Longmoor Community Primary School

LongmoorCommunityPrimary School

Special Educational Needs (SEN) Information Report

September 2015

Headteacher: Mrs E A Grundy

SEN Governor: Mr M Rea

SENCOs (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators): Mrs H Gough and Miss S Pennington

Contact: 0151 521 5511;

Dedicated SEN time: Wednesday, all day

Local Offer Contribution:

Number of children on roll: 377

Number of children on the SEN Register: 82

Percentage of children on the SEN Register: 21.7%

Ofsted January 2014: Good – ‘Provision for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is effective and highly valued by parents. School leaders also work well in partnership with external agencies and other schools to meet the needs of pupils whose current circumstances make them vulnerable’.

1. Types of SEN that are provided for within our school:

Communication and Interaction
Cognition and Learning
Social, Emotional and Mental Health
Sensory and/or Physical Needs

We have a growing number of pupils within our school who have Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or who are awaiting assessment on the Local Authority’s ASD Pathway. We receive lots of support from outside agencies and training to help us to meet the needs of these pupils, and strive to make each classroom as ASD Friendly as possible.

Children with specific learning needs are fully included and we work hard to ensure that each classroom is Dyslexia Friendly.

2. Identifying children with SEN and assessing their needs:

Our Inclusion Co-ordinator and class-based SENCO is Miss S Pennington, and our non class-based SENCO is Mrs H Gough. Both teachers bring a wealth of experience to the school; Mrs Gough has 23 years’ experience in the field of SEN, having worked as SENCO in a range of different schools across three different local authorities. Miss Pennington is qualified in SEN Management and is also the Assistant Headteacher.

As laid out in the Code of Practice (January 2015): 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 him or her.

We use the Assess – Plan – Do – Review approach to identify SEN at Longmoor:

Assess:

All children are assessed regularly throughout the school year and their progress in Maths and English is carefully tracked each half-term. Pupil Progress meetings are held on a termly basis between each class teacher, the Headteacher, the SENCOs and the Assessment Co-ordinator.

Plan:

Using assessments, observations and discussions with parents/carers and children, staff then begin to plan what adjustments might need to be made to close any identified gaps or remove barriers to a child’s progress. A Pupil Profile will be drawn up, between the child, their parent/carer and teacher if a child is identified as having a special educational need. The SEND Code of Practice (January 2015) states that: All teachers and support staff who work with the child should be made aware of their needs, the support provided and any teaching strategies or approaches that are required.

The delivery of any interventions or support is done in close collaboration between all involved with the child’s education. The class teacher has day-to-day responsibility for the learning and progress of all pupils in his/her class.

Review

In the review stage of the process, teachers gain a growing understanding of what approaches secure better outcomes. The success of any interventions/support is measured, discussed and analysed at Pupil Progress Meetings, taking us back to the assess stage of the cycle.

Not all children who are not making progress, or who receive support through an intervention in school, will need to be placed on the SEN Register. We have a Three-Wave Model of support operating in school:

Wave 1: universal support;high-quality teaching - available to all children

Wave 2: support or interventions within school, for some children

Wave 3: specialist support (often, but not always, from an outside agency) for a few children

At LongmoorCommunityPrimary School, most of the children on our SEN Register receive Wave 3 support that is additional to, or different from, Waves 1 and 2. Additional support or intervention is carefully tailored to meet the needs of each individual, and each child on the SEN Register will have an individual Pupil Profile drawn up by the class teacher, the child and the parents/carers, as outlined in the Plan section above.

3. Arrangements for consulting parents/carers of children with SEN and involving them in their child’s education:

If you think that your child has a special educational need which has not been identified by the school, please speak to your child’s class teacher in the first instance. Appointments can also be made to see the SENCOs at your convenience – no matter how slight you feel your concern may be, we will always listen. Lego Drop-in Club is held every Thursday in school, between 3.30 and 4.45, when the SENCOs are available to talk to you about your child’s needs.

We encourage parents/carers and children to work together at home to complete a Pupil Questionnaire sent home once each year. This allows parents/carers and children to inform us at school about what is important to and for them.

Parents/carers are invited to attend Parents’ Evenings once a term. At these meetings, Pupil Profiles will be drawn up with you if your child has been identified as having SEN and requiring Wave 3 support. These Pupil Profiles will also be reviewed at Parents’ Evenings. You will always receive a copy of your child’s Pupil Profile. Lego Drop-in Club is held every Thursday in school, between 3.30 and 4.45, giving parents an opportunity to speak to the SENCOs about their child’s needs.

