Inclusion and SEND at Sandhill Primary
Please find below relevant information and policies that relate to SEND at Sandhill Primary
Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) School Policy and Offer.
Sandhill Primary School is an inclusive school and believe that all children should be valued and treated with respect. The school uses its best endeavours to ensure that the provision for ALL its pupils is of the highest standard, whilst acknowledging that we are continually striving to improve our practice.
Every student at Sandhill Primary School has the opportunity to follow all National Curriculum subjects. We are committed to ensuring that there is equality of opportunity for all pupils.
The school’s acting Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator is Mrs Claire McDonald
The school offer forms part of Barnsley Local Authority’s Local Offer which can be found at:
https://www.barnsley.gov.uk/services/children-families-and-education/children-with-special-educational-needs-and-disabilities-send/send-local-offer/
What is a special educational need?
'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 them. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they:
(a) have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age; or
(b) have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post -16 institutions.
A child under compulsory school age has special educational needs if they fall within the definition at (a) or (b) above or would do so if special educational provision was not made for them (Clause 20 Children and Families Act)'
Code of practice:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25
What is a disability?
The Equality Act 2010 states that a person has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
A physical or mental impairment includes: learning difficulties including specific learning difficulties; medical conditions including epilepsy, diabetes, more severe forms of asthma and eczema; autism; speech, language and communication impairments.
If the impairment has a substantial and long-term effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities it may amount to a disability.
What should I do if I think my child has special needs or a disability?
If you feel that your child may have SEND, then you should ask to speak to your child's class teacher in the first instance. Your child's class teacher may also feel that it would be helpful to have the SENCO attend the meeting. The school closely monitors all of its children with special needs and at the meeting we may feel that we do need to put in place some strategies and interventions to try and remove your child's barriers to learning.
For many children, simple changes to the way that the curriculum is delivered can make a significant impact on removing the barriers to their learning and with these changes in place they are able to catch up with their peers and make expected levels of progress. In school we call this 'differentiating the curriculum'.
For some children, this may not be enough to help them make adequate progress and they may need something which is 'additional to and different from' that which is normally provided for all children. If a child requires this type of support the school will monitor them according to the SEND Code of Practice. This could mean that the class teacher may be using different strategies to help your child to learn, or perhaps your child will be receiving some additional support in a small group alongside other children with similar needs. At this point a child would be given a School Focused Plan. Targets will be given to your child which are needed for them to achieve. These are monitored, evaluated and discussed with you.
Often this level of support in addition to the classroom curriculum differentiation is sufficient to mean that your child no longer has barriers to their learning and they start to make progress. However, for some children this may not be enough and the school, with your agreement, will make the decision to increase the level of support provided. This simply means that the academy have decided to involve some external professionals or agencies to provide them with more specialist advice and guidance in order to support them to remove the barriers to your child's learning. This external support might be from an:
- Educational Psychologist
- Speech and Language Therapist
- Occupational / Physiotherapist
- Communication and Interaction Team
- Learning and Cognition Team
- A medical professional, including CAMHS (Child and adolescent mental health service).
- Hearing Impairment Service
As more people become involved in helping the school to meet your child's needs, the SENCO may talk to you about holding a Early Help Assessment (EHA) meeting. Once established, the EHA will help the school to organise Team Around the Child Meetings where everyone involved (including yourself) can sit down together and discuss the best way forward to help the school help your child to make progress.
Only a very small percentage of children require support of an additional nature beyond this. If this is the case, then the SENCO may discuss with you the possibility of asking the Local Authority to undertake a statutory assessment of your child's needs. If this is considered appropriate, then the school will collect together all your child's information and evidence of all the carefully evaluated additional strategies and interventions that have been put place and with your permission send it off to the Local Authority for them to consider the information at a panel meeting and make a decision whether or not to carry out a statutory assessment of your child's needs. This would then result in your child having a EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan).
What can I expect the school to be do in order to meet my child's special educational needs?
'Quality First Teaching' is an entitlement for all children and Sandhill Primary School are constantly striving to ensure that this is of a 'good' or 'outstanding' quality at all times in school. This is the classroom teaching that your child receives on a daily basis from the class teacher. Lessons are carefully differentiated to take account of different learning styles and abilities. In addition, the school staff receive training to gain knowledge and skills from other agencies for Speech, Language and Communication needs, Attachment, Behaviour and Autism, which enhance their daily teaching practice in order to make the classroom environment and the delivery of the curriculum more accessible for children with needs. Teaching and learning is carefully targeted to meet individual need. This is called personalised learning.
Where appropriate, children may have access to additional small group activities for short periods of time alongside other children with similar needs. This may be to undertake work on particular intervention programmes or simply as a means of facilitating opportunities to re-visit skills, or knowledge where they may need addition practice or over-learning. The work carried out in small groups is carefully overseen by the class teacher or SENCo who is responsible for monitoring the child's progress and targeting the support carefully.
Some children may require interventions of a 1:1 nature for very short periods of time. Again these are overseen by the class teacher and progress is carefully monitored.
