Special Needs and Inclusion

Who Are The Special Education Needs Team?

Special Education Needs and Disabilities Coordinator – Nickola Roye

Headteacher – Sola Ingram

Who supports pupils with SEND at St Mark's?

Class teachers

Your child’s class teacher is the first point of contact if you have any concerns and will be fully involved in any support offered and decisions made, in conjunction with the parents, on the type of support and interventions

They are responsible for:

• Ensuring that all children have access to good/outstanding teaching and that the curriculum is adapted to meet your child’s individual needs (also known as personalised learning or differentiation).
• Checking on the progress of your child and identifying, planning and delivering any additional help your child may need (this could be things like targeted work, additional support, adapting resources etc.) and discussing amendments with the SENCO as necessary.
• Writing Individual Education Plans (IEP) when necessary, sharing and reviewing these with parents at least once each term.
• Making sure that all members of staff working with your child in school are aware of your child’s individual needs and/or conditions and what specific adjustments need to be made to enable them to be included and make progress.
• Making sure that all staff working with your child in school are supported in delivering the planned work/programme for your child, so they can achieve the best possible progress. This may involve the use of additional adults, outside specialist help and specially planned work and resources.
• Making sure that the school’s SEND Policy is followed in their classroom and for all the pupils they teach with any SEND.

Contact can be arranged by: Speaking to them at the end of a school day or telephoning the school to arrange an appointment.

The Special Educational Needs Coodinator (SENCO)

Nickola Roye is responsible for:

• Coordinating all the support for children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND), and developing the school’s SEND Policy to make sure all children get a consistent, high quality response to meeting their needs in school.
• Working with the class teacher to ensure that you are:
  • Fully involved in supporting your child’s learning
  • Kept informed about the support your child is receiving
  • Fully involved in reviewing how they are progressing
  • Fully involved in planning your child’s support.
• Liaising with all the other people who may be coming into school to help support your child’s learning, for example: Speech and Language Therapy or Educational Psychology.
• Updating the school’s SEND provision map (a system for ensuring all the special educational, physical and sensory needs of pupils in this school are known; understood and met) and ensuring that there are excellent records of your child’s needs and progress.
• Providing support and organising training for teachers and support staff in the school so they are aware and confident about how to meet the needs of pupils with SEND and help them achieve their potential.
• Supporting your child’s class teacher to write Individual Education Plans (IEP) when needed that specifies the targets set for your child to achieve.
• Preparing and reviewing an Education, Health and Care Plan where needed.

Contact can be made by: Telephoning the school to make an appointment.

Headteacher

Mr Ingram is responsible for:

• Overseeing the provision and delegates the staffing of the School.

Contact can be made by: Telephoning the school for an appointment.

SEND Governor

Helen Niven is responsible for:

• Making sure that the school has an up to date SEND Policy
• Making sure that the school has appropriate provision and has made necessary adaptations to meet the needs of all children in the school
• Making sure that the school’s SEN funding is appropriately spent.
• Making sure that the necessary support is made for any child who attends the school who has SEND.
• Making visits to understand and monitor the support given to children with SEND in the school and being part of the process to ensure your child achieves his/her potential in school.

Contact can be made by: Writing to the SEN Governor via the school office.

Teaching Assistants (TA)

They are responsible for:

• Working directly to support your child within the class or as part of a specific intervention for example, Reading or carrying out speech and language programmes. 
• Directed to support pupils based fully on the decisions made by the class teacher and SENDCo.

What are the different types of support available for children with SEND in our school and who can get this kind of support?

Class teacher input via excellent targeted classroom teaching also known as Quality First Teaching.

For your child this would mean:

• That the teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class.
• That all teaching is based on building on what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
• Different ways of teaching (for example, practical activities and visual supports) are in place so that your child is fully involved in learning in class.
• Specific strategies (which may be suggested by the SENCO or outside agencies) are in place to support children to learn.
• Formally assessing your child’s progress throughout the year and may decide that your child has gaps in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to help them make the best possible progress.
• Targets are set for your child to ensure that gaps in their understanding and learning are addressed.
• That your child may receive some additional individual or small group support in the classroom or in sessions outside of whole class learning.

This type of support is available for all children in school as a part of our classroom practice and is also known as Universal Support.

Specific group work with in a smaller group of children often called targeted support or targeted intervention.

