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
In deciding whether to make special education provision to support educational, social, physical or emotional needs, we:
- Work in partnership with parents/carers, pupils
- Consult with relevant external agencies
- Use assessment tools & materials
- Use observations
- Use Short Notes
- Other
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
At St Joseph’s RCVA Primary termly assessment is carried out and by staff who work together to moderate children’s work. This moderation is supported by the Local Authority on a regular basis. The school uses a tracking system to analyse data and to identify gaps in children’s learning and to plan appropriate intervention when required. Different children require different levels of support to diminish the difference and to achieve age related expectations.
Children/young people may join St Joseph’s with parents having a clear understanding of their child’s needs and as a school we see parents as partners in their child’s educational journey. In this case we work together with parents/carers and young children/person and education, health and social care professionals to design an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs. Parents/carers and child/young person views are integral to the this process.
School staff may initially identify a concern the class teacher alongside the SENCo will discuss the child’s needs and a meeting with parents/carers and/or the child/young person would be arranged at the earliest opportunity. During this meeting a Short Note would be completed with agreed outcomes for the child/young person and next steps. The next steps may require the involvement of specialist support or advice for example, Educational Psychology, SENDIASS (Parents Advice and Support Service) or another of education health and social care professional. It is important to understand that the involvement of professionals does not always seek to label or diagnose but to seek advice and strategies to enable a child/young person to reach their full potential.
For some concerns, we may discuss the involvement of specialist support, for example, Education Psychology, SENDIASS (support for families) or Occupational Therapy. It is important to understand that the involvement of professionals does not always seek to ‘label’ or ‘diagnose’ children but to seek advice or strategies to help them to reach their full potential. As part of this approach every child with SEN will have an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes and provision to meet those needs. Parents/carers and child/young person views are integral to 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 (EHCP).
The purpose of an EHCP is to make special educational provision to meet special educational needs of the child or young person, to secure the best possible outcomes for them across education (SEND Code of Practice p.142). It is a legal document that describes a child or young person’s special educational, health and social care needs. We currently have two EHC Plans.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer
Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEN
How do we assess and review progress?
If your child has SEN, it is important for us to carry out formal assessments to identify their strengths and identify their needs accurately. To do this, we will use a range of methods depending upon their needs. When your child enters our school, their current attainment is assessed to give us a ‘baseline’ from where they will progress. In addition to the assessments that all children take part in and depending upon their needs, other assessments may be needed. These could include:
Communication and interaction (SLCN, ASC)
- Talkabout Programme assessment
- Speech and Language Link Assessment
- Speech Therapy Assessments – which may focus on sound production, language understanding, or other relevant assessments of your child’s needs
Cognition and learning (MLD, PMLD, SLD, SpLD)
- Subject specific assessment
- Education Psychology Assessments – which may include memory, understanding, reasoning, logic, and general skills assessment.
Social, Emotional and Health Difficulties
- Specialist in school Nurture provision
- Boxall assessment
- Talkabout Programme assessment
- Road Centre
- Assess through observations of pupils
Sensory and/or Physical Difficulties
- Movement Programme baseline assessment
- Handwriting and copying skills baseline assessment
Your child will be assessed against age related expectations for children who are working on the National Curriculum (i.e. the same as the majority of other children in their year group), or they may be assessed against other measures for children who are not ready to work on National Curriculum Levels (i.e. the steps before the National Curriculum). Aspirational targets are set for all children to ensure that all children make good progress, including those not ready to access the National Curriculum. The outcomes of all assessments are shared with parents and carers at our Parent Evenings and in your child’s School Report. If other agencies are invited to work with your child, you will be invited to attend a meeting where the outcomes of these assessments and their next steps will be shared with you. If parents have any concerns then these can be shared with the class teacher and or SENCo who will arrange a meeting to discuss and resolve any difficulties.
How is the decision made about what type and how much support my child will receive?