If your child is supported by a member of staff from an outside agency (such as a Speech Therapist, an Educational Psychologist or an outreach teacher), you will always be contacted in the first instance for your consent to a referral into their service. We often facilitate meetings between parents/carers and outside agencies.

If your child has a Statement of SEN or an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), you will be invited into school to attend Annual Reviews, along with a representative from the Local Authority.

4.Arrangements in place for consulting young people with SEN and involving them in their education:

At Longmoor, we pride ourselves in encouraging all children to feel that they can talk to any member of staff about anything. In addition to this commitment, we also have a dedicated Pastoral Support Officer, Mrs Molyneux, who works closely with all staff and parents in ensuring the well-being of every child.

As a school, we have recognised the need for specialist support for children who may be experiencing emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. We have invested in the services of ‘Place2Be’, the leading provider of school-based emotional and mental health services. We currently run a three-day model, offering a wide range of support for children and their families within our school. Gemma Cooper is our School Project Manager, and we also have trained Place2Be counsellors who work with a number of individual pupils. Our Place2Be days are currently Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, every week of term time. As well as the individual counselling sessions which Place2Be offers, every child has access to Place2Talk, a self-referring drop-in service where children can speak to a counsellor either with a friend or alone, during lunchtimes. Gemma also works closely with parents who may need emotional support or advice, and also with school staff, offering whole-class circle times and group work to discuss wider issues.

Place2Be provides early intervention mental health support, without stigmatising children or families, at a point where they need it most. It effectively removes emotional barriers to learning.

The members of staff who work closely with your child in school will consult them prior to Parents’ Evenings if they need or have a Pupil Profile. Staff will ask your child questions about how they learn best, what is important to them and what they might perceive as barriers or difficulties. Based on what your child says, and in partnership with the Pupil Questionnaire sent home to each child, a Pupil Profile can start to be drawn up. This consultation ensures that your child’s own opinions are considered and taken seriously.

Individual reviews with each child on the SEN Register are conducted once a term by staff within school. These reviews may be verbal or written, dependent upon the age of the child.

We have play leaders, friendship buddies and reading buddies out on our yard at lunchtime, plus a lunchtime club, offering support for all children and encouraging teamwork and friendship.

School Council is made up of pupils elected by their peers, and allows the children to share their ideas and worries. Small groups of children regularly meet up with subject co-ordinators to discuss their feelings and thoughts about certain subjects.

5. Arrangements for supporting children in moving between phases of education:

Careful transition from one year group to the next is planned, and takes place in the summer term. Liaison with outside agencies is crucial at times of transition, and we receive lots of support and advice to ensure that transition is successful and happy.

All children joining our school are invited to look around before starting, and the Head Teacher always meets parents and pupils. If a child is transferring from another school, a telephone conversation will take place between the two schools to ensure smooth transition.

We offer a robust transition programme for those pupils transferring from primary school to secondary school and liaise closely with all our secondary partners. Records are always passed on to secondary schools and in-depth conversations take place between our staff and secondary staff about every child prior to moving up.

Place2Be offer a range of services to all the pupils in Year 6, who are getting ready for the move to secondary school, including group and class sessions.

School staff offer support and guidance to parents/carers when it comes to transition from primary to secondary school – we are there to listen, no matter how small you feel your concern or question might be.

6. The approach to teaching children with SEN:

At Longmoor, we are aware that all children learn in different ways, and our planning takes this into consideration. Lessons are differentiated (catering for different learning styles and differing levels of ability). Every teacher is a teacher of every child in their class.

Small group and individual support is offered to children working within Waves 2 and 3, specifically tailored for individual/group needs, and reviewed for effectiveness regularly.

Within each class there are a range of different resources to help children. These resources include pencil grips, sloping desks, lap weights, privacy boards, coloured reading filters and wobble cushions etc. Resources are there to help any child who might need them, not just those on the SEN Register, and are readily available in all classrooms.

We adopt a dyslexia-friendly approach to teaching in each classroom, and are also working towards each classroom becoming more autism-friendly.

We are aware that children learn at different paces, so monitor progress closely at Pupil Progress Meetings.

Staff work closely with parents/carers to ensure that they have a good understanding of how they might be able to support their child at home.

