St Christopher S C E High School

ST CHRISTOPHER’S C.E.

HIGH SCHOOL

LearningSupport Department

SENDInformation Report

ST CHRISTOPHER’S C E HIGH SCHOOL

SCHOOL MISSION STATEMENT

St. Christopher’s is a Church of England High School where pupils and staff work together in the knowledge and love of God. We try to act out our faith in our daily lives, with Christ as our example. We seek to promote the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, intellectual and physical development of all our pupils within a caring and supportive community, preparing them as Christians for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.

POLICY FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS

MISSION STATEMENT

The LearningSupport Department consists of a team of skilled people dedicated to ensuring all pupils; especially those experiencing difficulties are able to access the curriculum and are encouraged and enabled to progress through their time at St Christopher’s.

We ensure pupils feel confident about their own abilities and use a wide range of resources and strategies to encourage, motivate, reward and praise. This ensures all pupils can and do reach their full potential throughout their time with us.

THE AIMS OF LEARNINGSUPPORT AT ST CHRISTOPHER’S

To ensure that pupils with special educational needs receive their entitlements under the Children and Families Act 2014, the SEND Code of Practice 2014, the associated SENDA Disability Regulations 2014 and the Equality Act 2010. This ensures all our young people have full access to all areas of the National Curriculum and are not discrimated against.

To follow a whole school approach ensuring the educational needs of all children are met.

To reinforce that all teachers are teachers of pupils with SEND.

To ensure that pupils with special educational needs feel secure, equal, confident and valued members of the school community.

To involve pupils in decisions about provisions to meet their needs.

To promote the involvement of parents as partners in the education of their children.

To support subject teachers in providing a curriculum that meets the needs, abilities and aspirations of pupils with special needs.

To maintain a system which identifies, provides for, and monitors the progress of pupils with additional needs.

To distribute relevant information ensuring the needs of all pupils are met.

To ensure that the school budget allocation for SEND is deployed appropriately

To support subject areas in providing appropriate resources and have the knowledge to teach all pupils successfully.

To ensure that access to educational resources is determined by individual needs.

To promote the development of assessment strategies which enable all pupils to succeed and reach their full potential.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the provision made for pupils with additional needs.

To develop the Foundation Pathways course further to include more vocational choices and ensure all students have clear, successful destination routes.

Members of the LearningSupport Department.

Senior Assistant Headteacher/Head of LearningSupport

Mrs Sandra Collier -MEd Autism, BSc (Hons), PGCE

Deputy Head of Learning Support

Miss Sarah Holmes –Foundation Pathways Specialist Teacher – Annual Reviews

Miss Sue Patchett – Specialist Teacher - Testing, Tracking and Monitoring

SEND Office Manager

Mrs Judith Dowling

Support Teachers

Mrs Amanda Snape Foundation PathwaysSpecialist Teacher

Mrs Pauline Wiggin School Councillor

Intervention Leader Mrs Kelly Holden

Pastoral/Wellbeing Support Officer Mrs Clare Blackburn

SEND Governor Mr David Rogan

Higher Level Teaching Assistants – Pathways

Mrs Philippa Johnstone

Mrs Julie Gudgeon

Mrs Hailey Howson

Miss Ann Lord

Teaching Assistants

Mr Matthew HouldsworthMrs Angela Kay

Miss Donna KenyonMrs Marie Lane

Mrs Karen LeckMrs Sandra Mallen

Mrs Vanessa O’RourkeMiss Jane Wilson

Mrs Kirsten Theaker

All our team members have developed a range of specialist skills, experience and gained additional higher level qualifications covering various SEND needs including ASD, literacy and numeracy, sensory impairments including teaching Braille, speech and language, social skills and counselling. The Senior Assistant Head teacher is also the school’s Designated Leader for Looked After Children and Designated Senior Leader for Safeguarding in school.

All SEN staff follow the school’s performance management structure and additional training needs, self-review, observation debriefs and career progression are discussed and acted upon during these reviews.

Identification of Pupils with Special Educational Needs.

Pupils who are observed experiencing difficulties are identified and assessed as early and thoroughly as possible and necessary. Referral can come from a multitude of sources, e.g.-

-Subject teachers request

-Pupil self request

-Parental request

-Information from previous school

-Following baseline testing of Year 7/8/9 and 10 pupils

-Following diagnostic testing.

Early identification, assessment and provision for any SEND pupil is vitally important for the following reasons:

-It can minimise the difficulties that can be encountered when intervention and provision occur quickly and effectively;

-It can maximise the likely positive response from the child;

-It can allow for a temporary learning difficulty to be overcome and for future learning to be unaffected;

-If the need arises, external agencies can be brought in earlier and very likely with success.

