Our SEND Provision

Within this section you can find out about the following:

• The 4 broad areas of SEND
• Our approach to teaching children with SEND
• Our curriculum
• Early identification
• Engagement
• Evaluation

The 4 broad areas of SEND

At Copeland Road Primary School, we have experience of supporting children with a wide range of needs. We currently have children with a variety of needs in school including:

Communication and Interaction   

This area of need includes children with Autism and those with Speech, Language and Communication Needs.

Cognition and Learning   

This includes children with Specific Learning Difficulties, Moderate Learning Difficulties, Severe Learning Difficulties and Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties.

Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties 

This includes any pupils who have an emotional, social or mental health need that is impacting on their ability to learn.

Sensory and/or Physical Difficulties 

This area includes children with hearing impairment, visual impairment, multi-sensory impairment and physical difficulties.

Our approach to teaching children with SEND

Children learn and develop in different ways and may need extra help and support at various points throughout their time at school. Some children, at some time in their school life might have additional or different needs and it may be that they will be on our SEN register for a short period or a long period of time. However, children’s needs will be frequently reassessed regularly in order to ensure that the provision is suitable and supports every child’s development.

Our SENCO, working alongside class teachers, oversees all SEN provision, different approaches to teaching and monitors progress of any child requiring additional support across the school. The class teacher will oversee, plan and work with each child with SEND in their class to ensure that progress in every area is made. This is Quality First Teaching and is where the work is highly differentiated and suits the needs of all children, it comes in the form of a lesson rather than an intervention programme. Alongside Quality First Teaching, that your child will receive in lessons, there may be a Learning Support Assistant (LSA) working with your child, either individually or as part of a group, if this is seen as necessary by the class teacher. This means that children may be taken out of the classroom for these sessions but they will continue to work on the same areas as the rest of the children in their class which ensures that they can go back into the classroom with a smooth transition. The regularity of these sessions will be explained to parents when the support starts.

To successfully match pupil ability to the curriculum and learning environment there are some actions and adaptations we may take to achieve this:

• Ensure that all pupils have access to the school curriculum and all school activities.
• Help all pupils achieve to the best of their abilities, despite any difficulty or disability they may have.
• Ensure that teaching staff are aware of and sensitive to the needs of all pupils, teaching pupils in a way that is more appropriate to their needs.
• Pupils to gain in confidence and improve their self-esteem.
• To work in partnership with parents/ carers, pupils and relevant external agencies in order to provide for children’s special educational needs and disabilities.
• To identify at the earliest opportunity, all children that need special consideration to support their needs (whether these are educational, social, physical or emotional)
• To make suitable provision for children with SEN to fully develop their abilities, interests and aptitudes and gain maximum access to the curriculum.
• Ensure that all children with SEN are fully included in all activities of the school in order to promote the highest levels of achievement.
• To promote self-worth and enthusiasm by encouraging independence at all age and ability levels.
• To give every child the entitlement to a sense of achievement.
• To regularly review the policy and practice in order to achieve best practice.

The provision for pupils with SEND across the four Broad Areas Of Need may include some of the following interventions;

Communication and interaction – Speech and language programmes such as Talk Boost, Speech and Language Link, Listening Skills and Lego Therapy.

Cognition and learning – Numicon and additional Mathematics materials are used in lessons and as interventions. Assisted blending in phonics and guided reading and writing are used in lessons and as interventions. We also use interventions to work on Auditory and Visual Memory Skills as well as Visual Perception and Visual Discrimination.

Social, Emotional and Health Difficulties – Talkabout is used to help pupils with their social skills, Relax Kids Programme is used to help pupils with regulating emotions and Zones of Regulation are used to help pupils to understand how they feel,

Sensory and/or Physical Difficulties – For Gross Motor Skills interventions we use Early Years Movement and Sensory Circuits. For Fine Motor Skills we use Pegs to Pens, Speed Up! and Cutting Skills.

Children that are receiving additional support and intervention programmes have a Support Plan. Parents are invited into school to review and discuss support and progress with staff every term. The children also meet with their teacher and discuss their support plan and are asked what they feel helps them to make progress.

More details on how we adapt information, our environment and curriculum can be found in the Accessibility Plan and our Accessibility Action Plan which can be found in the school policies section of our website.

