Special Educational Needs at Mengham Infant School

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Our Provision for Special Educational Needs

Our SENCo (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) is Mrs Nicola O’Brien. However, we firmly believe that all teachers are teachers of children with additional needs. This means that class teachers, supported by a team of teaching assistants and additional needs assistants, work closely with the SENCo in planning and reviewing the provision for children with SEND. We recognise that all children may at some time in their school life require additional support. It may be for only a short period or it may be for longer and it may be for a variety of reasons.

Before the children start in year R, we liaise with all our local pre-schools and parents/carers to ensure that we have a clear picture of the needs of each child before they start school. Once children are in school, our provision for SEND is firmly rooted in a plan, do, review cycle. We will plan the provision based on observations and informal assessment, teachers and teaching/additional needs assistants will provide the provision and then we will review its effectiveness.

Parents and carers are also actively involved in this process. If we feel that your child may need additional support, we will talk to you and explain what will happen next and give you the opportunity to find out about all the strategies and programs we use.

Our SEND policy and SEN Information Report detail the principles and procedures we follow, but you are most welcome to contact the school for more detailed information. We have also linked an overview of our SEND process below for further information;

Click for our SEND Process overview

Mengham Infant School SEND REPORT 2021

What kinds of SEN does our School Provide For?

• Our school provides support for children with a range of SEN. These can include speech and language difficulties, cognitive and learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health issues and physical difficulties.

How do we identify SEND Children in our school?

• Liaison with pre-schools and Junior schools as part of all transition.
• Tracking and analysing pupil progress, exploring the lack of expected progress.

• Concerns raised by Parents.
• Concerns raised by class teachers and Teaching Assistants.
• Liaison with outside agencies.
• School screening and assessment, including tools to identify specific learning difficulties.
• Liaison with a medical specialist, to ensure medical needs are met appropriately.

How do we consult with parents of children with SEN?

• We believe that regular communication between parents and teachers helps provide better communication. This is especially important if your child has complex needs, whether or not they have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
• Mengham Infant School welcomes parents to make an appointment with class teachers or our, SenCo (Mrs Nicola O’Brien) to discuss any worries or concerns you may have (see below for contact details), about how your child is progressing in class. We are very happy to support learning in the home by offering advice and practical ways of supporting your child.
• Parents are involved with their child’s learning plan and are encouraged to contribute to the targets.
• Each child has a home-school communication book to enable easy and convenient links between parents and school.

• For children with SEND, the SenCo arranges an additional meeting between parents, class teacher and child to discuss progress against individual learning targets, in addition to normal parents evenings.
• If a child has complex learning, medical or social needs, an Inclusion Partnership Agreement may be established. This is a termly review of a child’s needs and explores progress and barriers to learning. Outside Agencies involved with your child will be invited to contribute.

How do we involve children with SEN in their education?

• Children are invited and encouraged to share their views on their learning as part of the process which helps identify Send.
• Children are actively involved with the setting and monitoring of their targets.

• On a daily basis, we encourage pupil voice within school and adults working to support your child will continually be discussing progress with your child and encouraging them to talk about both their successes and things they may find difficult.

How do we assess and review children’s progress?

• As a school, we measure children’s progress in learning against National expectation and age related expectations.
• We assess all children’s progress at three points across each year.
• Where a child is working against specific individual targets, progress is tracked against their entry baseline to ensure continued good progress.

• Class teachers continually assess each child and identify areas of progress and where further support is needed. Interventions are put in place quickly to quickly support children as necessary. Interventions are short and are measured against their baseline to ensure effectiveness.
• As a school, we track children’s progress from entry at Year R through to year 2 using a variety of different methods including National Curriculum expectations and teacher assessment, based on independent work. Any child falling behind expectations will have their progress individually tracked, and relevant differentiation/intervention established to secure relevant extra support in order to enhance their progress.  All interventions are regularly assessed to determine impact.
• Verbal feedback is considered from the teacher, parent and pupil.
• Children not making the expected progress are identified through regular pupil progress meetings between the class teacher and senior leaders (Head Teacher, Maths and English managers and SenCo). At these meetings, the discussion takes place concerning reasons individual children may be experiencing difficulties and determining what further support can be provided  to aid progress.
• Children may move off the SEN register when they have made sufficient progress and are in line with the national/age expectations.

