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SEND at Red Rose

What SEND Provision looks like at Red Rose Primary School.

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 and 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.

  • Using a range of teaching and learning styles.
  • Differentiated learning materials.
  • Access to ICT and Technology.
  • Additional in class support.
  • Additional out of class support.
  • Flexible groupings – including small group support work.
  • An innovative and supportive curriculum.
  • The appropriate use of school rewards.
  • Mentoring and counseling
  • A range of extra-curricular activities.

At Red Rose Primary School, it is integral to us that all children are able to access and thrive in all of the opportunities that we provide. Therefore, we ensure that we provide a range of support to remove barriers to learning, whether they are short term or longstanding. We strive to provide children with the right help at the right time to enable them to succeed and enjoy school life.

How we adapt the curriculum and learning environment for children & young people with SEN

In order to meet the needs of each individual child, we adapt the curriculum and learning environment for pupils with SEND. This support will be provided in partnership with parents, the child involved where appropriate, and outside agencies working alongside the child. Teachers will make an early identification and can plan and provide extra support as and when needed. Teachers are well skilled at adapting teaching to meet the diverse range of needs and abilities of the pupils in each class, using a range of strategies to develop pupil knowledge, understanding and skills. We review our provision and practice regularly to ensure we make our learning personal.

 

We adapt the curriculum and learning environment for pupils with SEN by:

  • Breaking longer lessons into smaller parts to aid concentration and attention.
  • Using visual resources to aid understanding of new concepts and key words.
  • Providing additional adult support in class to reinforce the key information given by the class teacher.
  • Using home-school diaries to ensure parents know what has been taught and to share positive experiences or difficulties from each day.  Parents can then feedback how their child has been at home.
  • Implementing standardised visual timetables in all classrooms to support children with routines.
  • Providing visual supports such as ‘now and then’ boards or checklists to make tasks more manageable.
  • Using additional resources to overcome difficulties e.g. counting resources to use in Maths lessons, word mats in English etc.
  • Differentiation used via learning materials and questioning in lessons.
  • Providing ICT and Technology access.
  • Working with small groups throughout the day to help children catch-up and reinforce earlier learning.
  • Making the curriculum fun and interesting and utilising a variety of teaching styles e.g. active lessons, outdoor learning
  • Use of rewards to celebrate achievements.
  • Providing breakout spaces and sensory resources to allow pupils to regulate.
  • At Key Stage 2, we can apply to obtain access arrangements as appropriate for the SATs.

How we evaluate the effectiveness of SEN Provision

We continuously ensure 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:

  • Robust evaluation of policy and practice
  • Book scrutinies
  • SENCO/SLT/Governor monitoring
  • Learning walks
  • Performance management
  • SEN Support Plans are reviewed with parents/carers and updated regularly through the year.

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 called Quality First Teaching.

Early Identification of Need

In deciding whether to make special education provision to support educational, social, physical or emotional needs, we:

Use a graduated approach to identify any needs. The first thing we need to do when we feel we have identified a child as having SEN is to work in partnership with our parents to establish the support we feel their child needs here at school.

We will use appropriate screening assessment tools, and ascertain pupil progress through:

  • Evidence obtained by teacher observation/assessment.
  • Working with outside agencies including medical professionals.
  • Assessing the child’s performance in National Curriculum against age related expectations.
  • Monitoring the pupil’s progress in relation to objectives in the National Maths and English Curriculum.
  • Use of standardised screening and assessment tools..

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 take a graduated approach with the steps outlined below:

  • Assess a child’s special educational needs
  • Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes
  • Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes
  • Review the support and progress

As part of this approach every child with SEND will have an individualised SEND 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 the 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.

An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP):  Children who are considered as having significant difficulties may be entitled to apply for an Education, Health and Care Plan. EHCPs are set up by the Local Authority but are monitored by the school, parents/carers and external professionals where appropriate at least annually.  Interim meetings are held with parents on at least two other occasions throughout the year.

