Supporting children

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 through skilled adaptive teaching, 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.