SEND Provision

At Hartside Primary Academy School life is shaped by our school vision – ‘helping every child progress and succeed’. To this end, we ensure all pupils, regardless of their needs, make the best possible progress they can. We have experience of supporting children and young people with a wide range of needs including:

Communication and Interaction

• Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SCLN)
• Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC)

Cognition and Learning

• Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD)
• Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD)

Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties

• Mental Health Difficulties
• Social and Emotional Needs

Sensory and/or Physical Difficulties

• Gross and Fine Motor Needs
• Sensory Processing Needs
• Hearing Impairments
• Visual Impairments
• Physical Disability
• Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

The school provides data on the levels and types of need to the Local Authority. This is collected through the school census.

Our approach to teaching children/young people with SEN

Hartside Primary Academy prides itself on its vision ‘helping every child progress and succeed’ by shaping our school life to enable each child (and adult) to flourish and achieve.

Hartside Primary Academy is an inclusive school. We support all pupils to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of our school life; not only academic, but moral, social, cultural and spiritual too. Our curriculum includes not only the formal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum/National Curriculum, but a wide range of additional opportunities which enrich the experiences of our pupils. The curriculum also includes the social aspects that are essential for life-long learning, personal growth, the development of independence and citizenship. By encouraging independence at all age and ability levels, we endeavour to develop confidence, improve self-esteem and promote enthusiasm in all our pupils.

How we adapt the curriculum and learning environment for children and young people with SEN

All pupils follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum/National Curriculum at a level and a pace that is appropriate to their abilities. When it is appropriate to do so, we may adopt inclusive practices in order to meet the needs of individual pupils. Some of the actions we may take to achieve this are:

• Quality First Teaching
• A range of different teaching and learning styles
• A range of whole class, group and 1:1 teaching
• Scaffolded support or differentiated teaching, materials and resources
• Additional support in class or out of class
• Access to technology
• Ensuring that teaching staff are aware of and sensitive to the needs of all pupils; teaching pupils in a way that is more appropriate to their needs.
• To make suitable provision for children with SEND to fully develop their abilities, interests and aptitudes and gain maximum access to the curriculum.
• Ensure that all children with SEND are fully included in all activities of the school in order for them to reach their full potential.
• To promote self-worth and enthusiasm by encouraging independence at all age and ability levels.
• To give every child the entitlement to a sense of achievement.
• To work in partnership with parents/carers, pupils and relevant external agencies in order to provide for children’s special educational needs and disabilities.
• To identify at the earliest opportunity, all children that need special consideration to support their needs (whether these are educational, social, physical or emotional).
• To regularly review the policy, procedures and practice in order to achieve best practice.

More details on how we adapt teaching and learning, our environment and curriculum can be found in the Accessibility Plan, which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.
Policies and Procedures

How we adapt the curriculum and learning environment for children and young people with SEN

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:

• Work in partnership with parents/carers, pupils
• Consult with relevant external agencies
• Use assessment tools & materials
• Use observations
• Use Short Notes

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

Termly assessment is carried out by staff who work together to moderate children’s work. This moderation is supported by the Local Authority and trust on a regular basis. The school uses a tracking system to analyse data and to identify gaps in children’s learning and to plan appropriate intervention when required. Different children require different levels of support/intervention to fulfil their potential.

As a school we see parents as partners in their child’s educational journey. In this case, we work together with parents/carers and young children/person and education, health and social care professionals to design an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs.  Parents/carers and child/young person views are integral to this process.

School staff may initially identify a concern. The class teacher alongside the SENCO will discuss the child’s needs and a meeting with parents/carers and/or the child/young person would be arranged at the earliest opportunity. During this meeting, a Short Note would be completed with agreed outcomes for the child/young person and next steps.

The next steps may require the involvement of specialist support or advice, for example Educational Psychology, SENDIASS (Parents Advice and Support Service) or another education, health and social care professional. It is important to understand that the involvement of professionals does not always seek to label or diagnose, but to seek advice and strategies to enable a child/young person to reach their full potential.

As part of this approach, every child with SEN will have an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes and provision to meet those needs. Parents/carers and child/young person views are integral to 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 (EHCP).

The purpose of an EHCP is to make special educational provision to meet special educational needs of the child or young person, to secure the best possible outcomes for them across education (SEND Code of Practice p.142). It is a legal document that describes a child or young person’s special educational, health and social care needs.

For more detailed information see the Local Offer:
http://www.durham.gov.uk/localoffer

Details of identification and assessment of pupils with SEN

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. As a school we measure children’s progress in learning against National expectations and age-related expectations. The class teacher continually assesses each child and notes areas where they are improving and where further support is needed. Children who are not making expected progress are identified and a discussion takes place concerning why individual children are experiencing difficulty and what further support can be given to aid their progression. Depending upon their needs, other assessments may be needed. These could include:

• Speech Therapy Assessments – which may focus on sound production, language understanding, or other relevant assessments to your child’s needs
• Education Psychology Assessments – which may include memory, understanding, reasoning, logic, and general skills assessments

The outcomes of all assessments are shared with parents and carers at our termly Open Evenings and in your child’s School Report. If other agencies are invited to work with your child, you will be invited to attend a meeting where the outcomes of these assessments and their next steps will be shared with you.

Your child’s school achievements may be assessed against the levels expected for children who are working on the National Curriculum (i.e. the same as the majority of other children in their year group), or they may be assessed against other measures for children who are not ready to work on National Curriculum Levels (i.e. the steps before the National Curriculum) using the pre-key stage levels or the engagement model.

How children with SEN engage in all activities

By living out our school values/character traits (respect, kindness, empathy, grit, self-control, integrity) we enable all children to engage fully in all aspects of school life. We do not see SEND as a barrier to accessing the full curriculum and ensure that children with SEND are fully included in all activities in order to promote the highest levels of achievement.

To do this, we:

• Ensure that all children with SEN are fully included in all activities of the school in order to promote the highest levels of achievement, for example; ensuring that children with language delay are supported with visual aids and prompts.
• Ensure that all pupils have access to the school curriculum and all school activities, for example; additional adult support to model and support learning.
• Ensure every child has the entitlement to a sense of achievement through celebrating progress with parents, for example: praise, class dojos, awards, messages or phone calls home, school newsletters, assemblies and reflection.
• When planning activities such as visits and trips, SEN children are considered to ensure they can fully participate, for example; staff will visit venues and complete the relevant risk assessments.
• We seek advice, change resources/equipment and access training.

How we evaluate the effectiveness of SEN provision

We continuously ensure the provision has a positive impact on the outcomes for all of our children/young people. We do this in a variety of ways, including:

• Robust evaluation of policy and practice
• Book looks
• SENCO/SLT/Governor monitoring
• Learning walks
• Developmental Drop-Ins
• Coaching
• Performance management
• Feedback from parents
• Other