Special Needs

Children with special educational needs have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age. These children may need extra or different help from that given to other children of the same age. There are four broad categories of SEN:-communication and interaction

• cognition and learning
• social, emotional and mental health
• physical and sensory

The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice and the Children and Families Act 2014 sets out the processes and procedures that all organisations should follow to meet the needs of children. We use this code to inform our graduated approach in school that recognises that children learn in different ways and can have different kinds of SEND. This begins with quality first teaching in class and can then develop into small group or individual, specific interventions.

Our aim is to identify, at the earliest opportunity, barriers to learning and to ensure that every child experiences success in their learning and achieves to the highest possible standard. The progress of every child is monitored at half termly standards meetings and children identified are monitored by the teacher and interventions implemented to boost and support. Once a child is identified as needing SEN Support, a meeting will be held with parents to create a SEN Support Plan and support can be put in place to help overcome the difficulties that a child may have.

If further support is required the school may request a statutory assessment of special needs, which may result in an Education, Health and Care Plan being issued to the child. Statements have been replaced by EHC plans which can be used to support children from birth to 25 years. Children who currently have a Statement of Educational Need will transfer to an EHC plan during a transition period of three years.

The interventions we use with all pupils to boost attainment and progress are evaluated for their effectiveness and include: Wasp, ELS (Early Literacy Support), FFT Wave Three, Read Write Inc, Fresh Start, Lego Therapy, Inference Training, Big Maths CLIC, One-to-One Tuition, Precision Teaching and Direct Instruction and IDL.
Interventions to support Emotional Health and Wellbeing include Cool Connections, Resilient Classrooms, Next Steps, Friendship Terrace, Lego Therapy and Zones of Regulation. The children have access to safe spaces in classrooms, wellbeing boxes and we have recently developed a Wellbeing Area in school.

The progress of pupils with special educational needs is tracked closely and where necessary, smaller steps such as PIVATS are used to track progress for individuals.

We are a member of the Nantwich Education Partnership which has employed a specialist SENDCo (Special Needs Coordinator) to work with all of the schools. Our SEND coordinator regularly attends a local cluster group of SENCos to keep abreast of current developments and to gain valuable mutual support. There are also close links with the Educational Psychologist, CEAT (Cheshire East Autism Team), Speech & Language, Emotionally Healthy Children and Young People Team, CAMHS Link Team, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy. This is accessed as a cluster and we have a referral system in place. When necessary, additional liaison takes place with feeder EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) settings and High Schools, including the arrangement of more visits to High School to allow pupils to become more familiar with premises and staff. This is to ensure smooth transition between schools so that a child continues to receive the appropriate intervention and teaching.

Policies

Our Inclusion and Equality Scheme includes our policy for SEND in school. This can be found in the policies section of our website.

The link to the Cheshire East Local Offer can be found below.

http://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/children_and_families/special_educational_needs/local_offer.aspx

Please see the PDF at the top of the page for our local offer.

Number of pupils with SEND

We currently have 10% of our children on the special educational needs register. Needs range from specific educational difficulties to social and emotional needs. We have a small number of children whose needs require a Statement of Educational needs. These children have their statement reviewed yearly and will transfer to an Education, Health and Care Plan during a transitional period.

Staff Development 2019/20

During 2019/20, all staff have undertaken CPD (Continuing Professional Development) in:

• Changes to SEN Code of Practice
• SEND Toolkit
• Zones of Regulation
• Sensory Processing Training
• Writing SEN Support Plans, First Concern Discussion Forms and Profiles
• Recording and evaluating records of Intervention
• Read, Write Inc
• Quality first teaching and SMART targets
• Precision Teaching and Direct Instruction
• White Rose Maths
• Pathways for Reading
• Pathways for Writing
• Restorative Practise and Restorative Questions
• Emotional Health and Well Being
• Building Resilient Classrooms