Most children and young people in mainstream schools will have their special educational needs met through good classroom practice. This is called Quality First Teaching.
Early Identification of Need
At Cockfield Primary School we follow a graduated support approach which is called “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, we will produce an SEN Support Plan that describes the provision that we will make to meet a child’s special educational needs and agreed outcomes. Parents and carers will be fully involved in this process.
A small percentage of children and young people with significant learning difficulties might need an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan. Full details can be found on the Local Offer website.
You can find details of how we adapt the curriculum and make it more accessible for pupils with SEN below:
- Quality First Teaching, accessing a broad and balanced curriculum where barriers to inclusion are removed;
- Specific group work with intensive support in fine and gross motor skills, language acquisition, basic Maths and English targeted interventions.
- Specialist group support from outside agencies e.g. Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Health
- Specific individual support for children whose learning needs are severe, complex and lifelong e.g. Dyslexia, Dyspraxia
- Range of teaching and learning styles
- An innovative and supportive curriculum
- Mentoring
- A broad range of extra-curricular activities, including after school clubs
- Differentiated materials.
We recognise that pupils at school with medical conditions are properly supported so that they have full access to education, including school trips and physical education. Some children with a medical condition may be disabled therefore we comply with its duties under the Equality Act 2010.
The child’s progress will be reviewed each term. This will be in the form of observations, assessments and conversations with all relevant members of staff alongside scrutiny of work.
If a child has an Educational Health and Care plan this will be reviewed by the authority every 12 months.
Progress is measured against the new curriculum on a termly basis. Children and parents are informed as to whether attainment and progress are below, at or above age-related expectations.
- Once assessments have been carried out and arrangements, support and consultations have been carried out and put in place, the staff under the guidance of the SENCO do the following:
- Discuss SEND during staff meetings – intervention and provision are discussed alongside their impact
- SENCO carries out observations on children and staff
- Progress and success of provision and intervention is discussed
- Discussions are held with parents and children
- Records of interventions and support are kept
This is a continual and active process of review, ensuring that we do our best to provide quality provision for the SEN pupils allowing barriers to be removed in order to help them achieve their outcomes.
SEN 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 SEN will have an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs. Parents/carers and child/YP (where appropriate) views are integral to this process. When the child’s Support Plan is reviewed comments are made against each target to show what progress the child has made. If the child has not met the target, the reasons for this will be discussed, then the target may be adapted into smaller steps or a different approach may be tried to ensure the child does make progress.
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.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer
Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEN
If a teacher believes a child has SEN, this will firstly be brought to the attention of the SENCO.
The SENCO will:
- Carry out observations
- Discuss the needs of the child with the class teacher
- Talk to parents
- Talk to outside agencies
- Put support in place
- Review the support and the impact that it is having
- If it is felt to be necessary start the formal process of assessment for an EHCP
A small percentage of children and young people with significant learning difficulties might need an assessment that could lead to an Education Health Care Plan.
An EHCP may be thought to be necessary if, after a period of time and following advice from outside agencies, the support which has been put in place is not being effective and we feel that the child would benefit from more rigorous assessments.
We currently provide:
- Speech therapy support
- Therapeutic story writing
- Lego therapy
- Fine motor skills groups
- Pre-teaching
- Reading, writing and maths interventions
- Go Noodle
If your child has SEN, it is important for us to carry out formal assessments to identify their strengths and identify their needs accurately. To do this, we will use a range of methods depending upon their needs. When your child enters our school, their current attainment is assessed to give us a ‘baseline’ from where they will progress. In addition to the assessments that all children take part in and depending upon their needs, other assessments may be needed. These could include:
Communication and interaction (SLCN, ASC)
- Speech and Language Link Assessment
- Speech Therapy Assessments – which may focus on sound production, language understanding, or other relevant assessments of your child’s needs
Cognition and learning (MLD, PMLD, SLD, SpLD)
- Subject specific assessment
- Education Psychology Assessments – which may include memory, understanding, reasoning, logic, and general skills assessment.
Social, Emotional and Health Difficulties
- Assess through observations of pupils
Sensory and/or Physical Difficulties
- Movement Programme baseline assessment
- Handwriting and copying skills baseline assessment
Your child will be assessed against age related expectations for children who are working on the National Curriculum (i.e. the same as the majority of other children in their year group), or they may be assessed against other measures for children who are not ready to work on National Curriculum Levels (i.e. the steps before the National Curriculum).
Aspirational targets are set for all children to ensure that all children make good progress, including those not ready to access the National Curriculum. The outcomes of all assessments are shared with parents and carers at our Parent Evenings and in your child’s School Report. If other agencies are invited to work with your child, you will be invited to attend a meeting where the outcomes of these assessments and their next steps will be shared with you.
If parents have any concerns then these can be shared with the class teacher and or SENCO who will arrange a meeting to discuss and resolve any difficulties.
Results from assessments (attainment and progress) are reported to governors on a termly basis.
For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.