Blackheath Primary School

Special Education Needs (SEN) Policy

2024-2025

Introduction

This policy aims to promote a consistency of approach to meeting children’s special educational needs, with a focus on preventative work to ensure that those needs are identified as quickly as possible and early action is taken.

The policy outlines the framework for Blackheath Primary School to meet its duty and obligation to provide a high quality education to all of its pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and to do everything it can to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. It complies with the statutory requirement laid out in the SEND Code of Practice 0-25 (2015) 3.65 and has been written with the reference to the following guidance and documents:

Equality Act 2010 (Updated June 2015)
Children and Families Act 2014
SEND Code of Practice (Updated September 2024)
Schools SEN Information Report Regulations (2014)
Statutory Guidance on Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions (Updated August 2017)
The National Curriculum in England: Primary (Updated May 2015)
Safeguarding Policy
Accessibility Policy
Teachers Standards (Updated December 2021)

Blackheath Primary School will work with the Local Authority within the following principles which underpin this policy:

The involvement of children, parents/carers and young people in decision-making

The identification of children’s and young people’s needs

Collaboration between education, health and social care services to provide support

High quality provision to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND

Greater choice and control for young people and parents/carers over their support

Successful preparation for adulthood, including independent living and employment

The designated SENCO at Blackheath Primary School is Mrs Jo Morgan. She has achieved the National Award for SEN (NASENCO award) a legal requirement from the Children and Families Bill, 2014.

Mrs Morgan can be contacted at: Blackheath Primary School, Britannia Road, Rowley Regis, B65 9NF: by telephone on 0121 559 1033 or by email office@bps.sandwell.sch.uk

The governor responsible for oversight of our school’s special needs provision is Rebecca Beardsworth.

In light of the current reform, this policy has been created by the SENCO, with the SEN Governors in liaison with the SLT, all staff and parents of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

At Blackheath Primary School it is the belief that all children have an equal right to a full and robust education which will enable them to achieve their full potential. We use our best endeavours to secure SEN provision for pupils for whom this is required, that is ‘additional to and different from’ that provided within the differentiated curriculum to better respond to the four areas of need identified in the Code of Practice (January, 2015; updated September 2024):

Communication and Interaction: Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) and children and young people with Autism.

Cognition and Learning: Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs, including moderate learning difficulties (MLD), severe learning difficulties (SLD), where children are likely to need support in all areas of the curriculum with associated difficulties with mobility and communication, profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), where children are likely to have severe and complex learning difficulties, as well as a physical disability or sensory impairment. Specific learning difficulties (SpLD), affect one or more specific aspects of learning - encompassing a range of conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.
Social, Mental and Emotional Health: Children who display challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour, withdrawn or isolated children, anxiety or depression, self-harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder or attachment disorder.

Sensory/Physical: vision impairment (VI), hearing impairment (HI) or a multi-sensory impairment (MSI)

Every teacher is a teacher of every child or young person including those with SEN.

What are Special Educational Needs?

A child or young person has SEN if he or she has a learning difficulty or a disability which calls for SEN 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 at the same age. SEN provision means educational or training provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for the others of the same age in a mainstream setting in England. Code of Practice 2015.

Both Mrs Morgan, SENCo, and Head teachers, Mrs McElwee and Mr Hytch, work closely together to ensure the Blackheath SEN policy works within the guidelines and inclusion policies of the Code of Practice, the Local Authority and other school policies in order to meet the needs of all pupils at Blackheath Primary School.

Aims and Objectives

At Blackheath Primary School, we aim to meet the needs of each individual child. We aim to raise the expectations and aspirations of all children including those with SEN. Blackheath Primary staff provide a focus on outcomes for children and young people rather than hours of support. We realise that all children learn differently and at different rates and are committed to provide a suitable learning environment, curriculum and targets to meet their individual needs.

Our objectives are:

to identify and provide for pupils who have special educational needs and additional needs
to work within the guidance provided in the SEND code of Practice (2015)
to operate a ‘whole pupil, whole school’ approach to management and provision of support for special educational needs
to provide a SENCO who will work within SEN inclusion policy
to provide support and advice for all staff working with SEN pupils

Admission Arrangements

Children are admitted throughout the school in accordance with Sandwell’s admission policy which states that those with SEND, where appropriate, should be given priority for a place. Parents are encouraged to visit the school prior to application and to state clearly on the forms any special needs their child may have.

