SENCO and SEN Staff
Our SENCO is Miss Waters, Deputy Headteacher.
More details of the SENCO’s role can be found in the SEN Policy which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.
We also have a wealth of extremely experienced HLTA’s who have built up a bank of knowledge and expertise over many years. Our specialist HLTA’s are Mrs Gilray, Miss Oselton, Mrs Hannant and Mrs Shield.
External Specialists and Other Bodies
The school enjoys good working relationships with a wide range of people who provide services to children with SEND and their families.
The external specialists may:
- Act in an advisory capacity
- Extend expertise of school staff
- Provide additional assessment
- Support a child directly
- Suggest statutory assessment is advisable
- Consult with all parties involved with the child
These include:
- Durham County Council Local Offer
- Durham SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
- CAHMS Assessment Team
- Next-Step Counselling Services
- Durham Educational Psychology Service
- Durham Movement Difficulties Service
- One Point Children’s Service
- School Nurse Service
- Looked After Children’s Service – LAC Team
- Speech and Language Therapy – SALT Team
- Occupational Therapy Team
How We Secure Specialist Expertise
Our Additional Needs Budget is used to support children and young people with SEN. Our 2022/23 amount is £98,381.
This is used to support children and young people with SEND by:
- Employing additional staff to promote inclusion through specific group/paired/individual provisions.
- Employing and training a Special Educational Needs Coordinator to liaise with parents, other professionals and outside agencies to meet the needs of our pupils.
- Allow for management release time (0.2 day each week) for our SENDCO to work with external professionals and complete duties in relation to SEND – e.g. writing/reviewing quality SEND school support plans.
- Allow teaching and support staff to attend professional training and meetings to ensure that they have the appropriate skills, knowledge and understanding to meet the needs of pupils with specific needs. Supply cover may be required to pay for additional staff
- Meet costs that are often involved in purchasing appropriate training for staff
- Ensure opportunities for staff, parents, pupils and other agencies to liaise regularly are facilitated
- Buy in’ to specialist services to work with children/and or staff to identify/meet needs or support school in meeting needs e.g. staff training, Speech and Language contracts; Educational Psychology Service
- Provide specific learning and teaching resources required by individual children.
If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.
