Beaver Road Primary School
Special Educational Needs
Led By: Lucy Noden (SENDCO)
Supported By: Melissa Ulett (Family Engagement Officer) & Teresa Weaver (Intervention Lead)
Link Governor: Emma Forrester
Article 23 - Children with a disability
A child with a disability has the right to live a full and decent life with dignity and, as far as possible, independence and to play an active partin the community. Governments must do all they can to support disabled children and their families.
Support For Children
At Beaver Road Primary School we believe excellent teaching gives children the life chances they deserve. We work hard to provide a caring, stimulating and inclusive environment to ensure that every child reaches their full potential. We recognise that you know your child best and you may feel that they need additional help or support for some or all of their time at our school.
Not all children will need extra support but the progress of all children at Beaver Road is monitored closely to ensure support is provided where necessary. Support can be given for a variety of reasons.
Support For Parents
We know that sometimes it can feel lonely when you have a child with additional needs or when you are concerned about their development. To give you regular opportunities to speak with our SENDCo, Lucy Noden and Family Engagement Officer, Mel Ullett, we hold half-termly coffee mornings. Coffee mornings are a great way for parents and carers to meet and share experiences. At Beaver Road, we would like to offer you a safe and caring space, where you can share your worries and concerns as well as your child’s strengths and successes. We want parents and carers to feel supported and listened to and to have the opportunities to meet other parents and carers who may have had similar experiences.
Teaching & Learning
Children learn and develop in different ways. Teachers know and understand this and use different teaching styles to plan work at different levels in order to meet the needs of all pupils in their class. This is called “Quality First Teaching.” All pupils at Beaver Road receive “Quality First Teaching” from their class teacher. Our aim is to provide the highest quality learning environment for your child and for them to achieve their full potential. All our classes, when necessary, are supported by teaching assistants and pupils are offered additional support or catch up intervention programmes where needed.
At Beaver Road the progress and attainment of all pupils is reviewed on a termly basis by the School Leadership Team. These termly pupil progress meetings help identify children who may need additional support. Pupils with SEND are assessed on a half-termly basis.
Parents and Carers are informed about their child’s academic progress and targets through
the twice yearly Parent’s Consultation Evenings and the annual end of year school report. In
addition, Parents and Carers of children who have SEND are given extended parents evenings
and at least one other meeting where they can review their child’s provision.
Additional Support
If a child continues to have difficulty after intervention or has a high level of difficulty when they join Our School, they may be considered to have special educational needs/disability (SEND) and are placed on the SEND register. This decision is made in partnership with Parents and Carers.
At Beaver Road Primary we provide support for pupils across the 4 areas of need as laid out in the SEN Code of Practice 2014:
- Communication and interaction
- Cognition and Learning
- Social, emotional and mental health difficulties
- Sensory and or physical needs
Children with SEND have learning difficulties and/or physical disabilities which make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age. They will need extra support or different help eg. modified tasks, extra time or breaks in formal assessments.
Our School and other agencies can help most children overcome their difficulties quickly and easily. A few children will need extra help for some or all of their time in School.
This means they may have difficulty with:
- Some or all of the work in School
- Reading, writing and mathematics
- Understanding and processing information
- Expressing themselves
- Understanding others
- Organising themselves
- Sensory perception or physical mobility
- Managing their behaviour or emotions
- Making friends or relating to adults
At Beaver Road Primary School teaching and learning opportunities are adapted and continually evaluated (with support of external agencies when required) to ensure the needs of all our learners are met. Parents and Carers should not feel unduly anxious about such additional support as it allows children to receive the specific help they need to make the next steps in their learning journey. To ensure that staff are aware of children’s needs, children on the additional needs register create an Access to Learning Plan in conjunction with their class teacher and their parents. The Access to Learning Plan is designed so that staff are equipped with up-to-date information
to support the child’s needs. This means that appropriate strategies are used to ensure that teaching has the maximum impact and pupils feel valued and their needs are understood. These plans are updated on a termly basis.
SEND Stages & Terminology
The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice gives guidance to schools in meeting the needs of pupils. It sets out how help should be given in a step-by-step approach.
Our School SEND Policy reflects the new SEND Code of Practice. Parents and Carers will be consulted at all stages of our graduated approach and the class teacher will inform you of the additional work they, or other adults in School, do with your child.
The process is as follows:
Universal
(Quality First Teaching)
All pupils in School receive quality first teaching which is also known as Wave 1.
Universal is the effective inclusion of all pupils in high-quality every day personalised teaching. Such teaching will, for example, be based on clear
appropriate objectives that are shared with the children and returned to at the end of the lesson. Teachers use a lively, interactive range of teaching styles and make maximum use of visual and kinaesthetic teaching techniques such as Kagan structures as well as auditory/verbal learning.
Targeted
If a pupil has needs which are related to more specific areas of their education, such as spelling, handwriting, numeracy and literacy skills, then they may be considered for a Targeted intervention. This will be led by a teacher or a teaching assistant and is usually done in focus groups. Targeted interventions will be planned and reviewed by the class teacher half-termly to ascertain the effectiveness of the provision and to inform future planning.
Specialist
If a child continues to have difficulty after a targeted intervention or has a high level of difficulty when they arrive at School, they may require support from an outside agency such as an Educational Psychologist or a Speech and Language Therapist. After an assessment is undertaken by the EP or Speech Therapist, a programme of support is sent to the School from the involved agency and is shared with the Parents and Carers. School may seek professional advice from a range of agencies including:
- Speech and language therapists
- Visual/hearing impairment teachers
- Health professionals
- Educational psychologists
Specialist interventions are a deeper intervention, offering more personalised solutions.
