SENCo - Jenny Ryder
Governor with responsibility for SEND - Martin Byrne
At Brookwood Primary School, we have an inclusive approach to supporting all learners to engage in activities - our aim is for all children to be fully integrated into school life, both inside and outside of the classroom, wherever possible. Adaptive teaching and assessment are embedded in our curriculum and practice. Reasonable adjustments are made to teaching approaches and resources in order to include and support all learners to access the curriculum.
What are Special Educational Needs and Disabilities?
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (often referred to as ‘SEN’ or ‘SEND’) is a term used to describe learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for a child to learn compared to children of the same age.
All children may experience challenges with their learning at some point and for most children, these difficulties can be overcome with support from school and home. However, pupils with SEND need additional or different help to remove the barriers which are impacting their progress.
Some children may have SEND because of a medical condition or disability, while other pupils may have SEND without a diagnosis or disability.
Children may have difficulties in one or more of these areas:
- Communication and Interaction –speech, language and communication difficulties which make it difficult for them to make sense of language or to understand how to communicate effectively and appropriately with others
- Cognition and Learning - where children learn at a slower pace than others their age, have difficulty in understanding and/or organisation and memory skills, or have a specific difficulty affecting one particular part of their learning such as in literacy or numeracy
- Physical and Sensory –visual and/or hearing impairments, or a physical need that can give rise to difficulties in accessing learning without appropriate support and equipment. A child may have difficulty with sensory processing, being under or over-sensitive or have difficulties with fine or gross motor skills. A child may have a medical condition which affects them physically
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health - A child may display behaviours such as having very low self-esteem or being very anxious. They may display challenging, disruptive or distressing behaviours or have difficulty in managing their relationships with other people. They may appear withdrawn or behave in ways that may hinder their and other children’s learning and/or that have an impact on their health and wellbeing.
Special education is any educational or training provision which is extra to or different from what is needed by other children or young people the same age. This covers many different things including communicating through sign language, having learning resources in a larger font and needing one-to-one or small group support.
We work hard to ensure that all staff working with learners who have SEND have a working knowledge of the difficulty in order to support children access the curriculum. The SENCo supports, and where appropriate arranges training, to provide teachers with appropriate strategies and practices to enable all children to engage and learn effectively.
Identification of SEND and provision
Teachers regularly assess pupils and track progress. If quality first teaching (daily adaptive teaching delivered by the class teacher to all children) has not enabled the pupil to make sufficient progress, they will be identified at the progress meetings which are held termly. Identified pupils are discussed with the SENCo and if appropriate, interventions are discussed and put into place.
Children requiring interventions because of special educational needs will have individual targets recorded on a SEND Support Arrangement Plan detailing the provision being put in place to support them.
With parental consent, the SENCo may also involve external agencies such as the Learning and Language Support Service for additional advice on how to best support a child.
Where it is felt, through professional evidence and the plan, do, review cycle, that a child’s needs require a greater degree of support, we will then liaise with families to discuss applying for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
Admissions arrangements for pupils with SEND
Children with SEND are allocated places in line with our admissions policy. If a child has an EHCP, a place will be offered unless it would significantly affect the education of the child or others and where there are no reasonable adjustments that can be made to prevent this.