The class teacher alongside the SENCo will discuss the child’s needs and what support would be appropriate. SEN is discussed each week at the staff meeting to allow staff to share concerns or ideas as to how we can help the child.
Teachers use assessments and observations of children to identify, review and evaluate their needs and gaps in their learning. We look at what we can provide to meet the child’s needs and we discuss and measure the effectiveness of the interventions the children have undertaken that term. Different children will require different levels of support in order to bridge the gap to achieve age expectations which could be on a one to one basis, with a group, run by a teacher or teaching assistant or through peer support and in or out of class. Throughout the process, we keep an on-going dialogue with yourselves as parents.
At St Joseph’s RCVA Primary School, we currently have children with a variety of needs in school and provide the following interventions to meet the needs of our children:
Support for children with physical needs:
- Quality First Teaching, accessing a broad and balanced curriculum
- Gross Motor Skills interventions.
- Fine Motor Skills interventions.
- Specialist group support from outside agencies e.g. Occupational Health
Support for children with speech, language and communication needs:
- Quality First Teaching, accessing a broad and balanced curriculum
- Speech and Language interventions.
- Specialist group support from outside agencies e.g. Speech and Language Therapy
Support for children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties:
- Quality First Teaching, accessing a broad and balanced curriculum
- Children in Key Stage 2 engage in an Anti-Bullying programme.
- The Road Centre addresses any relevant issues or concerns.
- Specialist group support from outside agencies e.g. CAMHs Mentoring and Counselling;
Support for children with cognition and learning needs:
- Quality First Teaching, accessing a broad and balanced curriculum
- Maths and English specific
- Specialist group support from outside agencies e.g. Educational Psychology Service
- Specific individual support for children whose learning needs are severe, complex and lifelong and what this means for your child e.g. Dyslexia, Dyspraxia
- Range of teaching and learning styles;
- A broad range of extra-curricular activities, including After-School
- Differentiation
How do we evaluate the effectiveness of SEN provision?
At St Joseph’s RCVA Primary School, we evaluate the effectiveness of SEN provision to ensure that pupils receive the best support to meet their needs and as part of the Graduated Approach of Assess, Plan, Do and Review. We currently evaluate the effectiveness of SEN across the four broad areas of SEN provision in the following ways:
Communication and interaction (SLCN, ASC)
We use the Talkabout Programme assessment tool and the Speech and Language Link Assessment to assess before and after any intervention to evaluate the impact of provision.
Cognition and learning (MLD, PMLD, SLD, SpLD)
We use the assessment data provided by teaching and support staff to assess before and after any intervention to evaluate the impact of provision.
Social, Emotional and Health Difficulties
We use the Talkabout Programme assessment to assess before and after any intervention to evaluate the impact of provision. We also use The Road Centre reports help us to assess before and after any intervention to evaluate the impact of provision. We can also assess through observations of pupils throughout the school day over a period of time. We Boxall profile to assess the needs of children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties.
Sensory and/or Physical Difficulties
We use the Movement Programme to assess before and after any intervention to evaluate the impact of provision with Gross Motor Skills. In Fine Motor Skills we use the It’s in the bag/ Write from the start and handwriting evidence from before and after interventions to evaluate the impact of provision.
How are resources made available to support children with SEND?
The resources we use to support children with SEN depend upon their needs and they are allocated on an individual basis. Once your child has been identified as SEN, their needs will be assessed and targets and outcomes will be identified. It is the responsibility of the SENCO to ensure that the resources that are required are made available and that staff are aware of their individual needs. We are very flexible in our approach and we constantly monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our interventions and the provision that we provide.
- As part of our staff professional development, all members of staff received training to support children with SEND:
- School-based CPD – systems and procedures, staff audit, staff planning and agreed action points.
- ‘SEN Outcomes –good quality outcomes, SEN Support Plans and Primary Areas of Need’.
- Supporting children with ASD.
- Sensory Specialist Training – Sensory Issues for Pupils .
Staff Training: will vary each year depending upon the needs of the children.
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.
For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.