Forest Town Primary School

Forest Town Primary School celebrates the differences between all of our children and values the contribution which every member of each school makes to the school community and our community as a whole.

 We recognise and embrace that good quality teaching for all children and young people and at every stage in a child and young person’s journey through early education, school and further education and training is vital to unlocking their potential. (CoP 2014 1.24)

 This SEN information report has been produced for the Nottinghamshire LA Local Offer and aims to give further information about the support that we provide to pupils with SEN

For pupils recognised as having special educational needs or disabilities, Nottinghamshire Local Authority outline four broad ‘areas of need’ as:

• Cognition and Learning
• Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties
• Communication and Interaction
• Sensory and Physical Needs

If you have concerns about your child’s progress, you should speak to your child’s class teacher initially.

 If you continue to be concerned that your child is not making progress, you may speak to the Special Education Needs/Disabilities Co-ordinator (SENCo), Mrs Clare Purchase

 The school SEND Governor can also be contacted for support.

 They can be contacted via the school office on 01623 477211

Your child’s progress will be continually monitored by his/her class teacher.

 His/her progress will be reviewed formally with the Head teacher and SENCo every half term in reading, writing and maths.

 Any other behavioural or developmental progress (eg. BSquared assessment, sensory profiling) will be reviewed every term by the SENCO and appropriate staff who work with and support your child.

 At the end of each key stage (i.e. at the end of year 2 and year 6), all children are still required to be formally assessed using Standard Assessment Tests (SATS). This is something the government requires all schools to do and these results are published nationally. In certain circumstances, school may withdraw children from these tests.

 All children identified has having SEND and in receipt of SEND support will have targets which support them in achieving the best possible outcomes. The targets may be based on personal objectives, National Curriculum targets, BSquared assessment targets, sensory profile assessment or Motional assessment (this assessment is used for children who present with more significant needs), or based on targets set by outside agencies specific to their needs. Targets will be set using these assessment tools and designed to accelerate learning and close the gap. Progress against these targets will be reviewed regularly, evidence for judgments assessed and a future plan made.

 Children with an identified need will have specific targets written by their class teacher and work supporting those targets will be recorded. These targets are reviewed at least termly and new targets written to address individual needs.

 The progress of children with an EHC Plan will be formally reviewed at an Annual Review with all adults involved with the child’s education. 

The SENCo will also check that your child is making good progress within any intervention that they take part in.

Regular book scrutinies (and learning walks when current coronavirus restrictions allow) will be carried out by the SENCo and members of the Senior Leadership Team regularly to ensure that the needs of all children are met and that the quality of teaching and learning is high.

Where a pupil is receiving SEN support, schools staff will arrange to meet parents at least termly to set clear goals, discuss the activities and support that will help achieve them, review progress and identify the responsibilities of the parent, the pupil and the school.
These meetings will need to allow sufficient time to explore the parents’ views and to plan effectively. Meetings should, wherever possible, be aligned with the normal cycle of discussions with parents of all children; they may, however, be longer than most parent-teacher meetings.
The views of the child (where appropriate) will be included in this planning. This could be through involving the child in all or part of the meeting, or gathering their views as part of the preparation for the meeting.
Following the meeting the SENCO/teacher will inform all the appropriate school staff of the outcomes and agreed targets, as well as updating the pupil’s/student’s record as appropriate.
Where a child/young person continues to make little or no progress, despite well-founded support that is matched to the child’s/young person’s area of need, the school will consider involving specialists, including those from outside agencies.This will be done in consultation with parents and a referral will be presented at one of the termly Family Springboard meetings.
If a child or young person has lifelong or significant difficulties they may undergo a Statutory Assessment Process which is usually requested by the school but can be requested by a parent. This will occur where the complexity of need or a lack of clarity around the needs of the child are such that a multi-agency approach to assessing that need, to planning provision and identifying resources, is required.
The decision to make a referral for an Education, Health and Care Plan will be taken at a progress review and will combine information from all who support the pupil.

1. a) Class teacher input, through excellent targeted classroom teaching (Quality First Teaching).

For your child this would mean:

• That the teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class.
• That all teaching is built on what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
• That different ways of teaching are in place, so that your child is fully involved in learning in class. This may involve things like using more practical learning or through outdoor learning.
• That specific strategies (which may be suggested by the SENCo) are in place to support your child to learn.
• Your child’s teacher will have carefully checked on your child’s progress and will have decided that your child has a gap or gaps in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to help them make the best possible progress.
• Your child’s teacher will keep in touch with you so that information can be shared. 

b) Specific group or individual (1 to 1) work

This would mean that your child would be involved in a specific, carefully planned and tested, appropriate Intervention which may be:

•  Run in the classroom by a teacher or a teaching assistant (TA).

