SEND

• Differentiation – Adaptions and changes teachers make to learning for children based on differing levels of need and learning levels.
• Educational Psychologists (EPs) – A professional who supports the school to develop its SEN provision as well as assessing and identifying individual children’s needs.
• Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) – The Local Authority may grant an EHCP when a  child’s needs are severe and/or complex – this means the child’s progress remains extremely limited or the amount of support needed to ensure progress is significant. It will outline your child’s needs, the help your child will receive and outcomes for them to achieve. There may be educational, health and social care outcomes. 
• Intervention – Support programmes that target a specific gap in learning. These may be in a group or on a 1-1 basis depending on the need.
• SEND Policy – The document that reflects the statutory (legal) requirements of special educational needs and disabilities and how the actual practice of the school meets them.
• Speech and language therapists – Professionals from the Health Service who identify, assess, support, monitor, offer advice to children, schools, families for children with communication, social and/or language needs.

East-the-Water Primary School is a mainstream school in Bideford, Devon. We support inclusion for all of our children, whatever their needs. As laid out in the SEN Code of Practice in 2014 (the most recent legislation relating to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) setting out duties, policies and procedures that schools in England must comply with), the four broad ‘areas of need’ are identified as:

• Communication and Interaction (this is when pupils have difficulty in communicating with others – they may have difficulty saying what they want to, understanding what is being said to them or they may not understand or use social rules of communication. This also covers children with Austistic Spectrum Condition)
• Cognition and Learning (this is when children may learn at a slower pace than other children and may have difficulty developing literacy or numeracy skills or understanding new concepts)
• Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties (this covers a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which may include children becoming withdrawn or isolated, or displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour. These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self-harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained)
• Sensory and/or Physical Needs (covers children with a vision or hearing impairment, a physical disability or a multi-sensory impairment)

All clubs, trips and activities offered to pupils at East-the-Water Primary School are available to pupils with or without SEN.  Clubs change termly and are run by teaching staff. The SENDCo supports staff with risk assessments to ensure Send pupils can participate in clubs, trips and activities and will seek advice from the SEN Helpline if or when required. Where it is necessary, the school will use the resources available to it to provide additional adult support to enable the safe participation of the pupil in the activity.

We ensure that pupils with SEND are represented on our School Council.

East-the-Water Primary has a wide range of children with SEN covering all these four areas. In particular, we have a high level of children with Communication and Interaction Needs (including Autism) throughout the school. In June 2015, East-the-Water Primary proudly celebrated being awarded the highest level of the Devon Inclusion Award for our work with children with Communication and Interaction needs.

We welcome children with a range of disabilities in school and are fully inclusive of their needs. In line with the Equality Act 2010 we will not discriminate against disabled children in respect of admissions for a reason related to their disability. Parents or carers seeking the admission of a child with a disability are requested to contact the SENCo in advance of starting school so that adjustments can take place prior to the child starting. This will support a smooth transition into school.

What sorts of things does the law ask schools to do in regards to those with disabilities?

• Make sure those with disabilities have the same opportunities as those without
• Take into account a disability, even when that involves treating the person with a disability more favourably than others
• Do not tolerate any harassment of disabled people that is related to their disabilities
• Promote positive attitudes towards disabilities
• Assess and monitor the impact of activities on disabled people
• Improve outcomes for disabled people

In school, we have produced a 3 year Accessibility Action Plan as part of our Disability Equality Scheme ( Please see below for a copy). This specifically focuses on improving access to the curriculum, improving access to the physical environment and improving access to information for children, parents/carers, staff and all involved in the wider school community with disabilities. 

The school have made the following improvements as part of this Action Plan over the last year:

• Steps and entry/exit points have been re-painted or marked to support children with visual impairments.
• Assemblies continue to raise children’s awareness of different disabilities and how to be supportive and inclusive of them. As one child commented ‘the kids don’t have a disability, they have a different ability.
• Accessible car parking spaces available.
• Toilet signs replaced to support pupils with visual impairments.
• Ongoing training around Reasonable Adjustments for all staff.