An application for an EHCP can be made by the school or by a parent. If a parent wishes to make an application for the Local Authority to consider an EHCP they can be supported in this process by the school or by SENDIASS – the information and support group which exists to support parents and carers of children with SEND. They can be contacted on the Durham SEND Information Advice and Support Service website.

For more detailed information see the Local Offer

Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEN

We identify the needs, initially through Quality First Teaching and then after needs have been identified support is put in place and monitored.:

  • Assessments are made against the four areas of need and if an SEN is identified, parents are informed through a short note.
  • If a need is identified then a short SEN plan will be implemented
  • All assessments are carried out through Quality First Teaching and through any additional support that is given. We then record on in-school tracking system to monitor the progress of the pupil.
  • Parents are informed through regular reviews of short SEN plans.
  • Parents can approach the school and, though ‘playground discussion’ or more formal appointments and raise any concerns. We will deal with any issues as the need arises.

In order to respond to individual needs we ensure:

  • All pupils have access to the appropriate curriculum.
  • Needs are reviewed regularly through the SEN and EHC plans.
  • These reviews are carried out with parents/carers and pupils.
  • Additional support can be through
    • In class support
    • Small groupings
    • 1:1 support at times
    • Outside agencies i.e. sports coaches, movement team.
  • Regular lesson observations and book scrutinies are carried out and SEN is a focus for the observations, to ensure that the provision is meeting the need
  • Where there are particular needs that can cause risk, we would carry out a risk assessment.
  • Through the National Curriculum assessments, we apply for and provide support during the tests for example extra time, or scribe or regular breaks to support the pupils during the tests.

For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.

How children with SEN engage in all activities?

We enable all children to engage fully in all aspects of school life. 

  • 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. Pupils may have different levels of support, as outlined above but they all have equal entitlement to the relevant curriculum.
  • We ensure that all pupils are supported to have access to the school curriculum and all school activities.
  • We ensure that every child has the same entitlement to a sense of achievement.

Support for Emotional & Social Development

Pupils may have emotional and social developmental needs. Within school we have a trained mental health first aider and run various interventions to help children develop coping strategies. In the first instance, each classroom has a daily emotional check-in board that follows the ‘Zones of regulation’ principles. We then respond and support any further issues that may arise through:

  • discussions with staff for initial support
  • discussions with parents/carers to provide the link to their home
  • Intervention from a Community of Learning worker who spends time on various programmes and support for individual need

Sensory Circuit

A sensory circuit is something that helps children to engage effectively with the day ahead by facilitating sensory processing in order to help a child regulate and organise their senses in order to achieve the optimum level of alertness required for effective teaching.

Sensory Circuit – Information for Parents

SEND Support process in Red Rose

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 take a graduated approach with the steps outlined below:

  • Assess a child’s special educational needs
  • Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes
  • Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes
  • Review the support and progress

Quality First Teaching

The Class Teacher is responsible for providing a high quality education for all pupils this is called Quality First Teaching.  This acknowledges that all children are different and that at times resources and work should be differentiated to ensure that all children are included and can achieve.

If teaching staff are concerned that some children are not making the progress that would be expected or if there appear to be barriers to their learning,  the member of staff should bring this to the attention of the SENCO. 

Discussion will take place to decide whether the pupils’ difficulties warrant inclusion on the SEN register or if the child will be monitored for a specified time.  Relevant teaching staff (usually the child’s class teacher) would then discuss this with parents (usually at parent’s evening or sooner, where deemed necessary.)

Monitoring / Short Note

Children who experience difficulties within any of the above areas of need will be monitored carefully and a meeting with parents / carers will be held.  A ‘Short Note’ will be initiated and reviewed at least termly with parents / class teacher. This will be done through an ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ (APDR) approach.

  • Assess: carry out a clear analysis of the pupil’s needs through formal assessments or in class informal observations.
  • Plan: decide the interventions and support to be put in place as well as the expected impact on progress, clear outcomes and a date for review with staff and parents.
  • Do: strategies and interventions will be put in place to meet these outcomes.  The class teacher should remain responsible for working with the child on a daily basis, even where interventions involve group or one-to-one teaching.