• In the event that the class teacher and the SENCO, on the basis of high quality evidence conclude that a pupil needs the additional targeted support / intervention is put in place. This support is often:
• Run in the classroom or in sessions outside of whole class learning.
• May be delivered by a teacher, most often a Teaching Assistant (TA) or Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) who has had specific training to run these groups.
• We have a qualified counsellor as well as a Pastoral and Emotional Literacy TAs who work across the school to support children with behavioural or emotional needs. Children will engage in group or individual sessions with specific targets to help them to make progress.

For your child this would mean:

• Your child’s teacher will have carefully checked on your child’s progress and will have decided that your child has a gap in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to close the gap between your child and their peers.
• You will be immediately informed and be a full partner in planning and reviewing additional support or interventions.
• The class teacher will plan with you and the SENCO interventions to support your child’s learning.  These interventions will have clear targets to help your child make more progress.
• Interventions may include small group work or individual sessions on a specific theme.
• At this point your child will be placed on the SEN register and you will be fully involved in discussions and decisions, and asked to come to a meeting to discuss your child’s progress and help plan possible ways forward.

This type of support is available for children who have specific gaps in their understanding of a subject/area of learning.

Specialist groups run by outside agencies e.g. Speech and Language therapy, Educational Psychology, Occupational therapy (targeted support) and or individual support for your child

This may be from Local Authority central services such as:

• Speech and Language Therapy service (NHS service)
• Lambeth Educational Psychology service (Lambeth Education Psychology Service)

In addition to this, St Marks C of E Primary commission the services of other professionals if we feel it is necessary e.g. Action Tutoring, Dramatherapy or Literacy Lab

For your child this would mean:

• Your child will have been identified by the class teacher/SENCO (or you will have raised your worries) as needing more specialist input instead of or in addition to quality first teaching and intervention groups.
• You will be asked to come to a meeting to discuss your child’s progress and help plan possible ways forward.
• You may be asked to give your permission for the school to refer your child to a specialist professional e.g. a Speech and Language Therapist or Educational Psychologist. This will help the school and yourself understand your child’s particular needs better and be able to support them better in school.
• The specialist professional will work with your child to understand their needs and make recommendations, which may include:
  • Making changes to the way your child is supported in class e.g some individual support or changing some aspects of teaching to support them better
  • Support to set better targets which will include their specific expertise
  • A group run by school staff under the guidance of the outside professional e.g a social skills group
  • A group or individual work with outside professional
  • The school may suggest that your child needs some individual support in school. We will tell you how the support will be used and what strategies will be put in place.
  • You will always be involved in decisions about how the support will be used and what strategies will be put in place.
  • You will be provided with the contact details for any agencies or services outside the school that are or will work with your child.
  • The school makes its best endeavours to put in place the support identified in the plan.
  • The progress your child makes with the support identified will be regularly reviewed and the provision may be changed according to the progress your child makes.

This type of support is available for children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through Quality First Teaching and intervention groups.

Support provided through an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). 

• This means your child will have been identified by the class teacher/SENCO as needing a particularly higher level of individual and small group support which cannot be provided from the resources already delegated to the school.
• Usually, if your child requires this high level of support they may also need specialist support in school from professionals outside the school. This may be from:
• Local Authority central services such as the ASD Outreach Team or Sensory Services (for students with a hearing or visual need) and/or outside agencies such as the Speech and Language therapy (SALT) Service, Occupational Therapy service, Physiotherapy and/or CAMHS

What it means for you and your child:

• If, despite the good and outstanding class room teaching, the intervention groups and referrals to outside agencies to advise and support that the school has provided from its own resources to enable your child to make progress, your child needs further or more specialist input, the school, or you, can recommend that the Local Authority makes a statutory assessment for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).  This is a legal process and you can find full details about this in the Local Authority (LA) based Local Offer, Lambeth web site at http://www.younglambeth.org/local-offer/landing-pages/local-offer.html
• This is done in full partnership with you and your child. After the school have sent in the request to the Local Authority (with a lot of information about your child, including some from you), the LA will decide whether they think your child’s needs (as described in the paperwork provided), are sufficient to need a statutory assessment. 
• If this is the case they will ask you and all professionals involved with your child to write a report, to which your child contributes, outlining your child’s needs and how they will be met and the long and short term outcomes that are being sought.
• If they do not think your child needs this, they will ask the school to continue with the SEN Support in School and provide further support to you and the school to ensure your child’s needs are met.
• After the reports have all been sent in, an EHC Plan to which you and your child will contribute will be prepared. It is called and Education Health and Care Plan because it brings together all of the educational health and social care needs that your child may have in one plan.
• The school must make its best endeavours to put in place the support identified in the plan.
• The progress your child makes with the support identified will be regularly reviewed and the provision may be changed according to the progress your child makes.

