Special Educational Needs and Disability
Our SENCO is Mr S. McCluskey
He can be contacted via the school office on 0161 796 0476.
Aims
Our aims for children with SEND are to:
- Identify all children who need special consideration to support their physical, social, emotional or academic development.
- Ensure that these children are given appropriate support to allow every child full access to the National Curriculum in a positive and fulfilling way.
- Ensure that children with SEND are fully included in all activities of the school.
- Involve parents developing a partnership with school, enabling them to participate and to have full confidence in the strategy adopted by the school.
Principles
We seek:
- To provide a broad, balanced and suitably differentiated curriculum relevant to all individual needs.
- To show an understanding that supporting difficulties in learning and / or behaviour as part of a high quality education provision.
- To be aware that any pupil at some time in their education may have special educational needs.
- To promote self-worth and enthusiasm by encouraging independent learning at all age levels.
- To be aware that every child is entitled to a sense of achievement.
- To identify pupils as soon as possible who will need extra resources and / or teaching help within their school career.
- To work in partnership with children’s parents and other external professional agencies to provide for their individual needs.
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How does the school know if a child or young person needs extra help?
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How do you identify children/young people with special educational needs?
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| Information about students is gathered in a wide variety of different methods including;
Reception Baseline Assessments, Foundation Stage Profile assessments, KS1 assessments, WELCOMM assessment for reception children Nursery School reports, visits and teacher input Parental meetings and discussion with nursery staff as part of the transition process. On-going assessment throughout the students’ time at Hollins Grundy Primary School Observations/Interaction with pupils- mentors/counsellors/teachers/non-teaching staff/outside agencies Social Services/Virtual School – Team Around The Family (TAF) meetings Annual review meetings |
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What is the schools approach to teaching children and young people with special educational needs?
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| How are the school’s resources allocated and matched to children’s special educational needs?
How will school staff support a child/young person? Who will oversee and plan the education programme Who will be working with my child/young person, and how often? What will be their role? Who will explain this to me? How are School Governors involved and what are their responsibilities?
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| Hollins Grundy Primary School has a child centred inclusive approach to education. The school is committed to ensuring all students receive a high quality education and realise their academic potential regardless of any challenges they may face. Students with SEND are educated in the class room as part of this inclusive strategy, but will receive intervention and support on a personalised and individual level when necessary.
Statemented students (or those with EHC plans) receive the necessary support as set out in their statement. They have a personalised support programme with focus on their specific needs. This can be through in class support, one to one with a specialist teacher, phonics support, group paired reading scheme, targeted transition work, counselling, strategies to resolve conflict, behaviour management, and use of outside agencies. These support programmes are used for other non-statemented, additional needs students and are offered on a personalised need level. The support programme is overseen by the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) who is also a member of the senior Leadership Team with specific responsibility for different members of staff for the various programmes. Student’s progress and attainment are regularly monitored and reviewed with support being given at faculty and whole school levels dependent upon the need of each student. Parents are informed of any extra support that their child is given and they are given regular feedback as to the progress their child has made. The programme their child is taking is explained to them, the benefits of taking part and their participation is the programme is discussed with parents. Parents have the opportunity to meet with members of staff and discuss the progress and attainment their child is making. Governors have an attainment committee that meets once per term and reviews the progress children are making. There is a link SEND governor who reviews the procedures in school.
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| How will the school adapt the curriculum and learning environment for children and young people with special educational needs? |
| How will the curriculum be matched to my child’s needs?
What are the school’s approaches to differentiation? How will that help my child?
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| Every child has an important role to play in the school community and staff work to remove any barriers that may stop them fulfilling their potential. Wherever possible students with SEND are in mainstream lessons. There has been a significant focus on training for inclusion and active participation and engagement of all children. The Learning Support team works with school to ensure that work is appropriate for the individual needs of each student. The Behaviour Support Team also work with staff to ensure inclusive classroom management strategies.
Children are given support where necessary using a wide variety of support programmes which may involve being withdrawn from lessons. Some of the more vulnerable students will receive support in developing the skills they need through small group intervention. Specialist teaching in small groups or individually for SEND students is also used but on an individual needs basis.
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How is expertise secured for teaching staff and others working with children and young people with special educational needs?
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| Are there specialist staff working at the school and what are their qualifications?
What training do the staff who support children/young people with SEND undertake? What other services does the school access including health, therapy and social care services?
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| The SENCO has completed the National Award for Special Educational Needs training through Manchester Metropolitan University.
We are part of the Bury Primary Learning Collaborative and have regular access to specialist SEND training delivered by Bury Additional Needs Team.
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What additional learning support will be available to children and young people with special educational needs?
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| How is a decision made about what type and how much support a child/young person will receive?
Describe the decision making process? Who will make the decision and on what basis? Who else will be involved? How will parents be involved? How does the school judge whether the support has had an impact?
