SEND
SEND Information Report
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
Mrs J Allan
Headteacher
Mrs A Miller
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo) and
Assistant Head Teacher of Inclusion
(National SENDCO award obtained Oct 2014)
Mrs Kate Holden
Governor responsible for SEND
At Brighton Avenue School every child is a star and therefore all children deserve the very best. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive school and ensure that the necessary provision is in place to cater for all groups of children including those who have SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), language barriers or areas of vulnerability. In 2012 we were one of the first schools to achieve the National Gold Inclusion Award Standard in recognition of our efforts in this area.
School Offer
At Brighton Avenue Primary School we believe and follow the principles set out in the SEN Code of Practice (2014) that ‘all children and young people are entitled to an education that enables them to make progress so that they:-
- Achieve their best,
- Become confident individuals living fulfilling lives,
- Make a successful transition into adulthood.
Aims
Our aim is to ensure all children are supported in order that they may work confidently towards reaching their full potential and this will be done by:
- Involving children, their parents and young people in decision- making.
- The early identification of children and young people’s needs and early intervention to support them.
- Greater choice and control for young people and parents over support.
- Collaboration between education, health and social care services to provide support.
- High quality provision to meet the needs of children and young people with SEN.
- Having a focus on inclusive practice and removing barriers to learning.
- Successful preparation for adulthood, including independent living and employment.
- Adopting a whole school approach to the identification, assessment and provision for children with special educational needs.
- Creating individual Learning Plans for children with SEN and incorporate these into curriculum planning.
- Ensure that assessment and record-keeping systems provides means of recording attainment and achievement and the effectiveness of interventions in place.
- Involving the Governing Body and all staff, both teaching and non-teaching, in the regular review, development and evaluation of policy and guidelines
All children are rigorously tracked and monitored in order for us to indicate children which would benefit from additional support and also to identify what their barriers to learning may be. Our SENDCo (Mrs Miller) and teaching/non-teaching staff have been trained (and are continuously updated) in specific areas of educational need and can provide tailored sessions to individuals or small groups of children in order to support them in making progress across the curriculum areas.
Children identified as having a special educational need will be given an LP (Learning Plan) which is a set of short term targets drawn up in collaboration with the teacher and the child. These are shared amongst all staff working with the child as well as with parents twice a year at target setting evenings. Children with SEND will be given weekly intervention sessions to work on their targets.
Key responsibilities of the SENDCo include:
- Overseeing the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEND policy
- Co-ordinating and monitoring the provision for children with SEND
- Liaising with the relevant Designated Teacher where a looked after pupil has SEND
- Advising on the graduated approach to providing SEND support
- Advising on the deployment of the school’s delegated budget and other resources to meet pupils’ needs effectively
- Liaising with parents of pupils with SEND
- Liaising with early years providers, other schools, educational psychologists, health and social care professionals, and independent or voluntary bodies
- Being a key point of contact with external agencies, especially the local authority and its support services
- Liaising with potential next providers of education to ensure a pupil and their parents are informed about options and a smooth transition is planned
- Working with the Headteacher and school governors to ensure that the school meets its responsibilities under the Equality Act (2010) with regard to reasonable adjustments and access arrangements
- Ensuring that the school keeps the records of all pupils with SEND up to date
- Ensuring all practitioners in the setting understand their responsibilities to children with SEND and the setting’s approach to identifying and meeting SEND
- Keeping up to date with developments in SEND locally and nationally.
How we support SEN – Provision
Children have Special Educational Needs if they have a learning and or physical difficulty. This means that the child will need educational support, which is additional to, or different from, the provision made generally for children of the same age in a mainstream school. We ensure that quality first teaching is always at the forefront for all children then we adapt our lessons to meet the needs of every child and use different teaching styles to cater for the different ways in which children learn.
Children may have needs that fall within one area or have needs that fall across two or more areas and these will be recorded on the school’s SEND register. The nature and level of the needs will impact upon the child’s ability to function, learn and succeed. The identified areas of need are:
- Communication and interaction
- Cognition and learning
- Social, emotional and mental health (SEMH), and
- Sensory and/or physical.
For more information on each category please refer to the SEN Policy
At times children will require specialist equipment to support their SEND needs. School have a bank of resources/aids they can go to i.e., wobble cushions, pencil grips, fiddle toys, ear defenders, sloped boards, as well as contacts details of services which loan more specialised equipment i.e., visualisers/ magnifiers. We have a hearing loop installed in school.
