Supporting Educational Needs – Information Report 2018/19
This report sets out how Tetsworth Primary school ensures that all children receive their right to a broad, balanced, relevant and differentiated curriculum. We aim to create a happy, educationally exciting and positive environment in which all pupils can develop to their full potential. We recognise that all children are individuals, each with their own needs that are special to them.
About our school
At Tetsworth Primary School we aim to provide for children with a wide range of special needs including those with:
- Communication and Interaction Needs: This includes children who have speech, language and communication difficulties including autistic spectrum conditions.
- Cognition and Learning Needs: This includes children who have learning difficulties and specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia.
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs: This includes children who may have difficulties relating to emotional conditions such as anxiety or depression.
- Sensory and/or Physical Needs: This includes children who have visual or hearing needs, or a physical disability that affects their learning.
About our SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator)
Our school SENCo is Mrs Luci Watson. She is a qualified teacher who is currently studying for the National SENCo Award. She works closely with Mrs Charlton to oversee the provision and monitoring of children’s learning and progress throughout the school and to support the families of those children with special educational needs.
Mrs Watson teaches Reception at our federated school, John Hampden Primary School in Thame. Her designated time for being on site at Tetsworth Primary School is Wednesday afternoons.
You can contact the SENCo by:
Email: lwatson@tetsworth.oxon.sch.uk
Tel (School Office): 01844 281328
Our SEN Governer is Mrs K Horrocks.
Our SEN Policy and our Equality Scheme and Accessibility Plan can be found on the school website.
How do we identify and give extra help to children and young people with SEN?
The school uses Oxfordshire County Council’s guidance ‘Identifying and supporting Special Educational Needs in Oxfordshire schools and settings’.
The guidance sets out:
- How we identify if a child or young person has a special educational need.
- How we assess children and plan for their special educational needs, and how we adapt our teaching.
- Ways in which we can adapt our school environment to meet each child’s needs
- How we review progress and agree outcomes and involve our pupils in this.
You can read it here:
We also use the data from PIRA and PUMA assessments which are collated on Target Tracker, plus informal tests that are done throughout the year. In this way we are able to identify those children who might be at risk of falling behind and can put in the appropriate interventions. For our Foundation Stage pupils (Nursery and Reception) we look at data that tracks progress towards the Early Learning Goals.
How do we work with parents and children/young people?
The partnership between school and home is important to us here at Tetsworth Primary School. We will always contact parents if we feel that a child or young person may have a special educational need. We work closely with the children on our SEND register and their parents; agreeing outcomes, how we will work towards meeting them and how progress will be reviewed.
The communication happens in a variety of ways:
- Each child has a pupil profile which outlines the interventions and / or strategies used to support the child’s learning. This document is updated by the class teacher and will be shared with parents three times a year at Parents Evening in the Autumn and Spring terms with an additional meeting in the Summer term.
- Teachers are often available at the end of the school day, or for longer discussions please make an appointment.
- Appointments can be made to see the school SENCo by phoning the school office.
- We will also liaise with anyone already supporting your child, such as a Speech and Language Therapist.
Adapting the curriculum
We offer a broad and balanced curriculum for all children including those with SEND. The way in which we adapt this provision for pupils with SEN and/or disabilities is set out on our website in the School Accessibility Plan and SEN Policy. We give 1:1 and small group work support across the school to target the pupil’s specific difficulties. We employ a part time higher level teaching assistant to lead some of these groups.
What expertise can we offer?
Our SENCo holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (QTS) and is currently studying for the National SENCo Award. She has undertaken training on Early Help Assessment, Good Autism Practice (Autism Education Trust) and supporting pupils with Downs Syndrome. She attends Network SENCO meetings to share good practice and keep up to date with local and national initiatives. She also attends the Oxfordshire Annual Inclusion conference to hear national speakers.
Staff are kept updated on new developments and initiatives by our SENCo.
Our head and Senior teacher are both fully trained in safeguarding procedures.
Teaching assistants are trained to support the particular needs of the children they work with. Recent training has included Dyslexia Training, Encouraging Independent Leaning and Reading Strategies.
