Gearies Primary school

SEND Vision

December 2020

1. Gearies Primary school is proud to champion inclusive teaching and learning and we accept our responsibility to meet the needs of all children, irrespective of their starting points in order to support effective progress in learning.

1. We offer a broad and balanced curriculum that was designed to meet the needs of our community and to reflect the interests and backgrounds of all children.

1. Every teacher is a teacher of special needs, offering unconditional professional love for each child in their care. 

1. Our model of staff commitment to meeting the needs of each child: offering unconditional professional love for each child, the acceptance that each child in your care is your responsibility, the willingness to do what it takes to meet each child’s needs, the acceptance of responsibility for each child’s outcomes measured as relevant educational progress.

1. We endeavour to meet parental needs but only when it is practical to do so and in the best interests of the child.

Special Educational Needs (SEN) information report

Gearies Primary School has 841 pupils aged 3-11. It is a state-maintained school in the London Borough of Redbridge.  We are an inclusive school and strive to support all children irrespective of their needs to enable them to make the best possible progress and achieve well.  We provide support to the following range of SEN needs:

• communication and interaction including children with Autism
• learning
• social, emotional and mental health difficulties
• sensory needs including hearing impairment, visual impairment, multi sensory impairment and physical needs.

Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO)

Lucy Seal

Contact via the class teacher or school office

Telephone 020 85501803

Expertise and training of school staff

The school has a team of teachers and support staff who are trained to support children with a wide range of needs.

The SEN co-ordinator has an MA in equality and diversity in education and the NASEN SENCO award. The SEN Teacher has an ELKAN level 3 supporting language and learning for 5-11 year olds qualification. Four members of the learning support practitioners have NVQs (or equivalent) in Learning Support and Special Needs. Members of staff are able to use Makaton and assistive communication systems.

External specialist expertise

The school can request advice and support from a range of other different Local Authority funded services:

• Early Years Advisory Service offers assessment and support for children at the Foundation Stage (nursery and reception classes) who have a wide range of different needs.
• Educational Psychology Service helps with a broad range of issues.
• Specialist Education and Teacher Support Service (SEATSS) offer assessment and support for children from Year 1 to Year 6 who have a wide range of needs including hearing impairments, social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, physical difficulties and cognition and learning difficulties.
• Joseph Clarke Service for Visually Impaired Children offers advice to children with visual impairment.
• A speech and language therapist is allocated to the school by the Local Authority and health services.  All children who are school aged (in full time education) and have an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) have their speech and language needs met through the school-based therapist, other children can be referred by their GP or school and once seen they will be supported by school staff.  Nursery children are seen by therapists at the speech and language clinic in the borough.
• An occupational therapist is allocated to the school by the Local Authority and health services. All children who are school aged (in full time education) will have their functional needs met through the school-based therapist.

Identification and assessment of pupils with special educational needs

There are many ways that the school identifies pupils requiring additional support:

• a child may have already been identified through pre- school provision e.g., by speech and language therapy service, Educational Psychology service, pre- school services, and health professionals.
• concerns raised by a parent/carer either before their child starts school or whilst their child is at school
• concerns raised by the class teacher over the child’s rates of progress and attainment or their ability to access the curriculum
• the impact of a disability on a child’s learning e.g. physical disability

The SENCO is the initial point of contact for a pre- school child or a child transferring from another school who may have additional needs. Parents are welcome to visit the school and to discuss their child’s needs as well as have a tour of the school to view provision.   Once the child is at school, parents can approach their child’s class teacher at any time if they are worried that their child may have additional needs. Class teachers share these concerns with the SENCO. The SENCO and class teacher begin gathering information about the child and carry out observations and assessments and will put some interventions in place for between 8 and 10 weeks. Once the intervention has been run the class teacher and SENCO will analyse the progress the child has made and decide whether the progress is what is expected, if progress is less there will be discussions around the possibility of the child having additional needs. At this point parents will be invited to meet the SENCO to help with identifying their child’s special needs. The class teacher and SENCO offers advice to the parents on how to help home with any aspect of their child’s needs or may refer them to other professionals for assessments e.g speech and language therapist, schools’ Educational Psychologist. If a child requires provision that goes beyond the differentiated approaches and learning arrangements normally provided as part of our high quality, personalised learning, a plan of support is developed which is reviewed termly with parents/carers.  This plan is known as an individual education plan.

Involving parents and carers

We recognise the importance of working in partnership with parents. Parents hold key information and have knowledge and experience to contribute to the shared view of a child's needs and the best ways of supporting them. All parents of pupils with special educational needs will be treated as partners and supported to play an active and valued role in their child’s education.

We will always tell parents when their child is receiving help for their special educational needs and will involve them fully in planning and reviewing any SEN provision.  Children have termly reviews of their progress. Parents and other support services are invited to these reviews.

A child’s class teacher will work closely with parents at all stages in his/her education and if parents have concerns their first port of call should be the class teacher.

