William Cobbett s response to the 14 Questions

Transcription

1 William Cobbett s response to the 14 Questions Questions School Response School selfevaluation RAG rating 1 How does the school know if children need extra help and what should I do if I think my child may have special educational needs? Our vision at William Cobbett Junior School is that all children do their best regardless of their starting point. Pupils at William Cobbett Junior School are encouraged to develop as caring and respectful individuals who aspire to be the best they can be. Our core values are: Honesty, Responsibility, Respect and Cooperation. When children are transferring to William Cobbett Junior School from another school setting, strong links with local feeder schools are very important. We are in regular contact with our feeder schools throughout the year. Prior to transfer into Year 3, our Inclusion Manager (SENCO) meets with the SENCos from these schools to discuss children on the SEND (Special Educational Need and/or Disability) Register. This ensures that their area of need is clear, and enables collaborative forward thinking in terms of the support they may require. In the case of children transferring from other areas, we endeavour to get in touch with a child s previous school to ascertain any special needs they may require support within school. Phonics screening is carried out upon entry for those children whose phonic knowledge is a concern, so that they can be allocated to a support group if necessary. Pupil progress is monitored termly by our Class Teachers, Assessment Coordinator (our Deputy Head Teacher), Head Teacher and Inclusion Manager. Class Teachers are confident in flagging up concerns at the early stages so that

2 2 How will the school staff support my child? additional support may be offered when required. Teacher concerns are taken directly to our Inclusion Manager and discussed. There may then be a need to discuss next steps in provision with parents/carers with a view to further assessment to pinpoint a child s area of need or offer extra support within school. At this stage, parents/carers would be invited into school for a meeting. If parents/carers have any concerns regarding the learning of their children, we operate an open-door policy. Class Teachers are available to discuss concerns, as is our Inclusion Manager. Appointments can be arranged at mutually convenient times across the week. Here at William Cobbett the Inclusion Manager oversees SEND provision across the school. Provision is planned with appropriately challenging targets, identifying next steps in learning for all pupils. Other targets may be set, e.g. for behaviour, physical needs etc. Please see the appendix for a detailed copy of our school Provision map and a copy of our Special Educational Needs policy. Provision will follow the Waves Model: Wave 1 Quality First Inclusive Teaching This includes differentiation and adaptions made by the class teacher to remove barriers to learning for all children within the classroom. There are TA s deployed across the school who may work with your child in a small group in class to support learning, under the direction of the class teacher. Wave 2 /3 SEND interventions This includes targeted small group or 1:1 work that children may take part in, in addition to wave 1 to fill any gaps in their learning. These normally run from 2 to 10 weeks and may be led by a teacher or teaching assistant. These interventions also include programmes aimed to target temporary emotional and social difficulties. If we feel that your child is not progressing as we had hoped whilst receiving the intervention, it is at this point that your child will be placed on the SEND register and we may request the advice of external agencies if you

3 3 How will the curriculum be matched to my child s needs? 4 How will both you and I know how my child is doing and how will you help me to support my are happy for us to do so. We also have a Home/School Link Worker who is available to support vulnerable children and families if necessary. If your child is placed on our school SEND register, we will need to work together to create a Pathway Plan for your child. This plan is a very child centred approach and details our child s strengths and difficulties and how we can help them break down their barriers to learning. Appropriate support for your child is monitored and reviewed extremely carefully by our Teachers, teaching assistants and Inclusion Manager. Additional assessment of English and Maths, by qualified member of staff enables children to be placed in our targeted English or Maths support groups should they require this. When required, we also run small or 1:1 intervention groups in: social skills, handwriting, language and memory, fine and gross motor skills, and emotional support. Gifted and Talented pupils are identified and opportunities are sought to enrich their particular strength(s). Parents are informed of this and may be signposted to appropriate groups outside of school. The National Curriculum is differentiated for children within class, to provide appropriate curriculum access for all children. Access to the curriculum may be provided in a variety of ways, be it through a range of different tasks; additional resources/apparatus; extra time to complete; support from an adult; group work; learning partners and so on. Please see our Provision Map to clarify what every child has access to as standard (wave 1). We run regularly scheduled parent consultation meetings to keep parents/carers informed about their child s progress within school. Should it be necessary between these, additional meetings can be arranged with Class Teachers and our Inclusion Manager at mutually convenient times. Establishing

