SEN Information Report

(June 2017)

SENCO: C HarveySEN Governor: Hilary Jones

Contact: 01344 860106Dedicated SEN time: 4 days

Local Offer Contribution: on school website and linked to Bracknell Forest Local Offer Webpages

Whole School Approach:

High quality first teaching and additional interventions are defined through our annual dialogue across the school contributing to our provision management approach. These documents help us to regularly review and record what we offer EVERY child or young person in our care and what we offer additionally. These discussions also serve to embed our high expectations among staff about quality first teaching and the application of a differentiated and personalised approach to teaching and learning. We make it a point to discuss aspirations with ALL our learners.

Underpinning ALL our provision in school is the graduated approach cycle of:

All teachers are responsible for every child in their care, including those with special educational needs.

Assess: SEND children are assessed through many measures. Some are qualitative such as free writing tasks and questionnaire feedback on their support. Other measures are quantative such as . Children are assessed within the Depth Of Learning assessment system adopted by the school, these assess children within their Milestones (1,2,3) as to whether their learning is basic, advancing or deep. For those children who are accessing learning below their Milestone we have the Pebbles assessment scheme which shows small steps progress on route to a milestone.

Assessment materials used to measure SEND progress could include Boxall profiles, SDQs, Sandwells, NFERs, Rising Stars assessment and profile writing measures as well as teacher assessment through the Depth of Learning assessment.

Plan: Interventions and additional support is planned by the class teacher with the support of the SENDCO. There are some discreet afternoon interventions which are managed by the SENDCo who, liaising with teachers, has identified children with significant need across one of the four key area of SEND. Children are the responsibility of their class teacher with the teachers planning the interventions for the children an also ensuring that they work with our most vulnerable learners.

Do:Teachers and learning support assistants work with small groups and booster groups within the school. 1:1 work can be with a tutor (for those SEND with PP) which pre-teaches/reinforces learning for the pupil. Support is embedded into classroom practice and discreet interventions are running within the afternoon.

Review:SEND progress is formally reviewed termly with the parents of the children on the SEND register, the class teacher and the SENDCO. Review of progress also happens half-termly as part of the whole school assessment cycle. Progress is measured through DOL measures and interventions are reviewed through a variety of measures suitable for the programme run.

Interventions are adapted and improved when needed and outcomes are linked to children’s targets and progress reviews.

Having consulted with children, young people and their parents, all our additional provision (internal or external) is based on an agreed outcomes approach.

SEN Needs:

Children and young people’s SEN are generally thought of in the following four broad areas of need and support:

  1. Communication and interaction

Early years communication groups and listening groups are run to encourage the development of children’s speech and language, we have an ELKAN trained LSA who also runs speech and language groups for targeted children further up the school. Our groups include emotional literacy interventions so that children with social needs can begin to both discuss emotions and recognise emotions within others.

BOLE (outdoor learning area) provision is another opportunity for SEND children to support teamwork skills and the development of communication skills through improved self esteem and confidence. This intervention appears to be most effective for those children who lack self-esteem as they can develop their confidence and voice outside of the formal learning environment.

  1. Cognition and learning

In class LSAs support small groups and vulnerable learners within core subjects during the morning sessions as well as this some targeted work, planned by the teachers is undertaken. Additional support can include motor skills, English, Maths, SALT and OT groups, FSA work and mentoring dependent on need.

Afternoon support can be 1:1 or within small groups. Programmes are used to enhance children’s understanding as well as personalised provision. These children are identified through discussion with the teachers and the SENDCO. Provision is mapped out to suit the needs of the children and a range of interventions are utilised to try and make the best use of the resources available within a mainstream school.

  1. Social, emotional and mental health

As part of quality first teaching P4C is utilized within school to encourage children to express their feelings, viewpoints and opinions. Regular PSHE is part of the curriculum and there are twice weekly assemblies that focus on the achievements of the children and also encourage them to reflect on social expectations through Bible readings and scripture.

Build to express opportunities through FSA and LSA support for those children, BST have run the sessions this year with the focus for the school to move forward with this internally next year. The school has a behaviour and emotional support LSA who touches base with children that have emotional needs to support them with offloading time and self management strategies.

