SEND

What is a Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND)?

A person has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them.

They may have:

• a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others the same age
• a disability which prevents or hinders them making use of the facilities of a kind generally provided for others in mainstream schools.

SEND Code of Practice: 0-25 years (Sept 2014) uses four broad areas to describe need: cognition and learning; communication and interaction; social, emotion and mental health and; physical and sensory.

What We Do

Assess

Early identification is key to successful support. All children are monitored closely by their class teachers who will raise any concerns they may have with the SENDCo and parents. You know your children best so please do raise any concerns you have with their teacher. Termly pupil progress meetings/SEND surgeries are held between class teachers, Headteacher and SENDCo to monitor and review attainment, progress and support of all children.

Following a discussion with the SENDCo, teachers may use a range of trackers to assess a child’s areas of strength and barriers to learning, including the Somerset Graduated Response Tool. Further assessments may be carried out by the SENDCo to better understand the child’s needs.

With parental consent, the SENDCo may refer the child to external agencies. This is usually accessed by completing an Early Help Assessment (EHA). Agencies we work closely with are Occupational Therapy (OT), Speech and Language, Autism and Communication, Behaviour Support, School Nurse, PFSA, CAMHS, Learning Support Services and Educational Psychologists. Children with complex needs may require an Educational and Health Care Plan (EHCP) and may be in receipt of High Needs Funding in order to meet their needs effectively. Further information about EHCPs is available here: Education, Health and Care plans (somerset.gov.uk).

Plan

Within our high quality teaching, opportunities are planned by class teachers to meet all children’s needs within that class. Where appropriate, specific interventions may be planned with the SENDCo to provide targeted small group or individual work.

For children identified with SEND, parents, teachers and pupils work together to create Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs) to plan and review specific learning targets. Staff use provision maps and the Graduated Response Tool when planning support.

Do

We have a great team to support your child. Within class your child may be supported by staff, through differentiation of the task, practical resources or interventions e.g. precision teaching. We currently have an experienced teacher (Mrs Eddy) who plans and delivers a range of specific academic interventions. These could be in a small group or 1:1 interventions focusing on maths, reading, phonics or writing. We also have a full time ELSA (Ms Harris) who is available to support children’s and parents/guardians’ social, emotional and mental health needs. Interventions are monitored closely and their impact is reviewed regularly.

Review

As well as tracking and monitoring progress within school, we offer 2 parents’ evenings a year to discuss the progress children are making. These are a great opportunity to discuss PLPs and work collaboratively to set new targets.

Children receiving SEND support or those with an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) will have an annual review to celebrate the progress they have made and look at ways that we can further support the child’s learning.

Pupil and Parent/Guardian involvement

Your involvement is important to us. We know that support is most effective when planned with staff, parent/guardian and pupil input. Your views are very welcome and wherever possible SEND policy and documentation is co-produced with parents/guardians. Children are encouraged to be involved in Annual Reviews and planning their PLPs.

Transitioning to North Curry Primary School

EYFS staff complete a visit to each child’s house to support transition in to school. During the summer term we hold a number of transition sessions to help children familiarise themselves with their new school. Children identified as having SEND will have a School Entry Plan meeting to ensure a plan is in place before they start. This will be attended by the SENDCo and staff from both settings, parents and any other agencies involved.

In the autumn term, our new intake of reception children have a phased entry in to school, staying until lunchtime in their first week, staying for lunch in their second week, before full days in their third week.

In Year 6, in addition to our July transition days to secondary schools for all pupils, children identified with SEND may require extra sessions to enable a positive transition. Secondary school SENDCos may attend annual review meetings, visit the school or hold meetings with the SENDCo to ensure that all information about the children is shared prior to them starting in year 7.

Useful websites

Somerset’s Graduated Response Tool

This is a relatively new tool which school staff refer to if they need ideas on how to support a child’s particular learning need. In school, we regularly make use of the ‘quick checker’ document to help us pinpoint a child’s area/s of difficulty, and the ‘universal barriers and strategies record’ to identify some strategies which we then use to support the child.

What to expect from education (somerset.gov.uk)

Children and Young People’s Therapy Service – NHS

This website is from some of the NHS services that support children and young people. They have created fact files which have useful ideas for supporting children who present with different needs.

Fact Files – Children and Young People’s Therapy Service (somersetft.nhs.uk)

Sensory Processing

If you are concerned about your child’s sensory processing, this series of videos helps you understand what’s going on and encourages you to formulate a support plan.

Support your child’s sensory processing needs | Mid Yorks

Toileting concerns – use the ‘Information and Advice’ tab to select your concerns

Information and advice – ERIC

Sleep concerns

Advice Sheets – The Sleep Charity

Sleep Advice Service – Cerebra

British Dyslexia Association

British Dyslexia Association (bdadyslexia.org.uk)