Special Educational Needs for Which Provision is Made

Our school currently supports children who have a range of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).  At present 26% of our children are on our Special Educational Needs register, five children have EHCP’s (Education, Health and Care Plans) and the remaining 47 children are SEN Support. 53% of the children on the register are Pupil Premium, 36% are EAL and 13% are both EAL and PP.

 The Code of Practice 2014 describes four broad areas of SEN:

1.     Communication and Interaction

2.     Cognition and Learning

3.     Social, mental and emotional health

4.     Sensory and/or physical needs.                

Identification and assessment of pupils with SEND

a)    Identification of pupils with SEND is made in consultation with class teachers, parents, SENCO and other relevant outside agencies and may be because of concerns about attainment, progress or standardised tests

b)    Pupils who do not make adequate progress through the graduated approach may be further assessed by external agencies, such as the Educational Psychologist, Occupational Therapy, Advisory Teaching or Speech and Language Therapy Services.

Making provision for pupils with SEND

The school follows a process of assess, plan, do and review process for pupils with SEND. Pupils identified with SEND will receive support that is additional to, or different from, their peers. The approach to teaching pupils with special educational needs varies, dependent upon the need of the particular child.

The school closely monitors the progress of all pupils, including those with SEND. The effectiveness of the provision for these pupils is evaluated by ensuring that they make adequate progress. This will be reviewed half-termly by class teachers in collaboration with senior leaders, parents, and, where appropriate, the pupils themselves.

In addition, pupils with SEND may be assessed in more specific terms using more detailed testing, to evaluate their level of progress in their specific area(s) of difficulty.

At St Paul’s C of E Primary School we follow the Gloucestershire Graduated Pathway with four stages of action: assess, plan, do and review. The graduated approach links support across education, health and social care. Parents will be included in discussions at all stages and will be aware of any other agencies involved.

My Profile:

This document gives the opportunity for all children to provide information about what is important to them, their hopes and goals, what helps them and what doesn’t help them.  This information is used by class teachers in planning, target setting and transition as well as gaining an understanding of the child’s own viewpoints.

My Plan:

This is a child centred plan which identifies and details the support put into place to meet any additional needs that a child may have.  A My Plan will be written for a pupil after agreement between the class teacher, RBL team, child and parents.  

A My Plan will have a minimum of 2 targets and a maximum of 4 targets. Targets will be developed so that they reflect the needs of the pupil and the availability of resources.  These targets will be linked to class-based targets where appropriate. Targets will be SMART and will all be written in child friendly language using “I will…” and “I can…” statements and will reflect the views of the child and parents and what they want to achieve during their time at St Paul's.

• Parents will receive a copy of the plan and sign to say they are happy with it.
• Progress towards My Plan targets will be monitored regularly by the SENDco and class teachers. Each child on the register will have a Pupil profile and outcomes sheet with their targets on so they are aware of their targets and able to manage their progress towards meeting them. In conjunction with the class teaching partner, they can record achievements and discuss next steps.
•  My Plans are reviewed and updated on a regular basis usually at the end of every term.   This usually takes place following the school pupil progress meetings (3x yearly) where staff discuss the children, their progress and any barriers to learning and how these will be addressed

Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP):

Some children with special educational needs (SEN)  need more help than a mainstream school, college or nursery would normally provide at the level of SEN support. These pupils receive support through an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. An EHC plan is a legal document that describes a child or young person's special educational, health and social care needs and explains the extra help that will be given. Parents or setting can apply for an assessment for an EHCP. It is a twenty-week process from application and evidence is gathered from all professionals This is a statutory process that begins when the application is received. A Multi agency panel meets weekly to consider requests for EHC assessment and based on the evidence presented will make a decision as to whether an assessment is necessary. If successful, the evidence presented will be used to draw up a Draft EHCP which is then sent to parents and settings for agreement before it is finalised. Funding is usually attached to the plan to enable settings to put addition interventions and provision in place to meet the child’s needs. Reviews of the plan are held annually with all professionals involved, parents and the child and amendments made where necessary.

When placed on the SEN register, children may make progress towards/achieve their targets and their outcomes may significantly improve. As a result, they may then be removed from the SEN register.

Interventions

Some of the interventions that we use are:

(i)            In class support: e.g. where a teaching assistant supports one or more children to understand the content of the lesson.

(ii)           Small group withdrawal: e.g. where a member of staff delivers a short term literacy, numeracy or other intervention to a small group of pupils

(iii)          One to one withdrawal: e.g.  targeted support in a specific area of need. This may be from school staff or external agencies.

(iv)          Peer support: e.g. reading buddies, playtime buddies

Strategies/programmes to support pupils with SEND

Communication and Interaction:

At St. Paul’s we work closely with Speech and Language Therapists who supports the delivery of individual intervention across the Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. Children are identified early to ensure that they are able to make progress across the curriculum and have individual programmes. We also use the BPVS assessment tool to identify children in Reception who have difficulties with vocabulary. If teachers or Parents have concerns about the children’s Communication and Interaction skills the children are referred to the service, A Speech and Language Therapist will carry out a detailed assessment followed by a period of care. The SLT will set targets for the child and demonstrate a range of activities to work on these, which will be followed up in school by teaching partners.

Cognition and Learning:

Children with SEND will have an individual targets, outlining specific areas for each child, which are planned by the SENDCO and class teacher. In Gloucestershire these are called My plans. All children on the SEN register will have one ensuing that teachers, pupils and parents are all aware of the children’s targets and the activities that will be undertaken to enable the children to meet them. Parents are invited to termly review meetings. Children with SEND will also have extra support in the form of interventions either 1:1 or in a small group. 

Interventions currently available for children SEN include:

?        Extra daily reading from Teacher/TA

?        Phonics interventions

?        Handwriting/Fine motor skills programmes- FMS and Write from the Start

?        Basic/fundamental skills group currently taught by SENCO

?        Maths or Literacy Booster classes/interventions

?        Reading Recovery Programme