Our Curriculum

At Copeland Road Primary School, we pride ourselves in being inclusive which means supporting all pupils to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of school life alongside their peers. All pupils follow the National Curriculum at a level and pace that is appropriate to their abilities. At times and when it is felt appropriate, modifications to the curriculum may be implemented. The curriculum includes, not only the formal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and the National Curriculum, but also a range of additional opportunities to enrich the experiences of pupils. The curriculum also includes the social aspects that are essential for life-long learning, personal growth and development of independence at all ages and ability levels. By encouraging independence at all age and ability levels we endeavour to develop confidence, improve self-esteem and promote enthusiasm in all our pupils.

Some of the actions we may take to achieve this are:

• Modify the curriculum to meet individual needs.
• Ensure that teaching staff are aware of and sensitive to the needs of all pupils, teaching pupils in a way that is more appropriate to their needs.
• Make suitable provision for children with SEND to fully develop their abilities, interests and aptitudes and gain maximum access to the curriculum.

More details on how we adapt information, our environment and curriculum can be found in the Accessibility Plan.

We ensure that all children are offered the opportunity to participate with activities outside of the classroom by making reasonable adjustments to the organisation of these. For example, we ensure SEND children have an appropriate level of adult support if going out of school, we organise transport that provides appropriate access and staff complete a comprehensive risk assessment of any visit to ensure all children are safe and included.

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

Early Identification

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.

As a school, we assess all children continuously across all areas of learning including the four broad areas of Special Educational Needs. We assess informally everyday through observations and we carry out formal assessments at the end of every term to measure progress and identify the next steps in learning. We work in partnership with parents, carers and pupils by building good relationships, working together and supporting each other. If there is an identification of need then we will discuss this with parents and if needed provide a pupil with a Short Note. We will share this with parents and may begin to gather evidence to inform whether to make special education provision and consider if we need to consult with relevant external agencies and use assessment tools and materials to ensure early help or identification of SEN happens.

• Early Years, Key Stage 1 and 2 staff and the SENCO, where necessary, liaise with Nursery or the child’s previous school.
• On entry into Early Years, we assess the children using the Speech and Language Link programme as this can be an early indicator of a child experiencing difficulties.
• If a child is performing below age expectations then meetings will be held with the class teacher and SENCO. Observations of the child may also take place.
• SEND is discussed at each staff meeting so that all staff can contribute to the identification process.
• We have regular parent meetings and consider any concerns raised by parents. We pride ourselves on having an ‘open door policy’ where parents can talk to staff at any point.
• Concerns raised by teacher for example behaviour or self-esteem is affecting performance.
• Liaison with external agencies. We work closely with Speech and Language, Occupational Therapy, CAMHS, Crisis Response, Educational Psychology, School Nurse and Behaviour Support.
• Health diagnosis through paediatricians.

SEN Support

As part of this approach every child with SEND will have an individualised Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes and provision to meet those needs.  Parents, carers and children’s views are integral to this process. When the child’s Support Plan is reviewed comments are made against each target to show what progress the child has made. If the child has not met the target, the reasons for this will be discussed, then the target may be adapted into smaller steps or a different approach may be tried to ensure the child does make progress.

How do we assess and review progress?

If your child has SEND, 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.

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. SEND 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 ongoing dialogue with parents.

Engagement

We enable all children to engage fully in all aspects of school life. We do not see SEND as a barrier to accessing the full curriculum and ensure that children with SEND are fully included in all activities in order to promote the highest levels of achievement.

To do this, we:

• Ensure that all children with SEND are fully included in all activities of the school in order to promote the highest levels of achievement, for example; ensuring that children with language delay are supported with visual aids and prompts.
• Ensure that all pupils have access to the school curriculum and all school activities, for example; additional adult support to model and support learning.
• Ensure every child has the entitlement to a sense of achievement through celebrating progress with parents, for example; we have a weekly achievement assembly where academic and non-academic progress is celebrated.
• When planning activities such as visits, pupils’ needs are considered to ensure they can fully participate, for example; staff will visit places and complete risk assessments.

Evaluation

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:

• Robust evaluation of policy and practice
• Book scrutinies
• Lesson visits
• SENCO/SLT/Governor monitoring
• Learning walks
• Performance management processes
• Questionnaires and feedback from pupils and parents