SEND - Local Offer

How can I let the school know I am concerned about my child’s progress in school? 

• If you have concerns about your child’s progress you should speak to your child’s class teacher initially. An appointment can be made directly with the class teacher at the end of the school day when picking up your child, or via an email to the school office.
• If you are not happy that the concerns are being managed and that your child is still not making progress you should speak to the SENDCo.

Who are the best people to talk to in this school about my child’s difficulties with learning/Special Educational Needs or Disabilities?

Class Teacher

Responsible for:

• Continually checking on the progress of your child and identifying, planning and delivering any additional help your child may need and letting the SENDCo know as necessary.
• Writing Individual Education Plans (IEP), and sharing and reviewing these with parents termly and planning for the next term.
• Ensuring that all staff working with your child in school are helped to deliver the planned work/programme for your child, so they can achieve the best possible progress. This may involve the use of additional adults, outside specialist help and specially planned work and resources.
• Ensuring that the school’s SEND Policy is followed in their classroom and for all the pupils they teach with any SEND.

SENDCo

Responsible for:

• Ensuring that you are:
  • involved in supporting your child’s learning
  • kept informed about the support your child is getting
  • involved in reviewing how they are progressing
• Coordinating all the support for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) and developing the school’s SEND Policy to make sure all children get a consistent, high quality response to meeting their needs in school.
• When necessary liaising with all the other professionals who may be supporting your child’s learning e.g. Speech and Language Therapy, Educational Psychology etc…
• Updating the school’s SEND register (a system for ensuring all the SEND needs of pupils in this school are known) and making sure that there are excellent records of your child’s progress and needs.
• Coordinating specialist support and professional development for teachers and support staff in the school so they can help children with SEND in the school achieve the best progress possible.

Headteacher

Responsible for:

• Overseeing the management of provision and review process, including for those with SEND.
• Ensure that the SENDCo is receiving the relevant professional development and information relating to SEND provision.
• Ensure that the Governing Body is kept up to date about any issues in the school relating to SEND.

SEND Governor

Responsible for:

• Making sure that the necessary support is made for any child who attends the school who has SEND.
• Meet with the SENDCo annually as part of subject audit; discuss the role and changes in provision due to ‘needs’ within the school.

What are the different types of support available for children with SEND in St. Mary’s?

We monitor all children’s learning and development closely to ensure that they are continuing to make progress. Where a child is not making progress, we believe in early identification, so that we notice needs, track assessments and plan accordingly.

Staff always ensure that they utilise SMART guidelines:

• Specific to the child’s needs.
• Measurable with evidence to inform parents of the impact it is having on the child.
• Achievable, through an individualised target setting process, which is specific to that child.
• Realistic as they are based on their current level/capacity and would naturally form the next step in the progressive learning process.
• Time-related: so that progress can be measured and provision can be reviewed and modified.

Quality First Teaching

This is the term used for support provided within the classroom. For your child this would mean:

• That the teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class.
• That all teaching is based on building on what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
• Different ways of teaching are in place so that your child is fully involved in learning in class. This may involve things like using more practical learning.
• Specific strategies (which may be suggested by the SENCo or outside staff) are in place to support your child to learn.
• Your child’s teacher will have carefully checked on your child’s progress and will have decided that your child has gap in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to help them make the best possible progress.

All children in school should be getting this as a part of excellent classroom practice when needed.

School Support 

Within our graduated response, there are 3 key groups:

• Catch -Up/Monitoring/Cause for Concern
• SEN Support – this may take place in the classroom or outside of the classroom. It may be run by a teacher, or by a teaching assistant who has had training to run specialist groups
• EHCP

Specialist groups run by outside agencies 

Your child will have been identified by the class teacher/SENDCo (or you will have raised your worries,) as needing more specialist input instead of, or in addition to quality first teaching and intervention groups. You will be asked to come to a meeting to discuss your child’s progress and help plan possible ways forward. You may be asked to give your permission for the school to discuss your child in a Multi-Professional Planning Meeting (MPPM) where the outcome may be to refer your child to a specialist professional e.g a Speech and Language Therapist or Educational Psychologist. This will help the school and yourself understand your child’s particular needs better and be able to support them more effectively in school.

Specialist services available to the school:

• Occupational Therapy
• Educational Psychology
• Child and adolescent Mental Health Services
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Behaviour Support Intervention

This specialist support is available for children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through Quality First Teaching and intervention groups.

Specified Individual support

for your child of more than 20 hours in school.

Usually your child will also need specialist support in school from a professional outside the school. This may be from:

• Local Authority central services such as the ASD Outreach Team or Sensory Service (for students with a hearing or visual need)
• Outside agencies such as the Speech and Language therapy (SALT) Service.

