SEND & Local Offer
SEND Support at St. Stephen’s RC
Our SENDCO
Our Special Educational Needs and Disability Co-ordinator (SENDCo) is Miss L Dempsey, and she coordinates the support and provision for all children across the school who have special educational needs and/or disabilities. She can be contacted through the school office or via email at [email protected].
Our SEND Local Offer
Every local authority school has to display their offer of Special Needs Provision and services available for children with disabilities and Special Educational Needs. This is called the ‘local offer’.
The intention is to offer choice and transparency for families, as well as providing a resource for professionals to detail the range of services and provision locally.
https://www.tameside.gov.uk/localoffer
Annual reviews
Pupils with EHCPs at St Stephen’s have a review which is held once a year, and are based upon pupil-centred reviews. These involve the SENDCo, class teacher, key workers, parents and carers, representatives from the Local Authority, other multi agency staff and, of course, the pupil. These meetings are informative, inviting and helpful to all involved.
Parents are invited via letter to attend these reviews at least 2 to 3 weeks prior to the meeting. The SENDCo will contact parents/carers to remind them of the review, and advise them to think about questions they may wish to ask and discuss any issues that may arise. All professionals working with the child will be invited to the annual review. If they cannot attend, it is anticipated that they will be forwarded a report that can be shared at the meeting. Each child is invited to join the review and share their pupil voice that includes what they like/dislike about school, what they have learnt so far, what they have enjoyed learning and who helps them etc.
Parents and carers are invited to contact school via the SENDCo, at any time, if they need advice or support in regard to their child’s education.
Education, Health Care Plans (EHCP)
If your child’s needs are complex or severe, we may contact the Local Authority for an assessment for an EHCP. This document will describe your child’s SEN and the special help they should receive.
The EHCP involves the Local Authority providing extra resources to help your child. These could include money, staff time, special equipment and attendance at a school with specialist-resourced support. This additional provision will be reviewed annually, or sooner if required, and would include the parent, teacher, SENDCo and pupil.
External Agencies
Here at St Stephen’s we work with a range of external agencies and call on their expertise to support children in our school in the best way possible. These agencies include Educational Psychology; Tameside's Specialist Outreach Support Service; Occupational Therapy; Tameside and Glossop CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service); Speech and Language Therapy; Families Together Trust and Social Care and, finally, Hearing Impaired and Visually Impaired services.
Help for parents
The school works with children and families to offer any support they may need. Parents are welcome to contact school at any time in relation to this support.
Sometimes this may involve liaising with Tameside's Early Help services to support the family as well as the pupil. We will discuss the needs of the individual/family in school and plan together the best use of advice and support from other agencies.
Individual Education plans
Typically, a child with Additional Needs and/or Disabilities will have a Pupil Passport, which sets out targets that are currently being worked on and what additional provision is put in place for that child. The content of the Pupil Passport is negotiated, as appropriate, with the child and the child’s family. These are reviewed three times per year in a face to face meeting with parents and, along with their child, they are part of the review process. Parents will be informed of the progress their child makes against the targets contained within the Pupil Passport.
Provision
The provision offered to children with Additional Needs will vary depending on the needs of the child. A child may receive:
- 1:1 support, to enhance their learning and well-being
- extra support in class or small group work
- work with external agencies
- small group work or 1:1 on specific interventions.
We also offer a range of programmes to support children’s emotional health and well-being, such as Hotshots and Relax Kids.
A Graduated Response
At St Stephen’s, we aim to offer a step-by-step approach in meeting the needs of our children.
Parents will be consulted at all stages of this graduated approach, and staff will inform you of the additional work they do with your child.
Class teachers will assess your child to identify their strengths, needs and the extra help they require. If they need additional or different support than most children their age, they may be placed at the SEN SUPPORT stage. This may involve the following:
- Extra help from a teaching assistant in class
- Small group or individual support out of class
- Alternative resources, such as a sloping board, ICT access or visual prompts.
If children continue to have difficulty even with this extra support, we may seek professional advice from the following agencies:
- Speech and language therapists
- Visual/hearing impairment teachers
- Health professionals
- Educational Psychologists
At this stage a Pupil Passport will be put in place, with three or four key short-term targets and strategies to aid their learning. The Pupil Passport will be monitored to check your child’s progress against these targets.
Transition to high school
Transition to high school can be a difficult time for both our pupils and their families. For this reason, we work closely with our partner high schools and support transition through:
Discussion with families from year 5 at annual reviews about the school they would like their child to attend
Work with the children in the classroom to prepare them for the changes ahead
A programme of planned visits by the pupil to their high school during the summer term in year 6. Additional visits are also planned for the children who may need them.
We also provide Transition Books to further familiarise the children with their new setting; we also use these within school when children are moving onto their next teacher.
What we offer
All pupils benefit from Quality first teaching. We offer a range of teaching and learning styles; a differentiated curriculum; a range of differentiated learning materials (both for reinforcement and extension); assessment procedures that emphasise pupils’ strengths and achievements and a range of extra-curricular activities (including a residential in Year 6).
All our classes are supported by teaching assistants and pupils are also offered additional one-to-one tuition, small group work or catch up programmes where needed.
Some children also need support at break/lunchtime – our nurture groups support a number of children who need different provision at these times.
Parents are informed about their child’s general progress and targets at our parents’ evenings which, are held three times a year. Furthermore, this information is also recorded in children’s school reports, which are also sent out annually.
SEND Contact Information
If you have any questions whatsoever relating to this SEND provision, please feel free to contact the school office or the following specialist staff:
SENDco - Miss Lisa Dempsey
Headteacher – Mr Connor Lavin