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 partnership with parents/carers, pupils
- Consult with relevant external agencies
- Use assessment tools & materials
- Use observations
- Use Short Notes
SEN Support
At Consett Junior School, 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
For more detailed information see the Local Offer
Details of Identification and Assessment of Pupils with SEN
Staff or parents/ carers can raise concerns about a child’s progress at Consett Junior School. This can be done either in a formal meeting or during the many discussions we have with parents/ carers throughout the year. School will raise concerns with parents if we believe a child may be struggling. The list below includes some (but is not inclusive) of the reasons school would contact parents/ carers:
- A child may be struggling academically and falling behind their age related expectation (ARE)
- A child may be struggling to access the work in class due to a physical difficulty i.e. hearing/ sight etc…
- A child may be struggling to access the work due to disruptive behaviours
- A child may be struggling due to social and emotional issues
- There may be a unknown barrier preventing a child from making progress in line with peers.
A parent/ carer may wish to contact school if they believe their child is having any of the above difficulties in school and at home.
First Steps in identification
When your child enters our school, their current attainment is assessed to give us a ‘baseline’ from where they will progress.
- Staff in the Early Years will primarily identify any concerns with children who are displaying significant learning needs. Reception, Key Stage 1 staff and the SENCO where necessary, liaise with Nursery or the child’s previous school (if applicable).
- If a child is performing below age expected levels then meetings will be held with the class teacher and SENCO. Observations of the child may also take place.
- Concerns may be raised by the class teacher. For example; if behaviour or self-esteem is affecting performance or the child’s overall mental health.
- We may liaise with external agencies for either support or advice or they may come to us with an assessment/identification of need.
- Health diagnosis through medical professionals
- Parental concerns – SEND issues can be identified by parents / carers and raised with staff.
If your child has SEND, it is important for us to carry out formal assessments to identify their strengths and identify their needs accurately. To do this, we will use a range of methods depending upon their needs.
Depending upon their needs, other assessments may be needed. These could include:
- Speech Therapy Assessments – which may focus on sound production, language understanding, or other relevant assessments to your child’s needs
- Education Psychology Assessments – which may include memory, understanding, reasoning, logic, and general skills assessments
Next steps
As part of this approach, we will produce an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the provision that we will make to meet the child’s special educational needs and agreed outcomes. Parents, carers and child (where appropriate) views are integral to the this process and will be fully involved in this process. This plan will contain several targets and an explanation of what school will do to help a child meet these targets. Staff will use quality first teaching and well planned interventions to ensure that these targets are met.
The outcomes of all assessments are shared with parents / carers at our Parent Evenings and during SEND review meetings. If other agencies are invited to work with your child, you will be invited to attend a meeting where the outcomes of these assessments and their next steps will be shared with you.
Children’s school achievements may be assessed against age related expectations for children who are working on the National Curriculum (i.e. the same as the majority of other children in their year group), or they may be assessed against other measures for children who are not ready to work on National Curriculum Levels (i.e. the steps before the National Curriculum). The school uses the recommendations from the Rochford Report to assess children for whom it is inappropriate to use the National Curriculum.
Education and Health Care Plans (EHC)
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. Full details can be found on the Local Offer website
For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.