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| The type of support a student receives depends upon the type and extent of support they need, and the availability of support. Statemented students receive their allocated number of hours and type of support set out in their statement, many receive more than this. All support allocation is provision mapped.
Support is also given dependent upon need which is established through assessments, staff or parental referral, a change in behaviour or through a drop in achievement. The wide variety of support strategies and outside agencies that can be accessed have been set out already in this document. Decisions will be made by the SENCO or in liaison with the relevant staff or agency. Parents are kept informed of progress made by students and of any changes to the programme. As well as achievement tracking by class teachers all identified SEND pupils are additionally tracked by the SENCO. Parental feedback on any support given is sought to judge the impact it has had from a parental perspective. All support programmes are reviewed and the impact they have had on student progress. All programmes are assessed on narrowing the gap in attainment for the individual student and ensuring that they begin to make expected progress. If this is not the case an alternative route is looked for unless the programme is working but needs more time to allow this type of progress to be made. If the support is for a behavioural issue the success criteria will be based around a reduction of negative incidents that impact on the progress of the student. As with academic interventions the key focus will be to reduce barriers to learning with the aim of children being able to make the best progress possible.
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How will the emotional and social development of children and young people with special educational needs be supported and improved?
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| What support will there be for a child’s overall well-being?
What is the pastoral, medical and social support available in the school for a child with SEND? How does the school manage the administration of medicines and provide personal care? What support is there for behaviour, avoiding exclusions and increasing attendance? How will a child be able to contribute his/her views? How will school support a child to do this?
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| There is a comprehensive pastoral system in place at Hollins Grundy Primary School which includes all students. Through the curriculum the aspects of PSHE and Citizenship are covered for all students.
Vulnerable students have access to 1:1 support from the PSA (Parent Support Advisor) or other adults, this allows students to develop their social skills in a safe and supportive environment. Additionally the PSA also runs group interventions and friendship groups to reinforce relationship building skills between children. Hollins Grundy Primary School has a clear rewards and sanctions policy that sets out how students are expected to behave is school the consequences of their actions in both a positive and negative light. Staff work with students who are at risk of exclusion. The reasons behind the risk are addressed and a variety of programmes including, behaviour management and social skills are offered to address the individual’s needs. This team also works closely with the PLC Behaviour Outreach team and Relateen who can provide further support for these students. Students’ views are sought for each of the programmes through pupil voice. This allows the students to feedback on the support they have received and how it could be improved in the future. Additional opportunities are obviously available through Annual Reviews, Parents’ Evening, Open Day etc.
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How will progress of children and young people with special educational needs be assessed and reviewed?
How will those children and their parents take part in any assessment or review?
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| In addition to normal reporting arrangements what opportunities will there be for parents to discuss progress with school staff?
How does the school know how well a child is doing? How will parents know what progress their child should be making? What opportunities will there be for regular parental contact about things that have happened at school? How will school explain to parents how their child’s learning is planned, and how a parent can support learning outside of school? How and when will a parent be involved in planning for their child’s education?
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| A wide range of assessment tools are used at Hollins Grundy including statutory assessments in Reception, Year 1, Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6, NFER tests and regular formative assessments. Students’ progress is shared through a variety of methods: both whole school, subject and class teachers. Students with a Statement of Special Educational Needs have a formal annual review during the school year. The SENCO has regular contact with parents for those with statements and Assess Plan Do Review cycles for SEND children.
All students are regularly assessed and new targets set for continuous progress through and these are feedback to parents formally three times per year. There is also an annual report for all students that reviews progress and attainment and sets goals for students. All support programmes are regularly reviewed throughout the year and students and parents receive feedback about progress and attainment during this period. Parents are welcome to meet with members of staff to review any issues that there may be with the progress and attainment of their child. Meetings with parents often happen on an ad hoc needs basis.
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How will the effectiveness of the schools special educational provision be assessed and evaluated?
How will children and their parents take part in any assessment or review?
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How does the school know how effective its arrangements for children/young people with special educational needs is?
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| All students are monitored through the progress tracking system. These are reviewed by members of the SLT to ensure that progress is made by SEND students. If adequate progress is not being made then interventions are put in place.
Any interventions undertaken are regularly monitored with feedback given to both students and parents on attainment and progress. Students and Parents have the opportunity to give feedback on how they found interventions to enable staff to develop these programmes. As part of the SEND and PP audit and cost effectiveness the value for money for any programmes used are undertaken.
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How can children and young people with special educational needs access the school’s facilities?
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| How accessible is the school environment?
Is the building fully wheelchair accessible? Have there been improvements in the auditory and visual environment? Are there accessible changing and toilet facilities? How does the school communicate with parents whose first language is not English? How will equipment and facilities to support children/young people with special educational needs be secured?
