Schools Extended Local Offer Response

How does the setting/school/college know if children/young people need extra help and what should I do if I think my child/young person may have special educational needs?

• Speech and Language support services
• Educational Psychologist
• Occupational Therapy
• Service for Ethnic Minority Achievement (SEMA)
• Autistic Spectrum Disorders support service
• Education Welfare Officer
• Social Services multi-agency working
• CAF professionals
• ECC (Every Child Counts)
• ECAR (Every Child a Reader)
• FFT (Fischer Family Trust Reading Intervention)
• BRP (Better Reading Partners)
• AAC (Additional & Augmentative Communication)
• 1^st Class & 2^nd Class @ Number
• Hearing Impairment support services

How will early years setting/school/college staff support my child/young person?

Our staff have undergone training in a number of supportive strategies and approaches to enable them to support a range of learners within their classroom. Our training is sourced from a range of local authority specialist teachers as well as independent trainers and in-house training. We aim to ensure that we continue to develop expertise according to the needs of the children in our school.

All teaching and support staff have had training for supporting SEN children with numeracy and literacy difficulties, including dyslexia. Some staff and support staff have had specific training for supporting children with speech and language concerns, social skills, gross and fine motor skills, as well as autism and attachment issues.

All relevant staff have received training in the use of Epi-pens and specified members of staff are first aid trained.

How will the curriculum be matched to my child's/young person's needs?

Any children needing additional help are highlighted during the transition from Key Stage 1 to Key stage 2 by the Infant School Senco as well as any information provided by parents.

We use a range of formal and informal assessment methods to ensure that every pupil is making progress in their learning. Those children who may need extra help during their time at our school are usually identified by class teachers and parents. Regular meetings between school and home are very important to each child’s progress.

How will both you and I know how my child/young person is doing and how will you help me to support my child's/young person's learning?

If you think that your child may need extra help in school, the first port of call would be the class teacher. There are two parents’ evenings per year (the first in Autumn term and the second in Spring term) but if you have concerns that you feel need to be addressed before then, you would telephone the school to make an appointment to speak with your child’s class teacher.

The class teacher, working with you, may choose to pass any concerns onto the school Senco (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator).

What support will there be for my child's/young person's overall well being?

There are a range of ways in which we, as a school, can support your child. Once your (or the class teacher’s) concerns have been passed on to the Senco, there are a number of assessments that we can use in school to help us identify the area(s) that your child is finding most challenging. Once identified, these difficulties can be supported in class through small group support, visual prompts and a range of teaching techniques and styles. If these strategies are not sufficient in supporting your child then we may, with your permission, choose to involve external agencies. This may be an advisory teacher, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist or educational psychologist. As a team, the outside agency, school and yourselves, would do all we can to support your child in their learning.

What specialist services and expertise are avaliable at or accessed by the setting/school/college?

The curriculum can be adapted to suit most learning styles and difficulties. Activities can be oral, physical or ICT based in order to include all our children at their working level. Many activities can be simplified to allow every learner to access the topic.

Maths is streamlined (taught in ability sets) in every year group in school to ensure that all pupils can make progress at their own level. English is mixed in years 3 and 4 but streamlined in years 5 and 6 in preparation for the Key Stage 2 exams.

What training have the staff supporting children and young people with SEND had? Are any being trained currently?

The staff have been trained in a variety of strategies and approaches to use in their everyday teaching and they will employ those, as necessary, to support each individual child.

How will my child/young person be included in activities outside this classroom including school trips?

In school we use a range of assessment techniques from observation, regular and consistent marking of children’s work, homework activities, and formal testing. These assessments are used to provide an all-round view of your child’s progress. This will be fed to you, as a parent, in the two parents’ evenings, as well as the mid-year and end of year report.

How accessible is the setting/school/college enviroment?

If there are resources that would help your child at home, we will do what we can to support you in finding those resources or, if we can, providing them for you to use (e.g. visual prompts/routines, precision teaching activities).

There are also parents’ days where you will be invited into to school to work alongside your child during a Maths or English lesson so that you can see how skills are taught in school and how you can support your child at home.

How will the setting/school/college prepare and support my child/young person to join the setting/school/college or the next stage of education and life?

We pride ourselves on our zero tolerance approach to any form of bullying; physical, emotional, verbal or online. We conduct several assemblies along this theme as a reminder to pupils throughout the year. Any pupils that are considered to be vulnerable are highlighted to the appropriate staff members to ensure that they are well supported.

We have an Emotional Well-being Officer in school who can address any issues that arise for individual children or groups of children finding social skills development challenging.

How are the setting's/school's/college's resources allocated and matched to children's/young people's special educational needs?

There are a wide range of school trips planned during the year to correspond with topics covered in various year groups. These trips can be local area visits or trips further afield.

There are a variety of after school clubs that run throughout the year, some are sports activities while others are team building or academic in design. We have sports teams in school as well as two very successful chess teams.

How is the decision made about what type and how much support my child/young person will receive?

All children have tiered transitions both on entry from Key Stage 1 and on exit to Key Stage 3. Any individual pupils with unique needs; emotional, physical or academic, will be given a personalised structured transition that may include; visits to the new educational environment, a transition booklet containing photos of the child and the new classroom and staff.

How are parents involved in the setting/school/college? How can I be involved?

There are many learning resources available in school and our staff have many decades of experience in matching those resources to individual children’s needs. As described in a previous section, we may decide that, in order to support your child, it is advisable to involve outside agencies and they may allocate individual resources or equipment to support your child while they are in school.