We have identified that the following aspects of the school need to be improved:

• Ongoing check that Soundfield systems are fully working in each class termly.

All of our teachers teach children with additional needs and SEND. All of our staff recognise the importance of identifying these early on and making effective provision quickly. The identification and assessment of additional needs and SEN is built into our school’s approach of monitoring the progress of all pupils.

We assess each pupil’s skills and levels of attainment (attainment is the expected standard of pupils’ work on entry or at the end of the year – what is expected nationally from children in the same year group) when they first come to the school. This builds on any information from the child’s previous early years setting or school, and provides us with information we need to monitor their progress. It also ensures that we discover any areas of difficulty early on. Where children already have their SEN diagnosed or identified, we will work closely with the family and other services to make sure we know as much about the child as possible before they start at the school.

Teachers and senior leaders in the school then monitor pupil progress at least termly. This helps us to see any children whose progress is significantly slower than their peers or whose progress has slowed down and is falling behind.

When we see a child is not making adequate progress, whether emotionally, socially or academically, we will look at ways a teacher can adapt lessons to support a child’s learning and progress in class. Teachers use Devon’s Graduated Response Toolkits for Early Years, KS1 and KS2 to support them with this. In addition, the school runs interventions (support programmes that target a specific area of learning) to boost children’s progress. Parents will be kept aware of any support given and parental advice is sought to support the child in class.

If we continue to be concerned about a child’s progress, we will work with the family to carry out an analysis of the child’s needs. There can be many reasons children fail to make progress (eg a significant change in family circumstances, periods of absence, emotional or confidence issues). However, less than expected progress can also mean a child has an underlying special educational need as some pupils may continue to make inadequate progress, despite high-quality teaching and strategies being targeted at their areas of need.  For these pupils, and in consultation with parents, we will further assess to determine the cause of the learning or behavioural need. In some cases it may be necessary to seek an assessment by or advice from an external professional such as a specialist teacher or educational psychologist. In these cases, parents will when possible be invited to a meeting with this professional.

The school uses a range of different assessment tools and systems to help identify and assess pupils with SEN. When considering if a child needs SEN support , the school takes into account:

• The pupil’s previous progress and attainment (compared to peers in school and nationally)
• The teacher’s assessment and experience of the child
• The views and experiences of parents/carers (this can include a developmental history or a family history of difficulties)
• Pupil’s own views
• Advice from external support services where appropriate

The purpose of this more detailed assessment is to understand what additional resources and different approaches are required to enable the pupil to make better progress.  

Any parent/carer who feels that their child may have unrecognised SEN is strongly encouraged to contact their child’s class teacher in the first instance.

If a pupil is identified as having SEN, his/her teacher and the SENDCo will consider everything we know about the pupil to determine the support that is needed and whether it can be provided by adapting teaching in class or whether something different or additional is required.

Where provision for SEN is needed, we work with pupils and their families to create:

A My Plan – this will probably have 2-3 targets that your child will work on for a term. My Plans will be reviewed by the teacher, parent and child at the end of the term. Next steps will be discussed and agreed (we are happy to meet sooner if parents request it). New My Plans will then be implemented.

If the child is able to make good progress using this additional and different resource (but would not be able to maintain this good progress without it) we will continue to identify them as having SEN. If the pupil is able to maintain good progress without the additional and different resources he or she will no longer be identified as having SEN. When any change in identification of SEN is changed, parents will be notified.

To find out more about Education Health Care Plans, please see the glossary.

‘High quality teaching, differentiated for individual pupils, is the first step in responding to pupils who have or may have SEN.  Additional intervention and support cannot compensate for a lack of good quality teaching.  Schools should regularly and carefully review the quality of teaching for all pupils, including those at risk of underachievement.  This includes reviewing and, where necessary, improving, teachers’ understanding of strategies to identify and support vulnerable pupils and their knowledge of the SEN most frequently encountered’ SEN Code of Practice (2014, 6.37).

