Most children and young people in mainstream schools will have their special educational needs met through good classroom practice. This is called Quality First Teaching.
Early Identification of Need
In deciding whether to make special education provision to support educational, social, physical or emotional needs, we:
- Work in partnership with parents/carers, pupils
- Consult with relevant external agencies
- Use assessment tools & materials
- Use observations of the pupil in the classroom setting.
- Use Short Notes to track any concerns and help identify any difficulties.
Some children may join Butterknowle Primary School with parents having a clear understanding of their child’s needs. In this case we work together with parents/carers, the young children/person, and any relevant education, health and social care professionals to design an individualised SEN Support Plan for that pupil. This plan will describe the child’s needs, and define the outcomes and provision needed to meet those needs. The views of both the child/young person, and the parents/carers are integral to this process and as a school we see parents as partners in their child’s educational journey.
Alternatively, school staff or the parents of a pupil may identify a concern which has not previously been identified. In this case the class teacher, alongside the SENDCo, will discuss the child’s needs at a meeting with parents/carers at the earliest opportunity. During this meeting a Short Note would be completed with agreed outcomes for the child/young person and next steps. The young person’s opinions and aspirations will be central to this process at this stage. If further support is needed, they will also then move to an individualised SEN Support Plan
SEN Support
Where a pupil is identified as having a special educational need we follow a graduated approach which takes the form of cycles of “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.
This means that we will:
- Assess a 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 every child with SEN will have an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs. Parents/carers and child/YP (where appropriate) views are integral to the this process.
A small percentage of children and young people with significant and/or complex needs may require an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.
At Butterknowle we use half-termly assessment to track a child’s progress; then analyse this data to identify gaps in children’s learning and to plan appropriate intervention when required. Different children require different levels of support to ensure they make appropriate and sustained progress at their level.
Class teachers work closely with our SENCO (Mrs Harmer) in order to make sure that children’s individual support plans closely match their direct learning need. These plans are monitored and updated on a termly basis.
The next steps may require the involvement of specialist support or advice for example, Educational Psychology, SENDIASS (Parents Advice and Support Service) or another of education health and social care professional. It is important to understand that the involvement of professionals does not always seek to label or diagnose but for school and parents/carers to seek recommendations and strategies to best enable a child/young person to reach their full potential.
The purpose of an EHCP is to make special educational provision to meet special educational needs of the child or young person, to secure the best possible outcomes for them across education (SEND Code of Practice p.142). It is a legal document that describes a child or young person’s special educational, health and social care needs. We currently have three children within school who have EHC Plans.
The progress of pupils with SEND is very important to us at Butterknowle Primary and they are tracked across the school as a distinct group, who’s attainment is matched against other pupil groups within school. Whilst this academic success is celebrated, at Butterknowle Primary we place more importance in our ethos that SEND pupils succeed within our high esteem environment, where they produce work which is meaningful to them independently.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer
For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.
