SEN Information
At Harcourt Primary School we work tirelessly to enable all children to achieve well at school. In order to do this many steps are taken to support them through their learning journey. Quality first teaching is vital; however for some children there are occasions when further additional support may be needed to help them achieve their targets.
At Harcourt Primary School all staff take responsibility for inclusion under the leadership of Mrs O’Connor toconnor@harcourt.kent.sch.uk. We also have a dedicated and experienced SEN team who provide specialist support including Mrs Hughes – Learning Mentor and ASD Champion and our team of experienced SEN Teaching Assistants. Our Inclusion Governor is Mrs Wendy Settle.
Children and Families Bill 2013
The Children and Families Bill takes forward the Government’s commitments to improve services for vulnerable children and support families. It underpins wider reforms to ensure that all children and young people can succeed, no matter what their background. The Bill has reformed the systems for adoption, looked after children, family justice and special educational needs.
The Government has transforming the system for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN), including those who are disabled, so that services consistently support the best outcomes for them. The Bill extends the SEN system from birth to 25, giving children, young people and their parents/carers greater control and choice in decisions, and ensuring needs are properly met.
It takes forward the reform programme set out in Support and Aspiration: A new approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability: Progress and next steps by:
- Replacing statements and learning difficulty assessments with a new birth- to-25 Education, Health and Care Plan, extending rights and protections to young people in further education and training and offering families personal budgets so that they have more control over the support they need.
- Improving cooperation between all the services that support children and their families and particularly requiring Local Authorities and Health Authorities to work together.
- Requiring Local Authorities to involve children, young people and parents in reviewing and developing provision for those with special educational needs and to publish a ‘local offer’ of support.
What is the Local Offer?
The Local Offer was first introduced in the Green Paper (March 2011) as a local offer of all services available to support disabled children and children with SEN and their families. This easy to understand information sets out what is normally available in schools to help children with lower-level SEN as well as the options available to support families who need additional help to care for their child.
Parents can find this information by clicking here.
What does it do?
The Kent framework allows the Local Offer to provide parents/carers with information about how to access services in their area, and what they can expect from those services. With regard to Education, it will let parents/carers and young people know how school and colleges will support them, and what they can expect across the local settings. During the last year, the Local Offer Steering Group has developed questions for schools, and trialled them with a small number of settings.
There are 13 questions, devised in consultation with parents/carers and other agencies, which reflect their concerns and interests. These will be answered by agencies, schools and colleges to provide information to parents and carers to enable them to make decisions about how to best support their child’s needs.
How does Harcourt know if children need extra help?
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0-25 years 2014 makes it clear that “all teachers are teachers of pupils with special educational needs”.
We know when pupils need extra help if:
- Concerns are raised by parents/carers, teachers, teaching assistants or the pupil’s previous school
- There is a lack of required progress
- Attainment is below national expectations
- There is a change in the pupil’s behaviour
- A pupil asks for help
All evidence is discussed termly in pupil progress meetings, where concerns are raised by the class teacher, teaching assistant, learning mentor with the SENCO Mrs O’Connor.
What should I do if I think my child may have special education needs?
All parents receive annual reports and have an opportunity to meet formally in a parent consultation three times yearly to discuss their child’s progress. The school operates an open door policy and welcomes contributions from parents at any time. If parents have concerns, they can contact either the class teacher or the school’s SENCO Mrs O’Connor.
If a child is identified as not making expected progress, or significantly below age expected attainment, the school will set up a meeting to discuss this with parents in more detail, and to:
- Listen to any concerns parents may have
- Listen to any concerns the child may have
- Plan any additional support the child may need
- Discuss with parents any referrals to outside professionals to support the child’s learning
How will you know how Harcourt will support your child?
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 built 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
- Lessons are differentiated well, and other adults in the class are directed well to support the learning
- Specific strategies are in place to support your child to learn
- Your child’s teacher will monitor their progress and may decide your child has a gap or gaps in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to help them make the best possible progress. In this case an intervention may be planned as an individual or within a group.
Such an intervention may be:
- Bespoke support for the individual need, an established intervention programme from the DFE (Department for Education), Local Authority or specialist teaching services, mentoring through social groups or their “special person” – a contact within the school they choose if they need to talk
- The intervention may be run in the classroom alongside mainstream lessons or in a withdrawal group outside the class
- The intervention may be Teacher, SENCO, HLTA, Learning Mentor or Teaching Assistant led
For some children a small intervention may impact quickly, however others may be identified as in need of ongoing school support and will be put on the Special Educational Needs register.
b) Specialist groups run by outside agencies
If your child cannot progress with additional school support in place, the Class Teacher and SENCO will use further assessment tools to identify their needs. They may then seek permission from you to discuss their learning needs with the relevant agencies: specialist teachers, educational psychology, speech and language etc. The specialist professional will work with your child to understand their needs and make recommendations as to the ways your child is given support in school.
c) Specified Individual support
This type of support is available for children whose learning needs are severe, complex and lifelong. This is usually provided via a Statement of Special Educational Needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). This means your child will have been identified by professionals as needing a particularly high level
of individual or small group teaching. This type of support is available for children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through Quality First Teaching and intervention. Your child will need specialist support in school from a professional outside the school, details of this will be specific to your child’s needs and identified in their (EHC Plan). Obtaining an EHC Plan is for the most severely affected 2.8% of pupils, the majority of whom have complex needs and many of whom seek places in Special Schools. The 26 week process of assessment and final decision to award an EHC Plan entails information-gathering from
children, parents and professionals, including school. All parents have the right to appeal if they disagree with the outcome of such statutory assessment.