During this and in previous years staff have been trained and supported to use Rosenshine’s 10 Principles of Instruction within their classes to improve quality first teaching. School staff are also continuing to work on building children’s independence through the use of the ‘Scaffolding Framework’ which provides a clear structure of how to achieve this. In addition, there has been a focus on improving children’s metacognitive skills, that is getting the children to think about how they plan, monitor and evaluate their work. All of these will continue to be embedded into the next academic year.

Subject Leaders have developed a resource called ‘SEND and the Curriculum’. All subjects have a guidance sheet that supports the inclusion of SEND pupils in all lessons and they are used by the teachers.

The class teacher is responsible for the progress of all the children in the class but lots of children need some additional support to help them progress during their time at school. This additional support may be provided by trained teaching assistants through adapted resources and interventions or through assessment and advice from specialist services. We are regularly supported by the Educational Psychology Service; Speech & Language Service; Occupational Therapists, Speech, Language & Communication Team and the Social, Emotional and Mental health Team (formerly Behaviour Support Team).

A meeting to review the My Plan will be held termly with the class teacher, parents and child present (based on the child’s maturity and/or agreement). They will discuss progress made the using assessment information available. If the child does not want to attend this meeting, they will meet with the teacher in advance of this meeting so that their views are represented at it.  For pupils with an EHCP, there will also be an annual review of the provision made for the child led by the SENDCo, which will enable an evaluation of the effectiveness of the special provision over the year. If parents are unable to attend the meeting, home visits and telephone calls can be arranged.

The SEN Code of Practice (2014, 6.17) describes inadequate progress thus:

• Is significantly slower than that of their peers starting from the same baseline
• Fails to match or better the child’s previous rate of progress
• Fails to close the attainment gap between rate of progress i(attainment is the expected standard of pupils’ work on entry or at the end of the year – what is expected nationally from children in the same year group) 
• Widens the attainment gap

The school ensures that the impact of any support is measured to see if it is working or not. Consequently, adaptations to provision may be made in light of these findings. The SENDCo monitors My Plans to ensure targets are specific and measurable each term.

The class teacher will provide teaching and learning activities to match the levels of learning of all children in the class. Sometimes, additional resources will be provided to support children’s learning (e.g: writing slopes, pencil grips, iPads, lap cushions, signs or symbols).

Teaching assistants often assist the class teacher in meeting all the children’s needs but we always strive to help children work independently or with other children rather than become dependent on adult support. For a very few children with EHCs with complex needs, we may plan parts of the curriculum differently to the rest of the class to ensure the children make progress. Parents and carers would always be involved in these decisions. This provision is specified in their EHCP.

The school budget, received from Devon Local Authority includes money for supporting children with SEN.

The Head Teacher, the Deputy Head Teacher, the SENDCo and the class teachers discuss all the information they have about SEND in the school, including the children getting extra support already, the children needing more support and the children who have been identified as not making as much progress as would be expected. From this information, the school decides what support is needed and given each term. These resources may include providing a child with a small group or individual intervention led by trained staff or providing additional resources (e.g: iPad, writing slope). If a child is allocated resources through an EHCP, then this provision is specified on the child’s My Plan and reviewed annually at a formal Annual Review Meeting.

The amount of support required for each pupil to make good progress will be different in each case. In very few cases a very high level of resource is required.   The Devon funding arrangements require schools to provide a certain amount of financial resource for pupils with high needs but above that amount, the Local Authority should provide ‘top up’ to the school if they agree there is a need. 

In order to provide day-to-day resources, the SENDCo has an annual budget that allows for the provision of specialist resources such as iPads and writing slopes. Outside agencies will often loan equipment for periods of time, for example, for physiotherapy or toileting needs. There are also charities that school can apply for funding for specific and costly resources such as individual iPads.