Parents of any pupil identified with SEN may contact the Parents in Partnership Service of Redbridge for independent support and advice on 020 8551 7333.

Involving children

Pupils and young people with special educational needs often have a unique knowledge of their own needs and circumstances and their own views about what sort of help they would like to help them make the most of their education. They are encouraged to participate in the decision-making processes, including the setting and evaluation of targets. We have different approaches to help SEN pupils to express their views. 

Our approach to teaching children with SEN

It is the needs of the child which determine the approaches used. We design the programme of support around the child using a variety of multi-method approaches. 

Adapting the curriculum and learning environment for pupils with SEN

Children with SEN are entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum. Class teachers make the appropriate adaptations to the curriculum and learning environment to enable pupils with SEN to access learning opportunities and experience success alongside their peers. Teachers have a clear understanding of the needs of the SEN pupils in their class and know a range of strategies that can be utilised to support pupils. They are able to draw on the expertise of the SENCO, Outreach teachers and professionals from other external agencies for advice as needed. 

Additional support for learning available to pupils with SEN

The SENCO ensures that the school provides a range of intervention programmes to address the needs of groups of pupils and individual pupils within the school.

Some interventions are delivered by trained SEND practitioners under the direction of the teacher and/or the SENCO. Other interventions are delivered by teachers and instructors. The school-based speech and language therapist works closely with school staff to ensure that we address the needs of our pupils with language and communication needs effectively.

Some pupils are supported in class for part of the school day by a SEND practitioner, either individually or in a small group. These pupils continue to have the same opportunities as their peers for learning in a group with the class teacher and the teacher remains responsible for their progress. SEND practitioners understand the need to develop independence in the pupils with whom they work, and support is only assigned when it is needed.

Additional support for improving emotional and social development

The school has a range of different ways of improving children’s emotional and social development. Children’s well-being is at the heart of our curriculum.

We address the emotional and social needs of children through classroom teaching  by individual or group interventions as appropriate. It is important to listen to children’s views about their experiences in school and we use a range of ways to give children with SEN opportunities to express any concerns or worries.

Assessment and review of the progress of pupils with SEN

We have robust tracking systems for monitoring the progress of all our pupils, including those with SEN. Pupil progress conferences are held termly which are attended by the class teacher, SENCO and assessment coordinator. We assess the child’s needs, deliver appropriate intervention and support, review progress in order to ensure that we match provision closely to each child’s needs and to ensure progress.

The progress of SEN pupils in relation to the outcomes in their Education, Health and Care Plan are reviewed annually. A child’s objectives or outcomes are broken down into smaller steps and recorded on the child’s Individual Education Plan. These shorter-term targets are reviewed at least termly. We involve the child and family fully in the planning and review process.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of its provision for pupils with SEN

The effectiveness of provision is tracked in different ways according to the nature of the support:

• intervention programmes which are time-limited are evaluated at the end of the delivery. If there is no evidence that an intervention is effective, we will either adapt the intervention to more closely meet the child’s needs or we will plan a different type of support.
• termly reviews take place with class teachers, Parents, SENCO and children (if appropriate) to evaluate provision.
• school progress reviews (at least twice a year)
• information gathered through observations, conversations with staff who are involved with the child, parents and pupil views.
• assessments from other support services

The success of the education offered to children with SEN is judged against the aims of the SEN policy. The SEN policy is reviewed annually.

Transition

Advanced planning for pupils in Year 5 is essential to allow a smooth transition to secondary school. The SENCO liaises with the SENCO of the Secondary School to ensure that effective arrangements are in place to support pupils at the time of transfer.

Equipment and facilities

The school is mainly single storey, the upper key stage 2 (Y5 and Y6) classes are in a 3 storey building but is accessible to all children with the use of a lift for those that are unable to climb stairs. There is a toilet for children with physical disabilities which includes a changing area for children with medical needs.  The school has a small sensory room. There are rooms which are distraction free which children can work in if they need to. The school also has a Haven room which is used for children who are struggling to learn within the mainstream classroom, the aim of the haven is to help children learn the routines and expectations of larger classroom environments in a quieter space, use of the haven is only short term with the aim that children will develop the skills needed to return to their actual classroom. The school has an Accessibility plan which addresses how the school makes adaptations to the building to meet the needs of children with disabilities. There is an annual allocation funds to buy equipment.

The school ensures that all activities within the school are accessible to all children irrespective of their disabilities. School trips are carefully planned to ensure that they are inclusive for all children.  The school provides additional adult support if necessary and parents are fully included in the planning of a trip. 

Complaints procedures

The school has complaints procedures for any complaints from parents with special educational needs concerning the provision made at school. Parents can request a copy of the procedures. It is the Local Authority who has to agree that an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC) is required for a child. Schools or parents can request that the Local Authority carries out an assessment for an EHC plan.