At New Brancepeth Primary school, there are several ways in which children are identified as having special educational needs. The first step in identifying children who have additional needs is through quality first teaching, using the approach of assess, plan, do and review. A collaborative approach throughout this process with parents / carers is paramount.
Early Identification of Need
We aim to identify children who have any difficulties as soon as possible so that appropriate support can be given from an early age. We liaise with all school staff including Early Years Staff, Health Visitors and Family Workers to support Early Identification starting from 2-year-old provision. Full use is made of information passed to the school when a child transfers to our school / nursery and we use assessments during the EYFS to identify pupils and any difficulties they may have (in relation to the 2-year-old development check, observations on entry to 2-year-old / Nursery provision / Reception, Foundation Stage Profile, teacher assessment / observation).
In deciding whether to make special education provision to support educational, social, physical, or emotional needs, we:
- Work in partnership with parents/carers and pupils
- Consult with relevant external agencies
- Use assessment tools & materials
- Use observations
- Use Short Notes / Support plans
- Link with previous schools (where applicable)
- Liaise with professionals within the Local Authority and those from Durham County Council’s SEND Team
- Liaise with the Educational Psychologist
SEND Support
Where a pupil is identified as having a special educational need we follow a graduated approach which takes the form of cycles of “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.
This means that we will:
- Assess a child’s special educational needs
- Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes
- Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes
- Review the support and progress
As part of this approach every child with SEND will have an individualised SEND Support Plan that describes the child’s needs. Parents’ / Carers’ and the child’s (where appropriate) views are integral to this process and all will be fully involved.
A small percentage of children and young people with significant and / or complex needs may require an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Most needs of children within County Durham can be met through a robust SEND Support Plan. An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is not required to access additional resources from the local authority for those children with high and complex needs. Some children may not make expected progress despite these efforts to identify, assess and meet the special educational need. These young people will usually have had services involved for an extended period and will already have small steps and individualised targets to meet through Quality First Teaching or through reasonable adjustments made in school. If advice from multiple and relevant agencies has been implemented and strategies have been embedded over a period and are unsuccessful, school will look to apply for an EHCP. Top up funding may be explored to support the school in coping with phases of difficulty. Parents may request an application for EHCP via SENDIASS.
Support for children with an EHCP will be linked to their Support Plan to work towards achieving their targets. This work may be delivered by a class teacher or teaching assistant and overseen by the child’s class teacher and SENDCO.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer
Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEND
Other methods used by teachers to identify pupils with SEND are as follows:
- Discussion with parent / carer to see if they have noticed anything / have any concerns.
- Ongoing liaison and links with Health Visitor / Family Worker.
- Ongoing teacher assessment and observation.
- Progress against the Early Learning Goals in the Foundation Stage.
- Progress against English and Mathematics Objectives in the National Curriculum.
- Results from SATs (end of Years 2 and 6).
If it seems that your child may have special educational needs, your child’s class teacher or the Special Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) will assess:
- What your child is good at and what they need help with
- What your child would benefit from learning
- How best to help your child learn
Once provision is identified, time is allocated to individuals or groups to best suit their learning style, ability and need. This is monitored and can be changed once the impact is assessed.
The Monitoring and Tracking of children with SEND is via the same method as identification. Assessment is ongoing, although more formal once each term. Identified needs are evaluated and discussed considering assessment results and through staff discussion.
Ongoing teacher assessment through QFT is used to identify SEND and specific training enables staff to identify the main area of need. This is then monitored using a short note and will progress if necessary, using the graduated approach: Short Note progressing to SEND Support plan. Some ongoing teacher assessments may also result in the school applying to the Local Authority for ‘top up funding’ to support the school in managing need for a specific time frame. Following this it may be that the school may apply for an EHCP for the child.
Progress for children with SEND is assessed using the percentage of objectives met on their SEND support plans. At New Brancepeth Primary School we measure this by:
– Expected progress- 50%+ of SEND support plan outcomes achieved
– Good Progress- 80%+ of SEND support plan outcomes achieved.
Short notes and support plans are shared termly with parents. This ensures that the SENDCO, parents and class teacher can review previous plans and discuss, share, and agree on new outcomes. This is then fed into provision, implemented by the class teacher, and carried out within the classroom – allocating any additional adults to deliver appropriate interventions allocated on the plans. Interventions, additional support, and provision / reasonable adjustments are evaluated by the SENDCO through the review cycles.