For your child this would mean:

• The school (or you) can request that the Local Authority carry out a statutory assessment of your child’s needs. This is a legal process which sets out the amount of support that will be provided for your child.
• After the school have sent in the request to the Local Authority (with detailed information about your child, including some from you), they will decide whether they think your child’s needs (as described in the paperwork provided), seem complex enough to need a statutory assessment. If this is the case they will ask you and all professionals involved with your child to write a report outlining your child’s needs. If they do not think your child needs this, they will ask the school to continue with the support at SEN support.
• The additional adult may be used to support your child with whole class learning, run individual programmes or run small groups including your child.

This type of support is available for children whose learning needs are:

• Severe, complex and lifelong
• Need more than 20 hours of support in school

How will the school let me know if they have any concerns about my child’s learning in the school?

Every pupil’s progress is reviewed continuously at St. Mary’s. This is achieved using an array of methods: from success criteria within every lesson in a formative manner; to the schools formal review cycle, whereby the class teacher meets the Headteacher and the SENDCo and the rest of the senior leadership team on a termly basis to monitor the effectiveness of their teaching and the resultant learning. These Pupil Progress Meetings are the forum to monitor ongoing progress, voice concerns about individual children and agree any action that is needed.

If your child is identified as not making progress the school will set up a meeting to discuss this with you in more detail and to:

•  listen to any concerns you may have too
•  plan any additional support your child may receive
•  discuss with you any referrals to outside professionals to support your child’s learning

How is extra support allocated to children?

• The school budget, received from Hounslow LA, includes money for supporting children with SEND.
• The Head Teacher decides on the budget for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in consultation with the school governors, on the basis of needs in the school.
• The Head Teacher and the SENDCo discuss all the information they have about SEND in the school, and decide what resources/training and support is needed including:
  • the children getting extra support already
  • the children needing extra support
  • the children who have been identified as not making as much progress as would be expected
• All resources/training and support are reviewed regularly and changes made as needed.

Who are the other people providing support to children with an SEND in this school?

The school employs a number of specialist trained teaching assistants, who are regularly sent our on further training to ensure that their subject knowledge is up to date with current practice. The school also works in partnership with an Educational Psychologist via the LA, who works directly with children as well as advising the staff.

Provided and paid for by the Health Service (Central and North West London NHS Trust) but delivered in school and off site at clinics etc:

• School Nurse
• Occupational Therapy
• Physiotherapy
• CAMHS
• Speech and Language Therapist

How are the teachers in school helped to work with children with SEND and what training do they have?

• The SENDCo’s job is to support the class teacher in planning for children with SEND.
• The school has a training plan for all staff to improve the teaching and learning of children including those with SEND. This includes whole school training on SEND issues such as ASD and Speech and language difficulties.
• Individual teachers and support staff attend training courses run by outside agencies and professionals that are relevant to the needs of specific children in their class.

How will we measure the progress of your child in school?

• Your child’s progress is continually monitored by his/her class teacher.
• His/her progress is reviewed formally every term within a pupil progress meeting with the school’s Senior Leadership Team.
• If your child is in Year 1 and above, but is not yet at National Curriculum levels, a more sensitive assessment tool is used which shows their level in more detail and will also show smaller but significant steps of progress.
• At the end of Key Stage Two (Year 6) all children are required to be formally assessed using Standard Assessment Tests (SATS). This is something the government requires all schools to do and are the results that are published nationally. There is also a statutory Phonics Test in Year 1, which assesses children’s understanding and progress with phonics (awareness of sounds). If the children do not reach the expected level in Year 1, they are tested again in Year 2 to see if the support the school has put in place has had an impact. There is also a statutory Multiplication Check in Year 4.
• Children that have specific needs are given an IEP (individual action plan,) which has very specific targets which are linked to their needs. The progress of children with a statement of SEND/ EHC Plan is formally reviewed at an Annual Review with all adults involved with the child’s education invited.
• The SENDCo will also check that your child is making good progress within any individual work and in any group that they take part in.

What support do we have for you as a parent of child with an SEND?

• The class teacher is regularly available (at the end of the school day,) to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns you may have and to share information about what is working well at home and school so similar strategies can be used.
• The SENDCo is available to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns/worries you may have.
• All information from outside professionals will be discussed with you with the person involved directly, or where this is not possible, in a report.
• IEP’s will be reviewed with your involvement each term.
• Homework will be adjusted as needed to your child’s individual needs.
• Every effort will be made to ensure that communication is as open and honest as possible to support families of child with SEND.

 How is St. Mary’s School accessible to children with SEND?

• St. Mary's is a three story premises with no lift access due to the age of the building. As a result of this there is no access for wheelchairs above the ground floor, which has access ramps via the main entrance. 
• We provide a broad, balanced and inclusive curriculum for all pupils, particularly pupils with special educational needs or disabilities.
• After school provision is accessible to all children including those with SEND.
• Extra-curricular activities are accessible for children with SEND.