South Hams Federation -Stokenham Area Primary School

SEND Information Report September 2023

What do I do if I think my child has special educational needs?

Firstly, speak to your child’s class teacher. If your child’s class teacher also has concerns about your child’s progress and/or attainment, they will discuss the concerns with the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator.

If you continue to be concerned, contact the school and ask to speak to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo), Miss Clare Carter.

What are Special Educational Needs?

If a pupil does not make adequate progress even when teaching approaches are targeted at a pupil’s identified barriers, then the pupil may be identified as having special educational needs. 

Pupils with a disability have special educational needs and if they have difficulty in accessing education they may need amended or adapted provision, that is additional to or different from what is normally available in class.

My child has been identified as having special educational needs by the preschool or previous school.

Contact us directly and ask to speak to Miss Clare Carter, or Mrs Tess Coulthard.  We can meet with you and the preschool leads to find out about your child’s needs before they start school.

We will contact the previous school or preschool to obtain an ILP and any reports from external agencies such as the Educational Psychologist or Paediatrician.

What will happen if my child is identified as having special educational needs?

We will explain to you what amended or adapted provision we are providing for your child.

Your child may require an ILP which will specify the next-steps for them and how we intend to support them. We will invite you to review this plan with us.

We will put your child’s details on our register of children with Special Educational Needs, this register enables us to keep track of all the children with additional needs.  It will specify what is being provided to support their learning.  Devon County Council and the DfE can access this register so that they can monitor how many children in the school have additional needs.

If required, with your agreement we will seek further support from external agencies such as:

• Speech and Language Therapist
• Communication and Interaction Team
• Social and Emotional Mental Health Team
• Educational Psychologist
• Advisory Teachers for hearing impairment
• Visual impairment
• Physical difficulties

What if my child needs further help?

Following rigorous assessments if a child’s needs are considered to be severe, lifelong and complex.  We may need to apply to the Local Authority for specified individual support.

In order to obtain this additional support the Local Authority will be requested to carry out a statutory assessment of your child’s needs. Following the request, a panel of professionals will review all the evidence and make a decision whether your child’s needs are complex enough to require a statutory assessment. If they consider that an assessment is appropriate, they will request reports from all professionals involved.   On receipt of these reports, the panel will decide if your child’s needs are severe, complex and life-long. If they agree that your child’s needs meet the criteria, they will write an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP), which will be reviewed annually. This will state the long targets for your child and what strategies should be put in place to help them to achieve these.

If the panel decides that your child’s needs are not severe enough to require an Education Health and Care Plan they will ask the school to continue to support the child and ensure that an Individual Education Plan (ILP) is in place.

You can find out about the Local Authority’s offer for children and young people with SEND and their families on the Devon County Council website: 

www.devon.gov.uk/schools/SEND. Telephone 01392 380000.

My child has a physical disability, how accessible is the school?

• All classrooms are accessible for a wheelchair.
• There is a disabled toilet in the main building
• The outside of the building is accessible for a wheelchair.
• All playgrounds are accessible.
• The school playing field is accessible.

What training or expertise do staff have to support children with SEND?

All class teachers are qualified (QTS) to teach primary children with a range of needs. We are constantly evaluating the impact of our teaching on children’s learning and adopting new approaches. Many conditions such as Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Dyslexia and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder are routinely supported as teaching strategies are in place in every class to support children with these needs.

Our teaching assistants are also trained to support children on the Autistic Spectrum, children with dyslexic tendencies and children with attention deficit.

Our teaching assistants are present when the Speech and Language Therapist works with a child in their year group and will follow a programme led by the therapist.

Our teachers and teaching assistants are trained in using a range of strategies such as :

• precision teaching
• colourful semantics
• Little Wandle,
• Toe By Toe
• Language For Thinking
• Counting to Calculating

We seek and follow up support from Advisory Teachers or Therapists who are specialists in their areas.

How are parents/carers and children with SEND supported to share their views, concerns and work alongside the school?

Teachers will be happy to meet with you to discuss any concerns you may have.  Miss Clare Carter (SENDCo) is also available to offer additional support where necessary.  We encourage a strong school/home partnership. There will be open communication between you and the SENDCo to update you on any additional provision put in place for your child.

If you are a parent/carer of a child who has an ILP you will be given the opportunity, with the class teacher or the SENDCo, to discuss progress, targets and further support necessary both in school and at home.

Parents/carers of children with more complex special educational needs,who are referred for statutory assessment, will be asked to attend meetings to share views and concerns about their child throughout the process. This will ensure that all parties involved are fully informed and working closely to support each other and to provide the most suitable provision for the child.  Your child will have an ILP which links to the long-term objectives of the EHCP and will include short term targets.  

We have a number of ICT programmes which can be used at home to support the learning. These include;

• Accelerated Reader
• TT Rockstars
• Little Wandle
• We use Google Classrooms as a learning platform and as a method for keeping parents informed.

Attendance

The SENDCo and Head of School will work together to ensure SEND needs that may impact on attendance are acknowledged and understood.  We will ensure the provision in place meets the child's needs and supports good attendance.

Specific measures are taken to monitor attendance. These processes are embedded and regularly checked to ensure the effective safeguarding of all pupils through specific tailored interventions.  Attendance data is collected weekly and analysed a minimum. Key analysis is made of:

• Patterns of absence
• Patterns of lateness
• Patterns of medical appointments
• Correct and consistent use of absence codes
• Trends in reasons for absence, for example, use of the C code, leave of absence and
• exclusions
• Trends in particular groups of children for example, pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).

What happens when my child transfers to another school?

The vast majority of our children transfer to Kingsbridge Community College (KCC). The transition visits begin early in Year 6 and continue throughout the year.  Children with special educational needs can make additional visits as required; these are arranged by Miss Carter. For example, your child might need to meet some particular members of staff, have additional time to become familiar with the geography of the building or want to take photographs so that they can keep to remind them of things they have found out about the school.

The SENDCo (Miss Carter) will meet with the SENDCo at KCC in the Summer term and share information about the children on the SEND Register.   The SENDCo will discuss the strategies and adaptations hat have been put in place.  

If the Local Authority decide that your child’s needs can be best met in a different setting, they will identify the nearest suitable provision. In this case, individual transition arrangements are made.

My child is having ‘intervention’. What does that mean?

If the class teacher identified that the child has a barrier to learning, they will plan for a short term intervention.  This may include:

• Little Wandle phonics
• Spelling
• Reading comprehension
• Social skills
• Handwriting
• Counting
• Calculation
• Pre or Post class teaching

Is there a budget for children with special educational needs?

A funding stream from the Local Authority is specifically to support children with special educational needs. The Executive Headteacher decides on the deployment of resources for children with special educational needs and disabilities in conjunction with the SENDCo and the Board of Governors.

The impact of spending on children with special educational needs is evaluated by the SENDCo, Executive Headteacher and Board of Governors to ensure that the resources are deployed effectively.

What do I do if I am not satisfied with the special educational provision for my child?

• Talk to your child’s class teacher.
• Speak to the SENDCo
• Speak to the Executive Headteacher

The SEND policy can be viewed below

Updated September 2023 (Academic year 2023/24)