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 observe pupils in class, monitor work, communication and behaviour, engage in discussions with staff, parents and outside agencies.
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, we will produce a SEN Support Plan that describes the provision that we will make to meet a child’s special educational needs and agreed outcomes. Parents and carers will be fully involved in this process.
A small percentage of children and young people with significant learning difficulties might need an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer
You can find details of how we adapt the curriculum and make it more accessible for pupils with SEN below:
- Quality First Teaching that provides high levels of differentiation, in depth subject knowledge and a range of learning resources to support learning.
- Specific group work and interventions for reading, writing, spelling and maths, enabling children to develop key skills.
- Specialist group support from outside agencies e.g. Speech and Language Therapy; Behaviour Intervention Team, CAMHS and counseling Service.
- Specific individual support for children whose learning needs are severe, complex and lifelong. This is through a programme of personalised learning through a modified curriculum. Pupils and parents are fully involved in the target setting.
- Range of teaching and learning styles are catered for and adaptions made to the curriculum to ensure it is accessible to all. This includes dyslexic friendly resources, personalised work stations, visual timetables and high quality practical resources and prompts
- An innovative and supportive curriculum which engages the interests of pupils. Pupils actively contribute their ideas and what they would specifically like to find out. Visits and visitors are fully incorporated into the curriculum. Detailed visit planning sheets and risk assessments are completed to ensure visits are accessible for all pupils. See Year group pages for more information.
- Mentoring and Counselling; Within Bloemfontein Primary School, we have two members of staff who are fully trained to deliver ‘Listening Matters’ programme which supports children through a counseling approach. Staff are extremely nurturing and children are allocated specific members of staff as mentors who discuss targets and any areas of need. School also access an external counseling service for children who require additional support.
- We have targeted interventions running throughout the day including a nurture group provision, lego therapy, emotional literacy support, additional literacy and numeracy sessions, working memory groups and fine and gross motor skills sessions.
- A broad range of extra-curricular activities, including games club, lego club, art club, drama activities and sporting sessions, which are fully accessible for all children.
- A broad range of extra-curricular activities, including games club, lego club, art club, drama activities and sporting sessions, which are fully accessible for all children.
- Differentiated materials including ICT packages, reading rulers and prompts for children who require this, sensory resources, visual timetables and practical equipment to reduce barriers to learning.
Support for literacy includes:
- High quality first teaching with differentiated activities and resources
- LEXIA packages
- Read Write Inc (support in phonics development)
- Accelerated Reader and Reading Plus
- Small group interventions
- Writing prompts, informative displays and reading rulers
- Handwriting and fine motor skills interventions
Support with numeracy:
- High quality first teaching with differentiated activities and resources
- Interventions focusing on rapid recall of number facts and times tables
- Small group interventions
- Numeracy prompts, practical equipment and informative displays
- Mathletics ICT programme and homework club
Support for children with significant learning difficulties:
- High quality first teaching and support from Teaching Assistants who have attended relevant training in order to effectively meet the needs of the child
- Personalised plans with clear, specific targets identified through close links with pupils, parents and all relevant staff.
- A structured timetable shared with the child through a visual timetable and ‘now and next’ approach
- Personal work station with appropriate resources to aid learning and opportunities for sensory input
- Close links with outside agencies and regular review meetings to ensure that everyone involved adopts consistent strategies
- Nurture group provision
Support for children with physical needs:
- Accessible learning environment with wheel chair access
- Staff attend relevant training in order to effectively meet the needs of specific children
- Access to external agencies
- Gross motor skills intervention
- Access to after school clubs and competitive events tailored for children with specific needs
Develop speech, language and communication
- Small group specific interventions to develop speech and language
- Close links with the nearby Nursery to ensure information is shared and interventions can be put in place immediately on entry into school
- Close links with one point and sessions implemented to provide speech and language enhancements for example, story times with Seven Stories
- Close links with external agencies for speech and language
Support for children with a hearing, visual or multi-sensory impairment:
- Links with School Nurse to ensure appropriate resources and interventions are in place within school
- Modifications to the curriculum in order to enable all children access including visual, auditory and kinesthetic resources
- Close links with parents and outside agencies in order to best meet the needs of the child
- Access to nurture provision
- Opportunities for a sensory rich diet on a daily basis
Support for children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties:
- High quality first teaching with consistently high expectations, rewards and sanctions
- Rules displayed and regularly referred to
- Individual specific targets
- Small group interventions to support unstructured times e.g. lego club at playtimes
- Nurture group
- Relax kids therapy sessions
- Specific allocated member of staff who the child feels confident around and supported by
- Interventions delivered within school to address behaviour as a barrier to learning including ‘Listening Matters’
- Links with outside agencies including Behaviour Support team, Educational psychologist, Counselling Service and CAMHS
Support for children with medical needs
- Medical support plans regularly reviewed and updated
- Staff access appropriate training e.g. diabetic training, administration of medication including inhalers/epipens
- Significant information including photographs displayed in relevant places for example, a child with a nut allergy.
- Close links with parents and relevant outside agencies
- Support for children with English as an Additional Language:
- High quality first teaching and opportunities for a rich and varied curriculum
- Small group interventions to develop language
- Visual prompts
Support for Looked after Children with SEND:
Children have access to various interventions including Listening Matters and a mentor within school in order to remove any barriers to learning. Regular meetings take place in order to discuss the progress of the children and any strategies that could be implemented within school.