This type of support is available for children whose learning needs are more severe, complex and potentially lifelong.

Who are the other people providing services to children with SEND at St Mark's?

How will we support your child with identified SEND starting school?

• If your child has been allocated a place in our school by the local authority and they have a SEND, please contact us as soon as you receive the offer as we may not have details of their needs at this stage.
• We will invite you to visit the school with your child to have a look around and speak to staff and meet the key person who will work with you and your child while they are in the school.
• If other professionals are involved, a team around the Child (TAC) meeting will be held to discuss your child’s needs, share strategies used, and ensure provision is put in place before your child starts
• The Early Years Foundation Stage coordinator or SENCO may make a home visit and also visit your child if they are attending another provision or school; this will automatically happen if your child is starting in the school Foundation Stage 1 class (nursery class).
• We may suggest adaptations to the settling in period to help your child to settle more easily, but these will be agreed with you at the TAC meeting
• If they have not already visited, your child will be invited into school in advance of starting to meet the staff they will be working with and their peer group.
• Following the settling in period, the class teacher will arrange an early meeting with you to review your child’s learning and progress.
• The staff will then hold regular meetings in school to monitor the progress of your child and invite you into school at least once a term to review this with you.

How can I let the school know I am concerned about my child’s progress in school?

• If you have any concerns we recommend you speak to your child’s class teacher initially, and at the earliest opportunity.
• If you are not happy that the concerns are being managed and feel that your child is still not making progress you should speak to the SENCO or Headteacher.
• If you feel that your concerns are still not resolved you should speak to the Executive Head and ultimately to the SEND Governor.

How will the school let me know if they have any concerns about my child’s learning in school?

• When a teacher or you have raised concerns about your child’s progress, and high quality personalised teaching has not met your child’s needs, the teacher will raise this with the SENCO. If you have raised the concern the school will invite you in to discuss it and plan a way forward.
• The teacher will discuss your child’s needs and progress with you at our termly parents’ evenings when you will be informed of your child’s progress and any additional support being given.
• Schools also have regular meetings between each class teachers and a senior staff member in the school to ensure all children are making good progress.
• If your child is then identified as not making progress the school will make a decision about whether to monitor this or set up an intervention group and will inform you. These groups may take place for a short period or over a longer period of time. However, please note that all children learn regularly in small groups in class (sometimes with learning support assistants) in order to support their progress in learning.
• If your child is still not making expected progress the school will discuss with you
  • Any concerns you may have
  • Any further interventions or referrals to outside professionals to support your child’s learning
  • How we could work together, to support your child at home/school.
• The school budget, received from Lambeth LA, includes money for supporting children with SEND.

Other people providing services to children with an SEN in this school

Directly funded by the school:

• Learning mentors
• Additional Speech and Language Therapy input to provide a higher level of service to the school.
• Additional Educational Psychology input.
• 1:1 or small group teachers or TAs/HLTAs
• Literacy Lab

Paid for centrally by the Local Authority but delivered in school:

• Autism Advisory Service
• Lambeth Educational Psychology Service
• Sensory Service for children with  visual or hearing needs
• CENMAC
• Speech and Language Therapy (provided by Health but paid for by the Local Authority). Occupational Therapy
• Professional training for school staff to deliver medical interventions
• Parent Partnership Service (to support families through the SEN processes and procedures)

Provided and paid for by the Health Service:

• School Nurse
• Occupational Therapy
• Physiotherapy
• Community Paediatrician

How are the adults in school helped to work with children with an SEND and what training do they have?

• The SENCO’s job is to support the class teacher in planning for children with SEN and to coordinate and liaise with all parties to ensure that interventions tailored to your child needs are in place.
• The school has a school development plan, including identified training needs for all staff to improve the teaching and learning of children including those with SEND. This may include whole school training on SEND issues or to support identified groups of learners in school, such as ASD, dyslexia etc.
• Whole staff training to disseminate knowledge, strategies and experience, to ensure consistency of the school’s approach for children with a SEND.
• Individual teachers and support staff attend training courses run by outside agencies that are relevant to the needs of specific children in their class e.g. from the ASD Outreach service, Sensory service or medical /health training to support staff in implementing care plans.
• Individual training for an identified staff member linked with the needs of a child with special educational needs and/or disabilities or identified through the school’s performance management process.
• Training takes place on a regular basis. If you would like to hear about the training which is currently taking place or has taken place by the staff members in the school, please speak to the Headteacher or SENCO/ Inclusion Manager.
• St Marks has a training plan for all staff to improve the teaching and learning of children including those with SEND. This includes whole school training on SEND issues such as ASD and Speech and language difficulties.
• Individual teachers and support staff also attend training courses run by outside agencies that are relevant to the needs of specific children in their class e.g from the ASD Outreach service.