4 child s learning? If a child is on our SEND Register, their parents/carers are invited to meet our Inclusion Manager and class teacher to create a Pathway Plan. (See question 2) 5 What support will there be for my child s overall well-being? Parents will be informed when children are allocated places in one (or more) of our support groups or intervention programmes. All support group progress is monitored and evaluated by our Inclusion Manager to ensure maximum impact for the children involved. Where outside agencies are involved in addressing the needs of your child, you will be invited to relevant meetings with the outside agency and the Inclusion Manager to ensure consistency and understanding is established. If your child has a statement of SEND or an Educational Health Care Plan you will be invited to attend the annual review meeting. The school holds information meetings, to which you will be invited, at various points throughout the year to help you support your child s learning in partnership with the school and/outside agencies. For example, each year group holds a Welcome Meeting and we have yearly Maths parent and child workshops. Full written reports are sent home annually in the Summer Term to provide feedback regarding progress and achievement across the curriculum. We offer many forms of support to ensure that your child has access to the correct emotional support as and when required. Positive relationships are forged between our children and staff so that children feel confident in knowing they can talk to someone if they need to. There is good liaison between school staff and outside agencies (if required) to build up a team around the child and share important information. As part of our PSHE curriculum, we use aspects of SEAL which is a comprehensive programme that contributes to personal development by promoting social and emotional aspects of learning.

5 6 What specialist services and expertise are available at or accessed by the school? 7 What training are the staff supporting children with SEND had or are having? Here at William Cobbett we have an ongoing anti-bullying focus and an e-safety policy and scheme of work to endeavour to ensure that all pupils are aware of how to gain support for such issues. We have a buddying system in place where all pupils are allocated a buddy within a different year group. All parents/carers have access to our Home-School Link Worker (should they choose to take advantage of this facility): her role is to act as a liaison between our school and life outside school. We benefit from one of our staff being trained in emotional literacy, who is able to give more comprehensive emotional support. This, of course, would follow discussion with parents/carers and written consent. We liaise with Surrey s Multi-Professional Team, which offers a full range of support services and advisors. If there were concerns over a child s learning that we needed support in addressing within school, we would submit a referral to one of these agencies, who would then visit to advise us. Included are: Occupational Therapists; Educational Psychologists; Physiotherapists; Behaviour Support; Language and Learning Support; Speech and Language Therapists; Physical and Sensory Support; Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services; Targeted Mental Health in Schools. This referral would only be carried out with parental consent. Within William Cobbett, all teachers hold Qualified Teacher Status. Our Inclusion Manager also holds the National SENCO award as well as a Masters Degree in Special Educational Needs and Teaching and Learning. We have Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTA s) and Teaching Assistants (TA s) who are trained in delivery specialist interventions across the school. Recent intervention training includes: Better Reading Partnership, First Number 2, Arithmetic, Jump Ahead, Emotional Literacy Support, Talking Partners and Project X code. Regular opportunities for training and continual professional development are given to all members of staff. 8 How will my child be Every effort is made to ensure that no child will be excluded from activities outside Establishing

