Hucknall National CE Primary School

Hucknall National C of E Primary School welcomes children with a wide range of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). These include children with additional needs in cognition and learning, communication and interaction, social, emotional or anxiety related needs and sensory, physical or medical.

Your first port of call should be the child’s class teacher who will be able to listen to your concerns and tell you what progress your child is making. If progress is limited, your child’s teacher will be able to explain what interventions can be implemented to accelerate their progress, and what you can do at home to help. It may be helpful to talk to the SENCO who can offer advice on this process and may need to liaise with other professionals.

We closely monitor the progress children make both within an intervention programme and across national curriculum subjects formally at least every 6 weeks. An ongoing dialogue between key staff takes place about the kinds of support used and whether this is most effective for children with SEND.

Class teachers will keep an individual Pupil Profile for all children with SEND. Parents of these children will be invited to a termly structured conversation meeting where progress will be shared with you. These are also an opportunity for your child’s class teacher to listen to your experiences and hopes for your child. For children who receive support from other services, this information may be shared in a multi-agency or CAF meeting.

We value all children as individuals who will have differing strengths and needs. We believe all children have a right to education, care and respect in an inclusive environment. They should be able to learn using a multi-sensory and creative approach in a safe atmosphere of trust, enabling them to make mistakes along the way without fear of failure. We encourage children to be actively involved in all areas of the curriculum in order to achieve their full potential academically, socially, spiritually and physically.

We believe that all children should be taught according to their individual learning needs. It is our job therefore, to adapt our teaching style to ensure that all children can learn effectively. This can be done in a number of ways such as including lots of signs and symbols for visual learners, adapting the physical learning environment or providing additional, practical resources.

Within school most children with additional needs receive support that is funded by the school’s SEND budget. A very small minority receive further funding from the local authority. You as parents will know about the level of support your child receives and, if this is to be increased, you will also be notified. Decisions for further local authority funding are made at a meeting with representatives from the local authority and head teachers and SENCos from other schools within the family. This ensures that funding is fairly distributed across schools.

It is essential that all children have the opportunity to take part in these extra activities. Research has found that children with SEND are underrepresented nationally, so every so often, we check that these children are accessing the activities they would like to join in with. We like to listen to the children too, and can introduce different activities according to interests. All children participate in school trips and staff are assigned appropriately if there are additional needs.

Your child’s happiness is key to their learning. It is therefore essential that the class teacher knows if there is anything worrying your child, whether at home or school. We can provide extra support around issues such as friendships, self-esteem and bereavement. We would, of course, talk to you if any of this support may be necessary, even if for a short time. We are very fortunate to have a Family Support Worker (Jane Brown) in school, who can provide lots of advice and support on a whole range of subjects from behaviour management to workshops for parents. We also work closely with the school health team who have worked with families and children in and out of school. As with anything, do ask if you want to know any more.

Rachel Hazeldine is the SENCO. Her days of work are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Her email address is rachelhazeldine@hucknallnational.notts.sch.uk.

Steven Chandler is the assistant SENCO and Jane Brown is the family support worker. They both work full time.

All of the above can be contacted on 01159 632678.

All staff have received a wide range of training. In the last year alone we have had training on:

• ECAR (Every Child a Reader) – a reading intervention
• MAPA – Managing Actual and Potential Aggression
• Numicon – practical maths resources excellent for children with SEND
• Narrative Approach intervention – la language and early story writing intervention
• TA Workshops
• Achievement for All
• SENCO Forum – this included the use of ICT
• SENCO Conference – introduced the changes to the legislation
• Switch On Reading – a one to one reading intervention from years 1 to 6
• Numbers Count intervention
• Enjoy and Achieve – Early Years Foundation Stage
• Breakwell Assault Cycle – managing behaviour and understanding triggers
• Dyslexia screener training – this was delivered to Mr Chandler by the local authority’s senior dyslexia teacher
• Dyscalculia training
• Raising self-esteem in maths
• Supporting children with ASD in transition
• Autism and related anxiety
• Speech and language training
• Closing the gap
• Communicating with children with autism

There are already staff training events for autism, attachment disorders and switch on reading interventions planned for early on in the autumn term, but lots more will be booked once the term gets underway.

We have a wide range of expertise to draw upon from within school relating to special educational needs and disabilities. If further advice is needed, we can access it via the family of schools, other local schools in Hucknall, the alliance of schools we are part of, the local authority and voluntary organisations.

There are specialist disabled toilet facilities in school. We are located in a two story building, with lifts and ramps to access the whole of the ground floor. As with any aspect of SEND, it is our duty to ensure that all children have full access to the facilities and equipment they need. This may mean buying or loaning certain things.

An ongoing and informal dialogue with parents is essential, whether through chats at the start and end of the day, telephone calls, or home-school books in a few cases. The more formal discussions will take place at least once a term through structured conversations or, multi-agency/CAF meetings.

We like to listen to our children. They are always involved in their reviews and discussions around their education. Sometimes this means that they attend the meeting and join in with the discussion and target setting. Where this is not possible or appropriate, we gain their views by chatting to them before hand and record them in the form of a questionnaire.  

If a parent or carer has any concerns or complaints regarding the care or welfare of their child, you can make an appointment to speak to the SENCO, who will be able to advise on formal procedures for complaint. Parents can also refer to the school’s complaints procedure, which is on the school website.

The governing body support the school with the very close links they have established with these services and many more. Both our family support worker and SENCO regularly meet with other professionals and organisations and signpost parents to them.

We send information out to parents through email, letters or the school’s website on an informal basis, e.g. for parent workshops, drop in sessions and support groups. With parents’ permission, we invite other services to attend meetings in school and make referrals for involvement with children and families when needed.

We are flexible in our approach and, after meeting with parents and carers, we formulate a transition plan best suited to a particular child’s needs. This may involve additional visits, sometimes when there are no other children, additional meetings with parents. Extra visits to the child’s preschool setting are carried out by key staff to meet children and talk to their key workers.

Again, this varies according to the child and their needs, but we will do whatever is necessary to reduce anxiety for children during transition. Children transferring from primary to secondary school attend weekly sessions in their new school in the summer term. We also offer additional meetings with key staff from both schools and parents and extra visits after school if necessary. There is also a summer scheme which runs in the summer holidays at The National Academy for children who may be vulnerable to change. Children with SEND are always invited to attend this and it has proved to be helpful in the past.

We promote and teach life skills such as preparing simple snacks, dealing with money, crossng the road safely etc. For some children, these skills will need to be revisited throughout the school.

If you would like to discuss anything at all, please do get in touch with your child’s class teacher or one of the above named people. In the meantime, these websites offer lots of information:

 www.nottinghamshire.sendlocaloffer.org.uk

http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/learning/schools/special-educational-needs/

http://www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk/

http://www.norsaca.org.uk/

http://www.parentpartnership.org.uk/

http://www.123magic.com/