7. Adaptations made to the curriculum and the learning environment for children with SEN:

All children at Longmoor are fully included in all aspects of school life. Children learn at different rates, in different ways, and our day-to-day planning of lessons takes this into account. All children can access all aspects of the curriculum and learning environment. This may be through the use of specialist support, specialist equipment, a change of delivery style or type of activity. This is known asdifferentiation.

Interventions and group/individual support is specifically tailored to fit the child/ren concernedand regularly monitored for effectiveness.

Each classroom is dyslexia-friendly, and working towards being autism-friendly. There is a wide variety of specialist equipment available for children to use in each classroom.

8. The expertise and training of staff to support children with SEN, including how specialist support will be secured:

Mrs Gough (SENCO) was recently awarded a Post-Graduate Diploma in Dyslexia.
Mrs Hefferon (one of our Teaching Assistants) has recently completed an accredited course about the delivery of interventions to support pupils with dyslexic tendencies.
Several members of staff have completed manual handling training.
Several members of staff have completed epipen training. Most staff have also undertaken training in how to deal with epilepsy.
Several members of staff hold qualifications in sign language.
Four members of staff have been trained in how to use the recently purchased Evac Chair.
Safe handling courses have been attended by some of our support assistants.
We also have a defibrillator in school, which all First Aiders are qualified and trained to use.
The SENCOs attend termly SEND Briefings held by the Local Authority in order to keep up to date with legislative changes and local/national initiatives.
The SENCOs also attend local Primary Consortium meetings held termly.
Miss Kelly (one of our Teaching Assistants) has attended a set of six separate training sessions on the identification of various types of speech and language difficulties and ways to support identified pupils.
Three of our 1:1 support assistants have attended training from The Isabella Trust about Autism (ASD) and sensory processing issues.

If specialist expertise from an outside agency is required, a referral into that service can be made by the SENCOs. This process will alwaysinvolve the parent/carer. Referrals can be made to the following services by school:

Educational Psychology Service
Speech and Language Therapy
Community Paediatrician (Alder Hey) / Childhood Adolescent Mental Health Services
Outreach services from specialist schools, including Bank View, Ernest Cookson, Abbots Lea and Springwood Heath
Occupational Therapy
Physiotherapy
Sensory Impairment Services
Social Services
School Nurse
Schools Family Support Service (SFSS)
Special Educational Needs Inclusion Support Service (SENISS)
Place2Be

At Longmoor, we offer dedicated support to any children who may require additional help with their speech and communication skills. We assess the communication skills of every child who joins us, and put in regular, specific support if and when appropriate. Our dedicated Communication Teaching Assistant is Miss H Kelly, who works in close conjunction with the city’s Speech and Language Therapy Team. In addition to this, we have an extensive bank of communication resources which are used effectively throughout the whole school. Our work in this area has led to us recently winning a national Highly Commended Award from The Communication Trust for CommunicationCommitmentSchool of the Year (September 2015).

9. Evaluating the effectiveness of the provision made for children with SEN:

All our school data is monitored by the Local Authority and Ofsted (last Inspection January 2014, when SEN provision was recognised as being effective and the school was judged to be ‘Good’).

We follow the Assess – Plan – Do – Reviewapproach, which means that we are constantly evaluating the effectiveness of the provisions which we offer to our children. We hold termly Pupil Progress meetings, and track children’s progress each half term.

All class teachers regularly evaluate and adapt (if necessary) their own teaching to meet the needs of every pupil in their class. Differentiation happens in each classroom, in each lesson.

Any interventions or support are monitored carefully, through daily staff conversations, observations and recording of progress – if they are not proving to be effective, they will be either adapted, changed or stopped. The Headteacher currently monitors the impact of interventions within the school and collects impact data on a half-termly basis.

We meet with parents/carers regularly to discuss children’s progress, both formally at Parents’ Evenings, and on a needs-led basis.

10. How children are enabled to engage in activities available with children in the school who do not have SEN:

We are an inclusive school, and we aim to ensure that all children attending Longmoor are fully involved in all aspects of school life.

If we or you feel that your child might need additional support to participate in a planned activity (in order to meet health and safety requirements for example), we will meet with you, and if necessary draw up a risk assessment.

Risk Assessments are always made for each school trip. We have a high ratio of staff supporting school trips to ensure safety. Parents are always informed about school trips in plenty of time.

11. Support for improving emotional and social development, including pastoral support arrangements for listening to the views of children with SEN and measures to prevent bullying: