If any pupil in our school has a barrier to learning, we will make sure that there are the best opportunities for them to take part in every aspect of school life.

Barriers to learning include:

• Communication and Interaction needs (i.e. speech and language difficulties, autism)

• General learning difficulties, both moderate and severe (i.e. dyslexia, dyscalculia, global developmental delay)

• Social, emotional and mental health difficulties (i.e. ADHD, attachment disorder)

• Problems with sight or hearing or other physical disabilities (i.e. Downs Syndrome)

 

Alternatively, your child may have a different less common disability or medical condition that causes a barrier to learning.

Where a need is already identified, we will aim to gather information from you, the parents/carers, other professionals and previous settings before a child starts their time with us. We regularly review progress, talk to parents/carers and children and make observations on how your child is doing in class. These all help us to see any difficulties your child might have and would generally lead to informal chats with all involved staff first before a more formal process is started where needed.

As a school, we utilise with the local authorities process for identifying needs. This comes in the form of the Routes to Inclusion (R2i) assessment which highlights potential needs in a wide variety of areas. Using the outcomes of this assessment, the SEND team can either provide in school support or seek the guidance from external agencies. 

More details can be found in the school SEND policy, Identification and Assessment of SEND

Within the whole class:

The class teacher is the first, most important person in making sure each pupil has the right levels of work and support. Careful checking of progress leads to different approaches, supported work, and use of practical equipment where needed.

This universal provision of quality first teaching is available to all children in school as a part of excellent classroom practice.

Within a smaller group

We want all our children to learn how to be independent learners, but sometimes the teacher will find a gap in learning that needs some extra teaching in a small group in or outside the classroom. This will be with a Teaching Assistant or the teacher.

Sometimes, a pupil’s needs means that we need to provide a Teaching Assistant more often to help them to access what is happening in school. If a pupil requires significant 1:1 support, additional funding will be applied for from the Local Authority (HLN funding). Whilst we make every attempt to seek appropriate funding from the Local Authority, this is incredibly difficult to achieve. 

Support from outside school

In some cases, we need to work with professionals from outside the school. These may be from the Local Authority or from Health services. We would always talk to you first to gain consent before talking to any of these professionals.

More details can be found in the school SEND policy, Identification and Assessment of SEND

 

What if your child has a more complex long term need or disability?

For a very small number of children, assessment and provision may be provided through an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). The following steps will lead to this:

• The school or the parent asks the Local Authority to consider whether it is necessary to formally assess your child’s needs

• Information is gathered by the Local Authority from parents/carers, school and any other agencies involved

• A decision is made by the Local Authority about whether an EHCP is needed or not

• Either an EHCP is written with support and long or short-term targets agreed or the Local Authority decide that the support already provided by school is sufficient to meet the needs of your child

 

How do we know if we are doing the best we can for your child?

• We review and track your child’s progress regularly

• We implement quality first teaching strategies for all children

• We talk to you and your child and listen to your views

• We take advice from and work with any professionals involved

We want each child to make progress socially, emotionally and academically. We will always talk to parents/carers and children if extra activities or interventions are needed in the long term. This may lead to giving some extra 1:1 support or group work provided through one of the following possibilities:

• SEND / Orchard provision
• ELSA - Emotional Literacy Support Assistants
• Social Stories
• Play Therapists
• Mental Health and Well-being support
• Interventions such as 'Precision Teaching', R2i and Lightning Squad

More details about the interventions we offer at school can be found on our school website – ‘School’- ‘SEND Offer’

As parents/carers know their child best, we want you to share any information and concerns you may have with us.

Class Teacher

The first person to chat to is your child’s class teacher, as they are responsible for day-to-day provision and for making sure that the school’s SEND policy is being followed in their classroom.

SENCO

Sometimes the class teacher will want to take your concerns to the school’s SEND Coordinator. This is currently Hannah Nix as part of the SEND team with Trudi McWilliams.