They may be on a one to one basis or delivered in a small group.
EDUCATION, HEALTH AND CARE PLAN – EHC AGREEMENT
(FORMERLY STATEMENT OF SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS.)
If your child’s needs are complex or severe we may suggest that we make an application for an EHC Agreement to the Local Authority. This document will describe your child’s SEND and the special help they should receive. Education, Health and Care Plans usually involve the Local Authority providing extra resources to help your child. These could include money, staff time, special equipment or attendance at a school with specialist resourced support. This additional provision will be reviewed annually or sooner if required and would include Parent, teacher, SENCo and pupil.
Beaver Road Staff
Here at Beaver Road Primary School we have an experienced team of staff who work together and may be involved in supporting your child in school. These include:
- Your child’s teacher who will always make sure that learning is differentiated appropriately and that tasks set are accessible for your child. Your child’s teacher is available at the end of each day or a meeting can be scheduled either directly or via the school office. Please talk to your child’s teacher if you have any concerns regarding your child in school.
- Teaching assistants support all pupils in class. Here at Beaver Road Primary School we have several additional teaching assistants who help support groups and individual children with their learning.
- Our School SENDCo (Lucy Noden) who has been teaching and working with SEND teams for over 20 years, in schools across Manchester and Stockport. She is responsible for co-ordinating SEND provision across the school, from Nursery to Year 6.
- A Designated School Governor (Emma Forrester) who works with the SENCo in leading SEND across the school..
- Our Family Engagement Officer (Melissa Ulett-Milne) who coordinates the EHA meetings across the school, from Nursery to Year 6 and supports attendance.
- Our Intervention Lead (Teresa Weaver) is responsible for the implementation and montioring of the range of inerventions that are taking place across the school.
- Francesca Woolf is our Speech and Language therapist and is commissioned to work at Beaver Road for a day a week.
- Michelle McManus is our Occupational Therapist and is commissioned to work at Beaver Road for half a day a week.
- Cam Christoph is our play therapist who works for the charity Place2Be and works within Beaver Road one day a week.
- Julie Brown is our Education Psychologist and is commissioned to work at Beaver road for half a day a week.
Sometimes School may commission Specialist Support to work with identified children with a particular focus eg. Speech and Language therapists or Occupational therapists. We also regularly liaise with Specialist schools and use their outreach services to support our children and our staff.
To ensure we have a whole School approach and our staff have the skills and knowledge to support children with SEND, there is a programme of training. Staff regularly attend specialist training courses. Recent training has included Emotion Coaching and developing emotional resiliency, Team Teach training and positive behavour management, Training for Autism, Clicker training and Intensive interaction training.
THE MANCHESTER EARLY HELP ASSESSMENT (EHA)
As part of our support for all children here at Beaver Road Primary School, we have regular opportunities to consult support services and health agencies through a multi-agency approach which sometimes includes completing the Early Help Assessment Framework (EHA) to support the family as well as the identified pupil. School and the family will meet and discuss and plan together the best use of advice and support from other agencies, with a view to achieving the best outcome for the child and family. The high levels of pastoral care for all are complemented by excellent provision to support pupils who have particular needs, ensuring that everyone is included in the life of the school, academically and socially.
Professionals who might attend a TAC meeting include:
- The School Nurse who works closely with us and can advise and assess any medical needs. If a care plan is required this would be done in conjunction with the Parent and School nurse and would be reviewed annually.
- A Speech and Language therapist who works with children in School and can offer advice as to whether your child would benefit from this support or assessment.
- An Educational Psychologist may give advice or complete an assessment for a child.
- Outreach support from specialist schools.
- Melissa Ullett, our Family Engagement Officer
If you would like advice from professionals outside school you may find the following numbers and websites useful:
- Manchester Local Offer
Email: [email protected]
0161 234 1946
Twitter: Manchester Local Offer @MCRLocalOffer
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Family Fund - Grants for disabled children link.
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SENDIASS - https://www.iasmanchester.org/
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Kooth- an online counselling and wellbeing service which offers online counselling for 10-18 year olds.
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ThinkNinja - a mental health app designed for 10 to 18 year olds. Using a variety of content and tools, it allows young people to learn about mental health and emotional wellbeing, and develop skills they can use to build resilience and stay well.
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Shout 85258 is the UK's first free, confidential, 24/7 text support service. It's a place for children aged 8 and over to go if they're struggling to cope and need mental health support.
- Manchester Families Service Directory – www.manchester.fsd.org.uk
- Autistic Society Greater Manchester – 0161 866 8483
- The British Dyslexia Association – 0845 251 9002
- The Dyspraxia Foundation – 01462 455016
- Headway: The Brain Injury Association – 0808 800 2244
- Lancasterian Sensory Support Service – 0161 445 0123
- Living with ADHD – www.livingwithadhd.co.uk
- Manchester Autism Resource Centre – 0161 945 0040
- Manchester Asian Parents Carers Project – 0161 227 8708
- Manchester Mencap – 0161 728 8109
- Manchester Speech and Language Therapy Service – 0161 248 1208
- National Autistic Society, Greater Manchester – 0161 998 4667
- National Blind Children’s Society – 0800 781 1444
- National Deaf Children’s Society – 0808 800 8880
- National Down’s Syndrome Society – 0333 1212 300
- South Manchester Down’s Syndrome Support Group – 07593 542 107
- Rodney House Pre-school Outreach Team – 0161 230 6854
- SEND Local Offer Hub Drop In Sessions – 0161 998 7280
- The Sensory Team at Manchester City Council – 0161 219 2658
- Sleep Manchester (sleep problems) – 0161 448 8895
- Statutory Assessment Service – 0161 245 7439