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
Our school is committed to the early identification of pupils with SEND. At Edmondsley, the progress of all children is monitored closely through a range of assessment procedures and internal tracking. Detailed assessments and target tracking ensure that all learners achieve and make progress at Edmondsley. Pupil assessments are carried out each term and those children needing extra support and/or those who are underachieving are identified. Observations of pupils by school staff and the views of parents/ carers and pupils also inform the early identification process. Often, through additional support, a child will make the necessary progress to meet age related expectations. However, if additional support has not been successful in accelerating progress, we would initiate a concern.
When a concern is raised, the SENCO will liaise with parents and class teachers to clearly identify the child’s strengths and any areas of difficulty. These will be documented on a Short Note and some next step actions will be agreed by all involved. It is possible that these actions may include the need for further specialist assessments from external agencies e.g. Speech and Language Therapy (SALT), Occupational Therapy (OT), Children & Adult Mental Health Services (CAMHS), the Local Authority SEND Advisory teams etc. These agencies may carry out further assessment of the child’s needs, provide advice to schools on how to best support the child and/or suggest resources that would help the child make progress. With the consent of parents, the SENCO will make a referral to the necessary agency for further assessment or support. The Short Note will be reviewed according to need but this will be within the school term. A decision will then be made collaboratively on whether to continue with a Short Note to identify and monitor progress towards outcomes or to move to a SEN Support plan with a more detailed approach to identifying the child’s needs, outcomes and the provision necessary to meet those needs. At this stage, the child’s name will be added to the school’s SEND register.
SEN Support
Support plans are written in collaboration with the family and child to ensure that all parties involved in the child’s learning have the chance to contribute and are aware of their specific targets. Progress of the child is closely monitored by the SENCO and class teacher in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the support and interventions being delivered. Teachers, children and parents meet termly to discuss the child’s progress and new targets are set for the forthcoming term. If a child is not making progress with intervention, further advice from relevant outside agencies such as an educational psychologist would be sought.
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 the provision in place to meet those outcomes
- Review the support and progress
Assess
Through early identification, assessment procedures in school and any external agency advice, a child’s special educational need will be acknowledged.
Plan
Using this assessment, class teachers and the school SENCO will act upon the advice of any professionals involved and meet with parents/ carers and children to determine the most appropriate outcomes in order for the child to make progress. These outcomes will be identified on a child’s support plan and support provided will match their special educational need and ensure the best possible outcomes for the child. Class teachers and support staff, under the guidance of the SENCO, will plan appropriate teaching and learning activities, modifications and differentiation of the curriculum and interventions to ensure that the child makes progress towards the outcomes. This support could take the form of different learning activities for the child, specialist resources, a specially designed programme of learning, the use of ICT equipment, adapted resources or an additional adult to provide a higher level of support. Additional resources will be put in place as necessary and levels of adult support will be appropriately matched to the needs of the child. Additional support may be planned as part of whole class teaching, on a 1:1 basis or as part of a small group and may be provided by either a teacher or teaching assistant. The impact of quality first teaching and interventions is measured as part of the whole school monitoring process and is a prominent focus of individual pupil progress meetings.
Do
In order to achieve outcomes set, children need time to develop skills through support received. Reviewing plans termly allows time for planned activities to take place and hopefully progress to be achieved.
Review
As stated, support plans will be reviewed at least 3 times a year on a termly basis. Where necessary, the class teacher will contact parents to arrange an earlier review of the support plan and agree next steps. At each review, an evaluation of the impact of the support that has been put in place will be made through the use of feedback from observations, the views of the child, the views of the parents and the use of assessment information and data. A joint decision will be made to either cease the SEN support plan or continue with the support plan. Where needs are complex and the support plan is not having the desired impact upon progress and meeting the child’s needs, a decision will be made to consider seeking further advice or support and/or applying for an Education, Health and Care Assessment.
Education Health Care Plan
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.
Education, Health and Care Assessments are only appropriate for a very small number of children. Parents or carers, the school and a range of professionals will be required to provide information and/or professional reports, which will be collated by the local authority. At the end of the assessment phase the local authority will consider this information to help decide whether or not to issue an Education, Health and Care plan for the child. Parents/carers also have the right to ask the local authority to carry out this assessment although it is usually best if you can do this with the support of the school. Your school SENCO or the Parent Partnership service will be able to advise you about this.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer
For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.