Our Approach to Teaching Learners with SEN

Our School Aims are:

To stimulate intellectual growth by encouraging enquiry and a love of learning.
To teach children how to communicate effectively and to provide challenges and opportunities for each child’s social, intellectual, emotional and physical development.
To provide equal opportunity for each pupil to achieve their true potential.
To provide for pupils a sensitive and stable community in which to work so every child can have the confidence to develop both as an individual and as a responsible member of society.
To provide a secure and ordered environment in which pupils will be encouraged to respect themselves, others and the environment.
To prepare them to cope with the demands and rapidly changing circumstances of our modern world.

Costessey Primary School is committed to ensuring maximum inclusion of all children (including vulnerable learners) whilst meeting their individual needs. We have a high regard for pastoral support and strive to promote independent and happy learners.

How we identify Special Educational Needs

Early identification is key to ensuring children receive the appropriate help they need. We work closely with our local infant schools so that any need which has already been identified can be catered for through transition from infants to juniors.

Throughout a child’s time here at Costessey Primary School, a trigger for additional support may be highlighted through teacher observation & assessment or by the progress a child makes from one half term to the next.

Once identified appropriate action will be put in place. This often takes the following steps:

A discussion with the child
Support materials in class to assist with learning
Attending an intervention group to close the gap in the child’s learning
Continued tracking and monitoring to identify successes and measure impact of support

Sometimes the difficulty the child has is due to the way they like to learn (visually, auditory or kinaesthetically) and at this point adjustments are made and progress is seen without them being considered as having a Special Educational Need.

If concerns remain after addition support is put in place, a child may be considered to have Special Educational Needs.

The definition of special Educational Needs (SEN)

A child or young person (aged 0-25) has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they:

(a) have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age; or

(b) have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.

(Code of Practice 2014, 1.8)

In accordance with the code of Practice, children’s needs will primarily fall under one of four areas:

Communication and interaction
Cognition and learning
Social, mental and emotional health
Sensory and/or physical

In many cases, for children who have multiple or complex needs, these areas overlap. This is taken into consideration.

When a child has Special Educational Needs:

Once a child has been identified as continuing to require addition support, following in class support and intervention, a number of things may happen:

A discussion with parents will take place and the child is likely to be put on the Special Educational Needs register.
The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) for the school will be informed and may carry out their own assessments and provide addition support, resources or strategies around the child. The assessments that may be used are:
Ravens Progressive Matrices
British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS)
Dyslexia profile
Salford Reading Test
Catch up Literacy assessment
Following this input, additional targets or support may be put in place to support the child in and around school.
Regular tracking and monitoring will continue
Year group teachers, SENCO & the senior leadership team may plan together to best support the child.

Education & Health Care plans:

Education & Health Care plans are considered when it is established that a child may have a considerable need which requires ongoing additional support in order to learn and be the best that they can be. The likely process of this is as follows:

With parental consent, the SENCO may seek help from external agencies to gain a greater insight into the child’s needs. This could include the help of an Educational Psychologist, an Advisory Support Teacher, the school nursing team, a speech and language therapist, an occupation therapist, the community paediatrician, the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Team (CAMHS), parent support agencies or other local NHS or support services
Any given agency may choose to carry out further assessment or provide their own intervention to either investigate further or support the needs of the child. Often they liaise with parents and school staff to ensure their expertise and ideas are shared, this may be in the form of a report, a phone call or a face to face meeting.
In a meeting with parents, it may be discussed that a formal process of identification and support is needed. This would be the beginning process to apply for an Education, Health & Care plan (EHCP). At this point, the Additional Needs Co-ordinator for Norfolk will be informed and a meeting will take place with multi agencies, including the parents and the school, to look at how the school can offer a collaborative approach to meet the child’s needs. At the meeting, parents and professionals may suggest that additional funds are required and an application for this could be requested.

When considering granting a child with an Education, Health Care plan and/or funding, the local authority may want to consider:

evidence that the school has responded appropriately to the requirements of the National Curriculum, especially the section entitled “Inclusion: Providing effective learning opportunities for all children”
evidence provided by the child’s school, parents and other professionals where they have been involved with the child, as to the nature, extent and cause of the child’s learning difficulties
evidence of action already taken by the child’s school to meet and overcome these difficulties
evidence of the rate and style of the child’s progress
evidence from external agencies working with the child