SEND

Our School’s Local Offer explains what we offer students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) throughout their time with us, including how we support them to the next stage of their education.

You may also want to read our Padlet , our SEND Information Report and SEND policy that can be found in the school policies page.

This document gives more detail about our statutory duties and day-to-day procedures – for example, how we plan the most effective support for children with SEN, how we review their progress and the SEN Information Report.

Barking and Dagenham Local Authority also publishes a Local Offer on its website. This sets out a wide range of information about the specialist services, schools, colleges and organisations that can provide support and information for families of children and young people with SEND. It explains the procedures for requesting an Education Healthcare Plan (EHP) assessment.

In addition to the information on this page, the SEND department also has its own parent Padlet where they continue to update the latest SEND information for parents, all in one place.

The information below is provided to answer the following questions:

Who should I contact to discuss a concern about my child or the needs of my child?
How can my child get help in school?
How will the school support my child with identified SEN when starting school?
How can I let the school know I am concerned about my child’s progress in school?
How will the school let me know if they have any concerns about my child’s learning in school?
How is extra support allocated to students, and how do they move between the different levels?
Who are the other people providing services to students with SEN in school?
How are the adults in school helped to work with students with SEN, and what training do they have?
How will the teaching be adapted for my child with learning needs SEN?
How will the school measure my child’s progress in school, and how will I know about this?
What support will the school provide me as a parent of a child with SEN?
How has the school been made physically accessible to students with SEN?
How will the school support my child when they leave this school or moving on to another class?
Who should I contact to discuss a concern about my child or the needs of my child?

Teachers are responsible for:

Checking on your child’s progress and identifying, planning and delivering any additional help your child may need (Such as targeted work or additional support) and letting the Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCo) know as necessary.
Providing specific feedback to your child on what they have achieved and how they can progress through regular marking (Orally or written) of your child’s work.
Communicating with parents specific targets set and support implemented and reviewing these at Parents Evenings and/or specific SEN meetings.

The SENCO, Ms Sturgeon, is responsible for:

Coordinating all the support for students with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and developing the school’s SEN Policy to ensure all children receive a consistent, high-quality response to meeting their needs in school.
Ensuring that parents are: involved in supporting their child’s learning, kept informed about the support their child is receiving, and involved in reviewing how their child is doing.
Liaising with all the other professionals who may be coming into school to help support your child’s learning, e.g. Speech and Language Therapy, Educational Psychology, etc.

The Headteacher, is responsible for:

Supporting the whole school to evaluate and develop the quality and impact of provision for students with SEN across the school.

The SEN Governor is responsible for:

Ensure that the necessary support is made for any student who attends the school and has been identified with SEN.

How can my child get help in school?

Students in school will receive support that is specific to their individual needs. This may be all provided by the class teacher or may involve:
Other staff in the school – e.g. Specialist Teaching Assistant.
Staff who will visit the school from the Local Authority Advisory Service, such as the Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Outreach Team.
Staff who visit from outside agencies such as the Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) service or Educational Psychology (EP) service.

The teacher’s input via good/outstanding classroom teaching:

Teachers will have the highest possible expectations for your child and all students in their class.
All teaching is based on building on what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
Put different ways of teaching in place so that your child is fully involved in learning in class.
This may involve things like using more practical learning or providing different resources adapted for your child.
Putting in place specific strategies (which may be suggested by the SENCo or staff from outside agencies) to enable your child to access the learning task.

Specific small group work – The school refers to these as ‘Intervention Groups’:

Your child’s teachers will have carefully checked your child’s progress and will have decided that your child has a gap in their understanding/learning and needs extra support to close the gap between them and their peers.
The teachers will plan a one-to-one or small group session for your child with targets to help your child to make more progress.
A TA, teacher or outside professional – like a Speech and Language Therapist – will run these small group sessions using the teacher’s plans or recommended programme.

