Does my child have SEND?

Professionals who support children with special educational needs and or disabilities (SEND)

Who are the best people to talk to in this school about my child’s difficulties with learning/special educational needs/disability (SEND)?

Class/Subject Teacher, Form Tutor or Guidance and Achievement Leader

Responsible for:

  • Ensuring that all children have access to good/outstanding teaching and that the curriculum is adapted to meet your child’s individual needs (also known as differentiation).

Ensuring that you child receives the correct guidance and pastoral support to make academic progress.

Assistant Head Teacher for Inclusion and Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator (SENCO)

Responsible for:

  • Ensuring that all members of staff working with your child in school are aware of your child’s individual needs and/or conditions and what specific adjustments need to be made to enable them to be included and make progress.
  • Ensuring that all staff working with your child in school are supported in delivering the planned work/programme for your child, so they can achieve the best possible progress. This may involve the use of additional adults, outside specialist help and specially planned work and resources.
  • Ensuring that the school’s SEND Policy is followed in their classroom and for all the pupils they teach with any SEND.
  • Coordinating all the support for children with special educational needs (SEN) and or disabilities, and developing the school’s SEND Policy to make sure all children get a consistent, high quality response to meeting their needs in school. The SENCO ensures that you are:o Involved in supporting your child’s learningo Kept informed about the support your child is getting
  • Involved in reviewing how they are doing and part of planning ahead for them.
  • Liaising with all the other people who may be coming into school to help support your child’s learning e.g. Speech and Language Therapy and the Educational Psychology Service.
  • Updating the school’s SEND record of need, (a system for ensuring all the special educational, physical and sensory needs of pupils in this school are known and understood) and making sure that there are excellent records of your child’s progress and needs.
  • To provide specialist support for teachers and support staff in the school so they can help your child (and other pupils with SEN and/or disabilities in the school) to achieve their potential.
  • Organising training for staff so they are aware and confident about how to meet the needs of your child and others within our school.
  • The day-to-day management of all aspects of the Inclusion department, including the support for children with SEN and/or disabilities.
  • Ensuring the SENCO role is delivered in accordance statutory guidance and in line with the school policy
  • Ensuring that the Governing Body is kept up to date about any issues in the school relating to SEND.

Additional Adults

Responsible for:

  • Teaching Assistants work with the class teacher to identify areas of support for students with SEN.
  • Teaching Assistants attend all training opportunities related to SEN and differentiation.
  • Most Teaching Assistants are classroom based practitioners, but in addition deliver specific SEN programmes outside of the classroom.
  • Several Teaching Assistants are linked to departments. This enables them to gain sufficient subject specific knowledge to support pupils to make expected or good progress.

The Teaching Assistants main priorities are to:

  • Support pupils to access the curriculumo Empower students to develop effective strategies that enable them to become independent learners
  • Support the implementation of differentiation and specialist support strategies in the classroom
  • Keep students focused on learning activities during lesson

Headteacher

Responsible for:

  • The day-to-day management of all aspects of the school, including the support for children with SEN and/or disabilities.
  • Will give responsibility to the SENCO and class/subject teachers but is still responsible for ensuring that your child’s needs are met.
  • Ensuring that the Governing Body is kept up to date about any issues in the school relating to SEND.

SEND Governor

Responsible for:

  • Making sure that the school has an up to date SEND Policy.
  • Making sure that the school has appropriate provision and has made necessary adaptations to meet the needs of all children in the school.
  • Making sure that the necessary support is made for any child who attends the school who has SEN and/or disabilities.
  • Making visits to understand and monitor the support given to children with SEND in the school and being part of the process to ensure your child achieves his/her potential in school.