• Run out of the classroom with a teacher or teaching assistant at various times.

c) Specialist support offered by outside agencies such as: 

• Speech and Language therapy
• Schools and Families Specialist Services (SFSS)
• The Education Psychology Service (EPS)
• Sensory Service (for students with a hearing or visual need)
• Health representatives
• Outside agencies such as the Sherwood Area Partnership (Behaviour Support)

What could happen?

You may be asked to give your permission for the school to refer your child to a specialist professional, e.g. an Educational Psychologist. This referral involves a synopsis of your child’s needs being taken to a working body of professional people called a ‘Springboard’ and asking relevant professionals for support. These referral systems take place termly and include the Garibaldi Family of schools representatives. If support is then allocated, it may help the school and you to understand your child’s particular needs better and be able to support them more effectively in school. This type of support is available for children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through Quality First Teaching and intervention groups. Your child will also need specialist support in school from a professional outside the school. For your child this would mean: 

• This is usually provided via an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), previously known as a Statement of Special Educational Needs. This means your child will have been identified by professionals as needing a particularly high level of personalised individual or small-group teaching to meet their severe and complex needs most effectively.
• This type of support is available for children whose learning needs are severe, complex and lifelong.

d)  Specified Individual support

• The specialist professional will work with your child’s class teacher for a limited period of time to understand their needs more fully and make recommendations as to the ways your child is given support.
• The school (or you) can request that Local Authority Services carry out a statutory assessment of your child’s needs. This is a legal process which sets out the amount of support that will be provided for your child.

• After the request has been made to the ‘Panel of Professionals’ (with a lot of information about your child, including some from you), they will decide whether they think your child’s needs (as described in the paperwork provided), seem complex enough to need a statutory assessment. If this is the case, they will ask you and all professionals involved with your child to write a report outlining your child’s needs. If they do not think your child needs this, they will ask the school to continue with the current support.
• After the reports have all been sent in, the Panel of Professionals will decide if your child’s needs are severe, complex and lifelong. If this is the case, they will write an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP). If this is not the case, they will ask the school to continue with the current level of support and also set up a meeting in school to ensure a plan is in place to ensure your child makes as much progress as possible.

Class teachers plan lessons according to the specific needs of all groups of children in their class (including pre-National Curriculum targets, National Curriculum targets and BSquared assessment targets) and will ensure that your child’s needs are met.

Support staff, under the direction of the class teacher, can adapt planning to support the needs of your child where necessary.

Specific resources and strategies will be used to support your child individually and in groups.

Planning and teaching will be adapted, on a daily basis if needed, to meet your child’s learning need so that as many children as possible with SEND can remain alongside their peers in the classroom.

The Head Teacher and the SENCO discuss all the information they have about SEND in the school, including:

• the children getting extra support already,
• the children needing extra support,
• the children who have been identified as not making as much progress as would be expected.

From this information, they decide what resources/training and support is needed. The school identifies the needs of SEN pupils on a provision map. This identifies all support given within school and is reviewed regularly and changes made as needed, so that the needs of children are met, and resources are deployed as effectively as possible.

At Forest Town Primary, our aim is to ensure that pupils with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities take as full a part as possible in all school activities. This will involve liaison between the child, family and any external agencies involved with the child in order to remove any barriers that may exist, wherever possible.

We recognise that some children have extra emotional and social needs that need to be developed and nurtured. These needs can manifest themselves in a number of ways, including behavioural difficulties, anxiousness, and being uncommunicative.

All classes access PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education) sessions to support this development. However, for those children who continue to find aspects of this difficult we offer the following. This is slightly different to our previous provision due to the current restrictions of the coronavirus situation:

• Whole school nurture provision. Each year group has access to a dedicated space where nurture type provision is offered. This can be on a timetabled, regular basis or when needed
• If your child still needs extra support, with your permission the Family Support Worker and SENCO will access further support through the EHAF process.
• We ensure that we regularly gather, and take into account, the wishes and feelings of pupils, particularly those with SEND.