How does the school environment meet the needs of children with SEND?
As a modern school, Sandhill Primary is fully compliant with building regulations in terms of disability access. The school building is all on one level with wide corridors.
Visual timetables can be found in all classrooms and the school has taken steps to ensure that provision is in place in all classes for children who may have specific learning difficulties-these include access to resources such as coloured backgrounds on interactive whiteboards. A number of school staff are trained in Makaton and this is used as appropriate to support the communication of children as required.
The school accesses continued support from outside professionals to ensure that the provision for children with physical difficulties, hearing impairment, visual impairment, behavioural difficulties and general learning needs is effective and meets their needs, ensuring all of the children are treated equally.
How will my child's learning needs be assessed and their progress monitored?
The school has a rigorous programme for assessing children's learning. Some assessment takes place at the end of specific pieces of work to inform teacher's planning of the children's next steps in learning. Also, on-going assessments take place on a regular basis to ensure that the opportunities presented to children are appropriate to meet need and aid their learning and development.
The school sets aspirational targets for all its children including those with special educational needs. Individual targets are shared with children so that they are aware of what they need to learn next. Children with special educational needs who have a Support Plan are aware of their learning targets and are engaged in the discussions relating to how much progress they feel they have made. Parents are invited to discuss their Support Plan and their contribution to the setting of new targets are welcomed. Once a new Support Plan has been written the School will carefully monitor the progress being made. If it is felt that the targets are inappropriate for any reason then the school will discuss more appropriate targets with parents at the earliest opportunity rather than waiting for an inappropriate Support Plan to run its full course.
How effective is the School's provision for children with special educational needs?
The school has a robust policy for special educational needs. The policy is implemented by all members of staff and its effectiveness is monitored and evaluated by the Governing Body on an annual basis. The SENCO meets with the SEN Governor regularly, enabling up to date general information on the progress of children with SEN and the provision made for them to be shared with the whole governing body.
We have an excellent Parent Support Adviser (PSA), who liaises with the SENCo on a regular basis. They work alongside the support staff, supporting the emotional and social development of the children and work closely with parents and the community. Additionally, other agencies such as the Educational Psychologist support this. This is provided through a range of strategies such as: Lego Group, Social stories, Socially Speaking and our school council representatives.
How does transition work?
Transitional procedures begin early. All children take part in a transitional period when moving to a new class. Children with more complex needs are given more time to adjust to a new class. Children are introduced to key adults and the environment earlier than the non-SEND children. We have close links with our secondary colleagues; the secondary SENCOs are invited to all meetings within year 6. Pupils with additional needs are introduced to the secondary setting at a much earlier time.
What Interventions are available at Sandhill?
The school has access to a wide range of interventions and resources to support children with varying needs. These resources and interventions include, but are not limited to:
- ELSA
- Books Beyond Words
- WellComm
- Socially Speaking
- Lego Therapy
- Social Stories
- Individualised/Group self-esteem and anger management programs
- Additional Reading, Writing or Maths sessions
- Now and Then boards
- Music interaction
- Visual Prompts/timetables/ feeling Board
- Speech Programs
- Elklan
- Makaton
- Small interaction groups which are modelled
- Read Write Inc.
- Booster Sessions
- Numicon
- Sensory breaks
- Visual timetables
What support do we have for parents?
Within our setting, we have a wide range of staff to support our families. You can always book an appointment with your child's class teacher. At the School, we have a family support advisor, Olivia Stoppard, who runs our EHA (Early Help Assessments) and offers any advice or guidance to support parents. We can offer guidance on finance, housing, substance misuse, domestic abuse, parenting (intense family intervention support), health and school admissions to feeder schools.
Within school, we are able to signpost parents to a range of courses such as Solihill which supports parents with their children at home in their emotional and behavioural needs.
What is a EHA?
A EHA is a Early Help Assessment , it begins with a gathering of information, once established, the EHA will help the school to organise meetings which includes everyone involved considering the best way in which your child can be supported. For the majority of children, actions taken using this graduated approach often means that the child begins to make adequate or expected levels of progress. If this is the case, the school may decide that your child no longer needs additional support because they are making the appropriate progress.
How will we support your child when they are leaving this school? OR moving on to another class?
We recognise that transitions can be difficult for a child with SEND and take steps to ensure that any transition is a smooth as possible.
If your child is moving to another school:
We will contact the school SENCo and ensure he/she knows about any special arrangements or support that needs to be made for your child. We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible.
When moving classes in school:
Information will be passed on to the new class teacher in advance. All Support Plans will be shared with the new teacher. If your child would be helped by a transition book to support them understand moving on, then it will be made for them.
In Year 6:
The SENCo will meet with the relevant receiving secondary teachers to discuss the specific needs of your child, records will be transferred prior to your child starting. Your child will do focused learning about aspects of transition to support their understanding of the changes ahead. Wherever possible your child will make additional visits to their new school to help familiarise them with the setting and the staff.