The process starts through liaison with Primary or Secondary feeder schools. The members of the LearningSupport Department visit our feeder schools to meet prospective pupils and teachers during the term prior to transfer to secondary school or sixth form provision. Visiting teachers query the academic levels of incoming pupils/students as well as any other difficulties which may require extra support to ensure a smooth transition to secondary or further education. Questions are asked about the levels and nature of support the pupils have received and this ensures support can be implemented ready for the pupils when they start. The Key Stage 2 tests and Teacher Assessment scores are also recorded. For Pathways Students all academic information is recorded and used as part of their Initial Diagnostic Assessment.

During the first few weeks of the autumn term, every Year 7 pupil is given a Reading and Spelling test,English free writing and WRAT numeracy baseline assessment. Identification of pupils initially needing supportwill be largely based on the primary information already mentioned above and the results of these tests. Some pupils will receive in class support, some will receive 1-1 withdrawal for more individualised intervention and some will spend time in small groups to work through an onlinemulti-sensory structured reading, spelling and writing scheme which can help to overcome their particular difficulties.

Assessment, Provision and Evaluation of Effectiveness.

Assessments.

Pupils are monitored and assessed at the end of every year to ensure their literacy and numeracy skills are continuing to improve. If there are any difficulties the department will arrange whatever support is necessary to ensure every pupil can successfully achieve their full potential.

Every term, current levels of attainment are recorded by all class teachers and the information is gathered by teaching assistants supporting these pupils. This liaison ensures greater communication between teaching and support staff and guarantees pupils will achieve their expected outcomes and that concerns are swiftly addressed.

Each Teaching Assistant completes a daily record of each lesson which highlights the progress made by the pupils they support in class, what strategies were effective and the impact their support has had on the outcomes achieved. Other teaching assistants can then refer to this to ensure all support is as effective as possible for every pupil. This also allows us to track the most effective strategies used and also that the support given is impacting positively upon the education of all pupils. All pupils with EHC plans or Statement of SEND have a keyworker allocated whom the regularly meet and work with to ensure progression.

Our process for identification, assessment and provision is in accordance with the SEND Code of Practice2014 and the Every Child Matters agenda. This approach recognises that there is a continuum of Special Educational Needs which also emphasises early identification. Most pupils have their needs met from support and provision from and within school. However, some pupils have extra support provided by outside specialists.

Provision

The SEND Provision Maphighlights the additional level of needs each pupil has and the amount of support provided by school and/or outside agencies to help them overcome these difficulties. These are entered onto the school SIMS system to give a detailed provision map of the needs of each pupil, the intervention programme they are receiving and this is reviewed termly or at the end of the intervention.

Resources are allocated based on evidence of need and effectiveness. Pupils with Statements or EHCP have resources allocated as outlined in the Plan in order to meet the Outcomes, teaching assistants are allocated to support pupils/students in lessons.

Pupils on SEN Support or with Statements/EHC plans have Pupil Passports which are written by the pupil, support staff and parents. These are given to all teaching and support staff and have information regarding the pupil’s difficulties, strategies to implement, how they want to be supported and how they can help themselves make progress. These are evaluated by all staff, and discussed in a meeting with support staff, pupils and parents twice per year.

Teaching staff liaise closely with support staff to ensure maximum effectiveness. The teaching assistants have a huge range of skills to offer in supporting pupils and students directly and indirectly, assisting staff and helping parents and carers. This knowledge is essential to ensure all pupils are supported effectively and has a positive impact on progress.

All teachers are teachers of pupils with SEND.

All St Christopher’s staff strive to provide the highest quality teaching to all our pupils and students. Teachers prepare lessons which support the learning and progress through a variety of methods, using creative and innovative teaching techniques and a wide variety of resources. Teaching staff adapt their teaching and resources to suit the needs of all learners, including those with SEND and have received training on how to ensure this differentiation is as effective as possible. Such differentiation may include adaptations and additional resources and is dependent upon the individual needs of the pupils/students themselves.

Staff have access to regular training opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills, including regular training sessions on a wide variety of educational concerns including SEND. All staff have had the opportunity to attend twilight training sessions on understanding Specific Learning difficulties including Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Dyspraxia, Autistic Spectrum conditions, Mental Health First Aid and Sensory Impairments. These sessions have been well attended and all the information is easily accessible for all staff on a SEN shared area.

