Belmont C of E (Controlled) Primary School

Supporting your Child

Monitoring progress and identification of intervention/support

Here at Belmont C of E Primary School including Noah’s Ark Nursery, we carefully monitor and track the progress that all children make across the curriculum. Formative and summative assessments provide data which gives a clear indication of how a pupil is progressing.

Where interventions and support are needed, they are quickly put into place. The school constantly evaluates the effectiveness of the provision for SEND pupils by monitoring the progress being made.

Where a pupil is not making the expected progress, we look at the targets set to see if they need modifying or adjusting, to match the outcomes required. The planning, differentiation, resources needed, and the time and level of support given, are checked carefully and adapted where necessary.

Where further interventions are required, perhaps from an outside agency or other professionals, they are commissioned and organised with the agreement and close involvement of parents and carers.

The vital liaison between the SENDCo, class teacher, parents, learning support assistant and other outside professionals, reinforces and underpins any adjustments being made which hopefully will lead to good progress.

Children may also be identified through

• Concerns raised by parents and carers.
• Referrals from a General Practitioner (GP), a Health Visitor, Speech and Language Service or the Educational Psychology Services.
• Paediatric assessments.

Quality First Teaching

Most of these children have their special educational needs met through good classroom practice. This is called Quality First Teaching.  

It means;

• That the teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class.
• That all teaching is based on building on 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 such things as kinaesthetic learning and personalised teaching and learning approaches.
• Specific strategies (which may be suggested by the SENDCo or outside staff) are in place to support your child to learn.
• Your child’s teacher will have carefully checked on your child’s progress and will have decided that your child has gap in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to help them make the best possible progress.

Assess, plan, do and review 

If your child needs additional support, we follow a graduated support approach which is called “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.  This means that we will:

• Assess your child’s special educational needs
• Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes
• Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes
• Review the support and progress

As part of this approach, we will produce a SEND School Support Plan that describes the provision that we will make to meet a child’s special educational needs and agreed outcomes over the long and short term. Parents and carers are fully involved in creating a School Support Plan and then this is reviewed termly. We work in partnership with parents to agree new plans.

A small percentage of children with significant learning difficulties may need an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.  Full details can be found on the Local Offer website.

Supporting children with SEND

In school we adapt the curriculum and make it more accessible for pupils with SEND through:

1. Small intervention groups. 

These groups may be run in the classroom or in another teaching area by a teacher or a teaching assistant. This kind of support is available for any child who has specific gaps in their understanding of a subject or area of learning.

2. Specialist group support from outside agencies

Sometimes children will have been identified by the class teacher/SENDCo (or you will have raised your concerns) as needing some extra specialist support in school from a professional outside the school. This may be from outside agencies such as the Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) Service or the Occupational Therapy Service.

In such cases, you will be asked to come to a meeting to discuss your child’s progress and help plan possible ways forward. You will be asked to give your permission for the school to refer your child to a specialist professional e.g a Speech and Language Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Educational Psychologist or a member of the Cognition and Learning Team. This will help the school and yourself understand your child’s particular needs better and enable us to support them better in school.

The specialist professional will work with your child to understand their needs and make recommendations, which may include:

• Making changes to the way your child is supported in class e.g. some individual support or changing some aspects of teaching to support them better
• Support to set better targets which will include their specific expertise
• A group run by school staff under the guidance of the outside professional e.g a social skills group
• Group or individual work with an outside professional

This type of support is available for children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through Quality First Teaching and intervention groups.

3. Children who have severe, complex and lifelong learning difficulties.

These children usually have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This means your child will have been identified by the class teacher/SENDCo as needing a particularly high level of individual or small group teaching which cannot be provided from the budget available to the school.