More specialist support and/or individual support:

Suppose your child has been identified as needing more specialist input instead of or in addition to good and outstanding classroom teaching and intervention groups. In that case, referrals will be made in consultation with parents to outside agencies to advise and support the school in enabling your child to make progress.
Before referrals are made, you will be asked to come to a meeting to discuss your child’s progress and help plan possible ways forward.
Suppose it is agreed that the support of an outside agency is a way forward. In that case, you will be asked to give your permission for the school to refer your child to a specialist professional, e.g. a Speech and Language Therapist or Educational Psychologist. This will help the school and yourself better understand your child’s particular needs.
The specialist professional will work with your child to understand their needs and make recommendations, which may include:

Making changes to how our child is supported in class, e.g., individual support or changing some aspects of teaching to support them better.
Support to set targets which will include their specific professional expertise.
Your child’s involvement in a group run by school staff under the guidance of an outside professional, e.g. a social skills group or sensory circuit.
A group or individual works with outside professionals.
The school may suggest that your child needs some agreed individual support or group support in school. They will tell you how the support will be used and what strategies will be put in place.

The Next Steps – Specified Individual Support:

The school (or you) can request that the Local Authority carry out a Statutory Assessment of your child’s needs. This is a legal process; you can find more details about this in the Local Authority (LA) based Local Offer on the LBBD website.
After the school has sent in the request to the Local Authority, they will decide whether they think your child’s needs (as described in the paperwork provided), seem complex enough to need a Statutory Assessment. If this is the case, they will ask you and all professionals involved with your child to write a report outlining your child’s needs. If they do not think your child needs this, they will ask the school to continue with the support set-up on the SEN Support Plan.
After the reports have all been sent in, the Local Authority will decide if your child’s needs are severe and need more support in the school to make good progress. If this is the case, they will write an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP). If not, they will ask the school to continue with the SEN Support Plan. The school will set up a meeting to ensure the SEN Support Plan is in place to ensure your child makes as much progress as possible.
The EHCP will outline the number of hours of individual/small group supports your child will receive from the school, delegated by the Local Authority, how the support should be used, and what strategies must be implemented. It will also have long and short-term goals for your child.
An additional adult may be used to support your child with whole-class learning, run individual programmes or run small groups, including your child.

How will the school support my child with identified SEN when starting school?

We will first invite you to visit the school with your child to have a look around and speak to staff.
We may suggest adaptations to the settling-in period to help your child to settle more easily.

How can I let the school know I am concerned about my child’s progress in school?

If you have concerns about your child’s progress, you should speak to your form tutor or subject teacher in the first instance.
If you are unhappy with how the concerns are being managed and that your child is still not progressing, you should speak to the SENCo.

How will the school let me know if they have any concerns about my child’s learning in school?

When a teacher or parent has raised concerns about your child’s progress and targeted teaching has not met the child’s needs, the teacher will raise this with the SENCo.
The school also has meetings every term between the class teacher and a senior staff member in the school to ensure all children are making good progress. This is another way your child may be identified as not making as much progress as expected.
If your child is then identified as not making progress, the school will decide how best to accelerate progress, e.g. the possibility of setting up an Intervention Group. You will be informed.
If your child is still not making the expected progress, the school will discuss with you:

Any concerns you may have.
Any further interventions or referrals to outside professionals to support your child’s learning.
How school and home can work together to support your child.

How is extra support allocated to students, and how do they move between the different levels?

The school budget includes money for supporting students with SEN.
The Headteacher decides on the budget for Special Educational Needs in consultation with the school governors on the basis of the needs of the students currently in the school.
The Headteacher and the SENCo will discuss all the information they have about SEN in the school, including:

The students who are getting extra support already.
The students need extra support.
The students who have been identified as not making progress as would be expected.

They then decide what resources/training and support are needed. All resources/training and support are reviewed regularly, and changes made as necessary.

Who are the other people providing services to children with SEN in this school?