How will the teaching be adapted for my child with SEND to be able to access the curriculum?

• Class Teachers plan lessons according to the specific needs of all groups of children in their class, and will ensure that learning tasks are adapted to enable your child to access their learning as independently as possible to ensure that your child’s needs are met.
• Specially trained support staff can implement the teachers modified/adapted planning to support the needs of your child where necessary.
• Specific resources and strategies will be used to support your child individually, and in groups and in the classroom so that they can learn most effectively, and where necessary to be included in the full life of the school. These will be included in your child’s learning plan.
• Planning and teaching will be adapted on a daily basis if needed to meet your child’s learning needs and increase your child’s access to what is on offer.

How will we measure the progress of your child in school and how will you know about this?

• Their progress is reviewed formally every term.Your child’s progress is continually monitored by his/her class teacher.
• At the end of each key stage (i.e. at the end of year 2 and year 6) all children are formally assessed using Standard Assessment Tests (SATS). This is something the government requires all schools to do and the results are published nationally.
• Some children with SEND will have a SEND Support Plan which is reviewed with your involvement, every term. New targets are discussed with you and set for the next term.
• The progress of children with an EHC Plan is formally reviewed at an Annual Review with all adults, including parents, involved with the child’s education.
• The SENCO will also check that your child is making good progress within any individual learning and in any group that they take part in.
• A range of ways will be used to keep you informed, which may include:
  • Letters/certificates sent home
  • Additional meetings as required
  • Annual Reviews
  • End of Year Reports
• If your child is in Year 1 and above, but is not yet at National Curriculum levels, a more sensitive assessment tool is used which shows their level in more detail and will also show smaller but significant steps of progress. The levels are called ‘P levels’.

What support do we have for you as a parent of child with an SEND?

• The SENCO is available to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns/worries you may have.The class teacher is regularly available to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns you may have and to share information about what is working well at home and school so similar strategies can be used.
• All information from outside professionals will be discussed with you by the person involved directly, or where this is not possible, in a report. The SENCO will also arrange to meet with you to discuss any new assessments and ideas suggested by outside agencies for your child. Copies of reports from outside professionals will be shared with you
• A home/school contact book may be used to support communication with you, when this has been agreed to be useful for you and your child.

In addition:

• We regularly hold workshops for parents of all children in the school, for example in relation to reading, phonics, Speech and Language or maths. We will be happy to discuss any necessary adaptations for your child.
• The IEPs and SEND Support Plans often include ideas for how you can support your child at home, following the discussion with you.
• The external professionals involved with your child will be happy to meet with you on request.
• We will be happy to meet with you and discuss how to best support your child to enable them to reach their potential.

How is our school accessible to children with SEND?

• We ensure that equipment used is accessible to all children regardless of their needs.
• The school has staff trained to suit children with a range of needs.
• The specialised provisions provide for the identified needs for children with these difficulties e.g. workstations for children with ASD or Speech and Language Needs.
• After school provision is accessible to all children including those with SEND.
• Extracurricular activities are accessible for children with SEND.
• We keep record of all children’s medical needs and ensure that all staff involved is aware of these needs and knows the procedures.
• All our teaching and support staff are trained first aiders.
• If you have a specific concern please make contact with the SENCO who will be able to inform you what provision can be put in place. 

How will we support your child when they are leaving this school or moving on to another class?

We recognise that ‘moving on’ can be difficult for a child with SEND and take steps to ensure that any transition is as smooth as possible. If your child is moving to another school:

• We will talk with your child to identify how they are feeling about the move and discuss with them how to make it as positive an experience as possible.
• We will contact the new school’s SENCO and ensure s/he knows about any special arrangements or support that needs to be made for your child.
• Where possible we will support a visit to the new school in advance of the move.
• We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible.

When moving classes in school:

• You will be invited to meet with the new teacher.
• Information will be passed on to the new class teacher IN ADVANCE and in all cases, a planning meeting will take place with the new teacher. All IEP (PLP’s) will be shared with the new teacher.
• If your child would be helped by a book to support them understand ‘moving on’ then it will be made for them.

In Year 6

• Our SENCO will contact the SENCO of your child’s secondary school to discuss the specific needs of your child.
• Your child will do focused learning about aspects of transition to support their understanding of the changes ahead.
• Where possible your child will visit their new school on several occasions and in many cases staff from the new school will visit your child in this school.