How do you identify Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)?

How does the setting/school/college know if children/young people need extra help and what should I do if I think my child/young person may have special educational needs?

Parents and guardians are key to helping to establish whether a child has a need that may need to be supported and we work closely and collaboratively with them. If you think your child may have special educational needs the class teacher or the SENCO are more than happy to discuss this with you.

We believe that early identification helps to provide the best support for pupils. For this reason, we have robust systems in place to ensure that children receive timely intervention and support.  These include: 

• In house screening tools.
• Use of a school monitoring list and short notes to support children initially.
• Use of SEN register and support plans to support children with identified needs.
• Ensuring that the ‘assess, plan, do, review’ cycle is at the heart of our provision.
• Annual reviews for children with EHCPs.
• Referrals to outside agencies for assessment and advice.
• Regular learning walks to ensure the best provision.
• Performance managements meetings.
• Half termly monitoring of progress and attainment.
• Termly meetings with class teachers where children whose attainment and progress has slowed are discussed and strategies put in place.
• Open access for parents to address concerns.
• Termly parents’ meetings with class teacher during which concern’s and support plans are reviewed.
• Termly parents’ meetings with SENCO during which concern’s and support plans are reviewed.
• Termly meetings with children who receive support.
• Scrutiny of teaching plans and work in books to ensure that all needs are met, work is appropriated differentiated and appropriate support given.
• Use of differentiated curriculum where appropriate. Children’s progress and attainment then assessed against this curriculum. 

How will you support my child with their special educational needs and disability?

How will early years setting/school/college staff support my child/young person?

All pupils with an identified Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND) require a personalised approach in order to properly support them. For each child this personalised approach will be identified on their support plan, which is reviewed termly. Some of the ways in which we support pupils are as follows:

• Small group work with teacher.
• One to one teaching time with teacher.
• Small group work with TA.
• One to one recap time with TA.
• Group interventions for social skills, number, reading strategies, fine motor skills, etc.
• Peer reading.
• Adaptations to the environment.
• Use of resources such as headphones or fidget toys.
• Personal Evacuation Plans and Personal Risk Assessments.
• Adaptations to the behaviour policy.
• Personalised behaviour systems.
• Ensuring that visits outside of school are adapted and accessible.
• Termly staff meeting in order to ensure that all teaching staff are aware of and sensitive the needs of ALL of our pupils.
• Home-school books to ensure excellent communication between parents and staff.
• Adaptations to parts of the school day such as playtime, lunchtime and assembly time.
• An ethos that is shared by all staff that ALL children will be supported and nurtured throughout the school day.
• A curriculum that gives importance, time and resources to ALL aspects of learning and development and which does not prioritise the learning of maths and English above all else.

How will you make sure my child's education meet their needs?

How will the curriculum be matched to my child's young person's needs?

Specific provision for children with SEN includes but is not limited to:

• Differentiated work and resources.
• High levels of teacher and TA support.
• Nurture provision at lunchtimes to provide a quieter environment.
• Employing a private speech and language therapist to work with identified children weekly.
• Staff training on developing fine motor skills, sensory smart classrooms and techniques to promote speech and language development.
• Social skills groups.
• Emotional resilience groups.
• Appropriate toileting and accessibility facilities.
• Personalised Evacuation Plans for children who may require one.
• Use of Assistive Technology to support access to the curriculum.
• Purchasing of resources to support access to the curriculum.
• Access arrangements for National Tests.
• Speech and Language Therapist employed by the school.

How will we know my child is progressing?

How will both you and I know how my child/young person is doing and how will you help me to support my child's/young person's learning?

It is essential that trusting relationships are established between children, parents/carers and staff. This is especially important when it comes to supporting children with SEN. We are committed to working with parents and carers and to do so in the following ways:

• Termly parents’ carers/meetings with both class teacher and SENCO.
• An open-door policy where parents and carers are welcome to come into school to discuss the support for their child or any concern’s they may have.
• Termly opportunities to contribute and review SEN support plans.
• Annual opportunities to contribute and review EHCP plans.
• Ongoing discussions between parents/carers and teachers/TAs/SENCO.

How will you support my child's overall wellbeing?

