SEND

At St Stephen’s CE Primary School we have experience of supporting children and young people with a wide range of need including:

• Speech, Language and Communication
• Moderate Learning Difficulty
• Social, Emotional
• Mental Health
• Specific Learning Difficulty
• Physical Disability
• Severe Learning Difficulty
• Hearing Impairment
• Multi Sensory Impairment

The school provides data on the levels and types of need to the Local Authority. This is collected through the school census.

Inclusive education means supporting all pupils to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of school life alongside their peers. Our curriculum includes, not only the formal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum / National Curriculum, but also a range of additional opportunities to enrich the experiences of all pupils.

The Curriculum also included the social aspects that are essential for lifelong learning, personal growth and development of independence.

At St Stephen’s CE Primary School we believe that inclusive education means providing all pupils with appropriate education and support alongside their peers. The Curriculum is the planned activities that the school organises in order to promote learning, personal growth and development.  It includes not only the formal requirements of the Early Year Foundation Stage and National Curriculum, but also the range of additional opportunities that the school organises in order to enrich the experiences of our children. Social aspects permeate our curriculum to provide our children with skills that are essential for life-long learning.

We believe, ‘there is something potentially wonderful in everyone’, and therefore our vision is to nurture and inspire our whole school community, to use their God-given gifts, to be the best that they can be, so that they can let their light shine to the world. Our school vision is firmly rooted within Christian theology. ‘Let your light shine’, Matthew 5:16, encourages our whole school community.  Therefore, to ensure inclusivity for all of our children and to ensure children are appropriately supported to access the curriculum, regardless of the level of need, we ensure that:

• We encourage children from Nursery onwards to be independent, resilient learners and strive to equip them with strategies to overcome difficulties. We want children to be fully immersed in their learning and involve them in their provision.
• We develop the whole child – not just academically, but also the child’s self-esteem and wellbeing.
• Each child is taught at an appropriate pace and level.
• Each child is taught the appropriate support.
•  We deliver extracurricular programmes and regularly evaluate the effectiveness of these in meeting children’s special educational needs.
• We appropriately allocate resources in order to meet identified special needs, which includes, practical resources, support from outside agencies and small group work.
• We regularly review learning outcomes to monitor individual progress and attainment.
• We identify staff training needs and ensure training meets the broad range of special educational needs.
• We value the input of our parents and carers and invite then to contribute to support plans three times a year.
• We work collaboratively with other agencies and professionals.

At St. Stephen’s, we make sure that our curriculum and learning environment are tailored to meet the needs of all our pupils in school, recognising that all children are individual, unique and have a right to high quality learning experiences. We ensure that we make learning accessible to all children in a number of ways; this includes, differentiating tasks, teacher’s use a variety of teaching methods, using practical tasks or alternative methods of recording ideas. When required, we deploy adults to work specifically with children and select specific learning experiences which are carefully planned to best meet individual needs. This may include delivering specialist programmes recommended by outside agencies or and intervention strategies which support children in acquiring and developing English and Maths skills.

We strive to ensure that our curriculum is meaningful, stimulating and challenging for all pupils and actively seek to make learning experiences throughout school creative, inspiring and engaging for everyone. This includes ensuring that a broad programme of extra-curricular activities are offered to all pupils in school.  We do our utmost to  support our children and their families and have a robust and committed policy towards pastoral support and supporting the emotional well being of our children. This may include working directly with families, liaising with external agencies, such as our Parent Support Advisor, health and social care professionals.

We adapt our curriculum and learning environment for pupils with SEN in a variety of ways:

These include;

• Social skills groups
• Emotional resilience groups
• Appropriate toileting and accessibility facilities (when required)
• Personalised Evacuation Plans for children (when required)
• Use of Assistive Technology to support access to the curriculum
• Purchasing of resources to support access to the curriculum
• Access arrangements for National Tests

More details on how we adapt information, our environment and curriculum can be found in the Accessibility Plan which you ca find in the School Policies section of our website.

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.

At St. Stephen’s CE Primary we follow a graduated support approach which is called “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.  This means that we will:

• 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

As part of this approach, we will produce a SEN Support Plan that describes the provision that we will make to meet a child’s special educational needs and agreed outcomes.  Parents and carers are fully involved in this process.

A small percentage of children and young people with significant learning difficulties might need an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.