Identifying Special Educational Needs

The school will assess each child's current levels of attainment on entry in order to ensure that they build on the learning and experience already established during the child's previous schooling or preschool years. If the child already has an identified special educational need, this information may be transferred from other partners in their Early Years setting or a previous school and the class teacher and SENCO will use this to:

Provide starting points for the development of an appropriate curriculum
Identify and focus attention on action to support the child within the class
Use the assessment processes to identify any learning difficulties
Ensure ongoing observation and assessments provide regular feedback about the child's achievements and experiences to form the basis for planning the next steps of the child's learning.

The identification and assessment of the special educational needs of children whose first language is not English requires particular care. Where there is uncertainty about a particular child, a teacher will look carefully at all aspects of the child's performance in different subjects, to establish whether the problems are due to limitations in their command of English or arises from SEN.

A Graduated approach to SEN support

SEN support arises from cyclical process, known as the “Graduated Approach,” The four stages of the cycle are: • Assess • Plan • Do • Review. This approach allows decisions and actions to be revisited, refined and revised, leading to a growing understanding of the pupil’s needs and of what supports the pupil in making good progress and securing good outcomes.

Provision for children with special educational needs is a matter for the whole school. The governing body, the school's head teachers, the SENCO and all other members of staff, particularly class teachers and teaching assistants, have important day to day responsibilities. All teachers are teachers of children with special educational needs and the responsibility and accountability for the progress and development of pupils with SEN lies with the class teacher.

Please see our The Graduated Approach on the school website for further details

The role of the SENCO and what provision looks like at Blackheath Primary School

The SENCO’s responsibilities include:

Collaboration with the governing body and head teachers, as part of the school leadership team, to determine the strategic development of SEND policy and provision in the school and ensuring that the school meets its responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 with regard to reasonable adjustments and access arrangements.

Overseeing the day-to-day operation of the school's SEN policy
Co-ordinating provision for children with SEN
Liaising with and advising all staff
Overseeing and monitoring the records of all children with SEN
Liaising with parents/carers of children with SEN
Contributing to the in service training of staff
Liaising with local high schools so that support is provided for Y6 pupils as they prepare to transfer
Liaising with Early Years Providers and feeder schools for children with identified SEN to ensure as smooth a transition as possible into school
Liaising with external agencies and professionals including the LA's Inclusion support, health and social services and voluntary bodies
Co-ordinating and developing school based strategies for the identification and review of children with SEN
Working with individuals or groups of children identified with SEN

Monitoring Children's Progress

The school's system for observing and assessing the progress of all children takes place each term and this provides information about areas of learning in which a child is not progressing satisfactorily. Under these circumstances the class teacher will identify suitable interventions and/or provision for that child to catch up. These interventions/provisions will be additional to the quality first teaching taking place. Such interventions/provisions are discussed with Senior Leaders at termly Pupil Progress meetings and reviewed half termly.

The key test for the need of action is that current rates of progress are inadequate.

Adequate progress can be identified as that which:

prevents the attainment gap between the child and his peers from widening.
closes the attainment gap between the child and their peers
better the child's previous rate of progress
ensures access to the full curriculum
demonstrates an improvement in self help, social or personal skills
demonstrates improvements in the child's behaviour

In order to help children with special educational needs, Blackheath Primary School will adopt a graduated response. This may include using specialist expertise if school interventions are not having an impact on the individual. The school will record the steps taken to meet the needs of individual children through the use of The Provision Map where provision is met through the School’s Notional funding and Individual Learning Plans (ILP's), along with their reviews, for individuals who receive additional funding, either through an EHCP or Early Years intervention Grant.

The school organises and records its Provision Map (Provisions, Interventions and Individual Learning Plans through Edukey Provision Mapping Tool.

The SENCO has responsibility for ensuring that up to date records, maps and plans are kept and are available when needed. When referring a child for an Education and Health Care plan, the Local Authority is provided with such records of our work with the child to date.