What support will there be for my child's/young person's overall wellbeing?

The Social and Emotional Development of our children is especially important to us here at Crook Primary School. We want to support children’s social and emotional development, and this forms a key part of our school ethos. We believe in fostering nurturing relationships with every child in our school and staff ensure that this nurturing environment is a key principle in their classroom. Some of the ways in which we ensure that the social and emotional development of our children is central to our school ethos are as follows:

• All staff prioritise spending time ‘getting to know’ pupils so that subtle changes can be noticed and supported.
• We have a robust recording system to log any causes for concern so that all members of staff around the school are aware of the situation.
• We have a dedicated PSA who seeks to support the social and emotional development of vulnerable children.
• We develop the social and emotional skills of all children so that they can support their peers and find self-help techniques.
• We have a dedicated ‘quiet area’ at lunchtime staffed by a TA and teacher where children can retreat or be proactive in accessing.
• We have a number of interventions to support the social and emotional development of children such as Lego therapy, time to talk, nurture principles, relax kids, friendship counselling.

What specialist services and expertise is available at or accessed by the staff?

What specialist services and expertise are available at or accessed by the setting/school/college?

It may be appropriate to consult with a range of people and services who may help to provide support and services for children with SEN and their families, including:

• Cognition and Learning Team
• Speech Language and Support Programme
• Autism and Social Communication Team
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Assistive Technology Service
• Occupational Therapy
• Early Years Support Team
• Emotional Wellbeing and Effective Learning Team
• Movement Difficulties Service
• Educational Psychology
• School Nursing
• Private Speech and Language Therapy
• CAMHS
• Emotional Wellbeing Nurse
• Paediatricians and specialist nurses
• Barnados
• SENDIASS
• Parents Support Groups such as ‘Daisychain’ and ‘Rollercoaster’

These external specialists and other bodies may:

• Act in an advisory capacity
• Provide training to staff
• Provide assessment
• Help to create appropriate support and provision for children
• Complete therapeutic work with the child
• Complete other work with the child
• Provide equipment for the child or school
• Provide support to parents and carers

School and outside agencies will always work together in partnership and consultation with parents and children.

How are staff trained regarding SEND?

What training are the staff supporting children and young people with SEND have had or are having?

The SENCO works closely with all staff on a daily basis. This helps us to understand and meet any training or support needs. Training and support is then arranged and has included:

• Individual courses for members of staff
• Whole school twilights for all staff
• Training for groups of staff such as TA's, early years staff and lunchtime supervisors
• Training for NQTs and new members of staff

We recognise that new members of staff, students and newly qualified teachers may need additional or bespoke training or support, and this is identified and offered through discussion with these members of staff.

What activities outside the classroom will there be?

How will my child/young person be included in activities outside this classroom including school trips?

We want to give our children opportunities to experience a broad and balanced curriculum which includes visits outside of school and opportunities to enhance learning and development within school. Before anything is planned it is always a priority of staff to ensure that ALL children can be fully included in all activities. Communication with parents and children is key to this and feedback is considered to ensure that the best experiences are had by all.

It is extremely important that the curriculum is accessible to all of our children. Adaptations are made and personalised curriculums are followed where appropriate. This means that every child experiences success and achievement which is key to their enjoyment of school, learning and emotional development.

How will you support my child's needs?

How accessible is the setting/school/college environment?

 At the moment, disabled pupils can access all parts of both buildings and the grounds with assistance. On-site car parking for staff and visitor includes one dedicated disabled parking bay in front of the disabled ramp access for the school building. There is also a ramped access for foot traffic leading directly from the public footpath at the main gate. All entrances to the school apart from the main entrance are either flat or ramped and all have wide doors fitted. The main entrance is accessed by 2 steps which are inaccessible for wheelchairs, therefore an alternative entrance with a ramp and an intercom system to use to contact the main office is available by the school kitchen. The exterior door can then be released by the office staff. There are disabled toilet facilities available for both adults and children in the main building and the nursery unit. In the main school building there is; a child size toilet in the KS1 area of the building with shower and changing bed facility, an adult size toilet outside the school kitchen and a further child size toilet fitted with a biobidet unit at the KS2 end of the building by the junior toilet block. The staff toilet at the nursery is equipped for adult disabled use and there is a designated toilet area with changing facilities for disabled children.

