At Prince Bishops Community Primary School we aim to:
If you have any questions about our SEND information report please contact the school and we will try our best to help you.
Prince Bishops Community Primary School is a single level building. There are no steps at any of the entrances. Door ways have viewing panels and so are suitable for wheelchair users. There is a disabled toilet in the building. If you require any further information regarding the accessibility of the site please contact the school or access our accessibility plan.
Prince Bishops is an inclusive school. All pupils at school are entitled to be taught to a standard called Quality First Teaching. This acknowledges that all children are different and that at times resources and work should be differentiated to ensure that all children are included and can achieve. However many children, at some point in their school life need extra help. In accordance with the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice (2015), the school operates a graduated response to support children identified with special educational needs and disabilities.
Within each class teachers and teaching assistants recognise that children learn and develop in different ways. They use different teaching styles, resources and plan different levels of work in the classroom to cater for the various ways children learn. Where necessary, there may be adaptations to the curriculum to enable all pupils to access the learning. Some children also benefit from small group work and one to one intervention. Resources available include: move and sit cushions, writing supports, reading rulers, modified exercise books, speech and language intervention, weighted blankets, use of IPads and easyspeak microphones.
We do not see SEND as a barrier to accessing the full curriculum and ensure that children with SEND are fully included in all activities in order to promote the highest levels of achievement.
To do this, we ensure that all children with SEN are fully included in all activities of the school in order to promote the highest levels of achievement.
Ensure that all pupils have access to the school curriculum and all school activities, for example; additional adult support to model and support learning.
Ensure every child has the entitlement to a sense of achievement through celebrating progress with parents in line with the school's rewards policy.
When planning activities such as visits and trips, SEN children are considered to ensure they can fully participate.
We seek advice, change resources/equipment and access training.
At Prince Bishops, we have staff who have benefitted from training in supporting children with: specific learning difficulties, ADHD, Autism, Speech & Language and Communication Needs, Emotional, Social and Behavioural Needs, hearing impairments, visual impairments and physical disabilities. We also have a member of staff who is ELKLAN trained and offers Speech & Language intervention.
The school also benefits from two Learning Mentors who work closely with the staff, children and families to remove barriers to learning. The Learning Mentors also provide social and emotional support inline with the school's PSHE policy. We run a nurture group within school and staff have attended training provided by the Emotional Well-being and Effective Learning Team as well as the Emotional Well-being forum ran by DCC.
As a school we have a positive approach to behaviour with a positive reward system in place consisting of house points. Weekly, each class recognises and rewards a Pupil of the Week and an Achiever of the Week - these pupils receive a badge. These systems are embedded across school and the children enjoy their celebrations and rewards.
Prince Bishops Community Primary School maintains close links with External Partnerships. In order to access the best professional advice, we also link with Local Authority and Private Providers of additional services, such as Occupational Therapy, CAHMS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) School Nursing Service, Social Services and Medical Professionals.
Each year, the needs of our children within school are carefully considered and training organised to up-skill staff if necessary.
For further details please see our SEND policy.
Children with additional needs, such as SEND and ‘looked after’ children are closely monitored and supported. Their provision is assessed regularly and we liaise with social services at ‘looked after reviews’. As well as a SEN support plan or EHCP, ‘looked after’ children also have a PEP (Personal Education Plan) which is a record of what need to happen for the children to fulfil their potential.
We carefully track the progress of all pupils at Prince Bishops Community Primary School. The needs of some of our pupils can be met through quality first teaching. However, sometimes a child may not make progress as expected, the class teacher may then discuss the child's learning needs with the Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCo) to identify any barriers to learning. A Short Note would be made at this time and the child's parents or carers would be fully involved in this process. The child's progress would be carefully monitored and if necessary, the class teacher or SENCo would discuss with the parents/carers any further concerns they may have. In order to make progress, the child may require some extra intervention, for example small group work, extra resources, additional time, individual behaviour systems or charts etc and a SEN support plan may be put in place. Sometimes it is necessary for the school to refer to another agency or service to support the child. Once again, this process would be in consultation with the parents or carers. A meeting maybe organised to discuss the needs of the child with other agencies. If requested, parents or carers can be supported with the process by the school, the Learning Mentor or by the SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS).
Contact information can be found using the link below or you can ask Mrs Patchett for further information.
http://www.durhamsendiass.info/
Often, parents/carers are the first to recognise signs of a SEN and can raise this with the class teacher initially. The SENCo can also be contacted; we will then liaise to find the best route forward.
For some children, who have a significant and/or complex level of need, as assessed by school staff, outside agencies and an Educational Psychologist, we would speak to parents/carers to ask them whether they would give consent for the initiation of a Statutory Assessment to potentially provide the child with an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP). As a school, we would then submit evidence to an Inclusion Panel showing the complex and/or significant level of the pupil. If the Inclusion Panel agrees that the evidence presented shows that a child needs the support of an EHCP to be fully included and to make progress then a Statutory Assessment will be started. This is a detailed assessment of child’s needs and a range of professionals (including medical staff, school staff, other agencies involved such as speech therapists, etc) will work with the child and write reports that will then be presented to an Inclusion Panel. Parents/carers will also be asked to provide some written information about their child. As a school, we recognise how complicated the process of statutory assessment can seem and always offer parents/carers extra support from the SENCo, Learning Mentor or SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS - please see link above) to help them with this.
If the Inclusion Panel agree that the evidence submitted shows that the pupil has needs that require an EHCP then this will be issued. A child with a plan will often need a highly individualised curriculum. Where possible, the curriculum at Prince Bishops Community Primary School will be adapted according to any recommendations made.
A review meeting will be held annually to discuss the child's progress and the plan that is in place.
When providing support that is ‘additional to’ or ‘different from’ we follow an Assess, Plan, Do Review process:
Assess – Taking into consideration information from parents/carers, teachers, assessments, other professionals and the child themselves.
Plan- Identify the outcomes and the provision to be provided to meet those outcomes. This will be recorded on an SEN plan or EHCP.
Do – proving the support as set out in the plan.
Review – measuring the impact of support provided and considering whether changes need to be made to the support provided. All those involved will contribute to this review and it will be used to inform the next cycle.
We value the contribution parents/carers can make in their child’s learning and for this reason, parents are welcome to speak to the class teacher and/or SENCo about any concerns. If your child has an EHCP, you will be involved in the annual review and for those children with SEN plans, discussions will take place at parents evening in relation to your child’s provision and outcomes. You are also welcome to speak to your child’s class teacher or Mrs Patchett (the SENCo) at any time throughout the year, so long as you let us know you are coming by making an appointment via the office or with the class teacher themselves.
Your child’s opinion is important. With EHCPs they are invited to the review and their view recorded prior to the meeting through ‘All about me’. Children on support plans are actively involved in reviewing their termly targets and can add their comments and aspirations to the plan. The relationships our teachers form with children ensure open conversations so that we have a clear picture of what our children want and need.
We also ask parents to complete a questionnaire annually; the information gathered from parents and pupils is used to improve our SEN Information Report.
Governors fully support our school vision and values. They are kept up to date on the progress of SEN pupils and the SENCO meets with the Governing Body termly. Confidentiality is maintained and individual pupils are not named however, data is shared to support discussions around funding arrangements and the SEND Notional Budget. Our SEN Governor is Mrs Lee.