We are fully committed to encouraging parents to be involved with all aspects of school life. When COVID-19 restrictions are fully lifted, we will return to welcoming parents into school at the beginning and end of the school day. We will continue to offer opportunities for parents to stay and learn alongside their children. We will continue to invite parents to attend assemblies, school performances, family fun days and sports events. Parents will also be encouraged to help within school carrying out a range of activities e.g. supporting reading, helping with fairs. For children with additional needs, parents / carers will meet approximately three times a year to review their child’s SEND needs through a SEND Review and to plan support going forwards. SEND parent voice questionnaires are also given to parents to complete to ensure that parents can feedback on the APDR cycle.
Class teachers plan for learners with SEND and a focus is given to the targets on their SEND Support Plans or EHC Plans. Sometimes class teachers will lead learning and at other times a teaching assistant will. Likewise, this may be done as part of the whole class, through a small group intervention dependent upon the needs of the child or on a 1:1 basis. As with all children, learning is then evaluated using Assessment for Learning and next steps are identified to plan towards in subsequent sessions, ensuring that the immediate needs of the child are met through personalisation of the curriculum they access.
Our SENCO oversees EHC Plans, Support Plans and Short Notes to ensure that targets are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound) and meet the needs of the children. She also monitors against these outcomes and the provision the children receive on a regular basis through observing teaching, book scrutinies, learning walks and monitoring of intervention records.
We ensure that any SEND identified from 2-year-old provision to year 6 is approached consistently and would follow the graduated approach of support. All staff would ensure that the graduated approach is applied in addressing all needs no matter which area of need this may be. At New Brancepeth Primary School we ensure that approaches to address any SEND needs are consistent between all staff, each key stage and year group.
Progress is measured according to where the child is working. If a child is working within or broadly within year group expectations, they will be assessed and have progress measured in line with Early Years Foundation Stage Profile or National Curriculum levels. If a child is working below this, they will be assessed using interim pre-key stage standards or following the guidance from the Department for Education from 2018-19 since P-Scales will no longer be used. Within Early Years, the Developmental Journal is used or is used in conjunction with the EYFS profile.
At New Brancepeth Primary School, we have a Relationships Policy which is rooted in developing children’s emotional intelligence and ultimately their friendships with each other and within the community. This whole school approach teaches children to understand their feelings and emotions and their accompanying behaviours. In recognising how and when their emotions change, they become more self-aware and can begin to take steps to self-regulate and modify their behaviours appropriately. For our SEND children, there is a strong focus on this, and sometimes additional social group interventions take place. Where appropriate, additional resources may be used to reinforce positive behaviours e.g. reward charts. For further information, see our Relationships Policy in our School Policies section.
Adjustments and adaptations to needs are made as and when they are required. Our school has flat access to the building directly from the school car park. Parents of children with SEND that require access of this type are permitted to use the school car park. We have a disabled toilet and a selection of specialist furniture within school to meet the needs of a variety of physical conditions. Please contact us if you have any questions about accessibility.
All pupils with SEND engage in activities with their peers who do not have SEND. For some children, this may be all day and for others this may be at different points of the day depending upon the nature of their need and the support that they need throughout the school day.
We ensure that all children are offered the opportunity to participate with activities outside of the classroom by making reasonable adjustments to the organisation of these. For example, we ensure SEND children have an appropriate level of adult support if going out of school, we organise transport that provides appropriate access and staff complete a comprehensive risk assessment of any excursion to ensure all children are safe and included.
There are many arrangements which can be made for children with SEND to undertake tests and exams. For example, the Year 1 Phonic Screening, Year 2 SATs, and Year 6 SATs can all be accessed with arrangements such as extra time, scribes, readers, prompts or enlarged texts etc. If your child is unable to access the assessments above due to complex needs, they will not be expected to complete them, and their achievements and progress will be measured using school data.
We are committed to ensuring inclusion for all children no matter what their needs are. Our Teaching Assistants work diligently to include SEND children in all activities and experiences we offer in school, working in consultation with parents and experts to make any reasonable adjustments required.
We understand that parking near our school can be a real challenge for parents. If you feel that your child would find the walk from the local housing estate into school a challenge, then talk to us before they start school, and we can negotiate use of the school car park. We have allocated disabled parking spaces within our school car park.
Several staff have the Level 2 Paediatric First Aid and all staff have Safeguarding Level 1 qualification. In addition, our teaching and TAs have a selection of training relating to Makaton, Speech and Language, ASD and Team Teach. Each year the needs of children within our school are carefully considered and training organised to up-skill staff e.g. this year our training will focus on The Empty Page – how to give children with ASD the passion for writing, behaviour which challenges and strategies for minimising the occurrence of this behaviour and inclusion.
For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.
