Miss Holmes – Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator

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Miss Holmes is our Special Education Needs and Disabilities Co-Ordinator.(SENDCO). She ensures that all children, regardless of their needs receive the same high-quality education as every other single child in the school. If you would like to discuss your child’s educational needs, please ask to speak to her.

To contact Miss Holmes, please use the following details.

01482 761323

You can find more details of the Local Authority (LA) based Local Offer by clicking here

All Delta schools have a similar approach to meeting the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities and are supported by the Local Authority to ensure that all pupils, regardless of their specific needs, make the best possible progress in school. All schools are supported to be as inclusive as possible, with the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities being met in a mainstream setting wherever possible. All staff referenced in the document can be contacted via the academy office.

PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS/ AND OR DISABILITIES IN THIS SCHOOL

Class Teacher is responsible for:

  • Ensuring that all children have access to effective teaching and that the curriculum is adapted to meet your child’s individual needs (also known as differentiation).
  • Checking on the progress of your child regularly and identifying, planning and delivering any additional help your child may need (this could be things like targeted work, additional support, adapting resources etc..) and discussing strategies with the SENCO as necessary
  • .Ensuring that all members of staff working with your child in school (for example TAs, music teachers, lunchtime supervisors) are aware of your child’s individual needs and/or conditions and what specific adjustments need to be made to enable them to be included and make progress. It is the teacher’s job to oversee this and ensure your children’s needs are being met at all times.
  • Ensuring that all staff working with your child in the academy are supported in delivering the planned work/programme for your child, so they can achieve the best possible progress. This may involve the use of additional adults, outside specialist help and specially planned work and resources. Ensuring that the school’s SEND Policy is followed in their classroom and for all the pupils they teach with any SEND.

SENCO: Miss Holmes is responsible for:

• Coordinating all the support for children with special educational needs (SEN) and or disabilities and developing the academy SEND Policy to make sure all children get a consistent, high quality learning environment.

Ensuring that you are:
• involved in supporting your child’s learning
• kept informed about the support your child is getting
• involved in reviewing how they are doing
• part of planning ahead for them

She will also be

• Liaising with all the other people who may be coming into the setting to help support your child’s learning e.g. The Speech and Language Therapy Service, The Educational Psychologist, Northcott Autism Outreach Service, The School Nurse and feeding this information back to you.
• Updating the school’s SEND record of need, (a system for ensuring all the special educational, disabilities, physical and sensory needs of pupils in this school are known and understood) and making sure that there are excellent records of your child’s progress and barriers to learning.
• To provide specialist support for teachers and support staff in the setting so they can help your child (and other pupils with SEN and/or disabilities) to achieve their potential
.• Supporting your child’s class teacher to write Learning Passports.
• Organising training for staff so they are aware and confident about how to meet the needs of your child and others within our setting.

Head of Academy: Mrs Hartmann is responsible for:

  • The day to day management of all aspects of the academy, this includes the support for children with SEN and/or disabilities. She will give responsibility to the SENCO and class teachers but is still responsible for ensuring that your child’s needs are met. She must make sure that the Academy Advisory Board is kept up to date about any issues in the school relating to SEND.

AAB Member: Lisa Chalmers is responsible for:

  • Making sure that the academy has an up to date SEND Policy.
  • Making sure that the setting has appropriate provision and has made necessary adaptations to meet the needs of all children in the school
  • Making sure that the necessary support is made for any child who attends the setting who has SEN and/or disabilities
  • Making visits to understand and monitor the support given to children with SEND in the academy and being part of the process to ensure your child achieves his/her potential during their time at the academy.

How can my child get help at the academy?

Children in the setting will get support that is specific to their individual needs. This may be all provided by the class teacher or may involve:

  • Other staff in the setting
  • Staff who will visit from the Local Authority central services such as the Educational Psychologist, ASD Outreach Team (Northcott) or Integrated Physical and Sensory Service (IPASS)
  • Staff who visit from outside agencies such as the Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) Service.

What are the different types of support available for children with SEN and /or disabilities in this academy? Class teacher input via quality classroom teaching.

  • The teacher will have the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class.
  • All teaching is based on building on what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
  • Putting in place different ways of teaching so that your child is fully involved in learning in class. This may involve things like using more practical learning or providing different resources adapted for your child.
  • Putting in place specific strategies (which may be suggested by the SENCO or staff from outside agencies) to enable your child to access the learning task. All children in school receive this.

Specific small group work. This group work may be:

  • Run in the classroom or outside.
  • Run by a teacher or (most often) a Teaching Assistant who has had training to run these groups. These are often called Intervention groups by schools.
  • Your child’s teacher will have carefully checked on your child’s progress and will have decided that your child has gaps in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to close the gap between your child and their peers.
  • He/ She will plan group sessions for your child with targets to help your child to make more progress.
  • A TA will run these small group sessions using the teacher’s plans, or a recommended programme from an outside agency.
  • This additional support will take the form of a continuous “assess, plan, do review” cycle. This means that interventions are revisited, revised and evaluated to ensure that your child is able to receive the most effective support and guidance in order to make progress. 
  • Where a child continues to make less than expected progress, despite interventions and support being put in place, the school may consider contacting specialist support from outside agencies.
  • Any child who has specific gaps in their understanding of a subject/area of learning. Some of the children accessing intervention groups may be at the stage of the SEND Code of Practice called SEN support which means they have been identified by the class teacher as needing some extra support in school.

They may access specialist groups ran by outside agencies

Specialist support may include but is not limited to:

  • Speech and Language therapy (SALT) Service.
  • Northcott (ASD support)
  • School Nurse
  • Educational Psychologist
  • Tweendykes Outreach support
  • IPASS – Integrated Physical and Sensory Service
  • If your child has been identified as needing more specialist input instead of or in addition to highly effective class room teaching and intervention groups, referrals will be made to outside agencies to advise and support the setting in enabling your child to make progress.
  • Before referrals are made you will be asked to come to a meeting to discuss your child’s progress and help plan possible ways forward. If it is agreed that the support of an outside agency is a way forward, you will be asked to give your permission for the academy to refer your child to a specialist professional e.g. a Speech and Language Therapist or Educational Psychologist. This will help the academy and yourself understand your child’s particular needs better.
  • The specialist professional will work with your child to understand their needs and make recommendations, which may include: – Making changes to the way your child is supported in class e.g. some individual support or changing some aspects of teaching to support them better – Support to set targets which will include their specific professional expertise – Your child’s involvement in a group run staff under the guidance of the outside professional e.g. a social skills group or clever fingers group – Group or individual work with an outside professional
  • The setting may suggest that your child needs some agreed individual support or group support in the setting. They will tell you how the support will be used and what strategies will be put in place.
  • The Assess-Plan-Do-Review cycle will continue with the support of outside agencies.
  • In some cases, a child may continue to not make progress. In this case, a Person Centred Planning (PCP) meeting will be called with parents/carers, key staff, outside agencies and the child. The child will be Children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through effective whole class teaching and intervention groups