Usually, your child will also need specialist support in school from a professional outside the school. This may be from:

• Local Authority central services such as the Autism and Social Communication Team or Sensory Service (for students with a hearing or visual need)
• Outside agencies such as the Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) Service

For your child, this would mean:

• The school (or you) can request that the Local Authority carry out a statutory assessment of your child’s needs. This is a legal process which sets out the amount of support that will be provided for your child.
• After the school have sent in the request to the Local Authority (with a lot of information about your child, including some from you), they will decide whether they think your child’s needs (as described in the paperwork provided), seem complex enough to need a statutory assessment. If this is the case, they will ask you and all the professionals involved with your child to write a report outlining your child’s needs.
• After the reports have all been sent to the Local Authority, they will decide if your child’s needs are severe, complex and lifelong and that they need increased hours of support in school to make good progress.
• An EHC Plan will outline the number of hours of individual/small group support your child will receive from the LA and how the support should be used and what strategies must be put in place. It will also have long and short term goals for your child.
• An additional adult may be used to support your child with whole class learning, run individual programmes or run small group activities including your child.

Support for SEND children in English

These include;

• Quality English teaching and support from the class teacher and teaching assistants (TAs).
• A differentiated curriculum for children with SEND which includes scaffolding tasks, visual or written prompts and vocabulary banks.
• Additional staffing to decrease class sizes (Yr5/6)
• Use of a range of literacy resources to reinforce concepts and understanding, including the use of laptops, PCs and I Pads.
• Individual support for pupils with Education, Health and Care Plans.
• Targeted support for individuals, pairs and small groups with SEND, from the Teaching Assistants, Higher Level Teaching Assistants or the Class Teacher.
• Phonics/spelling support (IT programs including Nessy), focusing on spelling and sentence construction with small groups of SEND pupils.
• Termly assessments of all pupils, to monitor progress being made and identify areas of need.
• Targeted reading, spelling and English homework.
• Early birds sessions in small groups with a HLTA.
• Kinaesthetic spelling strategies eg use of bananagrams’ tiles.
• Dyslexia friendly books from 4u2read.
• Use of coloured paper/books if necessary.
• Reading windows.

Support for SEND children in mathematics

These include;

• Quality mathematics teaching and support from the class teachers and TAs.
• Targeted Mathematics homework.
• Small group, paired and individual support in the classroom from the class teacher, HLTAs and TAs.
• Withdrawal of small groups, pairs or individual SEND pupils, by HLTAs/TAs for targeted support eg mental maths skills and times tables.
• Individual support for those children with EHC Plans.
• The use of a wide range of mathematical equipment and resources to reinforce understanding across all year groups, including laptops and Ipads.
• Carefully matched activities for SEND pupils.
• Termly assessments for all children to monitor progress being made and to identify areas of need.
• Use of IT for whole class interactive demonstrations and games.
• Active Maths approach for some sessions.
• Use of songs and rhymes to learn eg number bonds to 10, doubles, times tables, telling the time. Youtube can also provide fun times table songs in the style of well known tunes.
• Early birds targeted one to one activities with a HLTA.

Support for SEND children with physical difficulties 

These include;

• Working closely with the Occupational Therapy Service.
• Providing resources recommended by them to ensure safe inclusion such as adapted seats, foot rests, scissors, crockery and cutlery.
• Implementing strategies and intervention programmes provided by them to support individual children.
• Completing regular Health and Safety audits of the school site.

The School Accessibility Plan can be seen here and all the related Evacuation Plans is available to see at the School Office.

Support for SEND children with occupational therapy (OT), movement and motor skills needs

These include;

• Identification and referral of children to OT/Physiotherapy/Movement Difficulties Services. Implementation of strategies and delivery of targeted intervention programmes.
• Records and reports are completed on the progress being made by the pupils, according to targets and outcomes planned.
• Provision of a variety of resources including cushions, sloping boards, weighted cushions, pencil grips, special scissors, special seats, foot rests, spongy balls, bean bags, small balls, quoits etc.

Support for SEND children with speech, language and communication needs

These include;

• Identification and referral of children with possible Speech, Language and Communication difficulties, to the Speech and Language Service.
• The implementation of strategies recommended by professionals and the monitoring and recording of progress and developments being made.
• Opportunities to practise and over learn these new skills.
• Assessments, records and reports focus on the progress being made by the pupils, according to targets and outcomes set.

