SENCO and SEN Staff
Our SENCO (Mrs Costello) can be contacted on 01388 718263 or by email cockfield@durhamlearning.net
More details of the SENCO’s role can be found in the SEN Policy which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.
External Specialists and Other Bodies
The school enjoys good working relationships with a wide range of people who provide services to children with SEND and their families.
The external specialists may:
- Act in an advisory capacity
- Extend expertise of school staff
- Provide additional assessment
- Support a child directly
- Suggest statutory assessment is advisable
- Consult with all parties involved with the child
These include:
- Durham County Council’s Local Offer
- Durham SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
- Durham Educational Psychology Service
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Advisory teachers for support/advice on areas such as specific learning difficulties e.g. dyslexia, dyspraxia
- School doctor/nurse
- Other medical professionals
- Stronger families
- One Point Hub Barnard Castle
- Camhs (children and Adolescent Mental Health
How We Secure Specialist Expertise
Our Additional Needs Budget is used to support children and young people with SEN.
Expenditure is monitored by governors at termly full governing body meetings, termly finance meetings.
The SEN governor works closely with the SENCO to monitor provision.
Provision for children with SEN is monitored by the SENCO alongside all staff, by reviewing support plans and impact of interventions on a termly basis.
This is used to support children and young people with SEND by:
Deploying additional support staff to help children with SEND, in some classes where the child is in receipt of an EHCP – or their needs dictate – this support may be given on a 1.1 basis.
- Assessing each child in a number of areas to identify children with SEND and reviewing their needs and programmes of learning – detailed assessments and tracking ensure that all learners achieve and make progress at our school
- Identifying needs early in EYFS and putting in targeted intervention
- Setting targets and discussing them with the SENCO so that individual progress is monitored
- Providing individual/group programmes to support needs
- Providing specialist resources where possible and appropriate
- Bringing in specialist support from the Local Authority and from Special Schools for individual children as required
- Involving other agencies such as health services, the use of the Speech and Language Service and voluntary organisations; involving parents of children identified as having SEND as much as possible including inviting them to attend regular reviews
- Providing In-Service/further training for school staff to ensure good support for children with SEND – ensuring that training is up to date
- Use the school’s behaviour Policy to support and encourage good behaviour in school
- SENCO working with the designated governor for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) – ensuring SEND provision is appropriate, monitoring and evaluation are in place and the processes are reviewed at least annuallyIf a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes. A Costed Provision Map will be developed in liaison with the child, young person, parent or carer.
If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.