Supporting children’s wellbeing is our most important job and on a day-to-day basis, the class teacher teaches children about rights, responsibilities, choices and how to work together. A weekly class assembly covers the RSE curriculum. In addition, we have a very supportive pastoral team consisting of the SENDCo Mrs Smith, Ms Servaes and Mrs Everett who provide daily support when required for children and parents.

For our children who need additional support, we provide:

• Weekly 1-1 and small group pastoral support to help children with their anxiety or anger.
• 1-1 or small group sessions with a Place2Be Counsellor
• Lunchtime and playtime support through planned activities and groups, for example, in door lunchtime club, cycling, quiet area
• Adults to meet vulnerable children and settle them in school
• Calm Corners and Soft Start and Ends to the Day if required
• Support for medical needs including toileting and administration of medicines
• Relational Support Plans and Co-Regulation Plans
• Talking and Drawing programme that encourages children to talk through events and feelings
• Comic Strip Conversations (aims to unpick an incident or issue that is upsetting a child)

If your child still needs extra support with their wellbeing, with your permission the pastoral team will access further help through the Right for Children process and set up a Team Around the Family meeting. This may involve inviting organisations that can support you and your child, for example, Family Support Workers who may support you at home with an issue with your child such as sleeping routines, keeping your rules, etc.

Teachers have had the following training in the last academic year:

• Developmental Language Disorder
• Neurodiversity
• Sensory Processing and Autism
• ADHD
• Reasonable Adjustments
• Asthma and Allergies Policy
• Blank Levels (to support children with speech and language needs)
• Soundfield Systems (to support children with glue ear/hearing aids)

All Teaching Assistants have had the following training in the last academic year:

• Neurodiversity
• Sensory Processing and Autism
• Reasonable Adjustments
• Asthma and Allergies Policy
• Blank Levels (to support children with speech and language needs)

Some Teaching Assistants have also had the additional training in the last academic year:

• Comic Strip Conversations (to help with communication needs to unpick issues)
• Total Communication
• Pathological Demand Avoidance
• Practical Strategies to support learners with Communication & Interaction needs

The following have the identified enhanced and specialist training:

• 2 x Pastoral Teaching Assistants can support children and families in the school (non-class based). They are trained in the ‘Expect Respect’ Programme and in supporting families with grief
• 2 x Pastoral Teaching Assistants have extensive training in supporting mental health in school
• SENCo has undertaken the Anna Freud Autism training

In terms of seeking specialist support the following services are available to support and train staff.

• Educational Psychology Service
• Speech & Language Service
• Nursery Plus
• Occupational Therapists
• Advisory Teachers for Communication & Interaction
• The Social, Emotional and Mental Health Team
• Advisory Teachers for Hearing or Visually Impaired pupils
• Advisors for pupils with physical disabilities
• Dyslexia & ICT Advisory Teachers

For any queries or concerns about anything to do with your child’s learning, emotional, medical, behavioural or social needs or any family issues that may be having an effect upon your child, please speak to your child’s class teacher in the first instance. Your child’s class teacher may arrange a further meeting with Mrs Deana Smith (SENDCo) to discuss issues and plan to resolve them. Mrs Smith, is a qualified teacher and has been accredited by the National Award for SEN Co-ordination in 2011.  Mrs Smith works Monday – Thursday.

Our pastoral & safeguarding assistants Ms Julie Servaes and Mrs Katie Everett work Monday – Friday.

Please contact them through the school number of 01237 475178, by visiting the school office or emailing admin@etwschool.org

If no one is available to see you at that time, one of them will call you back when they can.

If you have any concerns or complaints about additional support and provision for your child, please contact Deana or the headteacher Adam Buckeridge. The governor for SEND is Daniel Dalley and he can be contacted via the school office as detailed above.

If you wish to make a formal complaint, please ask for a copy of the School’s Complaint Policy at the office which will outline the various steps to make.

There are some circumstances, usually for children who are being assessed for an EHCP where there is a statutory right for parents to appeal against a decision of the Local Authority. Complaints which fall within this category cannot be investigated by the school.

