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Special Educational Needs

Special Educational Needs Report

SEND Information Report

At Sayes Court we believe that all teachers are teachers of SEN and that all our SEN children are entitled to Quality First Teaching from their class teacher. We are determined to make sure that our school meets the needs of every child we teach and believe that parental engagement is of paramount importance in doing so.

How we involve and support parents:

Hold regular meetings with parents (SENCo / Class Teacher / LSA)
Send out a half termly update on a child’s interventions
Share and discuss targets on SSA
Discuss children’s One Page Profiles
Interventions in place are discussed / shared with parents
Parents are given advice on how to support their child at home
Parents are invited into school to observe interventions if they wish to do so
Parents are provided with resources where necessary
Parents are signposted to help they can access outside of school

How we involve children:

Discuss children’s One Page Profiles / Passports
Gain pupil voice

What to do if you think your child has SEN:

If your child has already been identified as having SEN or you suspect that they may have SEN, please do not hesitate to contact the SENCo, Assistant SENCos, Assistant to SENCo or your child’s class teacher via Class Dojo or through the school office.

SENCo – Mrs Richmond

Assistant SENCos - Mrs English and Miss Raeburn

Assistant to SENCo – Mrs Redman

At Sayes Court we use the definition for SEN and for disability from the SEND Code of Practice (2014). This states:

SEN

A child or young person has special educational needs if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. A learning difficulty or disability is a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age. Special educational provision means educational or training provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for others of the same age in a mainstream setting in England.

Disability

Many children and young people who have SEN may have a disability under the Equality Act 2010 – that is …” a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day to day activities.”

We believe that high Quality First Teaching should reduce the need for extra support, but it is likely that some pupils will require high quality, structured, targeted interventions to make progress. Where these interventions are required, we ensure that these are research based, and we also consult the EEF research and guidance.

All our teachers consistently follow the “assess, plan, do, review” approach to making sure they are providing exactly the right provision for each individual. Please read our SEND Policy to find out more about how we identify, provide for, assess and challenge our children with SEND.

Click here to read the SEND Code

Click here to read our SEND Policy

Four main areas of need are identified in the SEND Code.

Click here to read more about the four main areas of need

Additional SEN Support

How do we identify children’s SEN needs:

Every class teacher from Nursery through to Year 6 regularly reviews the progress of the children in their class. Where children are not making expected progress and attaining below age related expectation, teachers will put interventions in place to support these children. Teachers will discuss this with the SENCo and where necessary Send Support Arrangements (SSA) will be put in place which will include information about the children’s needs and their targets. The SSA are reviewed termly but this may be half-termly depending on the targets of the child. Ongoing assessment against targets will take place and Learning Support Assistants will be actively involved in this with the class teacher.

Specialist Services Accessed by the School:

Depending on the needs of the child, it may be necessary to seek advice and input from specialists. The School accessed the following services:

Speech and Language Therapists
Learning and Language Support
Occupational Therapy
Educational Psychology
Surrey Young Carers
Mindworks (previously CAMHS)
Freemantle School Outreach
Expertise from within the BET (MAT)

Parental consent is sought where specialist involvement is required. Surrey do however offer SEN surgeries linked to the different specialist services, and the SENCo and teaching staff are able to access these for general enquiries / support.

Where children require additional support, this is provided in the first instance by their class teacher and the learning support assistant/s attached to the class. Interventions can take place through strategies used in Quality First Teaching or through those that are more targeted.

How the School decides which strategies and interventions to use:

Strategies and interventions are determined by the needs of the children, based on the four areas of need and their current level of skill and knowledge in regard to the curriculum. This is informed by class teacher and SENCo discussions, and where relevant, specialist input. LSAs will also take part in this process.

How the School matches the curriculum to the needs of the children:

We use assessment of children’s starting points, their prior knowledge and skills to ensure a tailored and personalised curriculum. We also consider the context of our School and expectations in Y7 and beyond in planning our curriculum for all children and those with SEN.

Extra-Curricular Activities / Educational Visits:

All children with SEN have the same access to extra-curricular activities / educational visits as those children without SEN. School provides any support necessary to ensure this access.

How the School ensures the environment is accessible:

An Accessibility Plan is in place and staff are reminded about the Equality Act 2010. Our school buildings and grounds are fully accessible and we ensure that all children have access to the resources they need for their learning.

How the School supports transition:

We have a programme in place for welcoming new children to our setting. For Nursery and Reception, this includes home and nursery visits. We also meet with parents, teachers and professionals where children have identified SEN needs and ensure that we receive all relevant paperwork. Parents and children are invited to attend various events in school prior to starting and individual or small group events are organised where necessary. We follow the same process where we have in year transfers. Events are however not relevant here but visits prior to starting are encouraged.

Where children are transitioning to another school or are at the end of KS2, we arrange visits to our local secondaries and have ongoing links with these schools from Year 4. The SENCo and class teachers communicate and share information with the secondary school or school to which the child is transferring to ensure the smoothest transition possible.

