Inclusion

Educational Provision for Children with Special Educational Needs (2014)

From September 1st 2014 the new SEND Code of Practice came into effect.

The aim of the reforms is to join provision across education, health and care and now spans birth to 25. Intervention should be made at the earliest possible point in a young person’s life and they and their parents should be fully involved in decisions regarding their support and outcomes.

Teachers are responsible and accountable for the progress and development of the pupils in their class, even where pupils access support from teaching assistants or specialist staff” – DfE 2014

SEND provision at St. Theresa’s comprises of:

Quality First Teaching: All class teachers must be aware of the needs and requirements of their pupils and plan and differentiate accordingly.

The Graduated Approach is at the heart of whole school practice as we are continually assessing, planning, implementing and reviewing our approach to teaching all children where a potential special educational need has been identified. This process becomes increasingly personalised and responds over time to a growing understanding of the child’s or young person’s barriers to and gaps in learning and an increasingly individualised assessment of need cyclical process enables schools to continually reflect on its approaches to meeting a child’s needs.

In order to implement the Graduated Approach we use the Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle.

Click here to view more on our inclusion and provision process (SEN Report).

Governors have a very important role to play in ensuring that we are complying with the new SEN Code of Practice.

 

Also useful is the Equality Act 2010

Provision Mapping

A provision map is a comprehensive tool that we use to have an overview and a summary of all the wave 2 and wave 3 provision we have at St. Theresa’s. It records who is delivering the interventions, for how long and what the cost is for it. It also sets the time frame for the intervention. The reason we use a provision map is because it enables us to manage our budgets effectively, to target those children with additional needs and also plans for the deployment of support staff. We use both class and whole school provision maps as this enables us to see the provision for each cohort quickly and assess whether everything is going to plan.

How do we identify children with SEND?

We identify children with SEN at St. Theresa’s via the assess, plan, do review cycle. We monitor children’s progress very closely and will question why progress isn’t being made. We also consult with the parents and listen to their views. Very often the parent has a concern or query and we will try to support them with this. 

External agencies

We work with other professionals such as Occupational Therapists, Educational Physcologists, Speech and Language Therapists and Doctors and Consultants. Where possible we try to implement recommended interventions and specific support plans and will always feed back to the specialists in order to help them with diagnosis and care plans.

Progress

Progress at St. Theresa’s has been measured in levels and in the number of levels/sublevels achieved by each child. We assess from EYFS in all areas of the curriculum, in KS1 for Reading, Writing, Maths and Science and in KS2 for Reading, Writing, Maths and SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar). Until a new assessment process is suggested by the DfE we will continue to measure in levels.

Parents

Who to contact

The Inclusion Manager/SENCo at St Theresa’s School is Mrs Barbara Folan. If you have any concerns or queries about your child’s progress please make an appointment firstly with the class teacher, then with the SENCo.
Contact can be made through the school office.

How do I know if my child has SEN?

Special educational needs (SEN) that affect a child’s ability to learn can include their:

  • behaviour or ability to socialise, e.g. not being able to make friends
  • reading and writing, e.g. they have dyslexia
  • ability to understand things
  • concentration levels, e.g. they have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  • physical needs or impairments

The School will be constantly monitoring and assessing your child and  may share your concerns. The teacher will be in touch as soon as anything is detected. We would then apply the graduated approach, assessing, planning for need, carrying out and then reviewing. As a parent you would be informed at every step of the journey. You are more than welcome to make an appointment anytime to discuss planned interventions or to check on your child’s progress.

The School Offer

All pupils should have access to a broad and balanced curriculum. The National Curriculum Inclusion Statement states that teachers should set high expectations for every pupil, whatever their prior attainment. Teachers should use appropriate assessment to set targets which are deliberately ambitious. Potential areas of difficulty should be identified and addressed at the outset. Lessons should be planned to address potential areas of difficulty and to remove barriers to pupil achievement. In many cases, such planning will mean that pupils with SEN and disabilities will be able to study the full national curriculum.

At St Theresa’s we provide a range of maths and literacy interventions. These include:

 

  • Fast Phonics: Fast Phonics is an online synthetic phonics programme that helps children become strong readers. The programme includes 20 fun‑filled levels where children learn key phonics skills including letter‑sound recognition, blending and spelling. Each level is a Mountain Peak covering one set of letters with more than 20 exciting activities.
  • Target Readers : Children identified as needed extra help with reading will read 1:1 with many members of the school team. This builds confidence with reading aloud and allows the child to develop their vocabulary by answering open ended questions to do with the text.
  • Handwriting : this focuses on those who struggle with writing whether due to a co-ordination issue or a physical problem. We work on pencil grip, letter formation, letter orientation and cursive writing.
  • Clicker 8: an online programme that allows children to put together sentences with the use of visual prompts. Is used across the curriculum and allows for the teacher to scaffold writing frames for tasks.
  • Nessy Fingers: Nessy Fingers is a touch typing course.The program has been designed to be used by both beginners who have never typed before, or those with keyboard experience, who want to improve their typing speed.It is especially effective for children with dysgraphia, dyslexia and ADHD.
  • Language for Thinking:  a structured approach to develop children’s language from the ‘here and now’ to the ‘how and why’. 50 colour drawings form the backbone of the resource. Written scenarios and question sheets are provided so adults can ask carefully promote children’s verbal reasoning and thinking skills.
  • Attention Autism: a learning approach created by speech and language therapist Gina Davies, that aims to develop natural and spontaneous communication skills in Autistic children through the use of visually based and highly motivating activities.
  • Colourful Semantics: Colourful semantics is a targeted approach to support children with their sentence building and to teach them about sentence structure. It was developed by Alison Bryan and is now widely used with children experiencing language difficulties. 
  • Black Sheep Press: Most children acquire concepts as part of their normal language development but some will require additional support to assist their understanding and use of concept words. Black Sheep Press has a range of 16 different packs to help.
  • Accelerated Reader: Accelerated Reader (AR) is a reading management and monitoring programme that aims to foster independent reading. The internet-based software assesses reading age, and suggests books that match pupils’ needs and interests. Pupils take computerised quizzes on the books and earn AR points as they progress.
  • Neli: The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) is a programme for children in Reception (4-5 years) which has been found to improve children’s language and early literacy skills. The programme involves a trained teaching assistant providing short small-group and individual teaching sessions to around 3-6 pupils for 20-weeks. Robust evaluations found NELI children made on average 3 months of additional progress in language.

Over the course of the year we will add interventions that are proven to achieve results.

How is progress monitored?

Progress is monitored by an ongoing programme of assessment and planning. The teachers first method of identification is marking, this enables them to see if a child is meeting the learning objective. If they notice a difficulty they will differentiate the work in class. End of half term assessments are also used to monitor progress. Every half term we have pupil progress meeting where we discuss how each child is doing and if they have any difficulties. It is at these meetings that we plan interventions and strategies for children who are not making the expected level of progress or need extending. The parents evenings are a very good opportunity for you to discuss any concerns with the class teacher. The SENCo is available at these times as well.

Complaints and Comments

All complaints and comments should be sent to the school via letter or on the office email which is office@sttheresas.barnetmail.net.

 

The Local Offer

Please click for further details Local Offer and SEN