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Stradbroke Primary

SEND
SEND Statement

SEND at Stradbroke Primary School

As a school we aim to meet the needs of each pupil as an individual. We strive to support each child to the best of our ability in any of the following areas of need: Communication & Interaction, Cognition & Learning, Social, Emotional & Mental Health and Sensory & Physical. Children who are identified as having additional educational needs remain integrated within a class wherever possible and are supported in that environment.

The school follows the guidelines set out by the Department for Education Code of Practice (2015) and ensures that children experiencing Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are identified early, their needs are planned for and provision is made to ensure their needs are met. The level of support and provision provided will be dependent upon the level of need. (In Sheffield, we use the Sheffield Support Grid to help us identify level of need and appropriate provision.) For some children this may be low level, and they are best supported in small groups and using the school’s own resources. We provide classroom-based support from the teacher and teaching assistant on a small-group or whole class level. For example, a teaching assistant might work alongside a small group to pre-teach new concepts to children who may take longer to understand and apply novel ideas, or with a small group to revisit specific areas of learning. We run a wide variety of internal intervention programmes to provide further support around individual needs, such as additional reading, phonics practice, social skills and emotional regulation.

For other children, the degree of difficulty they are experiencing may indicate that they will require a higher level of expert assessment and support than school can provide from its own resources. We would therefore refer them to the relevant outside agencies – for example, the Speech and Language Therapy team. Often, these agencies will write a plan for the support these children will need for them to make progress in these areas. The school has invested in training for some Teaching Assistants so that they can provide this more specialist support – for example, with Speech and Language skills or fine and gross motor skill development.

 

If a child is experiencing longer term difficulties and requires an individual programme of support, a more formal assessment can be carried out by outside agencies and all the information written up as a My Plan. In some cases, this may lead to an application for an Education, Health and Care Plan.

All children receiving additional support will have their own small targets. The Inclusion Manager, Special Needs Co-ordinator, the class teacher and the parents/carers work closely so that the children have the greatest possible access to a broad and balanced curriculum. For children on the school’s SEND register, termly meetings are held to help this close work, share information and review how effective the support is. This follows the “assess, plan, do, review” system. Children with an EHCP will have a minimum of two SEND Review meetings and an Annual Review each year. These are in addition to the regular parent’s evenings.

Our SEND Information Report and SEND Definitions Leaflet are available to download, which you may find helpful.

The school’s SEND Policy is available to download, or a paper copy is available from the school office.

Stradbroke Primary School

Integrated Resource

We have an Integrated Resource for children with Moderate Learning Difficulties and who have an Education and Health Care Plan. We cater for a range of needs across the areas of Communication & Interaction, Cognition & Learning, Social, Emotional & Mental Health and Sensory & Physical. A child may have needs in more than one area. We are happy to support children with a range of medical needs, but please be aware that we do not have a nurse on site. We don’t have staff who have medical training above Level 3 first aid.

Our Integrated Resource has 19 places, is currently (Sep 2021) attended by 23 children.

The aim is to enable these children to live and work with other children from the mainstream school. They will work either in their mainstream classroom or in a small withdrawal group for each subject, depending upon their level of need. We aim to give these children, like others, full access to the National Curriculum. Naturally, their work will be personalised to their individual strengths and needs, and they may work at a different pace to mainstream children depending upon their specific needs.

We consider that our Integrated Resource is an appropriate setting for children who are likely to be able to integrate for some of their provision; are able to join a peer group; or are realistically likely to develop the skills required for these outcomes during their time at Stradbroke. Children placed here should benefit from the company of their mainstream peers, and those mainstream peers should benefit from them, both socially and educationally. The children attending the Integrated Resource benefit from a high level of support, but the majority of this is delivered on a small group basis with a high staff:pupil ratio.

These children have an Education, Health and Care Plan and can come from a wider area as well as the school’s catchment area. Admissions to the Integrated Resource dealt with directly by the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Assessment and Review Service (SENDSARS). It should also be made clear that, unfortunately, a place in Stradbroke’s Mainstream setting does not give a child automatic access to an Integrated Resource place; again, this is dealt with separately by the SENDSARS team.

Any family who wishes to visit the Integrated Resource can contact the school office to arrange a tour. We’d also like to point you to our Virtual Tour on YouTube, which may be especially useful for you during the current pandemic. Our SENDCo (Miss L Ambler) is very happy to discuss the setting and whether a placement here might be of benefit for your child over the telephone – please contact the school office if you would like to arrange this.

Further Information

You may find the following links useful: