Great Ouse Primary Academy

Schools Extended Local Offer Response

How does the setting/school/college know if children/young people need extra help and what should I do if I think my child/young person may have special educational needs?

The school will identify if a child may need extra help in a number of ways, following the assess- plan- do- review cycle.

If a member of staff has concerns for a child they will;

- Collect evidence over time e.g. unaided work, observations, behaviour records to determine patterns,

- Personalise support strategies used in class

-  Tailor make resources and help use the child’s interest as a motivator for learning.

- Liaise with the child’s previous school /early years setting.

- Listen to concerns raised by parents/carers.

- Discuss concerns raised by the child’s class teacher/ parent  with the SENDCO to impart their knowledge of further avenues of support.

- If necessary, liaise with external professionals for early intervention (eg. speech and language therapist) or complete a referral for early help (EHA) to request professional support from a range of services. This may 

include attending a drop in with parents to discuss issues and concerns with an Educational Psychologist.

- Recommend a trip to the GP or Paediatrician, an eye test or hearing check to eliminate medical barriers.

- Monitor the child’s progress.

 If you have any concern regarding your child’s progress, level of need or well-being then please arrange to meet your child’s class teacher to discuss your concerns.

We adopt an open door policy and believe that communication between home and school is paramount in providing necessary early support.

How will early years setting/school/college staff support my child/young person?

SEN Support is the process that school settings use to identify and meet the needs of children with SEN.

If a child or young person has SEN, or a setting/ parents thinks that they might have SEN, the following Assess-Plan-Do-Review process takes place (In accordance with the SEND Code of Practice 2014).

1. Assess: What needs is the child presenting with? A discussion between the child’s parents or the young person to work out what support might be needed.
2. Plan: Once a child or young person’s needs have been identified, the school in conjunction with parents, must decide what outcomes they want the child or young person to achieve and what support should be put in place to help them achieve those outcomes. The plan is recorded in a provision map template. There is a clear date set to review whether these outcomes have been achieved.
3. Do: The staff, supported by the SENDCO where relevant, should put this support into practice.
4. Review: The support received by the child or young person should be reviewed by the setting and families/the young person to see if it is working or have been achieved. If it is, it might continue. If it is not or the outcomes have been achieved, some of the arrangements might be changed.

- The class teacher will have overall responsibility for the planning and teaching of a broad knowledge-led, differentiated curriculum for all children which is monitored by senior leaders throughout the School.

-The provision map will be shared with you three times a year and will have some targets for you to work on at home. If you have any queries regarding this, please do not hesitate to contact the class teacher in the first instance and then the SENDCO.

- If a referral to an external agency is recommended, the forms will be completed in conjunction with parents/carers in a supporting manner and then sent to the relevant agency.

-Referrals may also be recommended when a high level of support has been sustained by the school over a period of time.

How will the curriculum be matched to my child's/young person's needs?

At Great Ouse Primary Academy, we aim to provide a well thought-out, knowledge-led curriculum that promotes the mastery of skills.

The curriculum is matched to the needs of children through careful scaffolding and differentiation such as pre-exposure to tasks, over learning, use of visuals and memory joggers in subject organisers, use of key vocabulary and an extension of skills previously taught, promoting Dyslexia Friendly schools advice such as the use of mindmapping.

We aim to cater for a range of learning needs (auditory, kinesthetic and visual) and encourage the children to find out how best they learn.

How will both you and I know how my child/young person is doing and how will you help me to support my child's/young person's learning?

- Through regular feedback between home and school

- Teachers will monitor progress

- As part of the assess- plan- do- review cycle, the teacher will host review meetings to discuss how your child is progressing against their provision map targets

- Supporting parents in feedback meetings led by professionals

- sharing resources

- signposting parents to support groups/ information and advice e.g. sleep clinic, Bedford Borough Parent Carer Forum Coffee Mornings

- Weekly parent posters to inform parents of the following week’s learning to allow for pre-exposure to topics at home.

- Detailing strategies for home on the provision map.

What support will there be for my child's/young person's overall well being?

At Great Ouse Primary Academy, we pride ourselves on cultivating an environment that benefits and nurtures the mental health of pupils, staff and carers.

We embed this whole-school vision by promoting ‘Growth Mindset’ within our lessons  to develop the strengths and coping skills that underpin both academic and emotional resilience.

We work with a number of organisations to promote wellbeing such as;

- Ollie Schools-  helping to remove limiting beliefs, fears and phobias, and negative emotions

- Young Minds- Year 3 Ambassadors

- NSPCC – Assemblies on keeping safe and talking about our emotions openly

- CHUMs social and emotional support drop ins

- School Nurse drop ins

and act on advice, information and good practice.

 

As a school we follow Jigsaw PSHCE and make cross-curricular links with positive wellbeing, for instance with being healthy in PE and Science and E-safety in Computing lessons.

 

Mrs Sharpe, our Parent and Family Support Worker leads targeted intervention programmes that promote social/ emotional literacy such as Forest of Feelings (KS2), Socially Speaking (KS1) and Time to Talk (EYFS).

We have lots of wellbeing boosting resources such as mindfulness activities, social stories, worry eaters in every classroom (to eat away the children’s worries), visual poster prompts situated around the building and a sensory room where children can access a calm environment at times of emotional stress.