For those with physical disabilities, the school has a disabled parking space, a disabled toilet, low kerbs, yellow lines marked on steps and ramps to allow children with physical difficulties to access all areas of the school. For more information please refer to Admissions Policy, Inclusion Policy and Accessibility Plan.
All children regardless of Special Educational Need or Disability are included in everything we do in school- events, performances, trips, afterschool clubs etc and we make adjustments where needed, to ensure school is inclusive for everyone.
How do we identify and assess children with SEND?
Early identification is key. The earlier a Special Educational Need is identified, the more likely that outcomes will improve for children. Pupil assessment is an on-going process and forms an essential part of teaching and is designed to promote the raising of achievement. Pupil assessments provide important information for pupil review meetings and may also be used as a basis for an initial discussion with the SENCO. At Brighton Avenue Primary School we monitor the achievement and learning of all pupils on a daily basis. We formally assess the children twice a year and hold pupil progress meetings to identify pupils who are underachieving and may require some extra support. The data from tests as well as assessment of learning opportunities carried out by teachers regularly allows us to ensure that curriculum planning is delivered and differentiated to meet the needs of all pupils, with support where appropriate. Support may be provided for Teachers or Teaching Assistants through weekly Maths and English intervention sessions, within whole class lessons or through weekly/daily SEND intervention delivered to children in small groups or on an individual basis (depending upon needs).
For those children who require a higher level of support, they will be assessed for an Education, Health and Care plan. Parents will be consulted at each stage of this process. For more information on this process, please refer to SEN Policy
How we consult with our SEND pupils & parents
For children who are on the SEND list in school, we will support their learning through targeted support and Individual Learning Plans. In the late Summer term an Individual Learning Plan is written based on the child’s needs. This is discussed with the child, SENDCo, parents and the child’s new class teacher ready for September. Weekly sessions are put aside to work on these targets and they are reviewed half termly. After Christmas (following assessment), the Learning Plans are re-written and new targets are set. Copies of Individual Learning Plans are shared and signed by parents. Childrens progress is also shared during 2 formal parents’ evenings across the year and a written report in the Summer. For those children with an EHCP (Single Plan) their progress is monitored as other children but we also host annual review meetings where we invite any outside agencies that are involved with the child as well as parents. Children’s and parents views are always gathered and targets shared. We hold termly Pupil Voice sessions in school specifically for SEND children to discuss any improvements we could collaboratively make to our current systems/provision.
Parents can raise concerns at any time with the class teacher or SENDCo and we will support them and/or help direct to outside agencies or support them with referrals where necessary.
A parent survey of SEND is carried out annually. Results are collated and any areas of improvement are added into the school improvement plan for SEND.
Additional Support
It is important to realise that there may be groups of children who require some intervention for a short period of time to boost their confidence, self-esteem, emotional well-being or achievement. They may receive intervention for a term or block of weeks. This does not automatically mean they have a Special Education Need as they may make the progress required in the intervention and therefore will no longer need the extra help. However there are some children who will receive additional help and are then identified as needing help that is additional to or different from the provision made generally for children of the same age in a mainstream school. We monitor the progress of these children carefully and track targets by keeping a ‘Monitoring List’.
Emotional and Social Support
In school we recognise that there are an increasing number of children struggling with mental health issues. We are lucky to have a full time Family Support Worker (qualified as a Senior Mental Health Lead) who can work 1:1 with these children and who is also trained in delivering various therapies. Should further advice be sought we work closely with the Gateshead School Nursing team and RISE Mental Health service. Worry boxes are placed in each classroom for children to record and post their worries and these can be dealt with in a more sensitive manner. In school we promote positive mental health through weekly PSHE lessons and celebrate various National initiatives/ Mental Health awareness campaigns.
External Agencies who may work with children with additional needs
On some occasions specific children or families may need additional outside support from professionals trained in defined areas of special educational needs
Examples of specialists include:
- Educational psychologists
- Early Years Assessment and Intervention Team
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
- HINT (High Incidence Needs Team) LA teachers specialising in the 4 areas of need.
- Specialist teachers or support services, including specialist teachers with a mandatory qualification for children with hearing and vision impairment, including multi-sensory impairment, and for those with a physical disability.
