Our SEN Provision
- The kinds of SEN that are provided for:
At St Mary Magdalen’s Primary School, we have experience of supporting children and young people with a wide range of need including:
- Speech, Language and Communication needs
- Moderate and Specific Learning difficulties
- Social, Emotional & Mental Health difficulties
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
The school provides data on the levels and types of needs to the Local Authority. This is collected through the school census.
- Our approach to teaching children & young people with SEN:
Inclusive education means supporting all pupils to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of school life alongside their peers. Our curriculum includes, not only the formal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum/ National Curriculum, but also a range of additional opportunities to enrich the experiences of all pupils.
The curriculum also includes the social aspects that are essential for lifelong learning, personal growth and development of independence.
At St Mary Magdalen’s Primary School we:
- Ensure that all children have access to the appropriate Early Years/ national Curriculum and all school activities.
- Ensure that all children are fully included in all activities of the school in order to promote the highest levels of achievement despite any difficulty or disability they may have.
- Ensure that teaching staff are aware of and sensitive to the needs of all children, teaching them in a way that is more appropriate to their needs and assessing each child’s individual progress.
- Support children to gain in confidence and improve their self-esteem through group, paired and individual activities, including social times throughout the day.
- Make additional provision for children with SEND to fully develop their abilities, interests and attitudes and gain maximum access to the curriculum.
- How we adapt the curriculum and learning environment for children & young people with SEN:
We adapt the curriculum and learning environment for pupils with SEN in a number of ways, depending on the nature of each children’s needs. Such strategies include:
- Differentiation of work in class (and homework)
- Additional small group support with a teacher or support staff
- Additional resources e.g) word banks, number squares, use of commercial schemes
- Teaching activities to be adapted to the preferred learning style of the child e.g) practical approach or use of visual cues
- Use of ICT to support learning
- Individual behaviour systems/charts
- Adaptation of Curriculum resources or classroom displays
- Targeted interventions to support specific difficulties
- How we identify, assess and review children with special educational needs:
Most children and young people in mainstream schools will have their special educational needs met through good classroom practice. This is Quality First Teaching.
Early Identification of Need:
In deciding whether to make special education provision to support educational, social, physical or emotional needs, we:
- Work in partnership with parents/carers, pupils
- Ongoing teacher assessment and observation at all ages and abilities
- Progress measured against the Early Learning Goals in the Foundation Stage
- Performance measured against National Curriculum age-related expectations, particularly in English and maths
- Standardised screening or assessment tasks
- Referrals and recommendations from external agencies
SEN Support
Where a pupil is identified as having a special educational need we follow a graduated approach which takes the form of cycles of “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.
This means that we will: use ongoing and termly assessment strategies as listed above to identify individual needs. This is done by staff who know the children, and who work together to identify progress and to identify gaps in learning.
Targets and interventions are planned using a Support Plan and records are kept by the appropriate adults (Teacher or Support Staff). Different children require different levels of support to achieve age related expectations, and we expect that parents/carers would work with us, alongside any other appropriate, external agencies.
These actions are reviewed each term and parents are invited to do this with us. Children’s views are taken into consideration throughout the process and are consulted during targeted time and throughout their interventions. All information is shared with parents/carers at Parent Consultation events, or in meetings with the SENCO.
- Assessa child’s special educational needs
- Planthe provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes
- Doput the provision in place to meet those outcomes
- Reviewthe support and progress
As part of this approach every child with SEN will have an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs. Parents/carers and child/YP (where appropriate) views are integral to this process.
A small percentage of children and young people with significant and/or complex needs may require an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Where the child or young person has not made expected progress despite having provision specific to their needs during at least 2 cycles of Assess, Plan, Do Review, the school or parents may consider requesting an Education, Health and Care needs assessment. An EHC Assessment may not always result in an EHC Plan.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer.
Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEN:
At St Mary Magdalen’s Primary School, we work hard to ensure inclusivity for all children. Quality First Teaching is provided in all classrooms and all children are treated as individuals.
- We talk to parents/carers if we think that a child has a special educational need and let them know what help the school can offer. Miss Gray is our Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO)
- Offer small group support to promote skills identified with the child’s Support Plan.
- Children with SEN are assessed, where appropriate, by the same means as the rest of the school. They are carefully tracked through both internal and external (statutory) data. Where required, some children SEN are assessed and tracked through iASEND.
With permission of parents, we may seek additional advice from outside specialists such as health professionals, specialist teachers or educational psychologists who would:
- Carry out further assessments
- Provide advice to school on how best to support the child
- Suggest resources that would help the child make progress.
Our staff work in partnership with parents and the SENCO to find ways to support each child with their needs.
How children with SEN engage in all activities?
We enable all children to engage fully in all aspects of school life. To do this, we:
- Ensure that all children with SEND are fully included in all activities of the school in order to promote the highest levels of achievement.
- Ensure that all pupils have access to the school curriculum and all school activities
- Ensure every child has the entitlement to a sense of achievement.
How we evaluate the effectiveness of SEN Provision
We continuously ensure that the provision has a positive impact on the outcomes for all of our children/young people. We do this in a variety of ways, including:
- Book scrutinies
- SENCO/SLT/Governor meetings
- Learning Walks
- Robust evaluation of policy and practice.
- Pupil voice
- SEN Support Plan Reviews
Disability & Accessibility
We are committed to providing a fully accessible environment which values and includes all pupils, staff, parents and visitors regardless of their educational, physical, sensory, social, spiritual and emotional needs. We are committed to challenging negative attitudes about disability and accessibility and to developing a culture of awareness, tolerance and inclusion.
What we do to prevent pupils with disabilities from being treated less favourably:
At St Mary Magdalen’s Primary School we are committed to establishing equality for all pupils, their parents, staff and other uses of the school. This is reflected in our school aims, which state that we aim:
- To provide a safe, secure, stimulating and supportive environment where each child is valued.
- To promote children’s self-confidence as learners and to help each mature socially and emotionally.
- To secure an inclusive learning environment and to support individual pupils with special educational needs and / or disabilities.
The facilities to assist access are outlined in our Accessibility Plan which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.
Our Accessibility Plan form part of the school’s Disability Equality Scheme and is a statutory duty. It sets out how the local governing body plans to proactively improve the equality of opportunity for those within its school community who have a disability. The duty is to anticipate and plan for their future needs.
In accordance with the Disability Discrimination Act the plan focuses on three ‘key areas:’
- Increasing the extent ot which disabled pupils can participate in the school curriculum;
- Improving the environment of the school to increase the extent to which disabled pupils can take advantage of education and associated services
- Improving the delivery of information to disabled pupils (and their families) which is provided in writing for pupils who are not disabled.
