A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.

A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she:

• • Has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or
  • Has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools

SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years; Department for Education; January 2015

SEND needs fall into four broad categories:

Children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) have difficulty in communicating with others. This may be because they have difficulty saying what they want to, understanding what is being said to them or they do not understand or use social rules of communication.

Some children and young people learn at a slower pace than their peers, even with appropriate differentiation. Cognition & Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs, including difficulty in accessing and understanding parts of the curriculum; difficulty with organisation and memory skills; or having a difficulty which affects one particular part of their learning, such as displaying dyslexic, dyscalculic or dyspraxic traits.

Children and young people may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which manifest themselves in many ways. These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour.

Some children and young people have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of the educational facilities generally provided, for example visual and / or hearing impairments, or a physical disability which requires additional ongoing support and equipment to access all the opportunities available to their peers.

The profile for every child with a Special Educational Need is different and their needs may change over time. They may have difficulty with one, some or all of the different categories of SEND at different times of their lives.

The SEND Code of Practice

School staff are trained to meet the needs of all the children at St Oswald’s. If they feel that your child needs extra support they will contact you to talk this through. They recognise that you know your child best and will want to talk through their concerns and how best to support your child. We also recognise and understand that you see your child in a wide range of environments and may have concerns of your own. If you have any concerns your child’s teacher is usually the best person to raise these with.

It is important to remember that many children just need a few simple changes to make a big difference.

If you have any concerns about your child and the progress they are making at school:

• • make an appointment to speak to your child’s class teacher
  • discuss your concerns with the teacher
  • following these discussions, if it is felt that your child would benefit from additional and different support or provision, the teacher may discuss it with the SENDCo before deciding on the best course of action for your child
  • the teacher will meet with you again and discuss a plan for your child and explain how the school will provide additional and different support or provision to help meet your child’s needs
  • school will closely monitor the impact of the plan, review and adjust it at least every term (or earlier if necessary), taking information for this from your child, the class teacher and support staff, assessments and yourself where appropriate
  • school will keep you informed about the additional support your child is receiving, and the impact this is having, by sending you the reviewed and adjusted plans

Following an initial meeting with the class teacher, and where it has been established that your child requires additional support or provision, you can expect St. Oswald’s to put this in place to ensure that your child has the best chance of success.

School will:

Discuss your child’s needs with you
This will usually involve a discussion with the class teacher, although it may also be appropriate for the SENDCo, Family Support Worker and / or Support or other staff to be present at these discussions.

Identify your child’s need and put in place extra support and / or provision
This may be in the form of:

• • small group work around a specific learning need so your child can make rapid progress
  • specialist programme of support around a learning or an emotional need
  • a parallel curriculum developed with specialist support
  • support from outside of school, e.g. Speech and Language Therapy (SALT), Educational Psychologist (EP)
  • a Support Plan with a Target Mat identifying:- the specific need(s) / barrier to learning faced by your child,
    – assessments which have supported the identification of the need,
    – parental and child voice,
    – information provided by external agencies
    – targets,
    – a plan for additional and different support or provision
    – agreed actions of school staff and parents / carers
    – information regarding how and when targets will be assessed

Keep you informed about progress.
This could be through:

• • parents’ consultation meetings
  • specially arranged meetings with the class teacher
  • copies of the Support Plan and / or Target Mat
  • Annual Review meetings for children with an EHCP
  • Early Help Plan meetings
  • annual reports

Ensure staff are trained in general SEND issues.
For example:

• • how to identify children with SEND
  • understanding our legal duties
  • sharing good practice
  • keeping up with relevant educational research
  • having an overview of typical SEND needs and the strategies to support the needs
  • liaise with external agencies to provide specific support / advice / training when necessary

Monitor the impact of support for children with SEND
We keep a register of children who are receiving additional and different support and / or provision. This is known as the SEND Register. This register is reviewed monthly and children are only on this register when they are receiving additional and different support. When the targets have been achieved, and additional support is no longer required, the child will be removed from the register.

Some children will be on the SEND Register only for short periods of time, where children with more complex needs, may be on the register and receiving additional and different support for much of their time at St. Oswald’s.

We are constantly reviewing the type of additional and different support / provision provided in school to ensure that it is having the expected impact. Staff in school are quick to spot when support / provision is ineffective and will adapt and change this as necessary.

On occasion, it is necessary for the school to access further advice and information from external agencies.

We understand and recognise that it can feel very stressful and upsetting when you feel that your child has a complex need which will require them to have additional and different support for a longer period of time, within an educational setting. While the process of diagnosing some medical or physical issues are clear and easy, for example, asthma or diabetes; the process for diagnosing more complex or neurodevelopmental disorders can take much longer.

No-one in school is able to make a diagnosis. What we can do is identify symptoms or barriers your child is experiencing within the school setting. We can put strategies in place to support your child, and help to minimise the impact the symptom or barrier is having on your child’s ability to be a happy and successful learner. We can provide information for you to pass on to medical practitioners to support a diagnosis for your child.

We will put in support regardless of whether your child has a diagnosis. Often a diagnosis does not change the support a child gets in school.

To pursue a medical diagnosis for your child, you will need to discuss your concerns with your GP, or by making a referral yourself to NHS Mindmate. Often, this discussion will lead to a consultation with another member of the medical body, usually a paediatric consultant. School is often consulted and asked for further information to support a diagnosis for complex needs such as ADHD, ASD, Childhood Mental Health Needs etc.. With this is mind, it is useful for you to inform the school, via the class teacher or SENDCo, when you are pursuing a diagnosis so that we are able to gather information for this in a timely manner. Unfortunately, demand for initial assessment, diagnosis and external support for complex needs is very high and waiting times for these are often very long.

EHCP stands for Education, Health and Care Plan. This is a legal document which outlines a child’s Educational, Health and / or Care needs; the provision required to meet these needs and who is responsible for providing this.

Usually, a child with an identified and assessed SEND can have their needs met through additional and different support and / or provision within their classroom. Class Teachers differentiate their provision and curriculum to help all children, including those with SEND, access learning within the classroom. Where a teacher is supporting a child to work towards closely monitored individual targets set out in a Support Plan, this child is placed on to the SEND Register. This is known as SEN Support.

On occasion, it can become apparent that a child or young person requires even more support than the school can currently provide. Once a SEND has been identified and a Support Plan has been in place, this is reviewed, adjusted and new targets are worked towards. This cycle is referred to as – ASSESS, PLAN, DO, REVIEW. If it becomes apparent that, even with additional and different support, a child is not making expected progress then the school can ask the Local Authority to carry out an EHC needs assessment.

An EHCP are provided by the Local Authority for children with very complex and high level additional needs, where it has been proven that they are unable to make progress without significant changes to their educational provision.

If you feel that your child has significant difficulties and will require an EHCP, please discuss this with your class teacher who can arrange a meeting with the SENDCo.

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

We work in partnership with secondary schools to provide an enhanced level of transition for those who we feel would benefit from this. This may take the form of additional visits for pupils.

Transition from each Year Group is supported so that the children have met with their new teachers. Personalised Transition booklets are made for pupils where appropriate to help support children. This contains all relevant and important information about the child to ease transition.

There is close liaison between the SENCO, teachers and Key Stage 3 staff depending on which transition is taking place.

If you would like to discuss your child’s SEND needs further, please contact the school.