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| Hollins Grundy Primary School has excellent safeguarding procedures embedded to ensure that all students, staff and visitors have a safe environment. The school does have wheelchair access but the school would need to review any application on a case by case basis to determine whether we could accommodate a child’s needs even after reasonable adjustments. There is a disabled toilet on site, with appropriate changing facilities.
The school has all classrooms fitted with interactive boards. Students with both audial and visual impairment are taught at the school and their needs are met on an individual needs basis in liaison with the Bury Sensory Needs Team. Laptops are available for students with SEND as appropriate and a wide range of subject specific aids are used including but not exclusively, different size and coloured balls in Physical Education, different fonts, overlays and larger print/worksheets and books. Hollins Grundy serves an increasingly diverse community and has a small number of different languages spoken. We work closely with Bury Council CLAS team, if necessary, to ensure that parents can have a translator and that letters are translated if required and information is available in different languages. CLAS will work with students in school to help them develop their communication skills and there is a potential to have extra-curricular clubs aimed at supporting these students, as well as support for teachers to develop inclusive practices.
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What activities are available for children and young people with special educational needs in addition to the curriculum?
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| How will a child /young person with SEND be included in activities outside the classroom, including school trips?
Will the child be able to access all of the activities of the school, and how will school assist them to do so? How will school involve parents in planning activities and trips?
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| Hollins Grundy has a fully inclusive policy and students with any form of Special Education Need are fully integrated in all aspects of school life. Students will be supported on a needs basis which may be one to one support with a teacher or TA, specific programme or teaching, small group work, lunchtime support etc.
Students requiring financial assistance are supported on educational trips and visits. We try to ensure that no child should be excluded for issues relating to SEND. Parents are invited in to discuss prospective trips and visits and their feedback is welcomed through individual contact and through parent voice.
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Transition
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| How will the school prepare and support a child/young person to join the school, transfer to a new school, or the next stage of education and life?
What preparation will there be for both the school and a child before he/she joins the school? How will a child be prepared to move onto the next stage? What information will be provided to his/her new school?
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| Hollins Grundy has an extensive transition programme for students. The school holds an open day events and encourages visits during the school day for prospective students and parents. We also invite nursery children to attend whole school Open Days when they are scheduled, and school events in the summer term including fairs and Performances.
Once students have been accepted at Hollins Grundy the transition visits to all pre-school providers occur. At these meetings The Reception teacher meets with staff and collects information with regards to the development of the child in all areas of The EYFS. The SENCO will attend the annual review or other meetings for any statemented student. Students that have been highlighted as vulnerable, have a statement or additional needs are invited in for a further visit or visits to help them become more familiar and confident with the transition to Hollins Grundy. Students in Year 5 who have additional needs are encouraged to visit high school early to be aware of provision to inform their choices. Annual reviews of Statemented children are held in the summer term for transition to high school. Through a number of events and taster sessions children visit our local high school and cluster meetings are attended by the Head Teacher. Students who are in Year 6 attend Transition Days at their High Schools and children who need additional sessions for a number of reasons are supported by our PSA. Staff from high school meet with the class teacher and SENCO to discuss attainment, progress, behaviour and friendship groups. The SENCO from the high school are invited to Annual Reviews in Year 6.
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Who can parents contact for further information?
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| Who would be the first point of contact if a parent wanted to discuss something about a child?
Who else has a role in a child’s education? Who can parents talk to if they are worried? Who should a parent contact if they are considering their child joining the school? Who is the SEND co-ordinator and how can they be contacted?
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| Hollins Grundy Primary School has a robust and successful pastoral system. Class Teachers are available every morning and evening for parents to discuss on any worries or concerns they may have.
There are many members of staff who will also impact on a child’s education at Hollins Grundy including Class Teacher, Teaching Assistants, Parent Support Advisor. Parents can contact any member of staff to discuss any concerns or issues they have. The School Office will be able to help any parent with their enquiries and get them the relevant support or contact they require. If you have a complaint please follow the schools complaints procedure. A copy is available at the school office. If a parent is considering joining the school they should contact Mr Dyer, the school business manager, who will arrange for them to visit school. The SENCO is who is also responsible for Behaviour, Support and Safeguarding. All staff are available on the school website and can be contacted using the appropriate class email address.. |
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How can parents make a complaint about the support provided to their child with special educational needs?
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| Who do I contact if the complaint is about special educational needs provision within the school?
Who do I contact if the complaint is about statutory assessments of special educational needs provision?
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| If the complaint is about special needs provision within the school then a complaint can be made through the school’s general complaints policy which can be found on the school website.
If the complaint is about the statutory assessment of special needs the the complaint should be addressed to ehc@bury.gov.uk |
Please see our SEN Information Report and Accessibility Plan below.