We are aware that some children may need something additional and different to during these times. Adjustments are made for pupils both for in-school testing and external tests such as SATs. These adjustments include: working in a quieter space, having a reader or prompter and having more extra time. Some children are able to use laptops to type if this is detailed in their My Plan as their usual way of recording (eg. for those with physical needs or specific learning difficulties).

We take all reports of bullying seriously and recognise that bulling can have a detrimental effect on children’s wellbeing. The School has a Behaviour Policy and our approach to bullying, prejudice and racism is in this. Our Behaviour Policy is on our website under: https://www.east-the-water.devon.sch.uk/policies-procedures/.

Children who are looked after by the local authority and have SEND are entitled to all of the same services, support and resources as children who are not looked after. In addition they have a named person in school who is responsible for the coordination of support for looked after children and who offers pastoral support in school. At East-the-Water Primary School this person is Ms Julie Servaes.

• The SEN Governor Daniel Dalley is responsible for making sure that the necessary support is given for any child with SEN who attends the school
• A minimum of 1x meeting a term are arranged between the SENDCo and Governor to discuss the provision of SEND in the school
• The Governor ensures that the SENDco has adequate time to undertake SEND duties within school

The governing body have engaged with the following bodies:

• A Service Level Agreement has been set with the Educational Psychology service for support throughout the year
• School has access to local authority’s service level agreement with Speech and Language Therapy Services / Occupational Therapy Services / Physiotherapy Services for pupils who require direct therapy or advice

Devon Information Support and Advice is an organisation that provides information, support and training for parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. They offer a confidential, free and impartial service. Amongst other things, they can:

• Listen to what you have to say and talk through your options and decisions
• Describe what support the school can offer
• Explain the meaning of documents, reports and letters
• Support the development of good communication between you, the school and other services

If you would like to find out more about the Service, either ask Mrs Smith for a leaflet, contact them directly on 01392 383080 or check out their website at  www.devonias.org.uk

We recognise that transitions can be difficult for a child with SEND and we take steps to ensure that any transition is as smooth as possible.

If your child is joining us from another school:

• The SENDCo will visit pre-schools when possible
• If your child would be helped by a transition book to support them in understanding their move, then one will be made for them
• Your child will be able to visit our school and stay for a taster session if this is appropriate and desired
• The SENDCo may meet with the parent and child in advance of the starting date to discuss needs and set up a transition plan if required. This may also involve inviting outside agencies

If your child is moving to another school: 

• We will contact the school SENDCo and ensure he/she knows about any special arrangements or support that need to be made for your child. Where possible, a planning meeting will take place with the SENDCo, parent and child from the new school
• We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible
• We will help to arrange visits in advance of starting if that is required

When moving classes in school: 

• Information will be passed on to the new class teacher in advance and a planning meeting will take place between the old and the new teacher. My Plans will be shared with the new teacher
• If your child would be helped by a book/leaflet to support them in understanding their move, then one will be made for them
• Your child will where possible, be invited to visit their new classroom and class teacher in advance

In Year 6: 

• The SENDCo will discuss the specific needs of your child with the SENDCo of the child’s Secondary School
• In some cases, a transition review meeting to which you will be invited will take place with the SENDCo from the new school. Your child will also be invited to this
• Your child will participate in focused learning relating to 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 some cases staff from the new school will visit your child in this school
• If your child would be helped by a book to support them in understanding their move, then one will be made for them

Local Authorities and schools are required to publish and keep under review information about services they expect to be available for the children and young people with Special Educational Needs aged 0-25. This is called the ‘Local Offer.’ The intention of the Local Offer is to improve choice and transparency for families. It will also be an important resource for parents in understanding the range of services and provision in the local area.

Parents/carers are encouraged to visit the Devon County Council Local Offer website at www.devon.gov.uk/send.

Parents without internet access should make an appointment with the SENDCO for support to gain the information they require.