Introduction

There are four broad areas of special educational need. These are: 

• Communication and Interaction
  This area of need includes children with Autistic Spectrum Condition and those with Speech, Language and Communication Needs.
• Cognition and Learning
  This includes children with Specific Learning Difficulties, Moderate Learning Difficulties, Severe Learning Difficulties and Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties.
• Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties
  This includes any pupils who have an emotional, social or mental health need that is impacting on their ability to learn.
• Sensory and/or Physical Difficulties
  This area includes children with fine and gross motor difficulties, hearing impairment, visual impairment, multi-sensory impairment and physical difficulties.

At Timothy Hackworth Primary School, we have experience of supporting children and young people with a wide range of need including:

• Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
• Speech and language difficulties (SALT)
• Fine and gross motor difficulties
• Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD)
• Social and emotional difficulties and physical and/or sensory needs.

The school provides data on the levels and types of need to the Local Authority. This is collected through the school census.

Enhanced Mainstream Provision

EMP is a mainstream school with enhanced resources and staffing. These schools are allocated additional funds and expertise in order to meet the needs of some pupils with requirements that can be met in a mainstream school environment, with additional support. EMP schools are not ‘special’ schools and pupils entering the school through the EMP route are simply added to the school roll, the same as any other child at the school.

Each EMP across County Durham has its own specialism, with Speech, Language and Communication being that of Timothy Hackworth Primary School. In order for this setting to be recommended for your child, Speech, Language and Communication must be the identified primary need. The decision to offer a child a place at an EMP is not taken lightly. A panel of specialists in the field of Speech, Language and Communication recommends places in conjunction with the Local Authority, and only after your child has met with one of the staff of Timothy Hackworth Primary School to ensure that we are confident that we can meet their needs. Your child may already attend another school, or an Early Years setting. The current provision will provide evidence to the panel, along with parental, Educational Psychology and Speech Therapy views in order for the panel to form a well-founded decision.

At Timothy Hackworth Primary School we currently have a 13 place EMP with children’s needs varying from speech disorders, phonological disorders (difficulty in processing speech sounds), expressive language disorders or receptive language disorders.

This provision currently benefits from one part-time speech and language therapist, employed by the NHS Foundation Trust, who provides direct therapy, monitoring, assessment and advice to learning support staff who are trained to deliver speech and/or language programmes to children. All support staff working with the therapist and the child have accessed speech and language training programmes. Children access the curriculum in class alongside their year group peers.

Inclusive education means supporting all pupils to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of school life alongside their peers. Our curriculum includes, not only the formal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and National Curriculum, but also a range of additional opportunities to enrich the experiences of all pupils. Our curriculum also includes the social aspects that are essential for life-long learning.

At Timothy Hackworth Primary School we are committed to equality. We aim for every pupil to fulfil their potential no matter what their needs. Our School is committed to anti-discriminatory practice to promote equality of opportunity and values diversity for all children and families.  We aim to:

• Provide a secure and accessible environment in which all of our children can flourish and in which all contributions are considered and valued;
• Include and value the contribution of all families to our understanding of equality and diversity;
• Provide positive non-stereotyping information about gender roles, diverse ethnic and cultural groups and disabled people;
• Improve our knowledge and understanding of issues of anti-discriminatory practice, promoting equality and valuing diversity;
• Make inclusion a thread that runs through all of the activities of the school.

At Timothy Hackworth Primary School we believe that inclusive education means providing all pupils with appropriate education and support alongside their peers. The Curriculum is all the planned activities that the school organises in order to promote learning, personal growth and development.

We adapt the curriculum and learning environment for pupils with SEND.

To successfully match pupil ability to the curriculum there are some actions we may take to achieve this:

• Ensure that all pupils have access to the school curriculum and all school activities;
• Help all pupils achieve to the best of their abilities, despite any difficulty or disability they may have;
• Ensure that teaching staff are aware of and sensitive to the needs of all pupils, teaching pupils in a way that is most appropriate to their needs;
• Helping pupils to gain in confidence and improve their self-esteem;
• Work in partnership with parents/carers, pupils and relevant external agencies in order to provide for children’s special educational needs and disabilities;
• Identify at the earliest opportunity, all children that need special consideration to support their needs (whether these are educational, social, physical or emotional);
• Make suitable provision for children with SEND to fully develop their abilities, interests and aptitudes and gain maximum access to the curriculum;
• Ensure that all children with SEND are fully included in all activities of the school in order to promote the highest levels of achievement;
• Promote self-worth and enthusiasm by encouraging independence at all age and ability levels;
• Give every child the entitlement to a sense of achievement;
• Regularly review the policy and practice in order to achieve best practice.