At the start of each academic year, Children design a helping hand resource that details 5 trusted adults that they can talk to if they have a worry or concern. This helping hand is then kept in each child’s drawer to refer to when needed.

We also take part in national awareness days such as Safer Internet Day, Shine Bright (Chums) and celebrate diversity in a number of ways such as by hosting International Afternoon, celebrating Black History Month, Silver for Autism Bedfordshire Day to name but a few.

We regularly offer staff CPD by key organisations such as CHUMS and receive annual safeguarding and Prevent training to aid practitioners further in identifying those with low or withdrawn self esteem.

What specialist services and expertise are avaliable at or accessed by the setting/school/college?

We are fortunate to be in regular contact with a number of professionals.

These include:

- Educational Psychology Team

 - Autism Advisory Team

-  CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service)

-  Social Care

- Early Help

-  Speech and Language therapy

- Hearing Impairment Teacher

- Occupational Therapy/ Physiotherapy

- School Nurse

- CHUMs

- The Children’s Development Centre: Early Years Support Team

- SEND Team at Bedford Borough Council

- Bedford Borough Parent Carer Forum

- Autism Bedfordshire

- The National Deaf Children’s Society 

What training have the staff supporting children and young people with SEND had? Are any being trained currently?

The school provides training and support to enable all staff to improve the teaching and learning of children, including those with SEND.

The school’s SENDCo Mrs Jackson is an experienced teacher that has The National Award for SEND Coordination accreditation.

She prides herself on passing on examples of good practice or new advice/ resources to necessary staff across all areas of SEND.

 

As part of our staffing appraisal cycle, we carry out weekly in-house CPD opportunities for all staff and encourage CPD opportunities.

Key members of staff will be signposted to suitable CPD and training opportunities where necessary, for example a workshop run by the Speech and Language Therapy Team and then feedback to relevant members of staff so that all can improve and inform their day to day practice.

Staff responsible for running targeted intervention programmes have received appropriate training.

As mentioned all staff complete annual Safeguarding and Prevent training. Medical training to support children with medical care plans is provided to staff as required.

How will my child/young person be included in activities outside this classroom including school trips?

Activities and school trips are available to all and every effort will be given to accommodate them whilst maintaining the safety of everyone on the visit.

Special attention will be given to appropriate supervision ratio and additional safety and measures will be addressed at the planning stage.

- Risk assessments are carried out and procedures put in place to enable all children to participate and these will be uploaded to EVOLVE (an online system for the planning approval and management of educational visits, sports fixtures and extra-curricular activities).

- Sports and extra-curricular activities are offered to all children throughout the school.

How will the setting/school/college prepare and support my child/young person to join the setting/school/college or the next stage of education and life?

Great Ouse Primary Academy understands that moving school or provision can be quite a challenging time for some pupils and puts a number of strategies in place to make the transition as smooth as possible. These include:

- Meetings between other Pre-School settings and GOPA.

- Observations and visits to other Pre-School settings.

- Additional visits for individual families of pupils with SEND as well as the schools usual induction procedures.

- We are also firmly committed to aiding pupils’ transitions between classes within the School and transition booklets may be produced for some pupils to help reduce anxiety.

- A Transition Programme operates between GOPA and their main receiving Sharnbrook Academy Federation (SAF) Secondary Schools. Arrangements are made with any other local Secondary provision when it is deemed necessary. These may include tours for pupils, induction morning or afternoon sessions, transition books, tours for individual families, meetings with the receiving SENDCO and staff visits.

 

How are the setting's/school's/college's resources allocated and matched to children's/young people's special educational needs?

The SEND Budget is allocated each financial year to support special needs throughout the school. The money is used to provide additional resources or support, dependent on need.

- Support for individual children would be decided upon after discussion at Senior Leadership Team level and a request for higher needs funding may be requested.

- Those children who have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) will be allocated a member of staff with the necessary experience/ skillset and any associated funding will be used to ensure attainment against their EHCP outcomes/ targets including purchasing key resources needed.

How is the decision made about what type and how much support my child/young person will receive?

These decisions are made in consultation with the class teacher, SENDCO and Principal. Where posisble, the parents/carers and, where possible, the child are involved in this process also.  Decisions are based upon the monitoring of pupil progress and as a result of assessments and by outside agencies advice or recommendations.

 

When a child has severe, complex and long-standing needs that require an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) then resource allocation is discussed and planned for in detail at review meetings. This ensures that each child has provision entirely tailored to their specific needs. The Local Authority allocates funding for each child with an EHCP. Within the realms of that budget, how much support and what it 'looks like' for that individual child is discussed and reviewed regularly.

 As with all children receiving SEN support in our school, progress against desired outcomes is measured in order to assess the impact of support and to inform planning for future provision.

How are parents involved in the setting/school/college? How can I be involved?

At GOPA, excellent relationships are fostered between children and members of staff to ensure all young people feel comfortable and confident when having conversations about their education.

- When a student requires additional provision, this will be explained to that young person as appropriate.

- When reviewing provision, children will meet as appropriate with the class teacher, Student and Family Support or SENDCO to resolve any worries they may have and promote understanding.

- Children are asked for feedback in a variety of ways: through Pupil Voice, PSHE circle time, class discussion and PASS attitudinal surveys.

- Anti-Bullying ambassadors support others to voice their concerns and resolve any misunderstandings.

- All children will be asked to contribute to review meetings as feedback where appropriate.