Directly funded by the school:

Behaviour (SEMH) Lead.
Attendance Officer.
Additional Speech and Language Therapy input to provide a higher level of service to the school.
Additional Educational Psychology input to provide a higher level of service to the school.

Paid for centrally by the Local Authority but delivered in school:

Educational Psychology Service.
Speech and Language Therapy.
Occupational Therapy.
Physiotherapy.
Professional training for school staff to deliver medical interventions.
Sycamore Trust (Previously known as PACT to support families through the SEN process and procedures).
School Nurse.
Health Visitor.
Children and Adolescents Mental Health Team (CAMHS).

How are the adults in school helped to work with students with SEN and what training do they have?

The SENCo’s job is to support the class teacher in planning for students with SEN.
The school has a school development plan, including identified training needs for all staff to improve the teaching and learning of students, including those with SEN. This may include the whole school training on SEN issues or support identified groups of learners in school, such as ASD.
Whole staff training to disseminate knowledge, strategies and experience to ensure consistency of the school’s approach for students with SEN.
Individual teachers and support staff attend training courses run by outside agencies that are relevant to the needs of specific students.

How will the teaching be adapted for my child with learning needs?

Teachers plan lessons according to the specific needs of all groups of students in their class. They will ensure that learning tasks are adjusted in order to enable your child to access their learning as independently as possible.
Specially trained support can implement the teacher’s modified /adapted planning to support your child’s needs where necessary.
Specific resources and strategies will be used to support your child individually and in groups.
Planning and teaching will be adapted on a daily basis if needed to meet your child’s learning needs and increase your child’s access to what is on offer.

How will the school measure my child’s progress in school, and how will I know about this?

Your child’s progress is continually monitored by his/her teachers.

His/her progress is reviewed formally at least every term.
If your child is in Year 1 and above but is not yet at the National Curriculum level, a more sensitive assessment tool is used, which shows smaller but significant steps of progress. The levels are called ‘P levels’.
At the end of each key stage (i.e. at the end of Year 2 and Year 6), all children are required to be formally assessed using Standard Assessment Tests (SATS). The government requires all schools to do this; the results are published nationally.
The progress of children with an EHCP is formally reviewed at an Annual Review with all adults involved with the child’s education. This is in addition to the termly reviews with parents.
The SENCo with the class teacher will also check that your child is making good progress within any individual work and in any group in which they participate.
Children on an SEN Support Plan will be reviewed at least termly.
A range of ways will be used to keep you informed, which may include:

Home/school book
Letters sent home
Additional meetings as required
Reports

What support will the school offer me as a parent of a child with SEN?

We would like you to talk to your child’s form teacher regularly so we know what they are doing at home, and we can tell you about what we are doing in school. This is to ensure that we are doing similar things to support your child at home and school and can share what works in both places.
The SENCo is available to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns/worries you may have.
All information from outside professionals will be discussed with you. The SENCo will also arrange to meet with you to discuss any new assessments and ideas suggested by outside agencies for your child.
A home/school link book may be used to support communication with you.
If your child is undergoing Statutory Assessment, the Children’s Services Inclusion advisors will also support you. They will ensure that you fully understand the process.

How have we made this school physically accessible to children with SEN?

The school is accessible to children with physical disabilities via ramps.
We ensure that the equipment used is accessible to all children regardless of their needs.

How will the school support my child when they leave this school or moving on to another class?

We recognise that ‘moving on’ can be difficult for a child with SEN and take steps to ensure that any transition is as smooth as possible.

If your child is moving to another school:

We will contact the new school’s SENCo and ensure he/she knows about any special needs identified and how this has been supported.
We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible.
We invite the SENCo to see your child in school.

When moving from class to class in school:

Information is passed on to teachers in advance.
If your child would be helped by a book to support them in understanding moving from class to class, it will be made for them if suitable.

If I still have questions, who should I ask?

If you still have questions, please get in touch with Ms Sturgeon via the school office.