Different forms of communication are made available to enable all disabled pupils to express their views and to hear the views of others. Access to information is planned with a range of different formats available for pupils, parents and staff.

What is available to help my child with their education?

How are the setting's/school's/college's resources allocated and matched to children's/young people's special educational needs?

Each year school is allocated a budget to support children with SEN. For the financial year 2019/20 the budget amounts to £107,195. Expenditure of the school budget is maintained through Governor termly finance meetings. Challenge is also provided through Governor team meetings where data for children with SEN is monitored.  This funding is used to provide training, secure assessments from traded services, buy resources to support children with SEN, provide support for children through staff and employ a private speech and language therapist. This is not exhaustive, and the funding is used to meet the needs of individual pupils.

What support can I expect for my child?

How is the decision made about what type and how much support my child/young person will receive?

Where a pupil is identified as having a special educational need school will follow a graduated approach which takes the form of cycles of “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”

• Assess a child’s special educational needs – use assessment information, classroom observations, discussion with parents and screening tools in order to assess.
• Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes – use the Planning Tools alongside specialist advice as well as input from parents/carers, staff and the child to plan the provision.
• Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes – ensure that provision is in place in order to help the child achieve outcomes related to their area of need.
• Review the support and progress – in collaboration with the child, teacher, parent and SENCO discuss the progress towards the outcomes and the effectiveness of provision in order to inform future outcomes and provision. This is generally done in meetings but can be done on a more informal basis if parents/carers prefer.

Where the graduated approach has been followed, recommendations from professionals have been acted on and we have used relevant and purposeful action to meet the needs of the child we might discuss with parents and the child the need to submit a request for an Education, Health and Care Assessment would be appropriate. 

We must continue to adapt our provision to meet the needs of our pupils. Consequently, we continuously evaluate the effectiveness of that provision by:

• Having robust policies and practice in place so that all staff know what is expected.
• Regular lesson observations and learning walks to ensure the best provision is in place.
• Regular book scrutiny to ensure that children are receiving appropriate provision.
• Termly (or sooner if necessary) reviews of support plans with teachers, SENCO, parents and children.
• Performance management and data progress meetings for staff.

How will I be involved in my child's education?

How are parents involved in the setting/school/college? How can I be involved?

Working closely with parents/carers and children is an integral part of school practice as well as being identified within the SEND Code of Practice as a key principle of SEN provision. In order to ensure that the views of parents/carers and children directly forms our provision we:

• Use parent and pupil questionnaires to gather views on SEN provision so that our provision can be continuously developed.
• We ask for parental feedback continuously and provide in house feedback forms as well as the opportunity to email suggestions and feedback to the SENCO lcleminson@crookprimaryschool.org.uk
• Ensure that parents and pupils are involved in setting outcomes for support plans.
• Work closely with parent governors and SEN governor to ensure that policies and practice are reviewed, evaluated and adapted.

My child is going to be starting or leaving soon, how will you help them?

How will the setting/school/college prepare and support my child/young person to join the setting/school/college or the next stage of education and life?

Beginning school, transferring school or moving onto another phase of school can be a particularly anxious time for children with SEN and parents. Additionally, as each year group moves up, special arrangements are made due to of the anxiety this often creates for pupils with SEN. In order to reduce the anxieties and ensure consistency of support we have the following arrangements in place for transition between classes/phases/schools: 

• Personalised transition plans
• Dedicated time for end of year meetings between staff to transfer and gather information about the new pupils entering their class.
• Dedicated transition days
• Additional transition visits for children with SEN to spend time in their new surroundings and with new teacher
• Transition booklets
• Meetings with parents and carers
• An enhanced transition between Crook Nursery School and Crook Primary School
• Visits to other nursery/early years settings by early years staff and Deputy Head for Early Years which includes meeting with SENCO and staff at these setting.
• New parent afternoons at which the SENCO is present.
• Liaison with transition workers for secondary schools.
• Completion of pupil passports
• Sharing of information with new schools
• Staff from new schools invited to EHCP review meetings