More details on how we adapt information, our environment and curriculum can be found in the Accessibility Plan which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.

Our Additional Needs Budget is used to support children and young people with SEND. This is used to support children and young people with SEND by:

• Improved pupil:teacher ratio
• Purchase of additional resources to support specific outcomes for pupils
• Tracking and monitoring of achievement
• Targeted intervention and support programs
• Specialist Teaching Assistants to provide effective support
• Early identification and assessment
• Improved ICT resources – iPads/ Laptops
• Continuous CPD for all staff
• Purchase of Service Level Agreements to provide additional specialist and targeted support
• Education Visits

If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.

Most children and young people in mainstream schools will have their special educational needs met through good classroom practice. This is called Quality First Teaching.

Early Identification of Need

In deciding whether to make special education provision to support educational, social, physical or emotional needs, we:

• Work in partnership with parents/carers and pupils to identify strengths and areas of concern and to offer support throughout;
• Consult with relevant external agencies, to gain more specialised advice, where it is deemed appropriate;
• Use assessment tools and materials, including detailed data analysis to monitor progress;
• Use observations;
• Use Early Intervention Short Notes to set short term targets around specific identified need, to provide early intervention and support.

SEND Support

Where a pupil is identified as having a special educational need we follow a graduated approach which takes the form of cycles of “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.

This means that we will:

• Assess the child’s special educational needs using formal and informal assessments, observations and discussions with other professionals and parents.
• Plan the provision to meet the child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes, through SEND Support Plans, created alongside the child, parents and carers.
• Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes.  Provision can be in any area of school life, not only during formal lessons.
• Review the support and progress alongside the child, parents and carers.

As part of this approach every child with SEND will have an individualised SEND Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs.  Parents/carers and child/YP (where appropriate) views are integral to the this process.

A small percentage of children and young people with significant and/or complex needs may require an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.  The School, parents and any other agencies involved can apply for an EHCP if it is felt that, despite putting into place all recommendations and advice to support the child, over a period of time, they are still experiencing difficulties or failing to make progress towards their individual outcomes. An EHCP is a statutory plan, reviewed annually.

For more detailed information see the Local Offer

Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEND

• Teaching across the school is continuously monitored to ensure all pupils are receiving the best quality teaching and learning, including work and book scrutiny and classroom observations.
• Parents are involved in all aspects of a child’s identification and support, including the review of all SEND Support Plans and Short Notes and involvement in Annual Reviews.
• Teacher assessments and assessments by external agencies are used to identify different types of SEND and the area/s of need.
• The ‘assess, plan, do, review’ cycle is used as the basis for all SEND provision in school.
• Teacher planning is closely monitored and children with SEND are identified on teacher planning to show how the curriculum is being differentiated and modified, on a lesson by lesson basis, for all children with additional needs, including those with SEND.
• Impact of provision is monitored in a variety of ways including, annotation of teacher planning, formal and informal assessments, intervention impact monitoring, observations, reviews of SEND Support Plans, input from external agencies where appropriate. Outcomes are regularly evaluated and updated.
• Additional support is provided in a variety of ways, including individual or group intervention provided by a teacher, teaching assistant or external specialist where appropriate, use of a wide range of practical resources to support need.
• School data systems explicitly identify progress and attainment information for children with SEND, including termly pupil progress meetings between senior staff and teachers to plan for next steps for those with identified SEND.
• Appropriate adaptations are made on an individual basis to ensure all children, regardless of need, take part in all aspects of school life, including trips, where individual risk assessments may be used to ensure safety.
• Prior to completing formal tests, arrangements are made to fully support children with SEND in line with the support they receive in their everyday learning, to ensure fair access to the test.
• All staff involved with teaching and learning in school attend regular training around working with children with SEND. Training around specific SEND types is also carried out when required to ensure staff have the necessary skills and knowledge required to adapt to changing needs across the school.

For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.

We enable all children to engage fully in all aspects of school life. To do this, we:

• Ensure that all children with SEND are fully included in all activities of the school, including external trips and visits, in order to promote the highest levels of achievement.
• Ensure that all pupils have access to the school curriculum and all school activities, including after school clubs and activities.
• Ensure every child has the entitlement to a sense of achievement.

We continuously ensure the provision has a positive impact on the outcomes for all of our children/young people. We do this in a variety of ways, including:

• Robust evaluation of policy and practice
• Book scrutiny
• SENCO/SLT/Governor monitoring
• Learning walks
• Performance management
• Parent/Carer questionnaires
• SEND Parents Advisory Group
• SEND Support Plan Reviews