Special Educational Needs and Disability
The changes in the Children and Families Bill affect the way children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are supported in schools. The new approach began in September 2014 and places pupils at the centre of planning. The key principles of the new legislation are:
Young people and their families should be involved in discussions about the support they need, so they can share their knowledge and feed back to the school on the young person’s progress.
Education, health and care plans (EHC) will replace statements of special educational needs. New assessments for additional educational needs will follow the EHC guidelines from September 2014.
School Action and School Action Plus will cease and be replaced by a single school-based category for children who need extra specialist support.
Holy Trinity CE Primary School has fully adopted these changes and looks forward to working with pupils and parents/carers to ensure fully inclusive access to our education.
The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) is Mrs. F. Fargher who manages and co-ordinates all aspects of children who have Special Educational Needs and/or Disability(SEND). She can be contacted on the school number: 01344 620716 or the school website:Holytrinitysunn@rbwm.gov.uk
The SENCo works closely with school governors, parents/carers, the Headteacher, class teachers and teaching assistants (TAs). Her role is to:
oversee the assessment of the needs of children with SEND
plan with parents/carers and staff appropriate support and interventions to support children's needs
liaise with a range of external professionals and outside agencies to ensure that the advice and planned strategies recommended by professionals are implemented and reviewed
signpost parents to agencies and professionals so they can access support for the child and family as appropriate
We are fortunate to have a team of highly skilled TAs in the school to support our children. We have trained paediatric first aiders on site at all times, and staff who are trained to deliver appropriate medical care for those with:
diabetes
asthma
severe allergies
Within the team, staff have specific skills in:
speech and language delivery, including ELKLAN trained staff
precision monitoring to support those with literacy needs
benchmarking for reading comprehension assessment
We also have a highly successful ELSA programme in place, for those children who are in need of emotional support. Our ELSA works with our SENCo to deliver appropriate support using a range of strategies, including art therapy, according to need.
General Information
At Holy Trinity CE Primary School we recognise that all children are entitled to a quality of provision that will enable them to achieve their full potential. We believe in positive intervention, removing barriers to learning, raising expectations and levels of achievement and working in partnership with other agencies in order to provide a positive educational experience for all our pupils including those with a special educational need or a disability.
Our school recognises there are particular groups of pupils whose circumstances require additional consideration to achieve their full potential and staff will endeavour to support where possible.
At Holy Trinity CE Primary School we have appointed a Governor and Designated Teacher to work closely with the SENCO to ensure all teachers in school understand the implications for those children who are looked after and have SEND.
At Holy Trinity CE Primary School we ensure that all pupils, regardless of their specific needs, make the best possible progress.
There are four broad areas of SEND, these are:
Communication and Interaction
This area of need includes children with Autism and those with Speech, Language and Communication Needs.
Cognition and Learning
This includes children with Specific Learning Difficulties, Moderate Learning Difficulties, Severe Learning Difficulties and Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties
Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties
This includes any pupils who have an emotional, social or mental health need that is impacting on their ability to learn.
Sensory and/or Physical Difficulties
This area includes children with hearing impairment, visual impairment, multi-sensory impairment and physical difficulties.
Holy Trinity CE Primary School is a mainstream inclusive school. We hold a shared expectation that all pupils, regardless of their specific needs, should be offered inclusive teaching which will enable them to make the best possible progress in school and feel that they are a valued member of the wider school community.
We offer a range of provision within a mainstream class to support children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. The range of support deployed will be tailored to individual need following thorough assessment by internal or external agencies. It will be designed to support pupils towards becoming independent and resilient learners and should not be seen in isolation.
What is a Local Offer?
From September 2014 Local Authorities (LA) and schools are required to publish and keep under review information about services they expect to be available for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) aged 0-25. This is called the 'Local Offer'.
The intention of the Local Offer is to improve choice for families and will also be an important resource for parents in understanding the range of services and provision in the local area.
The Local Offer enables families to see which services are available across education, health, social care, leisure, short breaks, transport and preparing for adulthood and how to access them. You can access the Local Offer at www.rbwm.gov.uk/localoffer