What is our approach to teaching children with SEN?

• Children with SEN are inclusively planned for within all areas of the curriculum, with adaptations, differentiation and interventions occurring as appropriate.  These are regularly assessed in order to determine whether they are aiding effective progress.
• Where necessary, additional adults are used to support children’s learning.
• We provide a nurturing environment, we value individuals, we adapt to the specific needs of individuals, and we draw on the expertise of the staff within the school and, if necessary, on specialist support.
• We explore creative ways to meet the educational, health and social needs of every child.

How do we adapt our curriculum and learning environment for children with SEN?

• All children will access the class curriculum, but tasks and activities are differentiated and adapted to meet individual needs.  This ensures all children access the full curriculum.  We aim to remove any barriers to learning.
• In order to ensure all children are able to complete their tasks and achieve their learning objective to the best of their ability, interventions are put in place to support a child who is experiencing difficulties.  All interventions are short in nature and are assessed to determine their effectiveness.
• Differentiation is supported by the SenCo, to ensure all children have the opportunity to become successful learners.
• For children with specific difficulties, we use specific strategies relevant to their needs, such as individual timetables, clutter free workstations, now and next cards etc.

• We seek to liaise with parents at all times, for example sharing learning tips we have found work well in school and using ideas parents share with us.

How do we ensure the adults working with our SEN children have the right skills?

• All teachers are trained to teach children with special educational, medical and social and emotional needs.
• As a school, we work closely with external agencies relevant to individual children’s needs including the Primary Behaviour Support Teams, School nurse, Children and Adolescents Mental Health Services (CAMHS), paediatricians, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, Social Service Locality Teams, Social Workers and Educational Psychologists.
• Outside agencies deliver training to all school staff as and when required.

• Teaching assistants receive regular training, dependent on the needs of pupils.
• The trained ELSA (Mrs. Karen Hill) supports children who require additional emotional or social support, whether long term or short.  She also delivers Nurture group sessions.
• Teachers and Teaching Assistants are trained periodically in behaviour management.
• All our Teaching assistants are trained in delivering reading and spelling/phonics programmes.

How do we evaluate our provision for SEN?

• The SEND Governor (Mrs. Julie Collins) works closely with the SenCo.  Julie Collins monitors the work of the SenCo and offers support when required.
• The SEND Governor monitors the progress of the children with SEND.
• The SEND Governor reports back to the Governing body, to ensure everyone is kept informed.
• The school works with the Local Authority and encourages specialist advisors to evaluate our SEN provision whenever appropriate.
• Teachers will implement interventions in such areas as phonics, reading, high frequency word recognition, number work, etc.  All interventions are recorded by class teachers, who note baseline and final scores in order to determine their effectiveness.

How do we ensure our school is inclusive for children with SEN?

• The school is wheelchair accessible and has a disabled toilet and shower room large enough to accommodate changing. The school is on one level with all doors accessible for wheelchairs.
• The Specialist Teacher Advisory Service will provide the school with specialist equipment specific to children’s individual needs.
• The school has disabled parking bays.
• We have access to Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS). The team helps children from ethnic minority groups, both in their homes and their educational setting.  We liaise with EMAS for assistance in supporting families with English as an additional language.

• A risk assessment is completed prior to any off-site activity to ensure everyone’s health and safety is maintained.  All children are planned for and included in all activities throughout the school curriculum.  We aim to include everyone on school trips and provide the necessary support to ensure successful outcomes.  In the unlikely event, it is considered unsafe for a child to take part in a specific activity, alternative provision (which will cover the same curriculum area) will be arranged.
• Our school policy is to include all our children in every learning activity and, unless safety will be compromised, will strive to ensure our curriculum is accessible to all.

How do we meet the emotional and social needs of children with SEN?

• The school has shared values which are caring, creativity, perseverance, respect and independence.  Our children have a good understanding of what the values mean and how to try and achieve them.
• The school has a trained ELSA (Mrs. Karen Hill) who will work with your child should they experience emotional difficulties, or if it is felt they would benefit from self-esteem work. You will be informed before any work commences.

