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
We aim to identify children who have any difficulties or special educational need or disability (SEND), as soon as possible, so that appropriate support can be given from an early age. This support can then be targeted to help develop skills in speech and language, literacy, numeracy or emotional well-being and ability to self-regulate. For some children this maybe a temporary difficulty, for others, this difficulty may be due to a disability, which will require longer term, on-going support.
To help identify specific needs and the appropriate level of support different factors are considered:
- Information from nursery providers;
- Information from outside agencies and partnerships who may already be working with a child;
- Foundation Stage Profile (Reception observations);
- Referrals to outside agencies;
- Discussion with parents/carers;
- On-going teacher assessment and observation;
- Performance against age related descriptors.
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 – through observations, assessments, discussions with the pupil and parent/carer, use of in-school/external expertise;
- Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes – through targeted work, allocation of additional support (where necessary), appropriate timetable/resource/classroom environment modifications;
- Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes – this aspect will be monitored by the SENDCO and headteacher to ensure all agreed actions are being implemented;
- Review the support and progress – regular review meetings, involving the pupil and parent/carer, will be arranged during the course of the year to ensure everyone is fully informed of progress towards agreed outcomes
As part of this approach every child with SEN will have an individualised SEN 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 the 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.
An education, health and care (EHC) plan is for children and young people aged up to 25 who need more support than is available through special educational needs support. EHC plans identify educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support to meet those needs. An EHC plan forms part of the graduated approach to SEND and an assessment would usually only be requested after the school have tried to meet the child’s needs through support and intervention but have been unable to do so.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer
Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEN
Pupils with SEND are monitored using the same assessment procedures used for other pupils in school, although, at times, these are adapted to make them more accessible/appropriate. Monitoring or progress of outcomes that form a child’s support plan is carried out by teachers, support staff and the SENDCO. Additional assessments are sometimes used to check progress made such as reading/spelling scores, dyslexia/dyspraxia screenings. For some children with SEND, it may be appropriate for them to have special arrangements to help them access their Year 6 SATs (Standard Assessment Tests). This is something that the Year 6 class teacher or SENDCO will discuss with parents, if appropriate.
Although some pupils with SEND may not achieve targets, which are in line with National expectations, or with the majority of the peers in their year group, it is still important that we have high expectations for their achievement and monitor individual closely to ensure optimum progress is being made.
Information regarding children’s achievement and progress will be shared with parents/carers at termly intervals. This will include looking at strengths, progress since last review and setting new outcomes.
What is adequate progress?
- Improvement in self-esteem/confidence;
- Demonstrating attainment in terms of year group expectations;
- Increased independence when approaching tasks;
- Improvement with social skills or behaviour;
- Progress which matches or betters previous rates of progress;
- Reaching a good level of attainment/narrowing the attainment gap (the gap between children with SEND and the children without SEND);
- Preventing the attainment gap from widening.
For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.
