Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND)
Our Commitment to you and your child
At The Federation of Bedenham and Holbrook Primary Schools, we provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all our children and we are committed to the principle of inclusive education. We strive for every child to receive an education that enables them to make progress so that they achieve their best, become confident individuals leading fulfilling lives and are able to make a successful transition into the next chapter in their education.
We work closely to the guidelines of the SEND Code of Practice 2014. Click here to download a copy.
What is a Special Education Need (SEN)?
For some children, SEN can be identified at an early age. However, for other children difficulties become evident only as they develop. Some children may need special educational provision to support them. This means educational provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for others of the same age in a mainstream setting.
A child or young person has special educational needs if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. A learning difficulty or disability is a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age.
Learning difficulties may fall within the following four broad categories:
- Communication and interaction
- Cognition and learning
- Social, mental and emotional health (SEMH)
- Sensory and/or physical needs
Many children have needs in more than one area, and every child is different; often the area of need given for a particular child is their ‘prime’ area. We always look at the individual child when thinking about how best to support them.
Communication and interaction
- This area includes speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), which could mean difficulties with speech production, the understanding of language, the expression of language or a combination of all three. It also includes difficulties with the social use of language.
- Children with a diagnosis of autism or autistic spectrum disorders, including Asperger’s syndrome, often have needs in this area.
- Children with communication and interaction difficulties may or may not also have learning difficulties.
Cognition and learning
- This area includes general learning difficulties (which may be moderate or severe), profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) and specific learning difficulties (SpLD).
- ‘Severe learning difficulties’ usually includes diagnoses such as Down Syndrome and other genetic conditions.
- Children with PMLD are almost all taught within special schools, and as the name suggests, their needs are the most profound.
- SpLDs include: dyslexia (difficulties with reading and spelling), dyscalculia (difficulties with number and calculation), and dyspraxia (or ‘developmental coordination disorder’, difficulties with motor planning). People with one or more SpLDs have a ‘spiky profile’ of attainment, with areas of strength (sometimes very high) and areas of need.
- All children in this category have a form of learning difficulty.
Social, mental and emotional health (SEMH)
- For some children with SEMH difficulties, the nature of these difficulties will mean that they have learning difficulties, either temporarily or in the long term.
- Sometimes, children display challenging behaviours as a result of having SEMH. Challenging behaviours are displayed for many reasons, which may be indicative of underlying mental health difficulties (such as anxiety or depression), or emotional issues.
- Some children have conditions such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) or ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) which affect their SEMH and how they behave.
- We look for the underlying causes of any difficulties with social or emotional state and behaviour, and aim to support these.
Sensory and/or physical needs
- This area includes sensory impairments, such as visual impairment (VI) and hearing impairment (HI), as well as physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy. Children with these disabilities will usually access support from the specific local team, which may be a combination of education and health services.
- These children do not necessarily have ‘learning difficulties’, in that their cognitive functioning may be average or above; some children do have associated learning difficulties.
How do we support children with SEN?
The SEND Information Report
More detailed information about how we implement our school policy for pupils with SEND can be found in our SEND Information Reports (links at the top of this page).
This includes information about:
- How we identify and assess SEN
- Our approaches to teaching children with SEN
- Ways in which we might adapt the curriculum and learning environment
- How we involve parents and children
- How we assess and review children’s progress towards outcomes
- Training for staff and how we use specialists to support pupils
SEN support
All teachers are responsible for planning a high quality curriculum, differentiated for individuals, that meets the needs of specific groups of children and responds to their diverse learning needs. We use our best endeavours to secure special educational provision for pupils for whom this is required. In such cases, extra support will be provided. This is called ‘SEN support’. We use a graduated approach, called the ‘Assess, Plan Do and Review cycle’ in which we:
- Assess the child’s needs
- Plan how to support the pupil and help overcome barriers to learning (for example, this may include interventions or flexible use of an additional adult in the classroom). We will seek children’s and parents/carers input during this planning stage
- Do - we put the plan into action
- Review progress against targets
- This is part of a continuous cycle which is recorded on a ‘Pupil Passport’.
Where a child continues to make little or no progress, despite well-founded support that is matched to the child’s area of need, the school may consider involving specialists, including those from outside agencies, such as Speech and Language therapists.
The majority of children and young people with SEN or disabilities will have their needs met within school. Some children may require an Education and Health Care needs assessment. The purpose of an EHC plan is to make special educational provision to meet the special educational needs of the child to secure the best possible outcomes for them across education, health and social care and, as they get older, prepare them for adulthood.
Communication with parents
We recognise that you know your children best and welcome your input on their learning and development. Where a pupil is receiving SEN support, we will offer opportunities to meet with parents termly to set clear outcomes and review progress towards them, discuss the activities and support that will help achieve them, and identify the responsibilities of the parent, the pupil and the school. This will be built in to the Pupil Passport.
Your child’s views are crucial to the process. Wherever possible and age appropriate, children are invited to contribute towards their Pupil Passports. When targets are set, these are discussed and negotiated with the child as age appropriate.
If parents have any concerns regarding Special Educational Needs and Disabilities or inclusion, they are advised to arrange a meeting with the Class Teacher or SENCo. If you have any queries or would like to talk to a member of our SEND team, please do not hesitate to contact the school office, who will direct you accordingly.
At Bedenham Primary School, the SENDCo is Jo Richards.
At Holbrook Primary School, the SENDCo is Lucie Golding (Acting Deputy Headteacher).
Where else to find information about SEND
The 'Local Offer'
Hampshire County Council is committed to giving all children and young people high quality education that enables them to make progress and achieve well. For children and young people aged 0 to 25 with special educational needs or a disability, additional or specialist support may be needed to enable this. To support the process of identifying the range of provision and advice that is available, Hampshire Local Authority have published a local offer. For more information about the Local Offer please click here.