Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

We hope you will enjoy reading about the variety of ways in which Barnham Church of England Primary School is able to support students with a range of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to reach their full potential. If you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the SEND team.

If you have been directed to these pages because your child has recently been diagnosed with a Special Educational Need or Disability, we would like to begin by saying, "don't panic." Although this will be a new and potentially daunting experience for many of you, we are here to help and support both you and your child in any way that we can. 

At Barnham, we are committed to inclusion; the pupils are at the heart of everything that we do. Every individual should have their needs met within a safe, accessible and caring environment. All staff are aware of SEND within the school and receive high quality information and training. We aim to quickly identify pupils who are making limited progress and provide targeted interventions and support to meet their needs. Our environment at Barnham is developing regularly and consciously to meet the needs of our pupils. We aim to continue to learn, develop and grow our understanding of SEND across the school to meet the needs of all pupils within our care.

We embrace the fact that every child is different and, therefore, the educational needs of every child are different – this is certainly the case for children with SEND.

We believe that the journey through school life should be enjoyable, memorable and valuable, and our vision for all in our school is to inspire, cherish and believe in each person so that they might flourish and fulfil their potential. We strive to make learning irresistible and provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all that is inclusive and engaging so that, regardless of need, individuals can thrive. The curriculum is inspiring, creative and progressive; a rich blend that provides the children within our care with a good base of knowledge and understanding, as well as a strong skill set.

Let’s work together to get the best possible outcomes for your child. We will aim to keep our families fully informed of our SEND processes and their child’s learning and progress regularly throughout the year.

We also have strong links with the Local Authority, Health Professionals and various organisations within our community as we seek the best for every individual.

Hopefully the information on these pages will be useful for you but please note this will outline the practice and range of support offered but is not an exhaustive list, we will always tailor to the needs of individuals and this may change accordingly overtime.

The SEND Team at Barnham

I am the new Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-ordinator (SENDCo) here and began my work at Barnham in April 2023.  I would love to meet with you, so please feel free to pop and say hello as you see me around school. If you have any concerns or wish to discuss your child or SEND at our school, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Miss Rachel Bacon - SENDCo

rbacon@barnham.org

(01842) 890253

As SENDCo at Barnham, I am responsible for:

• Coordinating provision for children with SEND and developing the school’s SEND policy.
• Ensuring that parents are:
  • Involved in supporting their child’s learning and access.
  • Kept informed about the range and level of support offered to their child.
  • Included in reviewing how their child is doing
  • Consulted about planning successful movement (transition) to a new group or school

• Liaising with a range of agencies outside school who can offer advice and support to help students overcome any difficulties.
• Providing specialist advice and facilitating training to ensure that all staff are skilled and confident about meeting a range of needs.

I work alongside an amazing team of staff who will journey with you and your child at Barnham.

Any of these individuals can be contacted through the school office who would be happy to make an appointment for you.

Our primary concern is the education and welfare of your child, and our SEND provision is designed to support all children who require additional assistance.

If you have concerns about your child’s progress you should speak to your child’s class teacher initially. If you are not happy that the concerns are being managed and that your child is still not making progress, you should speak to the SENDCo, Link Governor or Headteacher.

If you are still not happy, please refer to the school complaints procedure.

Defining Special Educational Needs, Differences and Disabilities

Children have SEND if they have a learning difficulty that calls for additional educational provision to be made for them. ‘Children have a learning difficulty if they:

• Have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age.
• Have a disability that prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in schools within the area of the local authority.
• Are under compulsory school age and fall within the definitions above or would so do if special educational provision was not made for them.’ (Code of Practice September 2014)

At Barnham, we use the terms SEND and additional needs.

The Code of Practice (DfE, January 2015) states that: A person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. At compulsory school age this means he or she has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others the same age, or, has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools. Taken from 2014 SEN Code of Practice: 0 to 25 Years.