Support for SEND children with behaviour, social skills and emotional development

These include;

• Consistent and fair implementation of the school’s Behaviour Policy.
• A Home/School contract can be created where behaviour is a key component of the contract.
• Individual behaviour plans for the classroom and for the playground, including lunchtimes when necessary.
• Key support staff on playground duty, to focus on and support identified pupils with emotional and behavioural issues. 
• Class teachers, support assistants and SENDCo to talk through issues and resolve conflicts with pupils. Parents and carers can be part of this resolution process.
• Regular communication with parents and carers, keeping them up to date on behavioural, social and emotional issues.
• Educational Psychology Service and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service support.
• Home –School books to communicate positive and negative incidents in school and the home.
• Personal, Social Health Education (PSHE) sessions, reinforce positive behaviour and social skills.
• Yr 2 Mini Buds, Yr 6 Buddies and a friendship seat/stop are tools that the children can use to signal difficulties in the playground.
• One to one counselling sessions for identified children.
• Additional reinforcement includes reward systems awarded to encourage positive learning and behaviour. This includes certificates given in assembly (Rainbow moments and Pupil of the Week), praise, encouragement, teampoints, Golden Time, stickers and other celebrations of success.

Support for all children with medical conditions

These include;

• Regular meetings with our school nurse and liaison with relevant paediatrician, to ensure that children with medical issues can access medical interventions in school. This will include medication, asthma pumps, epipens, etc.
• Meetings held with school nurse and parents/carers of children with medical issues, dietary requirements, allergies etc. to establish the child’s needs and to devise a care plan where appropriate.
• Healthcare Support Plans written with parents to better understand medical conditions, medication and support required.
• The school lunch providers are given details of special dietary requests together with a photo collage containing these details for quick reference.
• Named members of staff attend First Aid training and gain a certificate of competence after training.
• Staff timetabled for medical duties at breaks, so that a member of staff is available to tend to accidents and injuries.
• School liaises with medical professionals including GPs, mental health practitioners, hospitals, etc.
• Important information detailing a child’s ongoing medical condition and the required medication needed is circulated to all staff, provided permission is given by parents and carers.
• Prescribed medication, including asthma inhalers, held safely in school and staff are made aware of the doses and frequency medication has to be taken.
• Staff ensure that all medications are taken on trips out of school.
• Staff training on specific medical needs as these arise. This might include training on epilepsy, diabetes and epipen use for food allergies.
• Some staff have received paediatric first aid training for the younger children.
• Photographs of children with allergies displayed in the kitchen and staff room for all staff to see.

Support for children with English as an additional language 

These include;

• Any initial meeting with parents to discuss a referral to EMTAS for support and guidance.
• A visit to school and home by one of their key workers.
• A block of in school support may be given, if necessary.

Support for looked after children (LAC) with SEND 

These include;

• Having high expectations for the child and ensuring equal access to a balanced and broad curriculum.
• Recording, monitoring, and improving the academic achievement of the child in addition to their health and wellbeing.
• Achieving stability and continuity.
• Promoting good communication between all those involved in the child’s life and listening to the child.
• Ensuring staff awareness of, and sensitivity to, the difficulties and educational disadvantages of Looked After Children.
• Ensuring an appropriately trained Designated Teacher is appointed, who will be responsible for all Looked After children.
• All Looked After Children will have a Personal Education Plan (PEP) drawn up between the school, the child, and the child’s social worker, which will identify the child’s individual needs and the support they require.

Pastoral support arrangements for listening to the views of children with SEND

These include:

• Children with EHCP attend annual reviews to share their views following a child centred approach.
• Children requiring school SEN Support share their views to inform their individual plan.
• Opportunities for all children to share their views are provided through for example School and class council meetings, ideas gathering boards, comments boxes, in school surveys, discussions or pupil questionnaires.
• At the request of the child, sharing of SEN can be presented to the child’s class or for an assembly.

Measures taken to prevent bullying for children with SEND are detailed in our school’s Anti-Bullying Policy.

Access our Anti Bullying Policy here.

Support for children with SEND in sport

These include, 

• Adaptation of equipment, facilities, games and activities
• Additional adult support
• Peer support
• Signposting of events specific to children with SEND via Durham School Sports Partnership

Staffing and any Specialist Qualifications/Expertise

Mrs H. Stripp is the School SENDCo. 

Every opportunity is taken to enhance the skills of our staff either through continuous professional development in school or attendance at external courses. 

Reviewed: September 2021