‘A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them, namely provision different from or additional to that normally available to pupils of the same age.  A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they:

(a)  have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age; or

(b)  have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post -16 institutions.

A child under compulsory school age has special educational need if they fall within the definition (a) or (b) above or would do so if special educational provision was not made for them.

(SEND Code of Practice January 2015 Section 6.15)

The Equality Act (2010) states that a person has a disability if they have ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a long term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day to day activities’.

A physical or mental impairment includes learning difficulties including specific learning difficulties; medical conditions including epilepsy, diabetes, more severe forms of asthma and eczema; autism; speech, language and communication impairments.

If the impairment has a substantial and long-term effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities, it may amount to a disability.

Children with such conditions do not necessarily have SEN, but there is significant overlap between disabled children and those with SEN.

(SEN Code of Practice, 2014, p5-6)

If a child has an Education, Health and Care Plan the Local Authority consults with our school and parents before agreeing a placement. If a child has special educational needs but no EHCP, the standard admissions process applies, and parents do this through the admissions team at the Local Authority based in Margaret McMillan Tower. Our aim is to ensure successful integration into school and this often depends on meticulous planning, so in either case we welcome early contact from parents so that we can discuss needs, and anticipate and plan to overcome any potential barriers to ensure a smooth, successful start at All Saints.

The four areas of SEND are:

Cognition and Learning

Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs, including moderate learning difficulties (MLD), severe (SLD), where children are likely to need support in all areas of the curriculum. Specific Learning difficulties (SpLD) affect one or more specific aspects learning. This encompasses a range of conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.

Communication and Interaction

Children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) have difficulty communicating with others and may also not understand and use social rules of communication. This often includes children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, including Asperger’s.

Social, Emotional and Mental Health

Children may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties. These may include becoming withdrawn, isolated as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour. Other children may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder or attachment disorder.

Physical and Medical

These include vision impairment, hearing impairment or multi-sensory impairment which will require specialist support and/or equipment or access their learning. Some children with a physical disability require ongoing support and equipment to access all the opportunities available to their peers. It also includes children with medical needs.

At All Saints, we would recommend the following approach to supporting your child to be successful in school:

• Firstly, discuss your concerns with the class teacher or if you are new to our school our Inclusion Team would be happy to discuss any concerns. They can be contacted on 01274 415222.
• The next stage would be for you to make an appointment with the Inclusion Team. At this meeting all concerns can be discussed, and a support plan created. We value family involvement at every stage of your child’s school career.

If necessary, School will support you with seeking external advice to further understand the needs of your child.

All pupils at All Saints are carefully monitored through a series of processes. As result teachers are very aware of how pupils are progressing in their learning.

Pupils are having difficulties with accessing the mainstream curriculum would, in the first instance be identified for booster sessions. If after a period of extra help, the child was still struggling to understand, the class teacher would seek advice and support from the Inclusion Team. At every step of this process, we would be seeking your views as parents and working in collaboration with you to help your child succeed.

The school promotes a graduated approach to assessing, identifying and providing for pupils’ special educational needs, recognizing that there is a continuum of SEN and that where necessary increasing specialist expertise should be involved to address any difficulties a child may be experiencing.

Once areas of SEN have been identified, pupils will be part of successive on-going cycles of monitoring where the school will use a range of available assessment tools to identify individual pupil needs, plan and deliver additional provision to meet these needs and monitor its impact. During these cycles, the school (in consultation with parents and pupils) may involve additional specialists.

At All Saints Primary School, we have a wide range of interventions to meet the individual needs of our pupils.

These include:

Cognition and Learning

• Maths, Reading and Writing Booster sessions
• Catch up Maths
• Every Child Counts Maths specialist teacher
• FRED programme for reading
• 20:20 Reading Intervention
• Reach Project
• Family Reading
• Active Literacy project
• Precision Teaching
• Pre teaching and Over learning
• Multi-sensory approaches including a Continuum style of teaching.

