Special Educational Needs (SEND)

1.Your child’s Classteacher:

Responsible for:

Checking on the progress of your child and identifying, planning and delivering any additional help your child may need (this could be things like targeted work, additional support) and letting the SEND know as necessary.

Writing and updating support plans, and sharing and reviewing these with parents at least once each term and planning for the next term.

Ensuring that all staff working with your child in school are helped to deliver the planned work or programme for your child, so they can achieve the best possible progress. This may involve the use of additional adults, outside specialist help and specially planned work and resources.

Ensuring that the school’s SEND Policy is implemented in their classroom.

2. Our SENDCO (Special Educational Needs and Disability Co-Ordinator) – Mrs Claire Smith.

Responsible for:

Coordinating all the support for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) and developing the school’s SEND Policy to make sure all children get a consistent, high quality response to meeting their needs in school.

Ensuring that you are:

• involved in supporting your child’s learning
• kept informed about the support your child is getting
• involved in reviewing how they are doing
• Liaising with all the other people who may be coming into school to help support your child’s learning e.g. Speech and Language Therapy, Educational Psychology etc…
• Updating the school’s SEND register (a system for ensuring all the SEND needs of pupils in this school are known) and making sure that there are excellent records of your child’s progress and needs.
• Providing specialist support for teachers and support staff in the school so they can help children with SEND in the school achieve the best progress possible.

3. The Headteacher – Miss Nichola Oxtoby

Responsible for:

The day to day management of all aspects of the school, this includes the support for children with SEND.

They will give responsibility to the SENDCO and class teachers but is still responsible for ensuring that your child’s needs are met.

They must make sure that the Governing Body is kept up to date about any issues in the school relating to SEND.

4. The SEND Governor – Mrs Karen Saunders

Responsible for:

 Making sure that the necessary support is made for any child who attends the school who has SEND.

Children are identified as having additional or special educational needs through a variety of ways which may include the following:

• Child performing below age expected levels and making limited progress
• Concerns raised by parent
• Concerns raised by teacher, for example behaviour or self-esteem is affecting performance
• Consultations between class teachers and members of the leadership team where progress data is discussed.
• Liaison with external agencies e.g. Educational Psychology Service, Speech and Language
• Health diagnosis through a paediatrician
• Liaison with previous school or setting, if applicable

There are two stages of need identified in the Code of Practice for SEND which are SEND Support and Education health and Care Plan (EHCP).

 SEN Support:

High quality support for learning within lessons is the most important factor in helping pupils with SEND to make good progress alongside their peers. For your child this would mean:

• That the teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class.
• That all teaching is based on building on what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
• That different ways of teaching are in place so that your child is fully involved in learning in class, for examples more practical learning.

There may be occasions when it is felt that some additional small group or one to one work is required. This group, often called an Intervention group, may be run in the classroom or outside. It will be led by a teacher or most often a Teaching Assistant who has had training to lead such groups. For your child this means he / she will engage in group sessions with specific targets to help him/her to make more progress. This type of support is available for any child who has specific gaps in their understanding of a subject / area of learning.

It may be that some of these children are identified as needing some extra specialist support in school from a professional outside the school.  This may be from:

• Local Authority central services such as the localilty hubs (who specialise in SEND e.g.  Communication and Interaction, Social, Emotional and Mental health, Specific Difficulties – Cognition and Learning, or Sensory Service (for children with a hearing or visual need)
• Outside agencies such as the Speech and Language therapy (SALT) Service.

For your child this would mean:

Your child will have been identified by the class teacher/ SENDCO (or you will have raised your worries) as needing more specialist input instead of or in addition to quality first teaching and intervention groups.

You will be asked to come to a meeting to discuss your child’s progress and help plan possible ways forward.

You may be asked to give your permission for the school to refer your child to a specialist professional e.g. a Speech and Language Therapist or Educational Psychologist. This will help the school and yourself understand your child’s particular needs better and be able to support them better in school.

The specialist professional will work with your child to understand their needs and make recommendations, which may include:

• Making changes to the way your child is supported in class e.g. some individual support or changing some aspects of teaching to support them better
• Support to set better targets which will include their specific expertise
• A group run by school staff under the guidance of the outside professional e.g. a social skills group
• A group or individual work with outside professional

As a school we may suggest that your child needs some agreed individual support in school. We will tell you how the support will be used and what strategies will be put in place. This type of support is available for children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through Quality First Teaching and intervention groups.

Education Health Care Plan (EHCP):

This means your child will have been identified by the class teacher/ SENDCO as needing a particularly high level of individual or small group teaching and very specific support (more than 20 hours a week), which cannot be provided from the budget available to the school.