Bloemfontein Primary School is fully inclusive and ensures that all children have access to all extra curricular activities and sporting opportunities.
Pupils progress is tracked through a rigorous data system which ensures that all children make progress and there are no barriers to learning.
SEN pupils make good progress within Bloemfontein Primary School through quality first teaching, skilled staff and effective interventions. Close links with home and external agencies ensures the best possible provision for pupils.
Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEN
- Assessments that are used to identify SEN include: curriculum assessments which are recorded termly on an online tracking system, Reception baseline both on entry and exit, speech link language assessment, Statutory SATs data, questionnaires, boxall assessments, samples of work, observations and any assessments undertaken by outside agencies.
- Systems that are in place to record information/assessments include: SEN support/EHC plans and monitoring information, termly assessments, behaviour records, Boxall assessments for nurture group, questionnaires for Listening Matters, pre and post assessments for intervention groups and any other relevant information is kept within individual SEN files.
- Progress is assessed using pre and post intervention assessments, samples of work, monitoring records, curriculum tracking, observations, pupil/staff/parent interviews and evaluation of support/EHC plans.
- Parental concerns are responded to immediately. Depending on the nature of the complaint this would initially be managed by the class teacher/SENCo. If parents remained concerned the Headteacher would become involved in order to investigate the concern. Parents are aware of the complaints procedure and this is on the school website. If parents remained concerned and felt that this had not been addressed fully they would notify the Chair of Governors.
- The Senior Leadership Team and Governors of Bloemfontein Primary School ensure access to appropriate high quality teaching, differentiation and intervention through the Teaching and Learning Policy which sets out details of the broad and balanced curriculum in each year.
- The ‘assess, plan, do, review’ cycle is incorporated into SEN provision through the whole school monitoring cycle, planned staff meeting time and the SENCo managing the process.
- Parents and pupils are invited into school on a termly basis to work alongside staff to review and identify new targets for support plans.
- Planning within all classes is differentiated in order to meet the needs of all pupils. Any external advice is also implemented in both the plans and the required interventions. All classes have at least one Teaching Assistant in order to enable high levels of support throughout the school.
- The SLT (SENCo is part of this team) ensures a holistic approach in addressing all needs through her role in the support plan cycle, book scrutinies, staff training and ensuring she disseminates all relevant information to all staff.
- The impact of provision is evaluated for individuals and groups through pre and post assessments. An example of this would be a cutting exercise prior to a fine motor skill intervention and then a follow up cutting exercise to measure progress. All interventions MUST have pre and post assessments. Nurture group utilise Boxall assessments to measure progress, Listening matters is a questionnaire process and curriculum interventions are measured through evidence in books/assessments.
- Bloemfontein Primary has a high level of additional support including HLTAs, TAs, 1:1 support and access to a range of external agencies. Support is allocated according to level of need and is evaluated on a regular basis. Interventions are in place throughout school and Teaching Assistants are not classroom based during afternoon sessions in order to deliver these interventions. The SENCo monitors this through a whole school provision map and also the pre and post assessments.
- The school has a rigorous monitoring process and ensures through observations, book scrutinies, pupil interviews, monitoring of DATA and general walkthroughs that there is consistent high quality teaching with differentiation, personalisation and interventions.
- Progress is measured through the EYFS baseline and exit data, Year 1 phonics assessments, Year 2 and 6 SATs data and termly school assessments.
- The school behaviour policy identifies that adjustments may need to be made in order to meet the needs of all pupils.
- These adjustments/ adaptations are made on an individual basis and would be reflected in a personal plan and if necessary a risk assessment.
- Bloemfontein is highly inclusive and all children are educated to be tolerant and understanding of pupils with SEN. PSHCE lessons, assemblies, playground buddies and staff all ensure pupils with SEN engage in activities with pupils who do not have SEN.
- Risk assessments are developed if required and are written alongside staff, outside agencies, parents and children where appropriate. They are then shared with relevant staff.
- Individual arrangements are made for pupils with SEN undertaking tests and exams. This ranges from additional time, scribes, reading support where appropriate, smaller room to mutual agreements with parents that it is not in the child’s best interest to sit the test/exam.
- There are extremely high levels of support, focused interventions, effective links with outside agencies and a highly dedicated SENCo in place to ensure all pupils achieve to the best of their abilities, despite any difficulty or disability they may have.
- Through planning, delivery, access to resources and staff CPD the curriculum is modified to meet individual needs. Where necessary children also have a personalised curriculum.
- Through the whole school ethos, CPD and regular discussions all staff are aware of and sensitive to the needs of all pupils. The termly review cycle also enables all staff to ensure they are teaching and assessing pupils in a way that is appropriate to their needs. Advice from outside agencies is regularly sought and staff also attend feedback sessions to enable them to adapt curriculum, resources and interventions.
- Bloemfontein Primary school is fully inclusive and ensures SEN pupils have every opportunity to fully develop their abilities, interests and aptitudes and gain maximum access to the curriculum. There is no barrier to after school clubs, trips, residential experiences (including a skiing trip abroad), sporting activities, representing the school on the School Council and working as a playground buddy.
For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.