Full details can be found on the Local Offer website.

The attainment and progress of all children is continually monitored by all staff with the Head Teacher. The SENCo and Head Teacher work together in ensuring that all children, including children with SEN, achieve their potential in school in relation to all areas of the curriculum.

If you would like to discuss your SEND requirements in detail please contact the school to arrange an appointment.

Early Identification of Need

In deciding whether to make special education provision to support educational, social, physical or emotional needs, we believe that early identification helps to provide the best possible support for pupils.  Therefore, we have systems in place to ensure that children receive the intervention and support they require.

These include:

• Use of inhouse monitoring list and short notes to initially identify and support children.
• Use of our SEN register and support plans to support children with specific needs.
• Ensuring that the ‘assess, plan, do review’ cycle is at the heart of our provision.

Termly learning walks, planning/work scrutiny and lesson observations.

• Annual reviews for children with EHCPs
• Referrals to outside agencies for assessment and advice are sought when required.
• Applications for top-up funding and EHCPs made when required.
• Performance managements meetings for all staff.
• Termly monitoring of progress and attainment for every child.
• Termly meetings with class teachers and teaching assistants 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 concerns and support plans are reviewed.
• Termly parents’ meetings with SENCO during which concerns and support plans are reviewed.
• Termly pupil voice meetings.
• Highly differentiated curriculum where appropriate. Children’s progress and attainment then assessed against this curriculum.

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
• 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

All pupils with an identified Special Educational Need or Disability require a personalised approach in order to appropriately support their needs.  This personalised approach will be detailed on their individual 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 this process.  All Support Plans are evaluated and revised on a termly basis.

The Role of the Class teacher:

• Adapting the way activities are planned and delivered
• High quality differentiation matched to the ability/need of each child
• Adapting learning materials such as equipment and activities to suit each child’s needs
• Offer small group support when needed

Our teachers/teaching assistants work collaboratively with parents and the SENCO to find ways to support each child with their needs, including giving parents ideas on how to help their child at home.

The Role of the SENCO:

1. Manage the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEN policy
2. Work in collaboration with the relevant Designated Teacher where a looked after pupil has SEN
3. Support/advise teachers on using a graduated approach to providing SEN support
4. Advise on the deployment of the school’s delegated budget and other resources to meet the pupil’s needs effectively
5. Establish effective working relationships with parents/carers of pupils with SEN
6. Liaise with and be a key point of contact for external agencies
7. Ensure up to date records of all SEN pupils are maintained
8. Work with the Senior Leadership Team and school governors to ensure that the school meets its responsibilities with regard to reasonable adjustments and access arrangements.

What is an Education, Health and Care Assessment Plan?

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.

This is a highly detailed assessment of each child’s needs. Parents or carers, the school and a range of professionals will all be asked to provide written reports.  At the end of the assessment phase the Local Authority will consider these reports to help decide whether or not to issue an Education, Health and Care Plan for the child.  Parents/carers also have the right to ask the Local Authority to carry out this assessment although it is usually best if you can do this with the support of the school.

Education, Health and Care Assessment is only appropriate for a small number of children.

For more detailed information see the Local Offer

For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.

We enable all children to engage fully in all aspects of school life. To do this, we:

Ensure our children experience a broad and balanced curriculum which is enriched with a wealth additional opportunities such as 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.

Our SENCo works closely with staff to ensure that teaching and learning is carefully adapted to meet the needs of all pupils. Communication with parents and children is paramount to this and feedback is carefully considered to ensure that the best experiences are had by all. It is vital that the curriculum is accessible to all of our children. Adaptations are made and personalised curriculums are followed where appropriate to enable every child to experience success and achievement which is key to their enjoyment of school, learning and emotional development.

We continuously ensure the provision has a positive impact on the outcomes for all of our children/young people. We do this in a variety of ways, including:

• Having robust policies and practice in place which are understood by all staff so that all staff know what is expected. These are reviewed annually, or sooner if necessary.
• Regular lesson observations, book scrutiny, learning walks and pupil voice to ensure the best provision is in place and that children are receiving appropriate provision
• Termly (or sooner if necessary) reviews of support plans and provision maps with teachers, SENCO, parents and children
• Termly parent/teacher/SENCo meetings
• Rigorous Performance Management and data progress meetings for staff