• We have a personalised PSHE curriculum that encompasses strategies to support positive mental health.
• The school runs intervention groups that focus on the development of skills such as listening, turn taking and sharing.
• Attendance of every child is monitored on a daily basis by the administration staff. Lateness and absence are recorded and reported to the Head Teacher each week. Support is given by our pastoral support team, who will work with parents and pupils to devise strategies to improve their time keeping and attendance.
• As a school we have a positive approach to behaviour management; the children individually seek to move up the class rainbow to the Pot of Gold each day, thus ensuring continuous praise for good work/behaviour throughout the day.
• If a child has behavioural difficulties an individual plan is written by the class teacher and SenCo, and then shared with the child and parents to identify specific issues, set up relevant support, and establish suitable targets.

• Following any behaviour incident, children are expected to reflect on their behaviour with the support of an adult. This helps to identify why the incident happened, and what the child needs to do differently next time to change and improve their behaviour

How do we involve other agencies to support our children with SEN and their families?

• The school works closely with a range of professionals and outside services to best meet the needs of all our children.  The school will seek advice from these services if we feel they can further support your child or family.   Such services may include:
• Family Support Service
• Speech and Language Therapists
• Educational Psychologist

• Primary Behaviour Support
• School Nursing Team
• Riverside Specialist Provision to support with practical strategies in the classroom.
• Occupational Health

• CAMHS – Child and Adult Mental Health Services

How do you decide what funding my child receives for support with their SEN?

• The class teacher and the SenCo will discuss the child’s needs and what support would be appropriate, determining the greatest need.
• The Senior Leadership Team analyse end of year expectations and teacher assessment data against Hampshire guidelines to determine whether a child would benefit from an intervention.  The budget is allocated on a needs basis, with children having the most complex needs being given the most support, this can include the help of a teaching assistant.

• We ensure that the needs of children with SEN are met to the best of the school’s abilities with the funds available.

How do we handle complaints from parents of children with SEN?

• All complaints would be dealt with in accordance with our school complaints policy and procedures. A copy of this is available in the policies section of our website.

What happens when my child moves on?

• We encourage all new children to visit the school prior to starting, where they will meet the class teacher and their peers and look around the school.  For children with SEND, we encourage further visits to assist with acclimatisation with their new surroundings. Where possible we may also arrange to visit them in their current school or pre-school.

• The SenCo will meet with SENCos from other settings to discuss the specific needs of individual children.  Where possible, staff from Mengham Infant School will attend any related meetings with outside agencies prior to the child joining the school.  If your child has an IPA or an EHCP a review meeting will be used as the transition meeting, during which we will invite staff from both schools.
• When children are preparing to leave us to enter year 3, the SENCo from Mengham Junior School will meet with our SENCo and year 2 teachers to discuss specific needs of individual children and arrange dates for children to visit their new school – this is in addition to the transition days that all children attend.
• We transfer any relevant documentation and are happy to discuss specific needs and concerns with the receiving school.  When children are transferred to our school we ensure that all documentation is read and understood.

How can I find out more?

• The first point of contact would be your child’s class teacher to share your concerns.
• You could also arrange to meet our  SenCo, Mrs Nicola O’Brien
• Contact www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth/childrenandfamilies/specialneeds/support4send
• Contact Independent Parental Special Education Advice (IPSEA) www.ipsea.org.uk/

Glossary

SEND	Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
SENCo	Special Educational Needs Coordinator
IPA	Inclusion Partnership Plan
ELSA	Emotional Literacy Support Assistant
SEAL	Social, Emotional Aspects of Learning
CAMHS	Children and Adolescents Mental Health Service
EHCP	Educational, Health, Care Plan
EMAS	Ethnic Minority Achievement Service
EMTAS	Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service
FOMS	Friends of Mengham

Contacts:

• Head Teacher:  Mrs. Lindsay Burnett
• SenCo:  Mrs. Nicola O’Brien
• SEND Governor:  Mrs. Julie Collins  via adminoffice@mengham-inf.hants.sch.uk
• ELSA:  Mrs. Karen Hill

Mengham Infant School
St Mary’s Road
Hayling Island, Hants
PO11 9DD

Telephone: (023) 9246 2470

Email:adminoffice@mengham-inf.hants.sch.uk
Safeguarding Email: safeguarding@mengham-inf.hants.sch.uk