Usually your child will also need specialist support in school from a professional outside the school. This may be from:

• Local Authority central services such as the Inclusion Locality hubs who specialise in SEND e.g. Communication and Interaction, Social and Emotional Needs, Specific Difficulties – Cognition and Learning, or Sensory Service (for students with a hearing or visual need)
• Outside agencies such as the Speech and Language therapy (SALT) Service.

For your child this would mean:

The school (or you) can request that the Local Authority carry out a statutory assessment of your child’s needs. This is a legal process which sets out the amount of support that will be provided for your child.

After the school have sent in the request to the Local Authority they will decide whether they think your child’s needs, seem complex enough to need a statutory assessment. If this is the case they will ask you and all professionals involved with your child to write a report outlining your child’s needs.

If they do not think your child needs this, they will ask the school to continue with the support at ‘SEND support’.

After the reports have been submitted the Local Authority will decide if your child’s needs are severe, complex and lifelong and that they need more than 20 hours of support in school to make good progress. If this is the case they will write  an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP).

The  EHCP will outline what  level of individual/small group support your child will receive from the LA and how the support should be used and what strategies must be put in place. It will also have long and short term goals for your child.

An additional adult may be used to support your child with whole class learning, run individual programmes or run small groups including your child.

Your knowledge and understanding of your child’s needs is essential to support school plan the best provision for your child.

If your child has been identified as having SEND, we will probably already have discussed any concerns previously via parents evenings or by informal chats with the class teacher. Once it has been recognised that additional or a different provision is required you will be invited to a meeting with your child’s class teacher and the SENDCO to discuss how best to support your child.

We aim to consider the whole child, including their hopes, personal goals and strengths as well as any areas of difficulty. A support plan will be drawn up, highlighting the support needed and setting out clear targets along with a review date. At the review date, usually termly, you will be invited to discuss progress to date and plan the next steps.

On-going communication between parents/carers and school is very important. This may take the form of regular contact through a home school book, notes in a reading record or on homework, via Class Dojo, and more regular meetings to update you on your child’s progress or information and guidance about how you may support your child at home.

You are also welcome to make an appointment at any time to meet with the class teacher, SENDCO or head teacher to discuss how your child is getting on.

If you have concerns about your child’s progress you should speak to your child’s class teacher initially.

If you are not happy that the concerns are being managed and that your child is still not making progress you should speak to the SENDCO or Head teacher.

If you are still not happy you can speak to the school SEND Governor.

If your child is identified as not making expected progress the school will set up a meeting to discuss this with you in more detail and to:

• listen to any concerns you may have
• plan any additional support your child may receive
• discuss with you any referrals to outside professionals to support your child’s learning

The school budget, received from North Yorkshire LA, includes money for supporting children with SEND.

The Headteacher decides on the budget for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in consultation with the school governors, on the basis of needs in the school.

The Headteacher and the SENCO discuss all the information they have about SEND in the school, including:

• children already getting additional support
• children needing additional  support
• children who have been identified as not making as much progress as would be expected

All resources/training and support are reviewed regularly and changes made as needed.

Teaching Assistant support – paid for centrally by the Local Authority but delivered in school

Locality Hubs (assessment, advice and resources for children with Communication and Interaction Difficulties, Specific Learning Difficulties, EAL or Social, Emotional and Mental Health issues.

CAMHs

Educational Psychology Service

Sensory Service for children with visual or hearing needs

Speech and Language Therapy (provided by Health but paid for by the Local Authority).

Provided and paid for by the Health Service (Scarborough and Ryedale NHS Trust) but delivered in school:

School Nurse

Occupational Therapy

Physiotherapy

Early Help Family Support Workers

We are committed to continued professional development for all Staff. The SENCO’S job is to support the class teacher in planning for children with SEND. SENCOs undertake specific training for the post, she also attends termly network meetings.  The information is then shared with all staff at regular staff meetings.

The school has a training plan for all staff to improve the teaching and learning of children including those with SEND.

All staff have received phonics, dyslexia and autism training recently.

Staff also access training courses run by outside agencies which are relevant to the needs of the children in their class, these can be face to face and online.

We have also received training in the delivery of different interventions which are used successfully throughout school.

High quality teaching for learning within class is the most important factor in helping children with SEND to make good progress alongside their peers. Our SENCo will work closely with all our staff to ensure that provision is relevant and appropriate. Where it is felt that more support is required, we use a variety of approaches. These include:

• Different teaching styles and differentiated work
• Speech and language support
• Groupings- 1:1 or small groupings
• Resources –fiddle toys,
• Use of IT
• Meet and Greet
• Cool down time
• Overlays and coloured paper
• Visual timetables

The teacher will explain what extra support your child is receiving.

There may be some occasions when the school feels that some additional support may help your child to make better progress and this may take the form of small group or one to one support.

