St Paul's Catholic (VA) Primary School

At St Paul’s we work closely as a team and if staff have a concern about a child, they fill in a concern form and discuss concerns with SENDCo and parents. A child will then be placed on the monitoring register and we begin to follow the Graduated Response approach of ‘Assess, Plan, Do and Review’.

After a period of 6-8 weeks we will decide if a child needs to be placed on the SEND register and invite you in for a meeting, where we will share the targets your child is working on and the support they are receiving.

Some children will be monitored, this allows the children who are working at below key stage standards to have small step targets in lessons to allow them to work independently.

Some children may require more support than is ordinarily available and we may ask outside agencies to support us in ensuring that we are offering the best support we can.

Staff can access the West Berkshire SEND Handbook to help support children’s learning within the classroom.

For children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), SEN Support Individual Education Plan (IEP) or require specialist support (over and above what is ordinarily available) we will invite you in for 3 further meetings a year in the Autumn, Spring and Summer term.  These meeting are used to celebrate your child’s learning, looking at the progress they have made against the targets set, create new targets and discuss next steps.  A copy of this will always be sent home after the meetings.

• We use a combination of approaches appropriate to the child’s needs. These may be:
• Adapted work.
• Additional in class equipment e.g. pencil grips, sloped writing boards etc.
• Extra small group work or 1:1 session.
• Discussions with SENDCo and outside agencies to provide additional ideas.
• Discussions with the class teacher.
• Class pages on the website to inform current learning so parents can support.

Our class teachers plan lessons according to the specific needs of your child:

• Learning tasks are adjusted in order to enable your child to access the learning as independently as possible with support from SENDCo.
• Teaching assistants are there to help your child progress and be as independent as possible.
• Interventions are regularly monitored and progress of pupils are checked by the SENDCo.
• The SENDCo reports impact of interventions to the senior leadership team and SEND governor.

As with all children with learning difficulties, home-school links are extremely important to ensure the most appropriate provision for your child.

 

Teachers adapt their high-quality teaching to cater for their pupils’ needs and plan individual timetables where necessary. When appropriate, staff are deployed to give children additional interventions in small groups outside the classroom, or to provide one to one support.

 

We also seek advice and equipment from outside agencies as and when the need arises.

The following table details some of the strategies used for children with specific difficulties:

Autistic Spectrum Disorder

·          Building upon the strengths and interests of the pupil

·          Visual Supports – often developed with the pupil

·          Use of a social story to explain the social rules

·          Providing a 'safe haven' where the pupil can go if they are not able to manage.

·          Comic Strip Conversations to explore feelings of all parties involved in an incident

·          Checking understanding and when necessary, repeat instructions one to one

·          Allow extra time for processing

·          Break down instructions

·          Structuring questions and using direct language

·          Provide help cards

·          Clear expectations of a start and end point

·          Preparation for transition to a new class

·          Transition conference involving all parties to prepare for the move to secondary school

Hearing Impairment

·          Consideration of seating arrangements – ensure the pupil is seated near the teacher

·          Keeping background noise to a minimum

·          Use of small group teaching where appropriate

·          Provision of a quiet area for teaching or working

·          Ensuring the teacher’s face is always clearly visible

·          Use of visual aids

·          Writing keywords / instructions on the board and providing notes for reference

·          Go through instructions with a teaching assistant

·          Printed materials to accompany audio resources

·          Act upon advice and support given by the Sensory Consortium Team for Hearing Impairment

Visual Impairment 

·          Use of adapted resources such as enlarged texts or audio resources

·          Act upon advice and support given by the Sensory Consortium Team for Visual Impairment

·          Provision of appropriate IT equipment to support learning and access to the curriculum

·          Consideration of the environment to best meet the needs of the pupil

Speech and Language Difficulties

Depending on the specific needs of the child, a variety of strategies are used in class and through intervention:

·          Ensuring we have the child’s attention before giving instructions

·          Shorter instructions with time provided for them to process the instruction or request and to give a response 

·          Checking that the child has understood the instructions 

·          Providing the children with good role models, repeating what they have said correctly 

·          Social skills sessions focusing on turn-taking, listening to others etc to support the child with social communication and interaction with their peers 

·          Specific language word to improve their bank of vocabulary

·          Language for thinking

We ensure that all children who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities are met to the best of the school's ability with the funds available.

We have trained teaching assistants to deliver programmes and interventions designed to meet children's needs. This budget is allocated on a need’s basis. The children who have the most complex needs are given the most support, this may include the support from a teaching assistant.

The class teacher will be able to discuss in further the set criteria to access the appropriate programmes listed below based on your child's age-appropriate progress against the National Curriculum.

Precision Teaching-spelling and maths intervention from Year 1 to Year 6.

SNIP-spelling intervention from Year 5 and Year 6.

SPRINT- Literacy intervention for Year 1 children only.

STRAW-Writing intervention for Year 2 to Year 6.

Catch Up-Readng intervention from Year 2 to Year 6.

Lexplore-reading intervention from Year 2 to Year 6.

SNAP Maths- Maths intervention for children from Year 1 to Year 6.

Lego Therapy from Year 2 to Year 6.

ELSA- Emotional Literacy Support available for all ages.

Resources and equipment are provided on a child's individual needs with recommendations and support given 

from outside agencies for children with SEND. This will be continually monitored and reviewed throughout the academic year.

Resources may also include appropriate training for staff.

Your child's class teacher will liaise with the senior leadership team to discuss arrangements prior to examinations and seek support from appropriate government examining bodies (as the Department of Education access arrangements).