Most children and young people in mainstream schools will have their special educational needs met through good classroom practice. This is called Quality First Teaching.
Early Identification of Need
In deciding whether to make special education provision to support educational, social, physical or emotional needs, we:
- Staff or parents make observations of the child should they feel the child may be experiencing difficulties or challenges in which they feel the child may require assessment or some kind of additional support.
- Discussion about observations would take place between staff, parents/ carers and the SENco and way forward to support would be discussed. At this point in the process a Short Note would be created.
- Where required the SENco would make referrals to relevant agencies.
- Assessment would be carried out and shared with staff and parents/carers
- Following assessments or observations the SENco would create an agreed Support Plan with specific outcomes for the child.
- Intervention groups may be required or therapy from other agencies may be put in place.
- In the early stages this would be continuously reviewed between staff, parents/carers and other professionals. This is a continual and active process of review, ensuring that we do our best to provide quality provision for the SEN pupils allowing barriers to be removed in order to help them achieve their outcomes.
SEN Support
Where a pupil is identified as having a special educational need we follow a graduated approach which takes the form of cycles of “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.
This means that we will:
- Assess a child’s special educational needs
- Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes
- Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes
- Review the support and progress
As part of this approach every child with SEN will have an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs. Parents/carers and child/YP (where appropriate) views are integral to the this process.
A small percentage of children and young people with significant and/or complex needs may require an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer
Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEN
We have our own school assessments for all curricular areas in line with the National Curriculum standards and expectations. Where we feel children have additional needs or specific difficulties we also use a range of professionals to carry out appropriate assessments – with parental permission.
Within school we have a profile system of recording information and assessments on children with SEND. In each child’s profile there is a chronology of observations, assessments, discussions and plans.
As a school we have an attainment and progress system of recording, this is a beneficial way of showing the progress of all children including those with SEND. We use these systems to review and measure outcomes set on support plans.
At Ramshaw Primary School, we have an ‘Open Door’ policy which allows parents to express any concerns they have about their children. In addition to this:
- we hold termly open afternoons
- we hold termly SEND support plan reviews
- our school website shows the relevant contacts
All children at Ramshaw Primary School receive Quality First teaching and each class has the support of a Teaching Assistant- all children remain in class for all lessons so that they can access this support, activities and resources are differentiated accordingly so they can access the curriculum. Children that are identified as SEND receive regular, weekly interventions linked to their personal outcomes- these take place outside of lesson times. CPD is offered to staff to ensure that they are confident to deliver and support in these sessions.
Where a pupil is identified as having a special educational need we follow a graduated approach which takes the form of cycles of “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.
This means that we will:
- Assess a child’s special educational needs
- Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes
- Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes
- Review the support and progress
As part of this approach, every child with SEN will have an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs.
Parents/carers and child/YP (where appropriate) views are integral to this process; their permission is sought for all assessments to be carried out and there is early meetings to discuss any observations or concerns from both parties. Meetings are held with parents, schools and outside agencies either prior to or following assessments and interventions. When the child begins a Support Plan this is done alongside the parent and child and review meetings are held termly.
Planning for children with SEND begins with considering the advice given from any professionals that the child is involved with. All information is shared with teaching staff so that they can use this to plan their lessons to meet the child’s individual needs. Interventions are planned on the same basis.
We believe that inclusive education means that we need to provide all pupils with appropriate education and support alongside their peers. The Curriculum is all the planned activities that the school organises in order to promote learning, personal growth and development. It includes not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but also the range of additional opportunities that the school organises in order to enrich the experiences of our children. Our curriculum also includes the social aspects that are essential for life-long learning. Children with SEN who are undertaking tests and exams are given additional processing time, adult readers or a familiar adult to keep them calm and focused.
In every staff meeting a discussion about SEND children take place so that staff can share relevant and up to date information. All staff have a termly SEN support plan review meeting, where staff review outcomes following assessments, evaluations of interventions and observations. This helps to evaluate the impact of the provision and set new outcomes or carry out further assessments on a child. We are such a small school, all staff are involved with all children so they are able to understand and be sensitive to their needs.
At Ramshaw Primary school we follow the ‘Restorative Approach’ as outlined in our behavior policy – the language used is differentiated and additional time can be given to children who find reflecting on their actions or the actions of others a challenge.
We make appropriate adjustments and adaptations in line with the children’s individual needs: as outlined in our Accessibility Policy. For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.
