SEND Provisions

As an inclusive school, special educational needs and provisions can be considered under four broad areas:

• Communication and interaction
• Cognition and learning
• Social, mental and emotional health
• Sensory and/or physical

The best person to talk to if you have a concern about your child is their class teacher, who will be able to discuss with you the best way forward to help and support your child.

Mrs Othen, the inclusion lead , is also available to talk to. She is responsible for co-ordinating all the support for children with special educational needs.

If you are still concerned that your child’s needs are not being met then you should speak to Mrs Docherty ( Head Teacher)

If you continue to have concerns then you should speak to Mrs Vickers (SEN governor). School can help you to contact her.

At Church Road School, children are identified as having SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) through a variety of ways, usually a combination, which may include some of the following:

• Liaison with previous school or preschool setting
• Child performing below “age-related expectations” ( English and maths records and assessments, Church Road Tracking system)
• Classroom and playground observations
• Concerns raised by a parent, carer, education social worker
• Concerns raised by a teacher: e.g if behaviour or self-esteem is affecting performance
• Liaison with external agencies e.g. for a physical /sensory issue, speech and language
• Use of tools for standardised assessment such as DST (dyslexia screening test)
• Children with a statement or EHCP (Education Health Care Plan) already have many of their needs identified.

It is important that barriers to learning, pupil participation and emotional and social well-being are identified quickly.

Bolton’s SEND handbook has further information about our local offer.

https://www.bolton.gov.uk/sendlocaloffer/sen-support

We are an inclusive school. Wherever possible, children are taught alongside their peers in flexible teaching groups.

Class teachers via outstanding targeted classroom teaching also known as quality first teaching.

*Ensuring that the teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and pupils in their class.
*Ensuring that all teaching is based on building what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
*Putting in place different ways of teaching so that your child is fully involved in learning in class. This may involve things like using more practical learning etc.
*Putting in place specific strategies (which may be suggested by the Inclusion Lead or outside staff) to support your child to learn.

Specific group work with a smaller group of children. This group may be:
*Run in the classroom or outside. 
*Run by a member of staff who has had the training to run these groups.

Your child’s teacher will have carefully checked on your child’s progress and will have decided that your child has gaps in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to help them make the best possible progress. She/he will plan group sessions for your child with areas of development identified to help your child make more progress. A learning support assistant/teacher or outside professional will run these small group sessions using the teacher’s plan.

Specialist groups run by outside agencies e.g. Speech and Language therapy and/or individual support

Your child will have been identified by the class teacher/Inclusion Lead (or you will have raised your worries) as needing more specialist input instead of or in addition to excellent classroom 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 your permission for the school to refer your child to a specialist professional e.g. 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 include their specific expertise
-A group run by school staff under the guidance of the outside professional e.g. social skills group etc.
A group or individual work with outside professional school may suggest that your child needs some agreed individual support in school. They will tell you how the support will be used and what strategies will be put in place.

The school (or you) can request that the Local Authority carry out a statutory assessment of your child’s needs. This is a legal process and you can find more detail about this in the Local Offer. After the school has sent in the request to the Local Authority (with a lot of information about your child, including some from you), they will decide whether they think your child’s needs (as described in the paperwork provided), seem complex enough to need a statutory assessment. If this is the case they will ask you and all the professionals involved with your child to write a report outlining your child’s needs. If they do not think your child needs this, they will ask the school to continue with the support already in place. After the reports have all been sent in, the Local Authority will decide if your child’s needs are severe, complex and lifelong and that they need more than 20 hours of support in school to make good progress. If this is the case they will write an Educational Health Plan. If this is not the case, they will ask the school to continue with the support and also set up a meeting in school to ensure a plan is in place to ensure your child makes as much progress as possible.

Through Quality First Teaching, we ensure that the curriculum and all teaching sequences are differentiated to meet the individual needs of all children.

At Church Road we pride ourselves on the many adaptive teaching techniques we employ so that every child can access the curriculum at a level appropriate to their specific needs and so all children make accelerated progress with their learning.

Your child’s progress is continually monitored by his/her teacher, subject leaders, Inclusion Lead and SLT. His/her progress is reviewed formally every term, sometimes using a standardised test which gives a score which can be interpreted at age expectation. Currently, if your child is not meeting age-related expectations then we may use assessments from lower year groups which can be broken down into small steps so we can monitor progress made and use this information to help plan the next steps in their learning.

The progress of children with an EHC plan is formally reviewed at a Person Centred Review with all adults involved in your child’s education. The class teacher will also check that your child is making good progress within any individual work and in any group that they take part in.

All children are included in all parts of the school curriculum and we aim for all children to be included on school trips. We will provide the necessary support to ensure that this is successful and may discuss this in advance with parents. It might be appropriate for a parent or carer to accompany a child on a school trip, depending upon the child’s individual needs.

A risk assessment is carried out prior to any off-site activity to ensure everyone’s health and safety will not be compromised. In the unlikely event that it is considered unsafe for a child to take part in an activity, then alternative activities that cover the same curriculum areas will be provided within the school environment wherever possible.

A variety of clubs are provided either before or after school, or during lunchtime. We aim for these to be as inclusive as possible and may provide additional staff or sessions in order to achieve this. Some children find the lunchtime period challenging, depending upon their needs it may not be appropriate for them to spend long periods of time outside so they may attend the school’s Lunch Club.

