Your Child has Special Educational Needs. What can we at Ladywood Primary School offer you?

At Ladywood Primary School, we embrace the fact that every child is different and therefore, the educational needs of every child is different; this is certainly the case for children with Special Educational Needs.

We are proud to offer excellence and choice to all our children, whatever their ability or needs. Ladywood Primary School adopts a ‘whole school approach’ to special educational needs and the staff are committed to identifying and providing for the needs of all children in an inclusive environment.

The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENDCo)

The SENCo at Ladywood Primary School is Mr Stevens.

Mr Stevens has day to day responsibility for the operation of the 'SEND Policy' and the co-ordinating of specific provision made to support individual pupils with SEND. Mr Stevens works with professionals providing a support role to families to ensure that pupils with SEND receive appropriate support and high quality teaching.

Mr Stevens can be contacted via email at: [email protected] 

The named governor for SEND is Mrs A Slater. She is responsible for making sure that the necessary support is given for any child with SEND who attends the school and can be contacted through school.

To view the Special Education Needs Policy, please open the link below.

The following questions will give you information about the provision at Ladywood Primary School and explain how we support children who have Special Educational Needs or Disabilities, and their families.

How can I let school know that I am concerned about my child’s progress in school?

If you have concerns about your child’s progress, you should speak to your child’s class teacher or Mr Stevens (SENDCo). You will be able to talk over your concerns and find out what the school think.

Working together with your child’s teachers will often help to sort out worries and problems.

How will the school let me know if they have concerns about my child’s learning in school?

We will consult parents about all the decisions that affect their child.

Parents will be made fully aware of the planned support and interventions and where appropriate, plans will seek parental involvement to reinforce progress at home. The school will set up a meeting to discuss this with you in more detail and listen to any concerns you may have.

We encourage an active partnership through an ongoing dialogue with parents.

Where a pupil is receiving SEND support, we will talk to parents regularly 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.

What are the different types of support available for children with SEND in our school?

Four broad categories of SEN have been identified in the SEND Code of Practice (2014). These give an overview of the range of needs and allow us to plan what action is needed. Your child may have needs in one or more of these areas.

1. Communication and interaction
2. Cognition and learning
3. Social, emotion and mental health difficulties
4. Sensory and/or physical needs

How are the teachers in school helped to work with the children with SEND?

Mr Stevens (SENDCo) is responsible for attending regular update meetings and briefings, and shares these with all members of staff in school.

Ladywood Primary School is committed to ensuring that staff are trained to meet the needs of pupils with additional needs and their knowledge is updated when necessary.

This includes whole school training on SEN issues, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and speech and language difficulties.

Individual teachers and support staff attend training courses run by outside agencies that are relevant to the needs of specific children in their class, e.g. from the Autism Outreach Team.

Staff at Ladywood Primary regularly access training from the County Council and the Support Service for Special Educational Needs (SSSEN).

The SSSEN run courses and workshops on a variety of subjects including dyslexia and interventions to support maths and literacy skills.

What specialist services are available for Ladywood Primary School to access?

Our school continues to build strong working relationships and links with external support services in order to fully support our SEND pupils and aid school inclusion. Sharing knowledge and information with our support services is key to the effective and successful SEND provision at Ladywood Primary School.

Parents will always be involved in any decision to involve specialists. The involvement of specialists and what was discussed or agreed is recorded and shared with parents and teaching staff supporting the child in the same way as other SEND support.

The SENDCo and class teacher, together with the specialists, and involving the pupil’s parents, will consider a range of evidence-based and effective teaching approaches, appropriate equipment, strategies and interventions in order to support the child’s progress. Outcomes and support will be agreed, including a date by which progress will be reviewed.

Support Services include:

• Eucational Psychology
• Health – School nurses
• Paediatricians and Clinical Psychologists
• CAMHS (Child, Adolescent and Mental Health Service)
• Speech and Language Therapist
• Teachers for visual, hearing and physical impairments
• Physiotherapists
• Occupational Therapists
• Behaviour Support Service
• Support Service for Special Educational Needs (SSSEN)
• Specialist Outreach Services – Autism Outreach
• Social Services
• SEND Officer

How will the teaching be adapted for my child with SEND?

We recognise that children make progress at different rates and have different ways in which they learn best. Teachers take account of this by looking carefully at how they organise their lessons, the classroom, the books and materials they give to each child and the way they teach.

So all teachers consider a number of options and choose the most appropriate ways to help each child learn from a range of activities. This is often described as ‘differentiating the curriculum’. Some children may benefit from an individualised timetable to address their specific needs.

We respond to the needs of individual children. For example, this could be through using dyslexic friendly fonts, providing over-sized copies of worksheets, using coloured paper and IWB backgrounds, providing individual word and number lists, special pens/pencils or a sloping writing board. Some children may need a visual timetable or an individual reward chart.

How is Ladywood Primary School accessible to children with SEND?

The school is fully accessible for wheel chairs. There are disabled changing and toilet facilities and two disabled parking bays.

We work with outside agencies to resource any extra provision needed for individual children. Families are complete partners in ensuring that their children are fully included.

