Our Inclusion team

Please contact us on sendco@dalehallprimary.net

• Mrs Cattermole - SENDco
• Clair Utting- EHCPs/ Referrals/ LAC/ Family Forms
• Mrs Dedicoat- Learning plans/ Provision plans/ Interventions 

At Dale Hall we celebrate the fact that every child is unique and, therefore, the educational needs of every child are different – this is certainly the case for children with special educational needs and disabilities. We aim to ensure that all children in our school are happy, settled and enjoy each day with us. We are an inclusive school. We want to make sure every child makes good progress and achieves well. This means that we make it a priority to get to know each child on an individual basis and do our very best to meet their needs. This might be through providing extra support in lessons, adapting our curriculum or providing assistance for personal or medical needs. 

What is SEND?

A child has special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) if they have a learning difficulty or disability which means that they find it significantly harder to learn or to do activities which children the same age are able to do.

These children may need extra help, support or special provision that goes beyond the differentiated approaches and learning arrangements that are normally provided in class.

If your child has special educational needs or a disability their needs will fall into one or more of the four main areas of SEN;

1.  Communication and interaction

• Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)
• Autism

2.  Cognition and learning

• Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD)
• Moderate Learning Difficulty (MLD)
• Severe Learning Difficulty (SLD)
• Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty (PMLD) 

3.  Social, Emotional and Mental Health

4.   Physical / Sensory

• Visual Impairment (VI)
• Hearing Impairment (HI)
• Multi-Sensory Impairment (MSI)
• Physical Disability (PD) 

We rigorously track and monitor the progress of all our pupils.  Teachers in conjunction with the SENDCo and where appropriate external agencies will look at those pupils who are not making the progress we would expect and extra support and interventions are then put into place.  We regularly monitor and review the SEN Register and ensure that all pupils are identified as quickly as possible. 

How do we identify if a child needs extra help or has special educational needs?

We continually monitor the progress of our pupils and follow our Graduated Approach to Assess, Plan, Do and Review. This is a cyclical process and the steps are explained below.  If you have concerns then please make an appointment to discuss this with your child’s class teacher how this has been followed.

Assess:

There are various ways that we assess children to decide whether they need to go on to the SEN register.  These include:

• Teacher assessments
• Teacher’s knowledge of the child
• Pupil progress meetings – this is a termly meeting between the class teacher and senior leaders.  During these meetings both the progress and attainment is carefully monitored as well as discussions around well-being and family support
• Parents views of the child’s development recently and over time
• The views of the pupil
• Advice and recommendations made from outside agencies
• Standardised assessments and classroom observations of the child 

The above information will be discussed by the SENDCo, class teacher, parent, child and support staff. 

If this process identifies a concern which is caused by a special educational need and all parties concerned consider that it is appropriate, we would add your child on to our Special Needs Register. 

All children will benefit from and have access to Quality First Teaching, where work will be differentiated appropriately to meet the individual needs of the children.  Reasonable adjustments will be made and additional resources that are required will be made available.

If an additional need has been identified a plan, called a provision map will be written by the class teacher in consultation with the child and parent.  Additional advice might also be sort from the SENDCo.  The provision map will identify reasonable adjustments that are required and anything that is different or additional that needs to be put in place in order to meet the child’s individual needs.                                       

Do

Once the plan is in place the reasonable adjustments and the additional and different provision will begin.

Teachers will continually be reflecting on their lessons and the child’s outcomes so that gaps in learning and misconceptions can be identified and addressed. The class teacher remains responsible for any additional provision that is in place for the child, even if the child is completing an intervention outside of the classroom.

Review

Each term the provision map will be formally reviewed (October, February and May). This will be completed by looking at impact of the interventions.  You will be invited into school to discuss this.  Decisions will be made as to whether the additional and different provision should continue or change in any way.  Pupil progress meetings which take place with the class teacher and member of the leadership team will assist with this process. 

If progress has not been made then the SENDCo may give further advice or consider seeking support from outside agencies such as Speech and Language Therapist (SALT), Occupational Therapist (OT), Educational Psychologist (EP), School Nurse, Primary Mental Health Worker (PMHW).

How do we support children in class?

We aim and endeavour to provide an inclusive learning environment.  We support our teachers to ensure that Quality First Teaching (QFT) is provided.  We endeavour to ensure that all reasonable adjustments are made and additional and different provision is provided.  Additional resources that we provide for children include: pencil grips, writing slopes, move’n’sit cushions, fiddle toys, coloured books, overlays and ‘white’boards for the children to write on, practical resources for maths, laptops, sound buttons etc. Lessons are differentiated and activities scaffolded to support and meet the individual needs of the children.  Teaching Assistants are also available in some lessons to support the teaching in meeting the needs of all children.  Occasionally, some pupils have full time 1:1 support.

How do we support children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties?

We work very hard to support children who are experiencing difficulties with their social, emotional and mental health, in addition to the school Thrive approach.  We have a Family Liasion Lead who works closely with parents, SENDCo, class teachers, TAs, outside agencies and the child.  Through discussions and working together we aim to understand the difficulties, offer support and interventions and sign post to other agencies. 

When appropriate, a CAF referral will be completed with the parents.  If this is accepted, regular Family Network Meetings (FNM) will take place.  These are led by a Family Support Worker (FSW) and all the agencies involved in supporting the child meet to discuss progress, further actions and next steps.