HOVE JUNIOR SCHOOL SEN/D REPORT

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1 HOVE JUNIOR SCHOOL SEN/D REPORT How does Hove Juniors know if a child needs extra help and what should I do if I think my child may have special educational needs? How do we know? Teachers are continuously monitoring and assessing children s learning and development: Teacher assessments take place each term. These assessments give information about academic, social and developmental needs. Pupil progress meetings then follow, where individual children and their needs are discussed, based on teacher assessment data. Based on the information provided by class teachers, some children are identified as needing additional support. This support would be directed according to need. The SENCO would liaise with the appropriate external agency to carry out an assessment. This assessment would then inform the school and parents of the next steps needed. In addition, teachers can raise a concern about a child at any stage if they are concerned about a child s learning. Transition information is shared between schools and other professionals to inform the relevant people about a child s particular needs. Support is put in place to ensure all children progress in their learning and development. If a teacher has a concern about a child, they will discuss this with parents/carers and also with our school s SENCO. Following these discussions the SENCO would contact you directly. What should you do? If you are worried that your child may have a special educational need, you should contact the class teacher or the SENCO directly by ringing either school. 2. How will Hove Junior school staff support my child? At Hove Junior School we have a SENCO, who coordinates provision for all children with identified special needs across our school. The SENCO works in close consultation with class teachers to devise and monitor support for children and coordinates the work of the Inclusion Mentor. We have a Inclusion Mentor who supports children s social and emotional development. We also have a team of Individual Needs Assistants who work with identified children. Your child s class teacher will provide daily high quality teaching which has been planned to support the range of children s needs within the class room. Following an assessment by an external agency such as the speech and language therapist, specific strategies to support your child s need will be shared with you and the school. The school will then arrange for these strategies to be put into place. The SENCO will communicate with you regularly so you will know what support is in place for your child and how it will be delivered and evaluated. We have a governor supporting special educational needs provision who regularly visits the schools and is in close contact with the Executive Inclusion Manager. Children identified as having special educational needs have an SEND Action Plan. This is a document which describes targets your child is being supported to achieve and the provision in place to support them.

2 3. How will the curriculum be matched to my child s needs? Lessons are planned to take account of children s differing abilities and needs. This would include: Providing learning tasks that present appropriate levels of challenge. Ensuring particular/specialist equipment is available for children to use. Providing visual resources to support different learning styles. Where appropriate, the school will refer to outside agencies for additional support in accessing the curriculum. The use of ICT support including mobile devices, laptops and specialist programmes. Further teacher or teaching assistant support to ensure your child is accessing the learning. 4. How will you and I know how my child is doing and how will you help me to support my child s learning? How will I know how my child is doing? In addition to parent s/carer s consultation evenings, the SENCO will offer a termly drop in to monitor your child s progress. Each term your child s SEND Action be reviewed and sent home for you to share with your child. You will also be offered a meeting in school to discuss this. Your child may have a home/school book. This enables you and us to communicate on a daily basis if required. If your child has been assessed or supported by an external agency, the agency will monitor and review your child s progress and report back to you and the school. Your child s learning will be monitored through pupil progress meetings. Any concerns that arise as part of these meetings will be shared with the SENCO. What you can do at home, to support your child s learning: Discuss the SEND Action Plan targets with your child and support them to achieve them. Follow any strategies that have been suggested by the class teacher or specialist teacher involved with your child. 5. What support will there be for my child s overall well-being? At Hove Junior School we support children s social and emotional development which is a vital link to successful learning and progress. The SENCO oversees the Inclusion Mentor who provides a range of support systems in the school. These are outlined below: Nurture and friendship groups, offered following discussions with teachers and parents/carers. Some support on a 1:1 basis, for children with high level behavioural needs. In some cases children have a person to meet and greet them every morning and settle them into school. Social intervention groups. In addition, the following practice supports positive well-being: A consistent, reward focussed behaviour policy is in place. All staff regularly receive updated training for safeguarding. When needed, adult support can be provided for children at play and lunchtime. In certain cases, Medical Care Plans may be required. These are compiled by the adults supporting your child in consultation with parents/carers and appropriate specialists. These are discussed with all staff involved with the pupil. We have a school counsellor on site for one half day a week to support those children who have more specific emotional needs. We follow physiotherapy programmes and receive advice and support from Occupational Therapy.