6 included in activities outside the classroom including school trips? 9 How accessible is the school environment? 10 How will the school prepare and support my child to join the school; transfer to a new setting / school / college or the next stage of education and life? the classroom, subject to appropriate risk assessments. We use Pupil Premium funding to finance the extra curricular acitvities for those children who are eligible for free school meals. Relevant access arrangements will be made where possible if required for children with specific needs. Before trips are carried out, risk assessments and accessibility arrangements are carefully considered. For mobility impaired children, arrangements are made in advance so that they can have as much access to the full experience as possible. We have a single level building with disabled access in the form of ramps to access the main building. Adaptions are available where needed; for example we have a moveable hearing loop for children with hearing difficulties and a portable ramp. We also have a hoist available within the SNSC and in the school hall for any children requiring physical support and a toilet with disabled facilities. The Waverly Confederation of schools work closely together and have strong relationships. Joint policies and practice support continuity and progression, making strong links between neighbouring schools. The SENCos in the local area meet at least once per term so that transition of special needs and extra provision is smooth and well-informed. When children prepare to join us in Year 3, they have a number of transfer days to prepare for transition. The Year 3 teachers visit our feeder schools to meet the children and discuss their needs and attainments. Children from non-feeder schools are also invited to attend activities in June/July and to meet their class teacher. Extra visits can also be arranged for pupils who would benefit from this. Additional meetings with parents of children who require extra support with transition or with SEND are also arranged in advance. When leaving us at the end of Key Stage 2, Induction days are arranged for the children to begin a smooth transition to their new Secondary schools. Secondary schools send their transition co-ordinator to meet our KS2 staff and children. Information is also provided to parents about secondary school open evenings. 6 week Transition groups are also put in place to support children who may find this change more difficult than others as well as our teachers delivering a number Establishing

7 11 How are the school s resources allocated and matched to children s special educational needs? 12 How is the decision made about what type and how much support my child will receive? of PSHE lessons about moving on. Resources are deployed to match identified needs as best as possible, e.g. TA support, intervention programmes, physical resources. Our Inclusion Manager oversees the allocation of resources in conjunction with other staff as relevant and specialist advice and resources are applied for where needed. The Senior Management team, along with our Inclusion Manager, will monitor the spending on interventions and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of these interventions to determine value for money. Many children with Special Educational Needs prefer to learn through visual and practical ways. Practical resources are stored in specially allocated SEND teaching spaces, so are available during every support session. Some resources are specific to certain children and are accessed frequently, so are therefore available in classroom spaces too. For children with Statements of SEND or Educational Health Care Plans, their LSA (Learning Support Assistant) will have a bank of resources and activities to support that child s area(s) of need. We have also spent a large amount of funding on creating and maintaining intervention groups such as: Better Reading Partnership, First number and Project X code (a comprehensive list of interventions can be found on our provision map in the appendix), with approximately 140 pupils benefiting from these interventions every year. Upon entering our school, assessment data is received from the child s previous school, along with notes regarding individual children whom find certain aspects of learning difficult. Our own assessments are carried out regularly and used to inform children s strengths and next steps for learning. Generally the Inclusion manager will, in consultation with the class teacher, decide which provision is most suitable for your child. The type of provisions can be found in Question 2 and in the provision map found within the appendix. Your child may receive support for a short amount of time, e.g. for a 10 week intervention programme, or over a more extended period, depending on needs and progress made. This is reviewed regularly and monitored for effectiveness. Establishing

8 13 How are parents involved in the school? How can I be involved? 14 Who can I contact for further information? More specialist advice may be sought from outside agencies if necessary. We believe that close school and home partnerships are crucial for the wellbeing and development of every child. Therefore we hold welcome meetings for every year group in September and have regular meetings throughout the year with a specific focus, e.g. Maths, SATs, E-Safety. Parents can become involved in the life of the school as a member of the School Association, Parent Governor, and by attending school events. We also happily welcome offers of parent help, for example in the library, hearing children read and on school trips. Parents are kept informed through regular newsletters and the school website. Your child s Class teacher is the first point of contact. You may then wish to contact the relevant people: Inclusion Manager - Mrs H Augustus Home school link worker - Mrs S Harfield Head Teacher Mrs L Peppin Deputy Head Teacher Miss G Payne Any of the above may be able to signpost to other relevant points of contact.