- Therapists (including speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists)
Sometimes families may need wider support in a range of areas i.e., parenting, financial or health issues. If this is the case, parents are invited into school to discuss this and parental consent is sought to seek further support. A Common Assessment Framework (CAF) may be carried out in order to create a Team around the Family (TAF) to generate multi-agency support. A statutory assessment of needs may also be carried out for some children with a very high level of need. In some cases, a legal document will be issued by the local authority setting out the rights of the child in an Education and Healthcare plan (EHC plan) formally known as a statement of special educational needs.
As we have a range of languages spoken in our school, we also a member of staff who supports children with English as an additional language. We have excellent procedures in place for welcoming new arrivals and translating information in order to support our new families.
Transitions
Times of transition (moving to the next year group or to Secondary school) can be particularly worrying for children and parents. We ensure that the children spend the latter half of the Summer preparing for this and spend time with their new teacher in their new classes. Information is passed seamlessly between staff to ensure continuity each year. Secondary schools are informed of any additional needs and how best to support them. SEND children receive additional visits to Secondary schools to ease any worries or concerns.
Statement of Intent for Supporting Equality
At Brighton Avenue Primary School we feel that we have a responsibility to increase each child’s knowledge, experience, and understanding as well as developing their capacity to learn. We recognise that for some children there may be more barriers to overcome in order for them to reach their full potential. The staff of Brighton Avenue Primary School believe that all members of the school should be treated with respect; have individual, diverse needs recognised, and be given the opportunity to reach their full potential, regardless of age, ability, religion, gender or culture. Discrimination or bullying will not be tolerated (see related policies).
If you do have a concern about your child or if you wish to discuss specialist provision/strategies or any of the aforementioned, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Complaints
Parents/Carers should contact the SENDCo with any complaints about the provision that the pupils are receiving at school. If the complaint is not resolved, the school has a complaints policy which can be found at www.brightonavenueprimary.org.uk
If your complaint is regarding the Local Authority's decision regarding statutory assessment please contact the Gateshead SEND team: Contact at senteam@gateshead.gov.uk Phone 0191 433 3626
Parents/carers can contact the Special Educational Needs and Disability Information and Advice Support Service (SENDIASS) which is run by Barnardos in Gateshead (tel 0191 4784667). This is a free, confidential service for young people who have SEND and their parent/carers. The service is available whether or not the young person has an Education Health Care Plan (Single Plan).
Gateshead Council has developed a Local Offer which provides information about education, health and social care support for children and young people with SEND in Gateshead. The Local Offer can be found at www.gateshead.gov.uk/localoffer.
Mrs A Miller
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo) and
Assistant Head Teacher of Inclusion
Telephone: 0191 4218080
For more information about Special Educational Needs at Brighton Avenue, please refer to the following policies:
We have also published some frequently asked questions about the school offer here at Brighton Avenue. Please click on the link below for more information:
Local Offer
The Government has asked all Local Authorities in the UK to publish, in one place, information about the services and provision they expect to be available in their area for children and young people from 0 to 25 who have Special Educational Needs and/or a Disability (SEND).
This is known as the Local Offer. Further information about the Gateshead’s Local Offer can be found on the links below.
For more information please click on the link below
Contacts
Autism information for parents: Useful Information for Parents/Carers
Single Point of Access: https://gateshead-localoffer.org/single-point-of-access/
(information regarding health (including mental health) referrals)
SENDIASS https://gateshead-localoffer.org/send-information-advice-and-support-service-sendiass/
External support for any SEND queries
SENIT (HINT&LINT) Gateshead SEND services that may be in school supporting your child https://gateshead-localoffer.org/special-educational-needs-improvement-team/
Latest News
New SEND Thresholds
From September 2023 Brighton Avenue will be part of a pilot scheme to launch a new thresholds document for SEND in the 4 different areas of need. This new initiative aims to provide a consistent approach in identifying and assessing the severity of a special educational need(s) of a given individual and will follow the same criteria for assessment, support and availability of external services across the region. More information regarding this launch will be available for parents and carers as the process develops. Our special needs coordinator- Amanda Miller will be one of three SENDCO’s Seconded to the Local Authority for 1 day a week to help undertake and manage this roll out across Gateshead schools over the next academic year.
Asthma Accreditation
Our school recently took part in a pilot programme to gain an asthma accreditation. Following staff training, school-based asthma reviews from medical professionals and newly developed policy and procedures within school, we are now 1 of only 15 schools across the region to be accredited as an Asthma Friendly School (July 2023).
