At All Saints’ we embrace the fact that every child is different and, therefore, the educational needs of every child are different – this is certainly the case for children with Special Educational Needs and disabilities (SEND)

In terms of what we offer children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities, this is different for every child and it is important to emphasise that, as much as possible, this provision is designed by the relevant All Saints’ staff members working alongside the child, the child’s family and, where necessary, outside agencies (e.g. a Speech and Language Therapist or an Educational Psychologist).

Staff at All Saints’ have a wide variety of training and a great deal of experience and expertise in Special Educational Needs, behaviour, social barriers and emotional well-being.

Our School SENCo has the National SENCo Award and the Advanced SENCo Award.

All members of staff are trained in safeguarding children. They also all have ‘Schoolsafe’ training at the basic level and some have de-escalation training too.

Our staff have also received basic training in manual handling and many at an advanced level.

Many of our staff are trained in first aid, administering emergency medication (epi-pens) and specific individual training around diabetes.

We have two teaching assistants who are trained to deliver Eklan a speech, language and communication intervention.

First Class @ Number is a maths intervention and one of our teaching assistants has received training to deliver this.

Accessibility

Our school building is fully accessible to children with physical disabilities via ramps and also an electronic lift. There is a toilet for the disabled and changing facilities also.

In 3 of our classrooms, there is a hearing loop fitted to support those with hearing impairments.

For students that have English as their second language the school has a designated EAL co-ordinator (English as an additional language)

We also ensure that equipment used is accessible to all children regardless of their needs.

Curriculum and Teaching Methods

All children at All Saints’ have Class teacher input via excellent targeted classroom teaching also known as Quality First Teaching.For a child who has SEND this would mean:

• That the teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class.
• That all teaching is based on building upon what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
• Different ways of teaching are in place so that your child is fully involved in learning in class. This may involve things such as using more practical learning.
• Specific strategies (which may be suggested by the SENCO or outside staff) are in place to support your child to learn.

All children in school will be getting this as a part of excellent classroom practice when needed.

Intervention – Pastoral Support – External Agencies

The school offers many different forms of additional provision for learning. This can include one or more of the following:

1. Additional in-class support – this is usually in the form of a small group with specific work to do in the classroom, usually led by the class teacher or a briefed and able teaching assistant. The learning in these groups is likely to be linked to the lesson but targeted in a way to meet individual needs and to enable them to access the curriculum and progress in their learning.
2. Additional out-of-class support – this may happen outside of the classroom, usually led by a trained teaching assistant who will run these small group sessions using a teacher’s plan. This type of support is available for any child who has specific gaps in their understanding of a subject / area of learning. We also often refer to this support as intervention groups, pre-teaching or post-teaching.

Interventions are specific programmes that have been designed to help children progress in their learning usually in Literacy and Numeracy. These interventions will often run for a short measured period and teachers will assess whether or not this particular programme is working for your child and whether to continue it or not. Some of the most popular interventions that we use currently are:

• Bear Necessities & Dancing Bears – are synthetic phonics programmes aimed at improving reading.
• Apples and Pears – is a systematic spelling programme aimed to help children who struggle with spelling.
• Toe by toe – is a highly structure multi-sensory programme for reading.
• First Class @ Number – is a programme to help support children that may have fallen behind at mathematics.
• Springboard Maths – is a programme we use to fill gaps and consolidate learning across key stage 2 in maths.
• ELKLAN Support – a programme to improve speech, language and communication.
• Social Skills groups – aimed to promote good social skills through group work.
• Gym Trail – a programme aimed to improve fine and gross motor skills.

This is not an exhaustive list as we are always seeking guidance on new programmes and interventions that would benefit the specific needs of individual children.

Pre-teaching  is when we may take children out of class either individually or in a small group to explain difficult concepts or new vocabulary that we may be teaching in an upcoming lesson. We have found this to be particularly successful with children for whom English is an additional language as it enables them to be prepared and to be able to access the lesson more easily.

Post-teaching groups happen most afternoons in our school. When it is noticed that a child is struggling in Literacy, Numeracy or both during the morning lessons, we may send them out in a small-group with a teaching assistant to have some additional practice at the particular objective that we have been working on, this is to try and fill gaps in their knowledge and understanding before we move on the next day.

1. One-to-one support

This support will be available for a child who has a statement or EHC plan which outlines a specific number of hours of support the child will need. Usually this type of support is for children with severe, complex and lifelong needs and will probably include lots of specific focused work activities / curriculum programmes recommended by professionals from external agencies.

It is important to note here that your child may do some one-to-one work with a teacher or adult in school at any point but the one-to-one support we are referring to is when an individual has severe and complex needs and requires several hours of support daily.

4. External Agency Support

A child may have been identified by their class teacher and SENCo as needing some extra specialist support in school from a professional outside the school. This could be from:

• Local Authority central services such as:

-  County Inclusive Support Service (CISS) – an outreach service that can be accessed to support the inclusion of pupils with a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and also support children who have emotional or behavioural difficulties. It should be noted that the provision of this service has recently changed and is the combination of two services the old ‘County Inclusive Resource’ (CIR) and ‘Behaviour Support Service’ (BSS).

- Sensory and Communication Team – a range of expert specialist teachers of the deaf, visually impaired or multi-sensory impaired that can provide direct support in school.

- Educational Psychologists (EP’s) – a team of professionals who use their knowledge of psychology to promote positive change and well-being.