Review: evaluate the impact and quality of the support and interventions and listen to the views of the pupil and parents.  Children at this level of support will be listed on a ‘Monitoring Register.’  After a number of APDR cycles, it may be appropriate that children are taken off this level and monitored through Quality First Teaching.  In some cases it may be necessary to increase the level of need to an SEN Support Plan.

SEND Support Plan

Continuing with the ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ approach, staff / parents raise their level of concern to a support plan.  Formal termly meetings take place with parents/carers, class teacher, support staff, SENCO and any relevant external agencies would also be invited.  The plan describes the nature of the difficulties the child may have, provision that school will make and an agreed set of outcomes will be included to meet the needs of the pupil. At this point, it may be necessary for school to seek external agency support, such as an Educational Psychologist, Speech and Language Therapist etc. to offer further advice and support for school. The SENCO is responsible for ensuring outcomes in the plan are addressed and resources are available in order to support the pupil.

Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

Children who are considered as having significant difficulties may be entitled to apply for an Education, Health and Care Plan.  These were formally known as statements.  From September 2014, statements ceased to be issued and EHCPs are issued in their place.   EHCPs are set up by the Local Authority but are monitored by the school, parents/carers and external professionals where appropriate at least annually.  Interim meetings are held with parents on at least two other occasions throughout the year. An application for an EHCP can be made by the school or by a parent. If a parent wishes to make an application for the Local Authority to consider an EHCP they can be supported in this process by the school or by SENDIASS – the information and support group which exists to support parents and carers of children with SEND.

SEN Specialist Expertise

SENCO and SEN Staff

Our SENDCo for Early Years and Key Stage One is Miss Nicholson, and our SENDCo for Key Stage Two is Mr Oliver-Elliott.

They can be contacted in the following ways:

  1. Through our school office on 0191 388 6251.
  2. Via email at redrose@durhamlearning.net.
  3. Through our contact page on this site.

More details of the SENCO’s role can be found in the SEN Policy which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.

 

Key Policies

All of our school policies can be found on the website but the most important ones for parents of children with SEND are listed below:

  • SEND Policy
  • Equality Policy
  • Equality Information and Objectives
  • Accessibility Plan
  • Anti-Bullying Policy
  • Behaviour Policy
  • Medical Needs Policy
  • Teaching and Learning Policy
  • Complaints Policy

If you would like a paper copy (or any other format) of any of our documents on our website please speak to the school office, who will provide them to you free of charge.  If you would like to discuss your SEND requirements in detail please contact the school to arrange an appointment.

SEND Funding

Our Additional Needs Budget is used to support children and young people with SEN.

  • The budget is allocated on a needs basis. The children who have the most complex needs are given targeted support.
  • All children, no matter what their needs are, receive daily Quality First Teaching. At Red Rose, we aim to keep children with SEND part of their whole class therefore support is often given in the form of a Teaching Assistant working alongside the children and teacher. Interventions are carried out throughout the day at times when the children do not miss their whole class teaching.
  • If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.

The budget is monitored through the SEN short support plans and any EHC plans.

This is used to support children and young people with SEND by:

  • Some individual teaching, following dedicated programmes to address specific needs, e.g. reading and spelling difficulties, specialised handwriting resources.
  • Small group focus work to address shared issues, e.g. fine and gross motor skills groups.
  • Extra coaching from a PE coach to work on gross motor skills.
  • Specialist interventions, e.g. Occupational Therapy.
  • Learning Support Assistant support within the classroom, in order for the work to be further differentiated to meet exact needs.
  • Additional resources to enable better access to the curriculum suggested by professionals.
  • Thorough assessments undertaken by Educational Psychologists in order to pinpoint exact areas of difficulty that are then addressed.

If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.

External Specialists and Other Bodies

The school enjoys good working relationships with a wide range of people who provide services to children with SEND and their families.

The external specialists may:

  • Act in an advisory capacity
  • Extend expertise of school staff
  • Provide additional assessment
  • Support a child directly
  • Suggest statutory assessment is advisable
  • Consult with all parties involved with the child