The SEND and Disability Act 2001 extended the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) to cover education. Since September 2002, the Governing Body has had three key duties towards pupile on the Special Educational Needs register or pupils with a disability, under Part 4 of the DDA:

• Not to treat disabled or SEN pupils less favourably for a reason related to their disability or difficulties;
• To make reasonable adjustments for these peupils, so that they are not at a substantial disadvantage;
• To plan to increase access to education for disabled or SEN pupils.

This plan sets out the proposals of the Governing Body of the school to increase access to education for disabled pupils in the three areas required by the planning duties in the DDA:

• Increasing the extent to which SEND or disabled pupils can participate in the school curriculum;
• Improve the environment of the school to increase the extent to which disabled pupils can take advantage of education and associated services;
• Improve the delivery to disabled pupils of information which is provided in writing for pupils who are not disabled.

It is a requirement that the school's accessibility plan is resourced, implemented and reviewed and revised as necessary.

What support do we have for you as a parent of a child with SEND?

The class teacher is regularly available to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns you may have and to share information about what is working well at home and school, so that similar strategies can be used.

Mr Stevens is available to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns/worries you may have.

All information from outside professionals will be discussed with you with the person involved directly, or where this is not possible, in a report.

Personal targets will be reviewed with your involvement every term. Homework will be adjusted as needed to your child’s individual requirements. A home school diary may be used to support communication with you when this has been agreed to be useful for you and your child.

Where can I get further information about the services available for my child?

As part of the Derbyshire County Council, the Derbyshire Local Offer should be your first point of reference for any further information.

The SEND local offer is a resource which is designed to support children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities and their families.

This can be found at;

How will we support your child when they are joining this school? Leaving this school? Or moving on to another class?

We recognise that transitions can be difficult for a child with SEND, and we take steps to ensure that any transition is a smooth as possible.

If your child is joining us from another school:

Mr Stevens will communicate with their current teacher(s) and, as a school, we will ensure we know about any special arrangements or support that needs to be made for your child.

If your child would be helped by a book/passport/social story or something else to support them in understand moving on, then one will be made for them.

Your child will be able to visit our school and stay for a taster session.

If your child is moving to another school:

We will contact the school SENDCo and ensure he/she knows about any special arrangements or support that need to be made for your child.

We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible.

If your child would be helped by a book/passport/social story or something else to support them in understand moving on, then one will be made for them.

When moving classes in school:

Information will be passed on to the new class teacher in advance and in most cases a planning meeting will take place with the new teacher. Support Plans (if appropriate) will be shared with the new teacher.

If your child would be helped by a book/passport/social story or something else to support them in understand moving on, then one will be made for them.

In the Upper Juniors (Year 5/6)

Mr Stevens will discuss the specific needs of your child with the SENDCo of the child’s secondary school. In most cases, a transition review meeting, to which you will be invited, will take place with the SENDCo from the new school.

Your child will participate in focused learning relating to aspects of transition, to support their understanding of the changes ahead.

Where possible, your child will visit their new school on several occasions, and in some cases staff from the new school will visit your child in this school.

Regular transitional opportunities are made available for our local secondary schools.

Any specific resources that would support the child will be provided.

How will we support your child’s emotional and social development?

All classes follow a structured PSHE (Personal, Social, Health end Economic education) curriculum to support emotional and social development.

At Ladywood we recognise that some children have extra emotional and social needs that need to be developed and nurtured.

We are able to offer support throughout school in either a small group or 1:1 environment.

We have two full time Learning Mentor (Miss Speake and Miss Tupper) who aims to remove the barriers to learning and run interventions in 'Bonsai Tree' to support social and emotional development.

These can range from children being very timid and shy, to children who are overly loud and boisterous. Sometimes children need a quiet place to talk or they may just need to learn how to share and play effectively with others.

If the class teacher refers your child to work with our Learning Mentors, you will receive an invite to discuss what this will mean. Ladywood runs an open door policy where everybody is welcome to come in and chat about their child.

Acronums - What are they?

• ASD: Autism Sepctrum Disorder
• ADHD: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• CAMHS: Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
• CCG: Clinical Commissioning Groups
• EHC: Education, Health & Care
• EP: Educational Psychologist
• ESCO: Early Support Care Co-ordination
• EWO: Education Welfare Officer
• HI: Hearing Impairment
• LA: Local Authority
• MLD: Moderate Learning Difficulty
• MSI: Multi-sensory impairment
• OT: Occupational Therapy/Therapist
• PD: Physical Disability
• PMLD: Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties
• PR: Parental Responsibility
• PT: Physiotherapy/Physiotherapist
• SALT/SLT: Speech & Language Therapy/Therapist
• SEN: Special Educational Needs
• SENDCo: Special Educational Needs & Disability Co-ordinator
• SEND: Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
• SEMHD: Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties
• SLCN: Speech, Language & Communication Needs
• SLD: Severe Learning Difficulties
• SpLD: Specific Learning Difficulties
• SSSEN: Support services for Special Educational Needs
• STAPS: Specialist Teacher and Psychology Service
• TA: Teaching Assistant
• VI: Visual Impairmentt Mental Health Services