How the School supports well-being:

The School uses a range of strategies and interventions to support well-being. All staff are trained to provide a high level of pastoral support. We have a clear, well established Behaviour Policy and a detailed Personal, Social, Health and Education (PSHE) statutory curriculum that is consistently followed across the School. Interventions for well-being are indicated in the table below.

Strategies used in Quality First Teaching which include but are not limited to:

Peeling on / Peeling off
Differentiation (use of visuals, concrete resources, word banks)
Talk for Learning
Pre-teaching
Questioning
Grouping
Same day intervention

Structured / Targeted Intervention:

All interventions we put in place are researched, informed and evidence based.

Intervention	More Information
Attention Autism	Attention-Autism-Stages.pdf (samuelcody.hants.sch.uk)
Box Dictations	Box dictations are an effective way of providing visual support for spelling for children (and adults) who experience the common dyslexia-related problem of failing to map the sounds of letters onto their shapes.
Colourful Semantics	Colourful semantics is often used to support children with speech and language difficulties, including those who have difficulties with word order, vocabulary difficulties or expressive and receptive language difficulties. It can also be helpful for children who have English as an additional language (EAL).
Daily Reading	Teachers and LSAs read on a 1:1 basis with children focussing on reading skills including but not limited to the following: segmenting, blending, prediction and inference.
Dynamo Maths	Through the use of the Dynamo Maths assessment, children at risk of developmental dyscalculia and who are performing significantly below their peers can be identified. Once identified children then work through a series of Dynamo Maths resources online.
Emotion Coaching (well-being)	Emotion Coaching Resources for Professionals (emotioncoachinguk.com)
ELSA (well-being)	Support sessions carried out by ELSAs which help children to build understand and regulate their emotions, whilst also respecting the feelings of those around them. ELSAs are Emotional Literacy Support Assistants. They are teaching assistants who have received specific additional training from educational psychologists on aspects of emotional literacy including emotional awareness, self-esteem, anger management, social and friendship skills, social communication difficulties, loss, bereavement and family break-up.
Lego Therapy (well-being)	Lego therapy is a play-based piece of intervention which focuses on developing collaborative play skills. It was introduced by Dr Daniel LeGoff in 2004. It is predominately used with children who have Autism or social interaction difficulties. However, it can be used with all children.
Nessy	About Us \| Nessy
Phonics (1:1, small group, Five Minute Box)	Teachers and LSAs work with children on a 1:1 or small group basis focussing on the sounds that need to be learned. These sessions will include but will not be limited to the following: recognising sounds, saying sounds and application.
PECS	The Picture Exchange Communication System, or PECS, allows people with little or no communication abilities to communicate using pictures. People using PECS are taught to approach another person and give them a picture of a desired item in exchange for that item. By doing so, the person is able to initiate communication. A child or adult with autism can use PECS to communicate a request, a thought, or anything that can reasonably be displayed or symbolized on a picture card. PECS works well in the home or in the classroom.
Play Therapy (well-being)	Play therapy creates a safe place for children to express their feelings and thoughts. It creates a relationship of trust built between the child and the play therapist. It makes way to the development of self-esteem and the coping ability of the children
PORIC (Personal, Objects, Representational, Independence, Consolidation)	PORIC provides a framework for teaching concepts showing a progression from the concrete to the abstract, from experience to verbalisation. Teachers and LSAs work with children by introducing concept words and then working towards the children being able to use these in a range of contexts independently and with understanding.
Project X Code	Project X CODE is a proven reading intervention programme with an integrated online subscription, for children in Years 2–4 (P3–5) who are a year or more behind in their word reading. CODE combines phonics and comprehension development in an exciting and motivational character adventure series.
Sensory Diet Activities	A “sensory diet” is a personalised activity plan that provides the sensory input a child may need to stay focused and organised throughout the day.
Speech and Language (SLT)	LSAs work on a 1:1 basis to support children with SLT. This is done after consultation with the SLT specialist assigned to our school. The SENCo and Class Teachers will meet with the SLT specialist to ensure that they have an overview of the intervention and progress can be monitored.
Talk Boost	The Talk Boost approach helps children to develop not only their understanding and use of language, but also other important skills like attention and listening and turn-taking, which can help ease them back into the school environment.
Language for Thinking	This is an intervention designed to help help children develop their thinking and language skills
Zones of Regulation (well-being)	Learn More about the Zones - THE ZONES OF REGULATION: A CONCEPT TO FOSTER SELF-REGULATION & EMOTIONAL CONTROL
Precision Teaching	Precision teaching is a structured teaching method that’s designed to improve the accuracy and fluency of reading, spelling and maths. The main goal of precision teaching is to help ensure that students become fluent and accurate in regard to what they are working on.