Four Broad Areas of SEND

If your child has been identified as having SEND, it will be determined which of the four areas will be their main area of need. We promote the ethos of Quality First Teaching within school, to adapt and meet learning needs. We will then follow a graduated response of assess, plan, do, review alongside the family to determine the next steps for your child.

The SEND Code of Practice 2014 (updated January 2015) sets out four broad areas of special educational need that include a range of difficulties and conditions:

The list above is not exhaustive and The SEND Code of Practice states that:

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.

Identification and Assessment of Children with SEND

As set out in the SEND Code of Practice, the school follows the Graduated Approach to Assessment, which follows the four stages of Assess, Plan, Do and Review. This allows for a more personalised approach to the identification, planning and assessment of SEND provision.

We also use The SEND Journey document from Suffolk to inform our procedures as outlined here.

The SEND journey and process at Barnham is outlined in our SEND policy and the SEND Information Report and will help you understand the process for identifying children with SEND, our ‘step up’ procedure for adding children to the SEND register and also our ‘step down’ procedure which explains when and why a child might be removed from the SEND register.

Further Information & Documents

Below, you will find links to our school policies and our information report that explains all we do at Barnham for children with SEND. You will also find a link to Suffolk County Council website and their local offer, which provides a wealth of information to support families who have a child or young person with SEND. Barnham is a Suffolk School on the Norfolk border and therefore the final link will take you to Norfolk County Council’s local offer too if your child resides in Norfolk.

Frequently Asked Questions

‘My child has Special Educational Needs. What can you offer at Barnham?

At Barnham we embrace the fact that every child is different and, therefore, the educational needs of every child are different – this is certainly the case for children with Special Educational Needs and disabilities (SEND)

In terms of what we offer children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities, this is different for every child and it is important to emphasise that, as much as possible, this provision is designed by the relevant Barnham staff members working alongside the child, the child’s family and, where necessary, outside agencies (e.g. a Speech and Language Therapist or an Educational Psychologist).

What training do staff have at Barnham to support my child with SEND?’

Staff at Barnham have a wide variety of training and a great deal of experience and expertise in Special Educational Needs, behaviour, social barriers and emotional well-being.

Our School SENDCo has the National SENCo Award and the Advanced SENCo Award.

All members of staff are trained in safeguarding children.

Many of our staff are trained in first aid, administering emergency medication (epi-pens)

'The school have told me, my child is being added to the SEND Register, what does this mean?'

This is a record of children who we have identified as having Special Educational Needs (SEN) and their primary area of need which would be from the following:

• Communication and interaction.
• Cognition and learning.
• Social, emotional and mental health difficulties.
• Sensory and/or physical needs.

‘What support do you have for me as a parent of a child with a special educational need?’

In school:

Your child’s class teacher is regularly available to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns you may have and to share information about what is working well at home and school so similar strategies can be used.

The SENDCO or SEND governor are also available to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns/worries you may have.

All information from outside professionals will be discussed with you with by the person involved directly, or where this is not possible, in a written report.

Learning plans will be reviewed with your involvement each term, usually at parents’ consultation evenings (October, February and June as a rough indication).

Homework will be adjusted as needed to your child’s individual needs.

Finally, a home/school contact book may be used to support communication with you, when this has been agreed to be useful for you and your child.

We also occasionally meet informally as a forum and get-together for parents and carers of children with SEND to offer a network of support. These meetings are called CONNECT.

Outside of school:

The Parent Partnership Team may also be a useful contact for you. They are a confidential and impartial listening, information and support service for parents and carers who may have concerns over their child's education. They are now known in Suffolk as SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice and Support service)

If you would like to speak to someone from the service you can call the helpline: 01473 265210 or you can email: sendiass@suffolk.gov.uk

If you live in Norfolk their SENDIASS can be contacted at norfolksendiass@norfolk.gov.uk or by ringing 01603 704070

‘How will you support my child when they are leaving this school or moving up to another class?’