• Other outside agencies and health professionals such as:

- Speech and Language Therapy Service (SALT)

- Occupational Therapy

- Physiotherapy

- School Nurse

• Other professionals directly funded by school such as:

- Our School Counsellor, Laurie Seiler who provides Talking Therapy or Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

All additional provision is overseen by the school's highly-qualified SENCo and is designed and implemented by an excellent team of teachers, ably supported by a fantastic group of teaching assistants. As with individual targets, the most important point is this: additional provision depends on the needs of the child. 

You may find the following websites useful if you would like more information about additional provisions we use in school:

www.access-unlimited.co.uk  - the new one stop shop for Suffolk children and young people with additional needs and disabilities.

www.laurieseiler.co.uk - our school counsellor’s website, which offers you more information about the activities and therapy he does in school.

Assessment, Planning and Review

Your child’s progress is continually monitored by his/her class teacher. His/her progress is reviewed formally every half term and a band and step is given in reading, writing and maths on an internal assessment programme called target tracker. If you child is in year 1, the expectation is that they will be working within band 1. A year 2 child will be expected to be working in band 2 and so on. Within each of these bands, there are six steps for your child to progress through:

• Beginning
• Beginning+
• Working at
• Working at+
• Secure
• Secure+

It is expected that most children will progress through the band associated to their year group and make 6 steps progress in a year, as the diagram below shows:

At All Saints’ children that are working more than one year below the expectation for their age will be added to our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities register and they will receive targeted support. It is important to note, that we will still expect children with SEND to make at least 6 steps progress in a year from wherever their starting point is.

If your child is in Year 1 and above, but is not yet working at age expectations, a more sensitive assessment tool is used which shows their level in greater detail and will also show smaller but significant steps of progress. The levels are called ‘P levels’.

At the end of each key stage (i.e. at the end of year 2 and year 6) all children are required to be formally assessed using Standard Assessment Tests (SATS). This is something the government requires all schools to do and are the results that are published nationally. The results are published anonymously but parents will be informed of their child’s results.

In addition to this, a child with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities will have an iPassport (replacing the older GROW passports), which sets out targets that are currently being worked on and what additional provision is put in place for that child. The iPassport targets will be are written and reviewed three times a year, usually around the time of the half term holidays (October, February and May). The content of these learning passports is negotiated, as appropriate, with the child and the child’s family. This is why it is so important that parents/carers attend our Parental Consultation Evenings. They happen twice a year in the Autumn Term, Spring Term and a full written report is issued in Summer Term with an opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher if you wish.

For many children, targets will be connected to learning and will often be specifically to do with literacy and numeracy. For other children, they may be to do with social interaction, communicating with children and adults, emotional difficulties, overcoming physical issues (for example problems to do with fine motor control) … the list is endless! The most important point is this: targets depend on the needs of the child.

The progress of children that have an EHC plan will have a formal review annually to discuss their progress, this is usually attended by all adults involved with the child’s education and is known as the ‘annual review’.

Before and After School Clubs

It is worth pointing out that we do not offer targeted extra-curricular activities for children with Special Education Needs, but instead actively try to ensure that all our extra-curricular activities, including our two residentials, are adapted for children’s specific needs.

Wacky Snacky Club is available before school and after school (subject to availability and payment of a fee) at the adjacent All Saints’ Under 5s Building.

Transition & Moving On

We recognise that transitions can be difficult for a child with SEND and take steps to ensure that any transition is a smooth as possible.

• If your child is moving to another school:

We will contact the school SENDCO and ensure he/she knows about any special arrangements or support that need to be made for your child.

We will also make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible.

• When moving classes in school:

Information will be passed on to the new class teacher IN ADVANCE and in most cases, a planning meeting will take place with the new teacher. All relevant paperwork will be shared with the new teacher. If a book would help to support your child understand moving on then it will be made for them.

• In Year 6:

The Year 6 teacher and SENDCo will meet with relevant colleagues from your child’s next school and pass on any necessary information about their needs.

Your child will do focused learning about aspects of transition to support their understanding of the changes ahead.

Where possible your child will visit their new school on several occasions and in some cases staff from the new school will visit your child in this school too to offer additional support, answer questions and generally reassure them during this period of change.

In school:

Your child’s class teacher is regularly available to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns you may have and to share information about what is working well at home and school so similar strategies can be used.

The SENDCO or SEND governor are also available to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns/worries you may have.

All information from outside professionals will be discussed with you with by the person involved directly, or where this is not possible, in a written report.

Th iPassports will be reviewed with your involvement each term, usually at parents’ consultation evenings (October, February and June as a rough indication).

Homework will be adjusted as needed to your child’s individual needs.

Finally, a home/school contact book may be used to support communication with you, when this has been agreed to be useful for you and your child.

We are also occasionally meet informally as a forum and get-together for parents and carers of children with SEND to offer a network of support. These meetings are called CONNECT. (See our CONNECT page)

Outside of school:

The Parent Partnership Team may also be a useful contact for you. They are a confidential and impartial listening, information and support service for parents and carers who may have concerns over their child's education. They are now known in Suffolk as SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice and Support service)

If you would like to speak to someone from the service you can call the helpline: 01473 265210 or you can email: sendiass@suffolk.gov.uk

This is a record of children who we have identified as having Special Educational Needs (SEN) and their primary area of need which would be from the following:

• Communication and interaction.
• Cognition and learning.
• Social, emotional and mental health difficulties.
• Sensory and/or physical needs.