Our SEN Provision

At Sedgefield Hardwick Primary School we have experience of supporting children with a wide range of needs including:

ASC, SLCN, SpLD (Dyslexia), MLD, SLD, PMLD, social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) difficulties and sensory and physical difficulties.

The school provides data on the levels and types of need to the LA. This is collected through the school census.

Inclusive education means supporting all pupils to learn, contribute, and participate in all aspects of school life alongside their peers. Our curriculum includes, not only the formal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)/national Curriculum, but also a range of additional opportunities to enrich the experience of all pupils. The curriculum also includes the social aspects that are essential for lifelong learning, personal growth and development of confidence.

Sedgefield Hardwick prides itself in being inclusive and will endeavour to support every child regardless of their level of need.  All pupils follow the National Curriculum at a level and a pace that is appropriate to their abilities. At times and when it is felt appropriate, modifications to the curriculum may be implemented.

To successfully match pupil ability to the curriculum there are some actions we may take to achieve this:

• Ensure that all pupils have access to the school curriculum and all school activities.
• Help all pupils achieve to the best of their abilities, despite any difficulty or disability they may have.
• Ensure that teaching staff are aware of and sensitive to the needs of all pupils, teaching pupils in a way that is more appropriate to their needs and that relevant and appropriate outcomes are planned and measurable
• Ensure that all staff have an understanding of the different difficulties and conditions which affect how children learn, through a robust system of staff training and sharing of knowledge.

How do we help pupils gain in confidence and improve their self-esteem?

• To work in partnership with parents/carers, pupils and relevant external agencies in order to provide for children’s special educational needs and disabilities.
• To identify at the earliest opportunity, all children that need special consideration to support their needs (whether these are educational, social, physical or emotional).
• To make suitable provision for children with SEND to fully develop their abilities, interests and aptitudes and gain maximum access to the curriculum.
• Ensure that all children with SEND are fully included in all activities of the school in order to promote the highest levels of achievement.
• To promote self-regulation, emotional literacy, social interaction, competence and enthusiasm by scaffolding learning and encouraging independence at all age and ability levels.
• To give every child the entitlement to a sense of achievement.
• To regularly review the policy, procedures and practice in order to achieve best practice.

How we support SEN

At Sedgefield Hardwick we adapt the curriculum and learning environment for pupils with SEN.

Special Educational Needs and/or a disability can affect many children throughout their school career and beyond. Whilst disabilities generally affect children long term, not all SEND difficulties should be seen as life-long. SEND is seen by our school as the child requiring provision that is additional to or different from the rest of the class. At Sedgefield Hardwick we understand that every child is unique and a carefully planned approach is needed.

Our school recognises there are particular groups of pupils whose circumstances require additional consideration by those who work with them to support their SEN. Some children, at some time in their school life might have additional or different needs and it may be that they will be on our SEN register for a short period or a long period of time. However, children’s needs will be frequently reassessed regularly in order to ensure that the provision is suitable and supports every child’s development.

Our SENCO and SENCO assistants oversee the operation of the SEN Policy and work alongside class teachers to coordinate provision for children with SEN.  The class teacher will plan for the child and use regular assessment to ensure that progress in every area is made. This is an example of Quality First Teaching where the work is highly differentiated and suits the needs of all children, coming in the form of a lesson rather than an intervention programme.

Alongside Quality First Teaching, there may be a Teaching Assistant (TA) working with your child, either individually or as part of a group, if this is seen as necessary by the class teacher. Children may be taken out of the classroom for additional teaching sessions or interventions. At Sedgefield Hardwick we also employ external specialist teachers who support children with subjects such as maths. The aims and regularity of these sessions will be explained to parents when the support starts.

Furthermore, we liaise with a number of external agencies to identify children's needs and seek guidance and recommendations on how to best to support the learning and development of those children with SEND.

Who will explain this to me?

Children at Sedgefield Hardwick that are receiving additional support and intervention programmes have a Support Plan. Parents are invited into school to review and discuss support and progress with staff every term around the same time as part of Parent Consultations. The children also meet with their teacher or the SENCO to discuss their Support Plan. This allows the children to share their views and opinions and gives them ownership of their Support Plan.

For further information, the SENCO is available to discuss support in more detail.

How are School Governors involved, and what is their responsibility?

Governors are kept up to date on the progress of SEN pupils; 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, the SEND Notional Budget and SEND pupil group progress. The Governors agree priorities for spending and evaluate the impact of previous funding allocations.

If you would like to discuss your SEND requirements in detail please contact the SENCO or the Headteacher to arrange an appointment.

We believe that inclusive education means supporting all pupils to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of school life alongside their peers. Our curriculum includes, not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but also a range of additional opportunities to enrich the experiences of our children. Our curriculum also includes the social aspects that are essential for life-long learning, personal growth and development of independence.