The SENCO: Mrs Clare Purchase is responsible for:

• Developing and reviewing the school’s SEN policy
• Co-ordinating all the support for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND)
• Ensuring that you are i) Involved in supporting your child’s learning ii) kept informed about the support your child is getting iii) Involved in reviewing how they are doing.
• Liaising with all the other people who may be coming in to school to help support your child’s learning, e.g. Speech and Language Therapy, Educational Psychology.
• Updating the school’s SEN Provision Map (a system for ensuring that all the SEND needs of pupils in this school are known) and making sure that a record of your child’s progress and needs are kept
• Providing specialist support for teachers and support staff in the school, so that they can help children with SEND in the school to achieve the best progress possible

Mrs Purchase can be contacted through the School Office: 01623 477211

The SENCo’s job is to support the class teacher in planning for children with SEND. The SENCO is well trained, attending termly Springboard meetings where specific training and support takes place and opportunities for further training is highlighted between the family of schools’ SENCOs. 

Training and support is provided to enable all staff to improve the teaching and learning of children, including those with SEND. This includes whole school training on SEND issues such as Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) Speech and Language difficulties, attachment disorders and specific intervention training. Staff are also involved in an ‘SEND Update’ annually where general training is given around the school’s core offer (teaching and learning expectations and policy) as well as general SEND guidance, policy and practice, including nurture. 

All staff have received specific training on the assessment and tracking of pupils with SEND, working below the National Curriculum, nurture provision, differentiation for SEND pupils within a mastery curriculum and target setting for pupils with SEND. All teaching staff have accessed 'Making Sense of Autism' training from the District SenCo last academic year.

Individual staff will also attend specific training run by outside agencies that are relevant to the needs of specific children in their class, e.g. from the SFSS Team, when available and relevant.  The whole school have taken part in CPD from ADHD Solutions to comply with the requirements to become a recognised ‘ADHD Friendly School’. Dyslexia training has also been recently completed

• Teachers responsible for teaching SEND groups/individuals
• Teaching Assistants working with either individual children or small groups
• Teaching Assistants offering support for children with emotional and social development
• Local Authority Provision delivered in school
• Schools and Families Specialist Services
• Educational Psychology Service
• Sensory Service for children with visual or hearing needs
• SALT (Speech and Language Therapy)
• Health Provision delivered in school
• Healthy Families Team (previously School Nursing service)
• Occupational Therapy
• Physiotherapy
• CAMHs
• Sherwood Area Partnership
• Bespoke sensory teaching for very significant needs

The school is fully compliant with PDSS requirements.

• All areas of the school site are easily accessible. 
• There are two lifts in school to support access to raised floors and there is level access for all external doors.
• School is easily accessible by a wheelchair and benefits from double doors. 
• There are three onsite disabled toilets, a shower area and changing facilities.
• We ensure where ever possible that equipment used is accessible to all children regardless of their needs.
• After-school provision is accessible to all children, including those with SEND.

The class teacher is regularly available to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns you may have and to share information about what is working well at home and school, so that similar strategies can be used.

The SENCo is available to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns/worries you may have.

All information from outside professionals will be discussed with you by the person involved directly, or where this is not possible, in a report.

Personal targets / interventions will be reviewed with your involvement every term, usually at allocated parent-teacher meetings but alternative meetings can be arranged where necessary.

Home learning will be adjusted as needed to your child’s individual requirements.

A home-school contact book may be used to support communication with you when this has been agreed to be useful for you and your child.

Where a pupil is receiving SEN support, schools staff will arrange to meet parents at least termly to set clear goals, discuss the activities and support that will help achieve them, review progress and identify the responsibilities of the parent, the pupil and the school.

These meetings will need to allow sufficient time to explore the parents’ views and to plan effectively. Meetings should, wherever possible, be aligned with the normal cycle of discussions with parents of all children; they may, however, be longer than most parent-teacher meetings.

The views of the child (where appropriate) will be included in this planning. This could be through involving the child in all or part of the meeting, or gathering their views as part of the preparation for the meeting.

The School’s Complaints Procedure should be used if the need arises. If a parent or carer has any concerns or complaints regarding the care or welfare of their child, an appointment can be made by them to speak to the SENCO and Head teacher, who will be able to advise on formal procedures for complaint.

The school and governors continue to build strong working relationships and links with external support services in order to fully support our children and aid school inclusion. Sharing knowledge and information with our support services is central to the effective and successful SEND provision at Forest Town Primary school. Any one of the support services may raise concerns about a child. This will then be brought to the attention of the SENCO who will then inform the pupil's parents.

