‘Working together to achieve our best’
Our Intent
- We will provide teaching and learning which enables all children to gain access to a broad, balanced and appropriately scaffolded curriculum. We strongly believe in the role of Quality First Teaching and Curriculum Entitlement for all children, regardless of their ability or background.
- Our aim is to ensure all children are supported in order that they may work confidently towards reaching their full potential. At times and when it is felt appropriate, modifications to the curriculum may be implemented by providing personalised interventions that break down barriers to learning such as Beat Dyslexia, Speed Up, Talkabout, Tentown and Motor Skills United.
- We intend to remove barriers to learning, raising expectations and levels of achievement and working in partnership with other agencies such as the Speech and Language Service and Educational Psychologists.
What does the term Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) mean?
A child or young person has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they:
- have significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age;
- or have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools.
Definition taken from the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice: for 0-25 years (2014).
What are the SEND Areas of Need?
The 2014 SEND Code of Practice (reviewed January 2015) outlines four broad areas of special educational need that include a range of difficulties and conditions:
- Communication and Interaction Needs
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs
- Cognition and Learning Difficulties
- Sensory and/or Physical Needs
But while many children and young people have difficulties that fit clearly into one of these areas; some have needs that span two or more areas; for others the precise nature of their need may not be clear at the outset. Please see the details listed on the diagram below to identify which special needs are listed under which broad area of need.
How we can help your child
At Castlechurch Primary School we are committed to meeting the needs of all pupils to ensure that they make the best possible progress. As all children progress at different rates, there may be times when a teacher feels a child would benefit from an intervention group which would be in addition to every day quality teaching. In some cases this may be because we feel a child is not completely reaching their potential and may need ‘a little extra push’ or it may be to ‘catch up’ in a particular area.
It may be appropriate for your child to receive small group support either inside or outside of the classroom setting. Your child will work with their class teacher, TA or occasionally another member of staff and a programme of work will have been planned for your child that will close any gaps or misunderstandings that have arisen in their learning. Intervention will normally last for 6 weeks; at the start we measure the children’s abilities specific to the skill we are focusing on and again at the end which shows us whether the intervention has had an impact on the child’s learning. From this we can decide what will be our next step. Please rest assured parents will be informed at every step of the intervention process.
Cognition & Learning
This can include:
- Reading
- Phonics
- Writing Tool Kit
- Targeted Strategy Plans (TSP)- to aid scaffolding and promote self-help skills
- Number skills
- Working memory
- Concentration
- Organisation
Communication and Interaction
This can include:
- Understanding language
- Using language
- Interacting socially
- Turn taking
- Conversation
Speech, Language and Communication
At Castlechurch Primary School we recognise the importance of Speech, Language and Communication as an essential skill for learning and building friendships. However, around 10% of children actually start school with a speech, language or communication difficulty, which if not identified early enough, can have a detrimental effect on future achievement. Lack of intervention can especially impact on phonics and literacy development, but often also leads to long term difficulties with employ ability and wellbeing.
How can you support your child at home?
Giving your child the best start with speech, language and communication development should above all, be fun! Face to face interaction with another human being is essential for a child to develop listening skills, the ability to take turns, to understand facial expressions, and to understand gesture and intonation are all essential for their future learning success. Screen time has its value too, but to support your child’s progress nothing beats the time you can give to talk and share stories with your child.
We work closely with Debbie Wilshaw from SpeakWrite to ensure our Early Years and KS1 staff are able to identify those children who may require clinical assessment for Speech and Language, whether it be difficulties with articulation, receptive language, expressive language or social use of language. Debbie uses non-diagnostic Language Progression Assessments to help us establish any areas that may need additional school-based intervention. These also help us identify any children who we feel would benefit from further clinical assessment with our local NHS team of therapists. We also provide a range of additional intervention groups or 1:1 support to work on strategies such as:
- Cued Articulation
- Nursery Narratives
- Helicopter Stories
- Attention and Listening Groups
- Attention Autism Groups
- Colourful Semantics
Physical Disabilities
This could include children who have specific needs for Vision, Hearing, Fine and Gross Motor impairment and some medical conditions:
- Writing slopes
- Pencil grips
- Ipads/Laptops
- Additional rest breaks
- Medical care plans
- School Nurse advise
Busy Bodies offers support for children who require assistance with gross and fine motor skills; this has been developed based on several years of experience which has enabled Anne to become proficient assisting children with gross and fine motor difficulties.
The programme can have a positive impact on all areas of the child’s development. It is progressive and progress will be monitored throughout and be adapted to the children’s needs.
Busy Bodies can help children’s
- Gross and fine motor skills
- Movement
- Cross laterals
- Bi-lateral skills
- Core stability/strength
- Communication
- Listening skills
- Turn taking
- Self esteem
- Confidence
- Team building
- Hand strength
- Hand eye co-ordination
- Pre-handwriting skills
- Handwriting
- Behaviour
- Spatial awareness
- Visual perception
Social, Emotional and Mental Health
This can include children who experience short but significant periods of high anxiety, stress, distress or anger that affects their education on a day to day basis. Types of mental health can include: Anxiety, Bereavement, Low Self-Esteem, issues that affect Family Life etc. Children with Mental Health needs can be supported through:
- Individual behaviour targets and rewards
- Directed break times
- Use of a calm down area
- Access to the Mental Health Support Team
- Dove (for bereavement)
- Younger minds
Mental Health Support Team
We are now working with the Mental Health Support Team.
The team is able to offer support for individuals or groups of children.
Staying safe online
Being online can be positive for children and young people, including those with additional needs. So much of our communication now happens online, either by messages, in a game or through a video call. The link to the NSPCC website below gives parents and carers a wealth of tips on how to keep their children safe online and to ensure they receive positive experiences when accessing the internet.
Referral forms
Children’s Occupational Therapy
Speech and Language Referral Form
Hearing Test
School Nurse Referral Form
Community Paediatric Referral Form