Some of the actions we may take to achieve this are:

• Help all pupils achieve clearly set targets and outcomes to the best of their abilities, despite any difficulty or disability they may have.
• Regular assessment and monitoring by the Senior Leadership team (SLT) of Teaching and Learning, to include differentiation, personalisation and interventions.
• Modify the curriculum to meet individual needs – split learning into smaller chunks and build on small steps of progress through differentiated activities, small group work and some, one to one supervision and support.
• Provide support, space, resources, expertise, interventions, routines and care for individuals – E.G. Classrooms that are ‘Dyslexia & ASC friendly’.
• Ensure that teaching staff are well trained and aware of and sensitive to the needs of all pupils, teaching pupils in a way that is more appropriate to their needs.
• To make sure staff know children well and so provide suitable provision for children with SEND to fully develop their abilities, interests and aptitudes and gain maximum access to the curriculum.
• Seek and follow the advice and recommended actions/outcomes from any external agency assessment and monitor and review progress carefully.
• Provide support through the teaching of regulation strategies.
• Support emotional resilience through our Character Curriculum and additional emotional literacy lessons.
• Ensure predictability through consistent seating arrangements, visual timetable etc.

At Sedgefield Hardwick we do our best to ensure that all children are offered the opportunity to participate in activities outside the classroom and extra-curricular activities. We ensure that reasonable adjustments are made, enabling children with SEND to access a full curriculum and enriching experiences. We are prepared to seek advice, resources, equipment and training in order to provide high quality experiences for our children. When undertaking any form of transition or extra curricular experiences, every effort will be made to manage risk as carefully and sensitively as possible.  

More details on how we adapt information, our environment and curriculum can be found in the Accessibility Plan which you can find in the Key Information section of our website.

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 close partnership with parents & carers, pupils
• Consult with relevant external agencies
• Use assessment tools & materials
• Use observations and work scrutiny
• Use Short Notes and early interventions
• Observe, identify, recognise, record and monitor poor academic progress, physical and sensory difficulties, delayed development, weak attention and focus skills, sensory difficulties and physical difficulties, emotional difficulties and poor independent learning skills.

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:

• Discuss any concerns with parents, carers and other teachers
• Assess and identify a child’s level of special educational need  – decide on a course of action – short note/support plan
• Request assessment/advice form an outside agency if deemed necessary E.G. Speech & Language, OT, CAMHS, Educational Psychology
• Plan the provision (Support Plan) to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes
• Put the provision in place to meet those outcomes.
• Review the support and progress in termly reviews before setting new outcomes.
• Gather evidence, document progress and if necessary, apply for top up funding if the school feel that more resources need to be put in place to meet the pupil’s needs.
• For children with significant and complex needs, a request will be made to DCC (Durham County Council) SEND Provision for an EHCP (Education, Health & Care Plan) assessment.

At Sedgefield Hardwick, assessment is carried out by staff who work together to evaluate children’s learning. This evaluation is supported by the Local Authority on a regular basis. The school uses both observational assessment and a tracking system to analyse data and to identify gaps in children’s learning and to plan appropriate intervention when required. Different children require different levels of support to diminish the difference and to achieve age related expectations.

Children/young people may join the school with parents having a clear understanding of their child’s needs and as a school we see parents as partners in their child’s educational journey. In this case we work together with parents/carers, children and education, health and social care professionals to design an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs.  Parents/carers and children views are integral to this process.

School staff may initially identify a concern and the class teacher alongside the SENCO will discuss the child’s needs and a meeting with parents/carers and the child would be arranged at the earliest opportunity. During (or just following) this meeting a Short Note would be completed with agreed outcomes for the child with next steps. The plan would be actioned, assessed and reviewed. Depending on how the outcomes have been achieved, the plan may cease, or may continue to the next round of Plan, Do, Review or if there is still significant concern, next steps may require the involvement of specialist support or advice for example, Educational Psychology, SENDIASS (Parents Advice and Support Service), Cognition and Learning Team Occupational Therapy or another education health and social care professional.

It is important to understand that the involvement of professionals does not always seek to ‘label’ or ‘diagnose’ children but to seek advice or strategies to help them to reach their full potential. As part of this approach every child with SEN will have an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes and provision to meet those needs. Parents/carers and child views are integral to 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 (EHCP).

The purpose of an EHCP is to make special educational provision to meet the special educational needs of the child, securing the best possible outcomes for them across education (SEND Code of Practice p.142). It is a legal document that describes a child's special educational, health and social care needs. 

For more detailed information see the Local Offer

For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the Key Information section of our website.

We do our best to ensure that all children can access all things as best as we can. We do not see SEND as a barrier to accessing the full curriculum and ensure that children with SEND are included in all activities in order to promote the highest levels of achievement.

For example, if a child had a physical disability, they can always be incorporated into a PE lesson with adaptation and effort; we make that effort. We are prepared to seek advice, resources, equipment and training when needed in order to provide quality-learning experiences for our children. Recently, our training has covered autism (ASC), ADHD, emotioal regulation, the impacts of trauma and sensory difficulties.

We continuously ensure the provision has a positive impact on the outcomes for all of our children. We do this in a variety of ways, including:

• Robust evaluation of policy and practice
• Book scrutiny
• SENCO/SLT/Governor monitoring/reporting
• Learning walks
• Performance management
• Robust systems for tracking all SEND pupils.
• Regular reviews and monitoring of outcomes/SEN support plans
• Regular focussed staff meetings
• Consultation with parents od children with SEND.