Alpha to Omega	This intervention is used to develop reading, spelling, study skills & memory strategies for use with all aspects of learning.
Toe by Toe	Toe by Toe is a highly structured phonics-based reading manual to help anyone who finds reading difficult.
Looking and Thinking	This is in intervention designed to help develop children’s reasoning skills.
TalkAbout (well-being)	TalkAbout is a structured programme for teaching and measuring social skills. It is a whole scheme of work which helps you assess, teach and measure your work easily.
Write from the Start	This programme helps develop children’s fine-motor skills, and lays the foundations for flowing, accurate handwriting.
Out of Sight	Out of Sight is use to support children’s vocabulary.
Mindfulness and Yoga (well-being)	Five-minute meditation and breathing. Yoga – whole class and for individuals / groups.

How we allocate and match the School’s resources to children’s SEN needs:

We are well staffed and well-resourced and base our allocation of resources including human resources on the needs of individual children, groups and cohorts, SDP priorities and data analysis. Interventions are costed and impact and value for money monitored by the SENCo, SLT and SBM.

Staff Training:

Our SENCo has completed the mandatory National SENCo Award. Staff receive training in the above interventions. They also receive training and guidance on how to support children in school. This training is offered through the SENCo, SLT, experienced class teachers / LSAs or through specialists and outside providers.

Additional Support Outside of the Classroom

Children are also able to access parallel, adapted teaching outside of their classroom. This is provided by our deputy head, Miss Black, and HLTA Mrs Leaver in our additional support room Cherry Blossom.

Access to this adapted, parallel teaching is determined by a number of factors which may impact negatively on a child’s wellbeing and their access to the curriculum. These barriers can be associated with all four areas of SEN need and include but are not limited to the following:

High levels of anxiety linked to being in a large group and to sensory overload
Needs relating to building relationships and communicating with adults and peers
Needs relating to attending to adult led activities
Needs related to maintaining focus on a task when working independently
Needs relating to attachment disorder
Needs relating to trauma
Needs relating to processing information in whole class inputs
Needs relating to understanding and applying everyday concepts

Purpose

The purpose of the additional support provided in Cherry Blossom is to ensure that all children in receipt of this support:

overcome their barriers to learning
develop the necessary skills to communicate and interact with others
are able to transition back to their class for all lessons in which they receive support
receive the interventions suggested by specialists delivered by experienced and highly skilled adults
develop positive views of themselves as learners

Determining which children will benefit from parallel teaching in Cherry Blossom

Every child’s needs are different and in determining whether or not additional support through Cherry Blossom will be of benefit to any of our children, we carefully consider their individual needs. We also take their views and those of their parents into consideration before any decisions are made.

Many children who experience one or more of the above barriers do not receive additional support in Cherry Blossom and their needs are met in class.

Children who have an EHCP do not automatically have access to additional support in Cherry Blossom for the reasons given above.

Benefits

The reasons children benefit greatly from the support through Cherry Blossom are as follows:

High levels of interaction are possible – C & I and SEMH are often key areas of need
It is possible to structure learning in even smaller chunks for specific lessons and support due to the staffing ratios
It is possible to include a wide range of interventions
Children are able to access their learning and socialise with peers, instead of being 1:1 with an adult for significant amounts of time throughout the day
Children are able to access the whole curriculum due to shorter and therefore more accessible inputs. This allows teaching to take place on a rotation basis which means that whilst the teacher is teaching an NC subject to one group of children, another group may be working on other interventions for example social skills with support staff without missing out on their learning
It is possible to drill down further in regard to assessing and meeting pupils’ needs as adults and pupils have very close interactions
Teachers and support staff are developing further skills due to the professional dialogue between staff who provide additional support in Cherry Blossom, class teachers and LSAs.

Successes - Additional Support in Cherry Blossom

Over the past year we have experienced the following successes with this additional support:

Children have successfully transitioned into all lessons for which they’ve received support

Children are able to access their learning in class with less support
Children have developed confidence in interacting and communicating with their peers / adults.
Attendance has improved significantly for some children
Children make steady progress
Feedback from parents is positive
Feedback from professionals is positive

Feedback to Parents:

Providing feedback to parents and to children is part of our established learning culture. This includes informing families of next steps and what they can do to help/support their child’s learning.

Parents of children with SEN are provided with half-termly updates on interventions and termly reports which include updates and data.

Assessment of Children with SEN

In additions to the assessments which form part of any intervention programmes that are listed under structured interventions above, we also use NFER assessments for the core subjects, and Accelerated Reader for reading ages. These are also used to track progress and in our feedback to parents.

We also use the AET framework to track progress of some of our children who have a diagnosis of ASD.

Useful Websites

The Surrey Local Offer

The Surrey Local Offer is a guide to the services in Surrey that are available for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities aged from birth to 25.

Click here to access the Surrey Local Offer

Mindworks Surrey

Mindworks is the Children and Young People's Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Service in Surrey

Home: Mindworks Surrey (mindworks-surrey.org)

ADHD Information Services

ADDISS

Autism Education Trust

Autism Education Trust

British Dyslexia Association

Dyslexia - British Dyslexia Association (bdadyslexia.org.uk)

Literacy support for dyslexia that follows the Science of Reading | Nessy

Sensory Needs