We are developing the school mentoring system as well which currently works with Pupil Premium children to support their engagement with learning through addressing any worries/issues that may impact their wellbeing and therefore their ability to focus on their learning. Additionally SEND children whose behaviour is suggestive of an emotional and mental health need have access to a touch base Emotional and Behavioural Support LSA with time to talk and work with that individual to support engagement with learning as well as ensure that they have a sounding board for worries and stressors through the school day.

  1. Sensory and/or physical needs

The school have links to the CYPIT team and can refer in for additional OT support, where appropriate. There are small groups that focus on fine and gross motor skills to meet physical and sensory needs of the SEND pupils within reception that are run by both the Early Years Teachers and LSAs. Afternoon interventions further up the school also incorporate OT skils and/or are motor skills focused with children for whom these skills still prove a challenge.

(Reference: SEN Policy2015)

As ofSeptember 2016, we have 31 children or young people on our SEND register. Three of these have an EHCP. The rest of our SEND cohort are categorised as school support with a variety of needs and diagnoses.

We have internal processes for monitoring quality of provision and assessment of need. These include teacher identification of need and SENDCO advice and consultation. The opinion of external agencies is also sought where appropriate with referrals being discussed and agreed with parents. External agencies may track their own work with the children and school monitor the impact of recommendations made, going back to any specialist provision for new objectives.

Consulting with children, young people and their parents

Involving parents and learners in the dialogue is central to our approach and we do this through:

Action/Event / Who’s involved / Frequency
Termly parents evenings / Teacher – SENDCO and SLT are available for appointments also / 3x a year
IEP/Progress Review meetings / SENDCO, class teacher, parents and child. / 3x a year (outside of parents evening)
Parent Workshops – Curriculum / Teachers / 1x a year
Parent Workshops –
Inclusion / FSA
(she also signposts parents to other suitable workshops run within the borough) / 2-3x a year
September term
Additional agencies meetings / Teachers, SLT, SENDCO, FSA / Dependent on child and need.
Additional parental meetings / SENDCO/Teachers/Parents / Upon request to discuss needs and as appropriate.

Staff development

We are committed to developing the ongoing expertise of our staff. We have current expertise in our school:

Initials of person / Area of expertise / Level (as per p58 of SEN Code of Practice 2014)
SFW / Safeguarding, prevent, NPQH / General
LS / Safeguarding, prevent, assessment and curriculum / General
RK / Emotional Support / General
ET / Speech and Langauge / General
AW/ET/AB / Motor skills – OT training / General
SC / Family support training
B2E
CAF trained / General
CH / SEND / Specialist

This year, we have put in additional training into our LSAs and their development of language and behaviour management as well as training around the common SEND categories found within our school. There has also been some training from SaLT(working with the EYFS LSAs and teachers) and BST (Build to Express work with LSA and FSA). Development training and update training were run by our RWI partner to continue to support the school in providing a high quality phonics provision enabling us to identify those who struggle with reading early.

Staff deployment

Considerable thought, planning and preparation goes into utilising our support staff to ensure children achieve the best outcomes, gain independence and are prepared for adulthood from the earliest possible age.

All classes in KS1 and lower KS2 have an LSA for the mornings. All upper KS2 classes have a shared LSA for the morning. There are afternoon LSAs who work with SEND and PP children. Interventions are overseen by the Deputy Head and SENDCO but consultation with class teachers is key to ensure that support is accurately targeted. Afternoon provision is adapted to target the children and cohorts that are coming through the school. Class teachers manage their morning LSAs to ensure that support within their classes/year group is appropriate and of value to the children.

The school FSA supports families and their children. They are able to refer to other agencies, where appropriate and have a wealth of training to work with pupils upon their social, emotional and mental health. Recent B2E training is hoped to be utilized early next year to further support the emotional needs of the children within our school.

Our EHCP children have additional support above and beyond these resources due to their complex needs.