We appreciate that transition times can be difficult for a child with SEND and therefore we will take steps to ensure that any transition is as smooth as possible.

• If your child is moving to another school:

We will contact the school SENDCO and ensure he/she knows about any special arrangements or support that need to be made for your child.

We will also make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible.

• When moving classes in school:

Information will be passed on to the new class teacher IN ADVANCE and in most cases, a planning meeting will take place with the new teacher. All relevant paperwork will be shared with the new teacher. If a book would help to support your child understand moving on then it will be made for them.

• In Year 6:

The Year 6 teacher and SENDCo will meet with relevant colleagues from your child’s next school and pass on any necessary information about their needs.

Your child will do focused learning about aspects of transition to support their understanding of the changes ahead.

Where possible your child will visit their new school on several occasions and in some cases staff from the new school will visit your child in this school too to offer additional support, answer questions and generally reassure them during this period of change.

‘How will teaching be adapted to meet the needs of my child?’

All children at Barnham will have Class teacher input via excellent targeted classroom teaching also known as Quality First Teaching. For a child who has SEND this would mean:

• That the teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class.
• That all teaching is based on building upon what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
• Different ways of teaching are in place so that your child is fully involved in learning in class. This may involve things such as using more practical learning.
• Specific strategies (which may be suggested by the SENDCO or outside staff) are in place to support your child to learn.

All children in school will be getting this as a part of excellent classroom practice when needed.

Our teachers and support staff are highly-skilled teachers for children with SEND. They follow structured, evidence-based principles in order to maximise progress for pupils with SEND (and those with no additional needs too) in all areas of the curriculum.

Subject leaders monitor the effectiveness and impact of teaching and learning for pupils with SEND also.

‘Will my child receive any other additional support? What will this look like?’

The school offers many different forms of additional provision for learning. This can include one or more of the following:

1. Additional in-class support – this is usually in the form of a small group with specific work to do in the classroom, usually led by the class teacher or a briefed and able teaching assistant. The learning in these groups is likely to be linked to the lesson but targeted in a way to meet individual needs and to enable them to access the curriculum and progress in their learning.
2. Additional out-of-class support – this may happen outside of the classroom, usually led by an academic mentor, a learning mentor, our family support practitioner or a trained teaching assistant who will run these small group sessions using a teacher’s plan. This type of support is available for any child who has specific gaps in their understanding of a subject / area of learning. We also often refer to this support as intervention groups, pre-teaching or post-teaching. This support may also be around supporting a child’s mental health and wellbeing.

‘What interventions might my child get at Barnham?’

Interventions are specific programmes that have been designed to help children progress in their learning usually in Literacy and Numeracy. These interventions will often run for a short-measured period and teachers will assess whether or not this particular programme is working for your child and whether to continue it or not.

Some of the most popular interventions that we use currently are:

• Beat Dyslexia
• Lexplore
• Speechlink- SALT interventions
• Number Stacks
• Precision Teaching
• Lilttle Wandle Phonics catch up

This is not an exhaustive list as we are always seeking guidance on new programmes and interventions that would benefit the specific needs of individual children.

Pre-teaching is when we may take children out of class either individually or in a small group to explain difficult concepts or new vocabulary that we may be teaching in an upcoming lesson. We have found this to be particularly successful with children for whom English is an additional language as it enables them to be prepared and to be able to access the lesson more easily.

Post-teaching groups happen most afternoons in our school. When it is noticed that a child is struggling in Literacy, Numeracy or both during the morning lessons, we may send them out in a small-group with a teaching assistant to have some additional practice at the particular objective that we have been working on, this is to try and fill gaps in their knowledge and understanding before we move on the next day.

‘What other professionals might be involved with supporting my child?’

Other outside agencies and health professionals such as:

- Speech and Language Therapy Service (SALT)

- Educational Psychology & Therapeutic Services

- Mental Health Support Team

- Occupational Therapy

- Physiotherapy

- School Nurse

- Specialist Education Services (SES) Team