3 All relevant staff receive regular Epipen training delivered by the school Nurse. There is a high number of staff trained in first aid and we have a clear medicine policy. There is a discrete allocated area on both sites where medicine and first aid treatment is administered using the correct procedures. 6. What specialist services and expertise are available at or accessed by Hove Junior School? The SENCO oversees special needs provision at the school. They manage and deploy a team of Individual Needs Assistants and an Inclusion Mentor. The SENCOs are overseen by the Executive Inclusion Manager, who is overseen by the Headteacher. Through experience, specific training and multi-agency working, they have developed extensive expertise in supporting children with a wide range of educational needs. These include: Attachment disorder. Down Syndrome. Autistic spectrum disorder. Speech and language difficulties. Physical needs. Hearing impairment. Emotional and/or behavioural difficulty. In addition to our in-house expertise, we access support and advice from other specialist agencies when needed. The following specialist services and expertise are available to access at our school: Highly trained and competent team of support staff A SENCO who works with closely with the SENCO at our sister site and the Executive Inclusion Manager. Close links with Special Schools Highly trained team of class teachers committed to inclusion School Nurse School Counsellor Learning Mentor Educational Psychologist Literacy Support Teacher Speech and Language Therapist Speech and Language Teacher Autistic support service Mental Health worker (CAHMS) Early Help Family support worker Behaviour and Inclusion Team Social Workers Physiotherapists Occupational therapists Outreach Teacher for the deaf Outreach Teacher for visual impairment Specialist Health Visitor Paediatricians Hillside special school outreach Child Protection Officer Traveller Support Ethnic Minority Achievement Service (EMAS) Seaside View Child Development Centre (CDC) AMAZE

4 7. What training are the staff supporting children with SEND had or having? Our staff have a high level of training matched to the individual needs of the children. We use a mixture of in-house and external training to make sure that every member of staff has the correct training in Special Educational Needs and Disability relevant to their role. We have support from all of the services above who will often model sessions with the children for us to learn the best strategies to use for each individual need. 8. How will my child be included in activities outside the classroom including school trips? We always make every activity that school provides accessible/available to all children. Reasonable adjustments will be made so that children with special educational needs can join in as much as possible. This can be through: Extra adult support Adapting the activity Providing alternative or specialised equipment. The accessibility of all school trip destinations is checked in advance. We make every reasonable adjustment necessary for all of our trips to be inclusive. After school activities providers are aware of our school s commitment to inclusion. They would discuss appropriate provision with you in order to accommodate your child s needs. 9. How accessible is the environment of Hove Junior School? Both the school buildings and grounds are accessible to wheelchair users. The school adheres to the statutory guidance for the DDA and every year the governors audit the school environment to make sure the school are following this. We have lifts in both the school buildings. We have disabled toilet facilities and offer changing facilities. Training is offered where appropriate e.g. manual handling. With outside agency support, adaptations to the school can be made for individual needs as necessary, e.g. adjustments to the class for hearing impairment, large print for children with visual impairments. We aim to ensure all our classrooms provide a high level of visual support for pupils to access. 10. How does Hove Junior School prepare and support my child in joining the school and moving on to the next? We have a comprehensive transfer and transition programme in place. When a child moves school there is a high level of communication between both schools making sure the new school is fully aware of the needs of your child and the support that they need/ have received previously. We have close links with our local infant and senior schools. SENCOs and inclusion mentors liaise closely in the build-up to transition. When your child is about to transfer to their next school, we will: Hold a series of transition meetings and opportunities with you and your child. We will offer to take/ and receive your child on additional visits to ensure they are feeling familiar and confident about the impending move. All Year 2 and Year 6 children have transition visits where they spend time in their new classrooms with their new class teacher. Children moving into the school within an academic year are also supported by a key adult to ensure that they are quickly settled and clear in their routines. Our SENCOs and Executive Inclusion Manager work for both our school and West Hove Infant

5 School, meaning that SENCOs will already have a relationship with your family when your child begins Year3 if your child previously attended West Hove Infant School. 11. How are the school s resources allocated and matched to children s special educational needs? As part of our general school budget, we receive funding to support children with special educational needs. In a case where a child has very significant and/or complex needs we will make a case to the local authority in requesting additional funding through the high needs funding block, available to schools when this threshold of needs is reached. Such funding will then be used exclusively to provide the help and support your child needs. The school receives a Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) budget from the local authority. We review this annually and the school frequently spends additional money on top of this to support our children. Needs are mapped out using meetings and provision maps and the funding is matched appropriately. Pupil premium funding is used to support eligible pupils to ensure they make good progress. 12. How is the decision made about what type and how much support my child will receive? The Senior Leadership Team and governor with responsibility for inclusion will meet to allocate support, within our means, to children who need it. The SENCO will meet with you at least termly to discuss your child s provision. We will provide you with a breakdown of the support we are offering your child in the form of a SEND Action Plan. As all children s needs are different we have to be flexible in the way in which we assess and meet their needs. There is no one set way because the children we support are all different. We have regular meetings at Senior Leadership level and with class teachers to review the needs of each child. We are flexible and will change the support needed for your child according to his or her changing needs. It is very much a three way process between parents/carers, school and outside agencies and we all work together to make sure your child is being supported in the best way possible. 13. How are we as parents/carers involved in Hove Junior School and how can I be involved? Hove Junior School seeks to work in a close and mutually supportive partnership with parents and carers. There are several ways you can become more involved: as a parent/carer volunteer helper in the classroom, by joining the Parent Council, by becoming elected as a parent Governor if a vacancy arises or by volunteering as a parent/carer class representative. More information about all of these routes can be supplied through the school offices. In addition, your views will be sought through our annual parent/carer questionnaire. 14. Who can I contact for further information? For further information about our school s offer please contact our SENCOs David Knight (Portland Road ( ), Jacqui Case (Holland Road ) or the Executive Inclusion Manager Ben Patterson ( )