How will the curriculum be matched to my child's needs?
Adaptations may take the form of additional or adapted equipment, small group or individual work, learning mentor, talk partners, alternative recording methods and writing frames or specialised ICT equipment.
Whilst additional adults are used to support pupils, the school monitors their use closely to avoid children becoming over-reliant on adult support and to encourage children to be self-reliant and independent, thus preparing them for the next steps in their education. Children’s views on their learning and activities are sought throughout.
How will I know how my child is doing?
- Regular meetings with the SENCO and Learning Mentor
- Annual reports
- Drop-in session with class teacher and SENCO
- Parent consultation meetings
- Reports from outside agencies where appropriate
- Meetings with external agencies where appropriate
- Open door policy
How will you help me to support my child's learning?
- The class teacher, SENCO or Learning Mentor may suggest strategies to practice at home
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) termly parent workshops
- Ongoing speech and language parent workshops
- Maths cafés
- English cafés
- Homework presentations
- Targets on reports
- Targets from external agencies
What support will there be for my child's overall well-being?
Our school has a range of policies regarding Safeguarding, Child Protection, Safer Recruitment, Equal Opportunities, Assessment, Behaviour Management, Administration of Medicines, together with Risk Assessments, Accessibility Plans and SEND to keep our children safe and well. These are all accessible on the website.
Our SENCO and Learning Mentor offer support to both parents and children regarding social and emotional well-being.
Social skills and play groups are run as needed to support children to settle into school and make friends. Children identified as not engaging fully in school life through observation in class or at play, or who raise any concerns, are discussed on a termly basis as with those that show learning difficulties.
External specialist support is sought for any child who continues to cause concern at home or at school through accessing specialist teaching services and therapy group support. External counselling services are purchased by the school when needed.
Some children may be eligible for bespoke counselling which the school funds and can access through CHATs.
Children with medical needs
All staff receive regular epipen, asthma and diabetic training.
Where necessary and in agreement with parents/carers, medicines are administered by the qualified first aider Mrs Fender. This can only be accessed with signed parental consent and prescription medicines in original packaging.
What specialist services and expertise are available or accessed by the school?
What training are the staff supporting children and young people with SEND receiving or have received?
- The SENCO is completing the National Accreditation for SENCOs
- The Learning Mentor is ASD trained
- All staff receive speech and language INSET
- Ongoing behaviour management INSET for all staff
- SENCO ADHD trained
- Individual teachers and TAs attend training courses run by outside agencies that are relevant to the needs of specific children in their class
- The SENCO attends local forums with specialist teaching services, other SENCOs and Inclusion Managers and County representatives, to stay abreast of best practice, national initiatives and local pilot schemes
- The Head teacher and SENCO are E safety ambassadors
- SENCO, FLO, Deputy Headteacher and Head teacher are child protection trained
- By external experts
- All staff receive annual child protection INSET and additional training as needed.
How will my child be included in activities outside the classroom including educational visits?
All pupils are eligible to participate in activities, events and educational visits. Risk assessments are carried out and procedures are put
in place to enable all pupils to participate fully.
How accessible is the school environment?
How will the school prepare and support my child when joining Harcourt or transferring to a new school?
If your child is moving child to another school:
- We will contact the school SENCO and ensure he/she knows about any special arrangements or support that need to be made for your child
- We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible
- We will arrange meetings where needed between key staff to share best practice
- Where a child has a Statement or EHC Plan, additional transition meetings are drawn up and changes agreed in a formal meeting to protect their provision at transition.
When moving classes in school:
- Information will be passed on to the new class teacher in advance and a planning meeting will take place with the new teacher and the SENCO
- Provision maps and successful strategies are shared with the new teacher
- If your child needs extra support the Inclusion Manager will work with them individually.
In Year 6:
- The SENCO will discuss the specific needs of your child with relevant staff at their secondary school. Where special schools and special units are involved a further meeting with parents is usually arranged
- Your child will do focused learning about aspects of transition to support their understanding of the changes ahead
- Where possible your child will visit their new school on several occasions and in some cases staff from the new school will visit your child in this school
- The school may access extra support from STLS if felt appropriate.
Service Children:
- Service children are particularly vulnerable in transition and a PIP (Pupil Information Profile) is completed on their transfer to highlight key information regarding their learning behaviours and needs. This profile highlights best approaches to support them in the classroom and their most recent assessments.
How are the school's resources allocated and matched to children's special educational needs?
The additional provision may be allocated after discussion with external agencies, during Pupil Progress Meetings, or after discussion with parents/carers.
For pupils with a very high level of need, Harcourt can apply for Top up Funding as from April 2015.
How is the decision made about how much support my child will receive?
- Recommendations from specialists
- Stated in an EHC
- Requested by parents/carers
- Agreed during Pupil Progress Meetings
Parents are informed if their child is receiving additional support each term.
