Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
Dedicated members of staff responsible for SEND are
Miss Douthwaite
Speech and Language
Mrs Brown
Inclusion Leader
To contact our staff, please email info@kingedward.org or call school on 0191 8141455
Identifying Need
When children begin to attend our school in Foundation Stage (either Reception or Nursery classes) a baseline assessment is completed. All of these baseline assessments are overseen by our EY Leader and by our Inclusion Leader and Headteacher.
Assessment, Monitoring and Review
Children moving through the school are continually assessed, as are children joining our school from other places in any school year. When an additional need is identified we will discuss this with parents and carers in the first instance. Advice is sought first within school and then if necessary by working together with other professionals such as an educational psychologist, specialist teacher or support assistant or health professionals. Sometimes, when an additional need is identified, we may invite families in to discuss the need which is presenting itself and complete an Early Help Assessment (EHA) which looks at the bigger picture around how things are going.
Transition
Support is put in place on a case by case basis to aid transition of pupils with additional needs, either between year groups or between schools. Some children need help to transition from activity to activity or to become familiar with a new staff member. We act to support each child through transition on the basis of their need.
Support
We have a variety of means of support for children with additional needs. The support a child accesses will change as they grow and develop and is different for each child. We have support staff in school trained in offering various forms of support for children with a range of academic, social and physical needs. We also welcome and make use of support from specialist outside agencies as appropriate to the need a child presents. We employ the services of an Educational Psychologist who may be involved in assessing a child’s needs. Support for your child will be discussed with you by staff via the SEND assessment and review process.
Emotional and family support
We have a full time Care, Guidance and Support Leader, Mrs Miller, who monitors and supports individual children whenever Mrs Miller, a child, other member of staff or a parent feels there is a need. This could be support with building confidence, friendships, anxiety problems or to help a child through a difficult or stressful period such as bereavement, family split or a the ill health of a family member. Mrs Miller will work with both children and their families to offer an enhanced amount of support across a range of issues.
Academic Support
All children in school receive support to help them achieve and make progress. Children with additional needs are expected to make the same rate of progress as all other children and support will be offered where appropriate to help them to achieve this progress. All children’s academic progress is tracked regularly and this tracking is used to identify needs and deploy support for children’s learning.
Involving Parents
Parents are central to our support for all children and including those with additional needs. Staff in school will seek to involve parents at every opportunity and parent’s views and wishes are sought as part of the SEND review process, as well as inviting parents to be part of all review meetings.
Accessibility
King Edward Primary School enables pupils to access all areas of learning around the site, and all staircases have lifts or evac chairs.
In School
There are lots of staff in school with a range of skills and experiences who can offer support for each child. Staff also regularly work with other professionals to learn new skills and techniques to apply these to better support a child who may have some additional needs.
Out of School
Where we feel that children would benefit from additional work or support outside school we will work with families to identify and support this work.
