SENDCo – Mrs Katie Jones

Head@st-marys-chipping.lancs.sch.uk

 

🌿 SEND at St Mary’s

Every Child Known, Every Child Thriving

At St Mary’s, we believe that every child is made in the image and likeness of God, with their own unique gifts, talents and potential. As a school rooted in love, inclusion is at the heart of everything we do.

We recognise that children learn in different ways and at different rates. We are committed to identifying and removing barriers to learning so that every child feels a strong sense of belonging, participates fully in school life and is supported to thrive.

Our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo) is Mrs K Jones.

Our approach to inclusion

We are proud to be an inclusive school. Wherever possible, children with special educational needs and disabilities learn alongside their classmates, within their classroom and with their class teacher and peers.

High-quality, inclusive teaching is the starting point for every child. Teachers know their pupils well and use assessment to plan learning that responds to individual strengths and needs. This may include:

• Clear explanations and worked examples

• Carefully chosen resources and practical equipment

• Visual prompts and scaffolds

• Breaking learning into manageable steps

• Additional modelling and guided practice

• Opportunities to revisit and practise previous learning

• Support with vocabulary and communication

• Adaptations to resources, activities or the learning environment

• Appropriate challenge and opportunities for success

Our curriculum is designed to be ambitious for all. We want every child to develop confidence, independence and resilience and to flourish in their own individual way.

What are special educational needs and disabilities?

A child or young person has special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty or disability that means they require special educational provision to be made for them.

A child may have greater difficulty learning than many others of the same age, or they may have a disability that prevents or hinders them from making full use of the facilities generally provided for pupils of the same age.

Special educational needs may relate to one or more of the following broad areas:

• Communication and interaction

• Cognition and learning

• Social, emotional and mental health

• Sensory and/or physical needs

Many children may experience an additional need or barrier to learning at some point during their education. Some needs may be short-term, while others may require longer-term support. We seek to identify children’s needs as early as possible and work closely with families to provide appropriate support.

What should I do if I am concerned about my child?

Please talk to us. Parents and carers know their children best, and we value the important knowledge and insight that families bring.

If you are concerned about your child’s learning, development, communication, wellbeing or progress, please begin by speaking to your child’s class teacher. You may also make an appointment to speak with the SENDCo/Headteacher.

We will listen carefully to your concerns, share what we have noticed in school and agree appropriate next steps. A strong and trusting partnership between home and school helps us to provide the most effective support for every child.

What happens if my child needs additional support?

If a child requires support that is additional to or different from the provision ordinarily available to pupils of the same age, we follow the graduated approach:

Assess

We gather information about the child’s strengths, needs and progress. This includes the views of the child, their parents or carers and the adults who work with them. Where appropriate, assessment tools such as the Special Needs Assessment Profile—SNAP—may be used to help us understand possible barriers to learning.

Plan

The class teacher, SENDCo, child and family agree the intended outcomes, the support that will be provided and how progress will be reviewed. This may be recorded in an individual support plan.

Do

The agreed support is put in place. The class teacher remains responsible for the child’s learning and progress, including when an intervention or additional support is delivered by another adult.

Support may include:

• Adaptations and scaffolding within lessons

• Targeted teaching in a small group

• Short, structured interventions

• Additional practice or pre-teaching

• Support for communication and interaction

• Support for emotional regulation and wellbeing

• Specialist resources or equipment

• Advice from external professionals

Review

We review the child’s progress and the impact of the support provided. The views of the child and their parents or carers are central to this process. Support is then continued, adapted or changed according to the child’s developing needs.

This Assess–Plan–Do–Review cycle enables us to provide the right support at the right time.

Special Needs Assessment Profile (SNAP)

At St Mary’s, we use the Special Needs Assessment Profile (SNAP) as one of the assessment tools available to help us understand a child’s individual strengths and possible barriers to learning.

SNAP can support the identification and assessment of:

• Specific learning difficulties through SNAP-SpLD

• Social, emotional and behavioural needs through SNAP-B

• A child’s strengths and areas in which further support may be helpful

• Patterns of need that might not be immediately apparent through classroom assessment alone

The assessment may gather information from the child, their teacher and their parents or carers. This gives us a broader picture of how the child learns, feels and responds in different situations. Depending upon the assessment being completed, it may include questionnaires, pupil voice activities and short assessment tasks.

SNAP-SpLD can help us explore areas connected with specific learning difficulties. SNAP-B considers social, emotional and behavioural needs, including a child’s relationship with themselves, their peers and adults.

Once completed, SNAP produces an individual profile of strengths and areas of need. This helps teachers and the SENDCo to:

• Identify possible barriers to learning

• Select appropriate classroom strategies and interventions

• Plan support that responds to the child’s individual needs

• Work collaboratively with the child and their family

• Review progress and evaluate the impact of support over time

SNAP supports our Assess–Plan–Do–Review approach. It does not provide a formal medical diagnosis, and it is not used in isolation. Its findings are considered alongside teachers’ assessments, observations, the child’s views, information from parents or carers and, where appropriate, advice from external professionals.

Parents and carers will be informed when we believe a SNAP assessment would be helpful. We may ask families to complete a questionnaire because their knowledge of their child is an important part of building an accurate and balanced profile. We will discuss the findings and any proposed next steps with the family.

Further information about the assessment is available through the SNAP assessment website.

Working with other professionals

Where appropriate, and with the involvement of parents and carers, we may seek advice from external professionals. These may include specialist teachers, educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, health professionals or children and family wellbeing services.

A small number of children with more complex and long-term needs may require an Education, Health and Care needs assessment. We will work closely with families and relevant professionals throughout this process.

Pupil voice

Children are active participants in decisions about their learning and support. We help children to recognise their strengths, understand what helps them to learn and communicate their views. We want every child to feel listened to and to develop the confidence to advocate for themselves.

Useful SEND information and documents

The following documents provide further information about our approach:

• St Mary’s SEND Information Report

• SEND Policy

• Accessibility Plan

• Our Graduated Response

• Lancashire SEND Local Offer

• Lancashire SEND Information, Advice and Support Service

Please contact the school office on 01995 61367 if you would like to speak to your child’s class teacher, the SENDCo or the Headteacher. We will always be happy to listen, offer guidance and work with you to support your child.