The SENCO is responsible for making sure that your child’s special educational needs are met, and that you are involved in supporting your child’s learning and in reviewing progress on a termly basis. Contact with the SENCO can be made through the school office.

Headteacher If your child has a specific learning or physical disability and you would like your child to come to our school, the best person to talk to initially is the Head Teacher. The Head Teacher will work with you to make sure that we can meet your child’s needs.

Within our family of schools, SENCOs meet once each term to discuss our training needs. The Family SENCO organises training events across the schools, either in-house or using external providers.

The SENCO supports all staff within school and will organise whole staff and individual training or support where necessary. Sometimes this may involve seeking the advice from external agencies or professionals.

We always welcome parental help in identifying the most appropriate external support.

More information can be found in the SEND policy, Effectiveness of SEND Provision.

Our school is committed to making reasonable adjustments wherever possible. This may include:

• Contacting the local authority to see if adaptations to the building are required

• Ensuring that the right equipment is available to meet every child’s needs

• Where specialist equipment is needed, contacting the Local Authority Physical Disability Support Service team to assess needs and provide advice and/or equipment.

 

Please see our school Accessibility Policy for more information.

We want parents to feel fully involved at every stage. Sharing information is vital and will be done through:

• Regular informal and termly formal contact to discuss progress, including parent’s evenings, additional review meetings and written school reports

• Informal chats or phone contact if needed if something arises between more formal meetings

• Annual parent questionnaires

• Sharing ideas about how you can help your child at home

All children are given opportunities to talk about how they feel they are doing and what would help them most. For your child with SEND, there will be additional time for them to chat with a member of staff. Informally this will happen before, during, or at the end of supported work with a teacher or TA, or at other times when the child feels they need to talk.

More formally it will happen during termly review meetings where there will be an opportunity for your child to share their views and feelings.

Children with SEND are also asked to share their views annually via a questionnaire. For younger children, this is completed 1:1 using a scribe so that their true views are recorded accurately.

Where appropriate, the first person to speak to is the class teacher. Occasionally, you may need to speak to the SENCO directly. We always try to resolve any concerns as soon as they are raised, so please make sure you talk to us.

Should it be difficult to resolve concerns, the more formal process outlined in our school’s Complaints Policy should be followed.

We want to work as closely as possible with you and to support you where we can. Sometimes you may want signposting to other organisations or support networks outside school. The SENCO will give you information we have available in school but in addition, the LA Local Offer Website provides links to organisations across the authority. 

SEND Local Offer Key Information | Ask Lion - Nottingham City Directory

We understand that special preparations may be needed when children with SEND will be starting at a new setting, moving between classes or schools, or when they move into adult life. We aim to make this as smooth and reassuring as possible through:

• Careful planning with the next setting or teacher

• Sharing of information with parents/carers, including the opportunity to meet new staff before the move

• Additional visits to the new setting

• Additional visits prior to starting school

• Transition booklets prepared in school with your child, providing information for the next setting (where appropriate)

You can find what is available in our Local Authority area on the LA Local Offer website: https://www.asklion.co.uk/kb5/nottingham/directory/localoffer.page?directorychannel=7

 

The Local Offer brings together helpful and useful information for children and young people with SEND, from birth to 25 years, and their families. The information is contained within this website, which will enable you to search for services and provision within your own community and Nottinghamshire as a whole. This will cover public services that are available within:

• Education: e.g. nurseries, playgroups, schools and colleges as well as support services like educational psychologists, early years and early intervention workers.

• Health: e.g. GPs, school nurses, therapists and mental health support.

• Social care: e.g. respite services (short breaks) and children’s disability services.

 

It will also enable you to find out what support and services are available in the voluntary and private sectors, for example from charities and disability groups.

As well as containing many records of different services, the Local Offer is a really useful source of information, advice and guidance.

The SENCo is Hannah Nix. Trudi McWilliams is also a part of the SEN team. The named responsible person on the Governing Body is Mrs Maria Artingstoll. All can be contacted via the school office on 0115 915 3273 or via email on senco@dunkirk.nottingham.sch.uk.