We use a range of evidence -based interventions to support pupils with SEND to make better progress. Interventions are highly structured learning programmes, usually run for a fixed number of weeks and with a specific focus and targets which progress can be measured against.

The support plan will identify:

• What interventions your child is receiving
• When and for how long the intervention will be delivered
• Who will deliver the intervention (usually a well- trained teaching assistant)
• How it will be monitored to make sure your child is benefitting.

Currently we are running the following interventions in school:

Where the school feels that something additional or different is needed to support your child because they have SEND we will discuss this carefully with you. This information may well be recorded in a document for you and your child known as a support plan. This will include:

• details of any strategies being used to support your child in class
• details of any extra support or interventions for your child
• your child’s learning targets
• the next date when your child’s progress will be reviewed

Most pupils will benefit from SEN support, but some pupils who need high levels of support, or who have complex needs will need to be referred for an education, health and care plan (EHCP).

Your child’s progress is continually monitored by his/her class teacher and by the Senior Leadership Team and Governing Body.

His/her progress is reviewed formally every term and measured against a challenging curricular target.

At the end of each phase (i.e. at the end of Reception, Year 2 and Year 6) all children are required to be formally assessed using Standard Assessment Tests (SATS). This is something the government requires all schools to do and are the results that are published nationally.

The progress of children with a EHC Plan is formally reviewed at an Annual Review with all adults and professionals involved with the child’s education.

The SENCO will also check that your child is making good progress within any individual work and in any group that they take part in.

By reviewing children’s targets termly as set out in Support Plans and ensuring they are being met. Parents will be involved in the review meeting and the setting of new targets if necessary. A copy of the targets will be given to the parent.

The child is making progress academically against national/age expected levels, discussed at Progress Meetings, attended by Class Teachers, the SENCO and the Headteacher.

Verbal or written feedback from the teacher, parent and pupil.

Children may be taken off the Special Educational Needs register when they have made sufficient progress.

The class teacher is regularly available to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns you may have and to share information about what is working well at home and school so similar strategies can be used.

The SENCO is available to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns/worries you may have.

All information from outside professionals will be discussed with you with the person involved directly, or where this is not possible, in a report.

Support Plans will be reviewed with your involvement.

Homework will be adjusted as needed to your child’s individual needs.

A home/school contact book may be used to support communication with you, when this has been agreed to be useful for you and your child.

Prior to admission to Rosedale accessibility needs for children with physical needs will be discussed with the Headteacher and the SENCO for necessary adjustments to be made to access the upstairs classroom.

We try to ensure that equipment used is accessible to all children regardless of their needs.

After school clubs are open and accessible to all children including those with SEND.

Please discuss your child’s individual needs with our SENCO.

We recognise that transitions can be difficult for a child with SEND and take steps to ensure that any transition is a smooth as possible.

If your child is moving child to another school:

• We will contact the school SENCO and ensure he/she knows about any special arrangements or support that need to be made for your child.
• We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible.
• We will arrange for your child to make additional visits to their new school, if necessary.

When moving classes in school:

• Information will be passed on to the new class teacher IN ADVANCE and in most cases, a planning meeting will take place with the new teacher.
• Support Plans will be transferred to the new teacher.
• If your child would be helped by a book or Social Story, to support their understanding of moving on, then it will be made for them.

In Year 6:

Our SENCO/ your child’s class teacher will meet with the SENCO of the receiving school to share information and discuss support needs prior to any transition.

Your child will do focused learning about aspects of transition to support their understanding of the changes ahead.

Where possible your child will visit their new school on several occasions and in some cases staff from the new school will visit your child in this school.

Some children with more complex and significant difficulties may require specialist services to support what the school can offer. The inclusive education service specialist support staff work together to provide advice and support to schools and educational settings to help them to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.

Staff are centrally based and some are based in locality hubs. The service consists of specialists in the areas of:

• educational psychology;
• early years SEND;
• communication and interaction (autism and speech, language and communication needs);
• cognition and learning (such as specific learning difficulties, dyslexia or dyscalculia);
• sensory and physical (hearing impairment, visual impairment, physical and medical needs); and
• social, emotional and mental health.

 You can download a document here providing more detailed information about the NYCC SEND inclusive education service offer (pdf / 1 MB)

The school’s ethos and values underpin all we do in school and are central to our behaviour and anti-bullying policies.

PHSE and Circle Time allow children time and space to reflect and offer suggestions or highlights concerns.

Staff have undertaken Compass Buzz training to provide allow us to listen to pupils in order to explore the reasons/triggers for any emotional and social difficulties.

For some children we allocate key workers, a member of staff who is known and liked by the child that checks in during the day.