Special Educational Needs & DISABILITIES - SEN&D

Gods and Monsters - a garden for the Greeks [RHS Tatton 2013] designed and built by 90 pupils year 3-6

The true hallmark of a democracy is not the frequency with which a country holds elections by the manner in which it protects its minorities.

Karl Popper

'Special Educational Needs' is a term for children experiencing significantly greater difficulty than their peers (i.e. around 18-months to 2 years adrift of what could be described as 'typical' for a child their age). Children with a disability may also have special educational needs but for others, cognition and learning are unimpaired. We will make reasonable adjustments in provision for children with SEND.

Most adjustment and additional support is around the key skills of literacy and numeracy as these impact on children's learning and achievement in all subjects.

Support can also be put in place for difficulties such as:

  • Speech, language and communication difficulties which include autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), behavioural, emotional and social difficulties or attention deficit (ADD/ADHD);

  • Physical or sensory impairment (mobility, motor control, visual or hearing).

meet the team

Our SENCo (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) is Karen Cotton

Mrs Cotton has achieved the National SENCo Award and is our EYFS Phase Leader.

In each phase it is the class teachers who have the overall responsibility for provision for children with additional needs. Every teacher in school is the teacher for the full range of children in their class. Teaching staff receive training on range of needs including: ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder), SpLD (specific dyslexic type difficulties), attachment and trauma and sensory needs.

Well trained staff have the knowledge and skills to provide additional support for some children.

  • ELSA - an Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) supports our SENCo in leading our trauma informed practice. She works one-to-one and provides drops in sessions for pupils in school. She also provides support for parents and carers including leading Team Around the Family [TAF].

  • NELI - the Nuffield Early Language Intervention for our youngest children who have barriers to learning due to speech and language difficulties.

  • SpLD - Specific learning (dyslexic type) difficulties can mean children need specific programmes or specialised tuition. This may be before, during and after the school day.

  • Team Teach, an approach to de-escalation and managing pupils who have high needs in their behaviour, communication and interaction.

All teaching staff receive training on areas such supporting children with conditions like ASD, attachment or dyslexic type difficulties in the classroom.

We are fortunate to have an excellent team of well qualified teaching assistants supporting children with additional needs throughout the school.

  • EYFS: Laura Cottam*, Carla Egerton, Hayley Nolan, Natalie Plumbley*

  • KS1: Wendy Bodger, Sharon Garrihy,, Alison Granville*, Jen Jones*, Jeanette Richardson, Kate Smith*

  • LKS2: Maisie Chisholm, Emilia Dabrowska, Natalie Hill*

  • UKS2: Charlotte Butterworth, Ros Casson*, Sharon Clowes, Laura Gauld, Judith Ghader*, Carol Roberts*

  • ELSA: Emma Wood*

* qualified teachers.

SEND Provision - Kingsmead Primary School

School Information Reports for SEND

OUR INTENT, IMPLEMENTATION AND IMPACT

INTENT - What do we we want for our children with additional needs?

At Kingsmead Primary School, we believe that all children are entitled to receive a high quality and ambitious education regardless of their needs or disabilities. It is vital that our pupils are equipped with the tools needed to become independent, inquisitive learners both in and outside of the classroom.

Through our quality first teaching and our assess, plan, do and review procedures, we aim to:

  • Provide access to a broad and balanced curriculum for all learners;

  • Ensure that needs are identified as early as possible and support is put into place;

  • Minimise barriers to participation in school life and access to the curriculum;

  • Develop children’s independence and life skills;

  • Build positive partnerships between school, families, external agencies and other professionals to ensure there is a collaborative approach to support children with SEND;

  • Regularly monitor the progress of children with SEND and review outcomes;

  • Provide good quality and relevant staff training;

IMPLEMENTATION - How do we put our intent into practice?

At Kingsmead Primary School, every teacher is a teacher of SEND. Inclusion is a thread that runs through every area of school, enhanced by collaboration between senior leaders, teachers, support staff, external agencies, parents and most importantly, the child.

Pupils with SEND will be supported to succeed through:

  • Being included in all aspects of the school day;

  • Being provided with quality first teaching to enable them to access the curriculum;

  • Being respected and their contributions being valued and acknowledged;

  • Having an individual SEND pupil profile to identify their strengths, needs targets and provision, that will be reviewed termly;

  • Applying for Top Up funding or making an application for an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment for those pupils requiring provision beyond what can be provided from the school delegated SEN budget;

  • Teaching staff that are aware of the procedures to refer a child to external agencies for additional support and advice;

  • Well planned transitions between year groups and key stages, especially when moving to secondary school.

Pupils with SEND may:

  • Have specific 1:1 or group support to enable them to access different areas of the curriculum;

  • Take part in social and emotional support interventions such as 1-1 or pair work with our Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA);

  • Work alongside external agencies such as Educational Psychologists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists and Child and Adolescent Mental Health practitioners.

IMPACT - What will children experience? Who will they become?

As a result of the provision pupils receive at Kingsmead Primary School, children will:

  • Feel happy, safe, secure and nurtured within school;

  • Have positive relationships with staff and other pupils based on mutual respect;

  • Have the same opportunities and experiences as their peers, regardless of their starting point;

  • Demonstrate high levels of engagement in all aspect of school life;

  • Make progress from their starting points;

  • Develop independence and skills to support them throughout life;

  • Benefit from the advice and guidance from external agencies as it is utilised effectively and support for the pupil is adapted accordingly;

  • Have staff that feel knowledgeable and informed about their needs and how best to support them;

  • Transition smoothly and feel happy and safe when moving between year groups and key stages.

SEND funding

We are a Cheshire West and Chester community school

Element 1 funding is provided by central government via our local authority for all children enrolled in school. It is used to enable us to provide intervention and support for some and so help all our children keep up in class.

Element 2 funding is provided where a child's needs have been assessed as significant; this is funded through the school’s delegated SEN budget.

Element 3 funding is for that very small minority of pupils whose needs cannot be met through the school’s delegated budget and top-up funding or an Education Health and Care Plan [EHCP] from the Local Authority is needed.

Universal support—Received by all children including reasonable adjustments by class teachers for different children e.g. differentiated work (a little more help or extension opportunities for some children), targeted marking and feedback.

Targeted support—Usually group interventions, often for a limited time, where children catch or keep up with learning they have difficulty with. Groups are taught by teachers and teaching assistants. Not all will be identified as having a special need or disability.

Individual support—These children have much greater difficulty learning than their peers. They will have an individual plan and more intensive support to narrow or reduce the learning gap. Some will have cognitive difficulties or impairment, others specific difficulties presenting a barrier that can be overcome or ameliorated, enabling them to make more rapid progress and catch up. Some will be able to catch up quickly and move to targeted or universal support. Others require reasonable adjustments throughout their time in school. We avoid words like ’ability’: we don’t administer intelligence tests in school and children with SEND can sometimes be of average or high intelligence. We use factual terms such as ’low attaining.’ All documentation is stored securely and is confidential to parents and staff working with the child.

School Prospectus

Live Well Cheshire West (new place for Local Offer)

Additional Needs Database - SEN&D information report for parents and carers

Services in our community for children with SEN and/or Disabilities

Professor Barry Carpenter, Professor for Mental Health in Education

Useful Terms and Abbreviations

For children with additional needs, some will require intervention and additional support within the class to access the curriculum for all learners. Others with more specific or significant need may benefit from some targeted teaching outside of the universal curriculum. This is balanced with the entitlement for all children to a broad and rich curriculum. We aim for children to be learning in class with their peers as much as possible.