The school SEND link governor works closely with the SENCO and external agencies to ensure effective communication. The following services will be involved as and when is necessary:

• Educational Psychology
• Schools and Family Specialist Services (SFSS)
• Healthy Families team
• Social services (Children's Social Care)
• Speech and Language therapists
• Paediatricians and specialist health professionals
• Physiotherapists
• Health Related Education Team (HRET)
• Bespoke sensory provision

Any voluntary or community organisations that can provide specific support the school and governors recognise the important contribution which external support services make in assisting to identify, assess, and provide for pupils with Special Educational Needs. When it is considered necessary, colleagues from the LA Children and Young Peoples support services will be involved with pupils with Special Educational Needs.

The SEND Local Offer is a resource which is designed to support children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities and their families. It describes the services and provision that are available both to those families in Nottinghamshire that have an Education, Health and Care Plan and those who do not have a plan, but still experience some form of special educational need. The SEND Local Offer includes information about public services across education, health and social care, as well as those provided by the private, voluntary and community sectors. It can be accessed at www.nottinghamshire.sendlocaloffer.org.uk A link can be found on our own Forest Town Primary School Website on the SEND tab: https://www.foresttownprimaryschool.co.uk

We recognise that transitions can be difficult for a child with SEN, and we take steps to ensure that any transition is as smooth as possible.
If your child is starting school, entering F1 (Nursery) or F2 (Reception) for the first time:

• The SENCO will speak to or visit pre-schools or early years settings, possibly with the Foundation Stage Leader as appropriate.
• The SENCO will speak to any other agencies who are involved with supporting your family.
• Your child will be invited to attend our ‘Ready for Nursery’ sessions prior to them starting school, where you can meet with the Foundations teachers and the SENCO as appropriate.
• The SENCO will arrange any multi-agency meetings appropriate to support you and your family.

If your child is joining us from another school:

• The SENCO will speak to or visit previous schools to gather as much information as possible about your child and his/her needs.
• If your child would be helped by an ‘All about Me!’ book to support them in understand moving on, and then one will be made for them including both home and school information.
• Your child will be able to visit our school and stay for a new starter’s session.
• The SENCO will arrange any multi-agency meetings appropriate to support you and your family.

If your child is moving to another school:

• We will contact the school SENCo and ensure he/she knows about any special arrangements or support that need to be made for your child. Where possible, a planning meeting will take place with the SENCo from the new school.
• We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible.
• If your child would be helped by an ‘All about Me!’ book to support them in understand moving on, and then one will be made for them including both home and school information.
• We will endeavor to make regular and planned transition visits to your child’s new school with your child.

When moving classes in school:

• Information will be passed on to the new class teacher in advance and the needs of your child will be discussed. Pupil SEN records will be shared with the new teacher.
• If your child would be helped by an ‘All about Me!’ book to support them in understand moving on, then one will be made for them.

In Year 6:

• The SENCO will discuss the specific needs of your child with the SENCo of the child’s secondary school. In some cases, a transition review meeting to which you will be invited will take place with the SENCo from the new school.
• Your child will participate in focused learning relating to aspects of transition, to support their understanding of the changes ahead.
• Where possible, your child will visit their new school on several occasions, and in some cases staff from the new school will visit your child in this school.
• If your child would be helped by a book/passport to support them in understand moving on, then one will be made for them.

Transitions between year groups through F1 to Y6 are carefully planned and specific transition plans put into place as and when required. For example; meet the teacher, meet the Teaching Assistant and lessons to be taught in the new class room. A pupil transition booklet is made if necessary with photographs of the new teacher and new classroom in order to prepare the child over the summer holidays.

When our Y6 children with SEND leave us to go to secondary, transition plans are started in Y6:

• Visits to the Forest Town Primary by the SENCO of the secondary school to discuss the child’s needs with staff and parents at Forest Town
• Visits to the new secondary school are arranged for both child and parent.
• Information passed to the school from parents.
• Information passed to the school from feeder school staff
• Information gathered through the Springboard process led by the Local Authority

Not Applicable to a Primary School, however we do encourage children to develop independence.

Further information can be accessed through our website:

http://www.foresttownprimaryschool.co.uk and click on the SEN tab.

Or you can contact the Acting Head Teacher Mrs Jayne Kimberley or SENCO Mrs Clare Purchase at school on 01623 477211