In addition to the twice-yearly parents evenings when you will be able to discuss your child’s progress with their class teacher, the school will set up extra meetings if you or the class teacher has raised a concern about your child. This meeting will enable :

• School to listen to any concerns you may have too
• To plan any additional support your child may receive
• To discuss with you any referrals to outside professionals to support your child’s learning
• To guide you through the Early Help Process

If your child is already on the SEN register in school and has an IPM (Individual Provision Map) then you will be invited into school at least 3 times per year to discuss with the class teacher and your child, progress made and the new targets to be worked upon. Parents of those children with a statement or EHC plan will be invited to a person-centred review to evaluate the plan and decide upon the next areas to focus on. Your child will be involved in some or all of this meeting too.

An appointment can be made with the Inclusion Lead to discuss support in more detail if required.

As part of our approach to teaching and learning for all pupils, we discuss with our children their progress and attainment via verbal feedback and writing comments in their books. Children can be involved in the IPM meetings with their parents and class teacher and are an essential part of the person centred review process when reviewing a statement or EHC plan.

As a school, we track and analyse the children’s progress against the schools’ own tracking system on a termly basis.

Meetings are held each term between each class teacher and the SENCO. In these meetings, a discussion takes place concerning children who are not making expected progress and possible actions and provisions are considered.

• The school ensures that any child’s SEN is identified early.
• The school exploits “best practice”.
• We take account of the views of the parents and the child..
• There is cooperation between agencies and feedback is positive.

The Inclusion Lead is accountable to the SEN governor via termly meetings and reports

We aim to ensure all staff have the understanding they need to enable them to support your child.

The senior leadership team are constantly monitoring needs within school and where an area of concern is highlighted, whole school training could be organised to ensure all staff understand specific learning difficulties and appropriate teaching or support strategies that could be used.

Recent training includes:

NASENCo – J Green

Signalong – V Barbiero, L Sadikeen, G Rawlinson

ASD training – L Sadikeen, G Rawlinson

Diabetes training – L Sadikeen, G Rawlison, V Barbiero

Emotion Coaching – All staff

Colourful Semantics – V Barbiero and L Sadikeen

Emotional regulation intervention training – V Barbiero and L Sadikeen

Asthma training – All staff

Emotion Coaching, Trauma Informed, attend sessions linked to the IQM – K Othen

We work with the following agencies to provide support for children with SEND:

-Woodbridge SEND Service

-Visual and Hearing Impairment Team (Thomasson Memorial)

-Speech and Language Therapy

-Educational Psychologist

-CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services)

-Occupational Therapy

-School Nursing Team

-Children’s Services

-Physiotherapy

-Ithrive

-Bolton Lads and Girls Club

-Fort Alice

-COG (Children’s Opportunity Group)

-ACIS (Achievement, Cohesion and Integration Service)

The school budget, received from Bolton LA, includes money for supporting children with SEN.

The Head Teacher decides on the budget for Special Educational Needs in consultation with school governors, on the basis of needs in the school.

The Head Teacher and the Inclusion Lead discuss all the information they have about SEN in the school, including:

The children getting extra support already

The children needing extra support

The children who have been identified as not making as much progress as would be expected.

They decide what resources/training and support is needed. All resources/training and support are reviewed regularly and changes made as needed.

We recognise that “moving on” can be difficult for a child with SEN and take steps to ensure that any transition is a smooth as possible.

Nursery to Reception:

For children starting in reception the Head Teacher holds a meeting for parents, in addition to visits during the second half of the Summer Term.

End of year transition:

Information about your child will be shared with their new teachers.

All children take part in some transition work with their class teacher, visiting their new classroom and teacher, in reception and year 1 children take part in play dates, where small groups visit their new classroom, allowing the existing class to show them around the room.

If your child would be helped by a personalised plan for moving to another year, we will put this in place possibly involving Mr Mills or a classroom assistant.

Secondary Transition:

We will contact the school SENCO and ensure he/she knows about any special arrangements or support that need to be made for your child.

We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible

Many secondary schools run programmes specifically tailored to aid transition for the more vulnerable pupils at the end of the primary stage of education.

Church Road School will identify children that require extra transition visits to their new secondary school, which will be facilitated by our Learning Mentor.

It is expected that any complaint a parent has about Special Educational Needs can be resolved by talking to the class teacher.

Should this not be the case then Mrs Othen, the Inclusion Lead and or the Head Teacher, Mrs Docherty, would become involved.

We are an inclusive school that holds a child’s social and emotional development as a priority.

The class teacher has overall responsibility for the pastoral, medical and social care of every child in their class.

All children take part in PSHE ( Personal, Social, Health Education) lessons run by the class teacher.

In addition, the school has a Learning Mentor; Mr Mills. The Learning Mentor works with children who are identified by their class teacher as having a particular emotional need. This support may be in class, in group sessions out of class or in one to one sessions. The aim is to give the children strategies and ways of coping in situations they may otherwise struggle with. The support from the Learning Mentor is given for a term and then reviewed with the Learning Mentor, child and class teacher all contributing to the evaluation of the sessions. Mrs Othen oversees the running and effectiveness of these groups. You will be informed if your child has been selected to take part in one of these groups.

Mr Mills is happy to talk to any parent or carer that has concerns over their child’s emotional well-being, please contact the school.