The Head of Learning had been a SENCO of long standing in primary education. The SENCO works very closely with the experienced SENCO at John Hampden.
We employ a teacher who has a specialism in mathematics and is able to support staff with strategies to help pupils experiencing difficulties in this area.
We employ a HLTA who has a Level 5 qualification in working with dyslexic children. She is in school every day working with identified children who have literacy difficulties across both Key Stages 1 and 2.
Our SEN Governor has an expertise in children with Downs Syndrome.
We also have access to a range of specialist support services including:
- Educational Psychology
- SENSS, who support children with communication and language, sensory needs
- and physical needs
- Communication and interaction specialist teachers working to support ASD pupils
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
- Therapy services including a counsellor from Bucks Family Network
- Home school link worker.
- Children’s social care
- ARCH reading volunteers
Information about these services and what they offer can be found on the Oxfordshire County Council SEN web pages about the Local Offer.
We always discuss the involvement of specialist SEND services with parents first. They will generally be asked to sign a consent form before any service becomes involved.
How do we know if SEN provision is effective?
Where children are receiving additional support, school assessment data and further assessments are used to monitor progress.
How are children and young people with SEN helped to access activities outside of the classroom?
The inclusion of all children in our extra- curricular activities is important to us at Tetsworth Primary School. We ensure that all children are able to join in with our many and varied activities throughout the year. These include special services/celebrations in the village church, sporting events on the village green, swimming lessons in Thame, and other class trips that are related to learning topics.
All children and young people are included in activities and trips following Risk Assessments, where needed, and in accordance with duties under the Equalities Act 2010. We work with parents and children when planning trips so that everyone is clear about what will happen.
There is information about activities and events for disabled children and those with SEN in Oxfordshire in the Family Information Directory:
http://fisd.oxfordshire.gov.uk/kb5/oxfordshire/fsd/disabilities.page
Oxfordshire’s accessibility strategy can be read at:
What do we do to support the wellbeing of children with SEN?
All children have the opportunity to share their views through the School Council and in School’s PSHE/Jigsaw lessons and assemblies. We listen to the views of children with SEND by involving them in the writing of their pupil profiles. We take bullying very seriously. We help to prevent bullying by discussing incidents with children in PSHCE lessons and dealing with incidents promptly. Fortunately bullying is very rare at Tetsworth but we encourage all children to speak to their class teacher if they have a problem or concern. We have an anti-bullying week each year where we look at current issues.
Joining the school and moving on
We encourage all new children to visit the school before starting. For children who did not attend our Nursery class, we receive EYFS profiles from local childminders and other pre-school provision. We visit nurseries wherever possible. This helps to ensure early identification of needs enabling the school to put in the appropriate interventions and involvement with SEN agencies from the off. For children coming in to school where a SEND issue has already been identified a meeting with the SENCO and class teacher is recommended prior to their start date.
We begin to prepare our Year 6 pupils for their transition into the next stage of their education by liaising with the local secondary schools and talking to their Year 7 mentors and pastoral teams. This helps to ensure as smooth a transition as possible. Many of our local Secondary Schools offer transition programmes for SEND pupils.
Developments this year
Pupil profiles are now well embedded and use recommendations from external agencies to provide a holistic approach to provision. They include the strengths of the child as well as areas for development. Work is ongoing to make these as useful as possible and we welcome parental input.
Feedback and complaints procedures
At Tetsworth Primary School we welcome feedback from parents. If a parent or guardian is concerned about SEN provision for their child, initial contact should be made with the class teacher. A meeting will then be arranged, which may include the Head and/or SENCO, to discuss the concern.
In the event of a formal complaint concerning SEN provision, parents/guardians are advised to contact the Head of Learning and follow the Oxfordshire LA procedure in the first instance. Parents may also contact the Governing Body.
Support for Parents
If you would like impartial advice from Oxfordshire’s Parent Partnership Service (now called SENDIASS) contact: https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/contact-parent-partnership
Oxfordshire’s Local Offer contains lots of information for parents: https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/children-education-and-families/education-and-learning/special-educational-needs-and-disability-local-offer