Despite high quality teaching, some pupils are unable to make expected progress. This could be for a variety of reasons and staff use tracking data and pupil knowledge to identify such pupils and communicate this to the Head of Leaning Support (SENCO) or Deputy Head of Learning Support and Head of Year. The SENCO/Deputy will then investigate further by liaising with parents, gaining the views of the pupil, gathering more information from staff who teach or support the pupil, carrying out testing as appropriate, and referring to outside agencies if necessary. Once this information has been gathered, if a special educational need is suspected or diagnosed, a meeting is arranged, including parents to discuss the pupils’ needs and the support plan that will be initiated.

SEN SUPPORT

As described above, if a pupil is diagnosed with having a special educational need, provision will be put in place that is ‘different from or additional to that normally available to pupils of the same age’. (SEND Code of Practice 2014). As already described: - the pupil is identified as experiencing difficulties in a number of subjects, has not made academic progress in literacy or numeracy or is highlighted by Head of Year or parents for pastoral issues. The pupil receives extra support that is ‘Additional or Different to’ what is provided for all pupils within school. This support can be delivered in the form of small group withdrawal sessions, in class support etc. It could include additional resources that are needed to be able to access the curriculum, social interventions such as the nurture groups, speech and language input, as well as literacy and or numeracy programmes of intervention.

All interventions follow a monitoring cycle of Assess, Plan, Do and Review and where an intervention is not found to be effective, the school will endeavour to find out why and put in place a more effective programme of support. To ensure all staff are aware of the additional needs and interventions aPupil Passportis written after discussing with the pupil and parents about their concerns and what they feel their needs are. Targets are set and the plan is then distributed to all staff, parents and pupils.This gives advice on needs, targets and strategies to help overcome those difficulties. The Pupil Passportis reviewed twice a year with input from all subject teachers, supportstaff, the pupil and parents. Additional reviewing takes place via whole school tracking every half term and parents evening meetings.

Referral – request for Statutory Assessment

If the pupil’s needs cannot be fully met by the school’s own resources and is still failing to make sufficient progress, an application to the local authority for an Education Health Care Plan may be considered. Parents, pupils, outside agencies and local authority will be fully involvedin such decisions and meetings organised to discuss and plan such referrals. The Head/Deputy Head of LearningSupport will also requestanEducational Psychological Assessment and a referral to the Local Authority for a Statutory Assessment of the child’s needs to be carried out.

Outcome- Referral may be deemed unnecessary and pupil returns to SEN Support or an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) is issued

Education Health Care Plan/Statement

Pupils with current Statements of SEN will continue on these until the local authority reviews their provision to decide if they fulfil the criteria for conversion to an Education Health Care Plan.

Pupils with Education Health Care Plans have specific high level additional needs which require extra provision, support and /or resources. An Education Health Care Plan is issued by the SEN office. APupil Passport is written with the pupil, parents and specialist staff input and is distributed for all staff to use and review. The pupil has specific support provided either in class or withdrawal according to the child’s needs.

The pupil also has an Annual Review every year to assess whether the EHCP is still appropriate and information is gathered from everyone involved including all the pupil’s subject teachers, teaching assistants, parents and outside agenciesso a full picture can be gained. The meeting is chaired by the Head or DeputyHead of LearningSupport and attended by parents, outside agencies, TAs, HOY if possible and the pupil themselves.

The pupils also have an ‘All About Me’ profile completed and updated every year which enables their ‘story’ to be told once and a full picture about them to be gained. These documents are shared with school staff and are valuable insights into the difficulties, strengths, wishes and hopes of the pupil and their families.

PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS.

Parental involvement is actively sought at all times and parents are invited into school frequently to discuss their child’s needs and how they are being met in school. Parents are informed when their child is having extra support and are invited to contribute to all reviews. Internal reviews of Pupil Passports are held frequently and copies of all Passports are sent home for all pupils on the SEND Provision map. Pupils are also invited to attend review meetings and to make their own contributions.

Parents may express their concerns about their child to their child’s form teacher, support staff, Head/Deputy Head of Learning Support, the relevant Head and Assistant Head of Year or a member of the school Senior Management Team.

We have a very successful Parent Support group run by theLearningSupport Department. The Year 6/7 transition course initially runs for a number of weekly sessions, most in July and one in October, allowing parents to meet members of the department, listen to information about support and assessments, and how systems work both in secondary school and within the local authority. It also enables parents to find out how we support their children within school and how they help them better at home. The meetings are very informal and enjoyable and all our parents are keen to keep the relationship with school an open and positive one.There is now a well-attended Parent support group for parents of our students on Pathways Programme in the sixth form.