A full list of our external partners who we work with can be found in our contribution to the Local Offer and via the Bracknell Forest Local Offer.Core services accessed at Binfield School include:

The Support for Learning service – learning assessments and learning support accessed

Behaviour Support Team – for behaviour management strategies and advice as well as work with children at risk of exclusion.

ASSC – Autism service working with diagnosed children only who support and advise the school and parents.

Educational Psychology – where possible, as children have to hit a high threshold to access this service. The educational psychology service can offer parental consultation. Accceptance of a full referral means that the service come and assess the child to give the school a cognitive picture of their areas of need.

CAMHS – diagnostic service only, the school refer to CAMHS where parents or professionals feel that there may be an underlying cause for the behaviours exhibited by the child.

Sensory consortium – hearing and sight specialist teachers who come into school to observe our hearing or visually impaired children and offer advice and support to parents and schools. Referral normally happens through the health service accessed by these children.

Extending our school approach, we commission using an outcomes-based approach. This enables us to hold our partners and ourselves to account.

We believe this has benefited our children/young people and their families in the following ways:

  • Engagement and inclusion with learning
  • Emotional and mental wellbeing
  • Behavioural choices
  • Academic progress
  • Self-esteem and confidence
  • Developing life skills – such as understanding their needs well enough to put in place self management strategies.

School Partnerships and Transitions

Our academic assessment for children and young people with special educational needs is moderated through our cluster of schools and neighbouring partners.

This year, we worked with our feeder partners to welcome60 children into our setting with at least 1 child with special educational needs or disabilities (and several more vulnerable learners). Also we supported60of children and young people transition to the next phase in education or employment (7 of whom were on our SEND register).

Our approach involved:

  • Liaison between feeder schools and the EYFS team.
  • Staggered induction afternoons and entry to school in the September term.
  • Involvement of the SENDCO in feeder/leaver transition where necessary (depth of involvement dependent on child’s needs).
  • Collaboration with the BST team to support the transition of year 6 to secondary school – whole cohort provision in protective behaviour and targeted group work alongside school based LSA.
  • Collaboration with the ASSC service to transition our ASD children through school years and between settings through the use of social stories and transition activities.

We closely monitor children and young people’s destination data.

Complaints

Our complaints procedure can be found in our Complaints Policy available on our school website.

Challenges this year

Challenges for our school have included more children presenting extreme behaviours ranging from more defiant behaviours to anxiety. We intend to address this through development of our nurture interventions (including mentoring) and the greater use of our FSA and Emotional and Behavioural Support LSA to deliver Build to Express. Furthermore we have put into place a set of sessions to support the training of our LSAs and to update their practice and knowledge around our SEND children.

There have also been challenges relating to available resource for those children who have complex needs as their need needs to be met across a range of approaches and agencies. At a local level Bracknell Forest are reviewing the process through which they resource SEND and the processes through which their schools approach the Local Authority for EHCPs and additional funding.

Further development

Our strategic plans for developing and enhancing SEN provision in our school this year include continuing to develop the way we track interventions to show impact. As well as this we are revising our use of IEPs moving towards provision mapping of both individuals and groups. These new systems will need time to embed but it is hoped that they will work alongside the new assessment and curriculum outline that the school has invested in (Chris Quigley Essentials and the Depth of Learning assessment system).

Additional strategic plans include ensuring that September and Term 1 workshops encompass both SEND and FSA outcomes to meet with and support as many of our families and children as possible within the first term of the new school year as well as an increased presence at Parents Evenings.

Another ongoing challenge is supporting those children who are both PP and SEND so as to begin to ‘diminish the difference’ as curriculum and testing expectations have increased. Improving outcomes through monitoring and data evidence is an ongoing target for the school.

Relevant school policies underpinning this SEN Information Report include:

SEND policy 2015

Behaviour and Anti-Bullying policy

Safeguarding Policy 2015

Complaints Policy 2015

Legislative Acts taken into account when compiling this report include:

  • Children & Families Act 2014
  • Equality Act 2010
  • Mental Capacity Act 2005
  • SEND Code of Practice 2015

Date presented to/approved by Governing Body:to be presented September 2017

SEN Information Report (June 2017) BINFIELD PRIMARY SCHOOL