Communication and Interaction

• Language Steps
• Colourful Semantics
• Black Sheep Programmes
• Forest School
• Nurture provision
• Language rich school environment
• Blank Levels of Language Understanding groups
• Wellcomm
• Neli (Nuffield Early Language Intervention)

Social Emotional Mental Health

• Nurture Provision
• Forest School
• Learning Mentors
• Mental Health Champion
• Positive links with Bradford’s Behaviour Support Service

Physical and Medical

• DDA compliant buildings
• A number of experienced staff trained to support children with physical disabilities.
• Close links with the School Nursing Service

This is not an exhaustive list however; it gives a clear indication of our school’s commitment to supporting the many and varied needs of our pupils. We are a highly reflective organisation and as a team continue to develop and adapt our practice to ensure the needs of all our learners are met.

Further Specialist Support

All Saints Church of England Primary School commissions a Speech and Language Therapist for one full day per week who will support both the child and the parents or carers as well as school staff to ensure that any speech, language and communication needs are met as part of the child’s educational provision.

Additionally, our school employs a full-time member of staff to work alongside the Speech and Language Therapist to support individuals and groups with speech, language and communication needs.

The school also commissions an Educational Psychologist who works alongside the SENCO, the child and the parents or carers as well as school staff to ensure that children who have significant or complex needs are supported and their needs are fully met.

All Saints also has additional specialist spaces on both school sites which are available to support those pupils with SEND which includes a sensory room, low stimulus teaching space and a soft space.

At All Saints we have high aspirations for all our pupils.

School has rigorous processes for assessing children. We assess at the ends of units of work and use pre-learning tasks to inform future learning. All pupils are expected to make at least good progress regardless of their individual starting points.

The assessment and review of pupils with SEN is a continuous process throughout the year. Both the progress and attainment of pupils with SEND is evaluated by the SENDCo in conjunction with the class teacher and Assistant Headteacher responsible for assessment. Children are assessed against the National Curriculum objectives implemented in September 2014. Progress and attainment are measured through the whole school data system as well as through the use of B Squared targets for children at SEN Support + or the Early Years Development Journal for Children in our Early Years Foundation Stage. This monitoring allows for an evaluation of effective and appropriate provision and can lead to additional assessments being made where needed. Your child’s progress and attainment will also be monitored through the use of the individual learning plans on a termly basis.

For some children, school support may not be enough, and, with your agreement, school will make the decision to increase the level of support provided. This external support might be from:

• Educational Psychology
• Speech and Language Therapy Services
• Occupational Health/Physiotherapy
• School Nursing Team or Health Visitors
• CAMHS
• Community Paediatrics
• Bradford’s 0-25 Specialist Teaching and Support Services.

These are the Social, Communication, Interaction, Learning Team (SCIL Team), Low Incidence team (Sensory Service), Local Authority led specialist resourced provisions hosted in mainstream schools and Medical Needs and Home Education Service for all children of compulsory school age resident in the Bradford Local Authority area who cannot attend school because of illness and health problems.

An Education, Health, Care Plan will be given to pupils who meet the requirements for a statutory plan.

The small number of children who require a plan go through a period of formal assessment. If the local authority feels the child’s needs warrant additional support the plan will be written for them. This is a legal document and school are expected to meet the recommendations set out. Usually there will also be an element of funding incorporated into the plan and school will use these monies to meet the individual needs of the child.

This is a formal assessment process where all the information about a child is collated and sent to the Bradford Local Authority. School will request assessment documentation from all relevant external agencies alongside completing a comprehensive internal overview of the child’s needs.

An Annual Review is a statutory meeting held to review an individual child’s progress against the objectives laid out in the ECH plan.

It is also an opportunity to share aspirations and concern of all stakeholders in the plan; most importantly including the views of the child and their family.

The meeting will then set new targets for the coming year and, where applicable, create a transition plan for the child’s next stage of their school career.

All Saints Primary School is committed to staff development with time and more being invested in staff training. This includes Elklan, Lego therapy, Speech and Language therapy interventions such as Colour Coding, Active Literacy, Blank Level Questioning, Dyslexic screening and Wellcomm.

