external support services to meet the needs of our children with SEN and to support their families. These may include:
• Durham Specialist SEND and Inclusion Service which may involve input from
- Educational Psychology
- Caseworkers
- Cognition and Learning Team
- Communication and Interaction Team
- Emotional Wellbeing and Effective Learning Team
- Sensory Team
- Equalities Education Team
- SEND Inclusion Advisory Team
• Specialists in hospital settings, GPs, school nurses and paediatricians
• Occupational Therapy
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
• Private diagnosis providers
• Durham Counselling Services
• Relax Kids based at The Live Well Centre, Sacriston
• Family Hubs
Referrals to these services are made in consultation and collaboration with you. We seek parental input and arrange parental engagement during initial consultation meetings with professionals. Feedback for parents and school following input is also arranged.
It is important to understand that the involvement of professionals does not always seek to label or diagnose but seeks advice and strategies to enable a child/young person to reach their full potential.
Education, Health and Care Plan
A very small percentage of children with significant and/or complex needs may require an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). The purpose of an EHCP is to provide special educational provision to meet the special educational needs of the child to secure the best possible outcomes for them across education (SEND Code of Practice p.142). It is a legal document that describes a child’s special educational, health and social care needs. This document is formed with SEND Caseworkers from the Local Authority. An Individual Learning Plan, which is written using the EHCP, is reviewed in school termly and it is formally reviewed with the Local Authority once a year. Parents are invited to attend all review meetings, share their views and make contributions to the plan.
