My child has special educational needs and/or disability (SEND), what extra support could you provide and who will decide on the support?

This will depend upon your child's individual needs.  Each child's needs are unique and so each child will receive different support, depending upon their specific needs.  The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) and class teacher will decide which strategies and resources are appropriate to support your child's needs.  Where outside agencies are involved, they will provide advice about how best to support your child's needs.  Special Educational Needs (SEN) are divided into four areas.  Below are some examples of what our school can provide.

Cognition and Learning (Learning Need)

• Different approaches to learning, e.g. visual, hands-on
• Different work expectations, matched to the child's ability
• Different/extra resources, e.g. word cards, number squares
• Special Literacy or Numeracy programmes, e.g. the Nessy programme, Wordshark, Precision Teaching, Dyslexia Institute Learning Programme
• Extra adult support, group work, individual support

Communication and Interaction (Speech and Language)

• Resources provided by the Speech and Language Therapy Service - First Call
• Communication and language games
• Social skills games
• Specific Speech and Language programmes provided by the Speech and Language Therapy Service
• Use of Makaton - an early sign language tool
• Communication in Print - a visual/picture resource to support language and communication

Social, Emotional and Mental Health

• De-escalation plans which outline a pupil's difficulties and the best strategies to use to help them
• Social skills games
• Reward strategies
• Access to a trained Social, Emotional, Mental Health Lead to deliver group or individual interventions

Medical, Physical and Sensory Needs

• Specialist equipment such as seating, writing slopes, pencil grips and calmers
• Sensory circuit
• Specialist training from outside agencies, such as specialist nurse for pupils with disabilities and teachers of the hearing and/or visually impaired

What equipment and resources does the school have to help my child?

Over the years we have supported many pupils with significant difficulties and so we have lots of equipment and resources already in school.  Below are some examples.

• Disabled toilet and electronic changing table
• Shower facilities
• Sensory circuit
• Specialist seating - Foxdenton chairs, Zuma chair and Hokki stool
• Seating cushions and wedges
• Writing slopes
• Magnifying domes
• Coloured overlays
• Pencil grips and specialist writing pens
• Calmers (squeezy/stress balls etc)
• Sand timers
• Communicate in Print - a visual/picture resource to support language
• Physiotherapy equipment, e.g. gym mats and gym balls
• Occupational therapy equipment, e.g. non-slip mats, weighted dolphins

How will I be kept informed about the support that my child is receiving and what do I do if I have concerns about it?

The support that your child receives will be outlined on an Individual Support Plan.  This will tell you what the school is doing to help your child and how often they will be getting help.  We will share the Individual Support Plan with you at Parent Consultations every term so that you are kept informed.  If your child has outside agencies involved, we will also review the support that they receive at regular review meetings.  If you have any concerns about the support that your child is receiving or the support is not helping your child to make progress then we will change the support appropriately.

What are Individual Support Plans?

An Individual Support Plan is a document which identifies what your child finds difficult, sets small achievable targets for them to help them to make progress and outlines what extra support your child will receive.  Individual Support Plans are child friendly and written from the child's point of view so that they are easy to understand.  The Individual Support Plan is shared with you in the Autumn and Spring terms and then sent home with your child's report at the end of the year.  At these times, we will review the previous targets to let you know how your child has got on, and if they have achieved their targets.  You will be given a copy of the old and new Individual Support Plan so that you can take them home and you can help your child with each of the targets if you wish to.  Individual Support Plans are shared with your child too, so that they understand what they are trying to achieve and what we are going to do to help them.

What enhanced adult support is available?

If the SENCo and Head Teacher feel that they have put lots of extra support in place and it is not helping your child to make progress, we may consider giving your child extra group or individual support.  The amount of support that they receive would be different for every child depending on their specific needs and how much progress they have made. Normally a child would have lots of outside agency support before we would decide to provide extra adult support. We would discuss any extra adult support with you at review meetings so that we can ask for advice from the professionals involved.