Our Inclusion Lead- Therese Holden has successfully completed the National Award in SEN Co-ordination. She also holds a post graduate certificate in Specific Learning Difficulties, and she has attended numerous training opportunities associated with SEND. She is dedicated to the positive inclusion of all pupils at All Saints and prides herself in forming positive relationships with pupils and their families.

Our Speech and Language Teaching Assistant – Helen Rush has wealth of experience from both an educational and health backgrounds. She is a qualified nurse and has worked in mainstream and special school settings. Helen has a particular passion for supporting language and communication across the school.

The Inclusion Team offer a programme of training to all staff. This is responsive to the ever-changing needs of the children. We also welcome external providers such as, Speech therapists, specialist teachers and behaviour support specialists.

On each site there is a Lead SENSA of the school to help support and co-ordinate the additional provision in place on a day to day basis.

We have a dedicated Nurture Team who have accessed specific training for nurture and are Team Teach trained.

We have a member of staff running forest schools and he has completed a comprehensive training programme to delivery this highly effective intervention.

All Saints are also proud to host the SEND hub for Inclusion Leads and SENCOs across our Bradford partnership.

All Saints is fully DDA compliant. At both our Kennion and Powell Buildings we have a range of accessible facilities, including a lift, showering facilities and a number of disabled toilets. There is ramped access to both our sites.

On both sites staff are trained in the use of Evac Chairs to support the evacuation of pupils with additional physical needs who may be unable to use the lift in the event of an emergency evacuation.

We recognise that transitions can be difficult for a child with SEND and take steps to ensure that any transition is as smooth as possible.  Crucial to the transition process is the full involvement of the children and their families. Therefore, we offer a comprehensive transition support package individualised to particular children’s needs. School will make links with other schools and always endeavour to involve relevant external agencies.

If your child is starting school and has not been in an educational setting prior to transfer, we will:

• Organise for visits to either the Nursery or the Reception settings and, where deemed appropriate and necessary, we will liaise with parents regarding a phased transition.
• Arrange a home visit from relevant staff in school.
• Endeavour to arrange a planning meeting between parents and the school so that strategies are in place to meet the child’s needs.

If your child is transferring from another educational setting, we will:

• Liaise with the SENDCo from the previous setting;
• Discuss a child’s needs with parents or carers prior to entry to the school to ensure that the child’s needs are fully met.
• Arrange, where possible, a preliminary visit to the school for the child.

If your child is moving to another school or moving into Year 7 we will:

• Contact the school SENCo and ensure they know about any special arrangements or support that needs to be made for your child prior to their arrival.
• Make sure that all records about your child are passed on quickly to the receiving school.
• Arrange, wherever possible, additional transition visits for children with SEND.
• Arrange, wherever possible, further parent information visits.

When moving classes in school:

• Transition meetings are held between current and receiving classes to share all information related to individual children and set new targets for the coming term.

• Children will have opportunities to spend ‘Transition’ days with their new class teacher, in their new class, during the last half of the Summer Term.

All extra-curricular activities are open to children with SEN and reasonable adjustments will always be made to help them to participate

Most complaints are resolved readily and informally. We take all concerns seriously at the earliest stage and would always encourage parents to approach a relevant member of staff such as their child’s class teacher or member of the Inclusion team, in order to informally discuss the issue so this can be addressed in order to move towards a resolution.

If a satisfactory solution is not found, the matter may be escalated to the SENCO and then the Headteacher. Beyond this, a complaint may be taken to the Governing Body and the Local Authority. The school parent complaints procedure can be found on the school website under “Key Information” and then “Policies”.

Our Local Authority key contact at the 0-25 Integrated Assessment Team based at Margaret McMillan Tower is Janette Harthill.

Information about how to request assessment for an Education Health Care Plan can be found on the Bradford Local Offer website:  https://localoffer.bradford.gov.uk/?mid=28

Bradford SENDIASS

Bradford SENDIASS is for parents and carers of children and young people aged 0-25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the Bradford area.

The staff help parents and children to work together with schools and the local authority so that they have a good understanding of what support is needed and to make sure that it is put in place.

http://www.barnardos.org.uk/bradford-sendiass/information-advice-and-support.htm