It is the class teacher’s responsibility to take the necessary steps to address any initial concerns regarding a pupil, by putting specific intervention/provision in place and consequently monitoring it. Parents may be consulted at this point where necessary. If no progress is noted after a termly period the teacher will consult with the SENCO and a Record of Concern may be filled in.

Following discussion with the SENCO, the class teacher will then provide additional interventions that are additional to those being used as part of the school's differentiated curriculum and the child may be given individual learning targets which will be applied within the classroom. These targets will be monitored by the class teacher and SENCO and shared with the parents and young person. The child may be added to the schools SEN support register with parental permission.

Reasons for a child being added to the SEN register may include the fact that he/she:

makes little or no progress, even when teaching approaches are specifically targeted towards a child's identified area of weakness
shows signs of difficulty in developing literacy or mathematics skills which result in poor attainment in some curriculum areas.
presents persistent emotional or behavioural difficulties which are not improved by the behaviour management techniques usually employed in the school
has sensory or physical problems, and continues to make little or no progress, despite the provision of specialist equipment
has communication and/or interaction difficulties, and continues to make little or no progress

Partnership with parents

Partnership plays a key role in enabling children and young people with SEN to achieve their potential. Parents hold key information and have knowledge and experience to contribute to the shared view of a child's needs. All parents of children with special educational needs will be treated as partners given support to play an active and valued role in their child's education.

Children and young people with special educational needs often have a unique knowledge of their own needs and their views about what sort of help they would like. They will be encouraged to contribute to the assessment of their needs, the review and the transition process, wherever able.

The school's website contains details of our policy for special educational needs, the special educational needs information report including the arrangements made for children in our school with special educational needs.

At all stages of the special needs process, the school keeps parents fully informed and involved. We take account of the wishes, feelings and knowledge of parents at all stages.

We encourage parents to make an active contribution to their child's education and have regular meetings to share the progress of special needs children with their parents. The SENCO is available for parents to speak to, including during the termly parent’s meetings and all children who receive additional funding are subject to an annual review. It is the SENCO’s responsibility to inform the parents of any outside intervention, and share the process of decision-making by providing clear information relating to the education of their child.

Parents can make an appointment to see the SENCO through the school email address or via telephone. Parents have access to the school website which has a detailed Special Educational Needs section.

The Nature of Intervention

The SENCO and the class teacher will decide on the action needed to help the child's progress in the light of earlier assessments. This may include:

Different learning materials or specialist equipment.
Group or individual support, class-based or as withdrawal groups, working with TA teacher support; or other Wave 3 intervention such as Stareway to Spelling, Social Use of Language Programme (SULP)
Extra adult time to administer the nature of the planned intervention and also to monitor its effectiveness.
Staff deployment and training to introduce more effective strategies.

After initial discussions with the SENCO, the child's class teacher will be responsible for the child on a daily basis and ensuring delivery of any individualised programme in the classroom. Parents will continue to be consulted and kept informed of the action taken to help their child, and of the outcome of any action. Parents will be invited to meet regularly with the class teacher and will have specific time slots to discuss targets for their child during parent’s meetings. The SENCo also has timed slots available during these parent meetings. The opportunity to meet the SENCO is also available at any time during the school year, should parents wish to discuss the learning of their child at any point. An appointment can be made through the school office.

The SENCO will support further assessment of the child where necessary, assisting in planning for their future needs in discussion with colleagues and parents.

The use of outside agencies

Blackheath Primary School has support from several external agencies. Inclusion Support provide the following members of staff to support both children and staff at school.

Stephanie Holden - Educational Psychologist

Amanda Barrie – Social, Emotional and Behaviour Advisor

Michelle Duke - Learning Advisor (including Specific Learning Difficulties)

Emily Woolman – Complex, Communication and Autism Team

Inclusion Support may also be involved in supporting children with more complex needs such as:

Preventing Primary Exclusion Team
Early Years Inclusion Team
Sensory Support: Hearing Support Team /Visual Support Team

These services may become involved where a child continues to make little or no progress despite considerable input and curriculum adaptation. In these cases the child's records are used in order to establish strategies previously employed and targets already set.

Additional external agencies can also be involved such as the Speech and Language Therapy Team, Physiotherapy Team or the Occupational Health Therapy Team.

Our school also buys into the Enhanced Speech and Language Therapy services and we receive additional monthly support from Harriet Yates, Speech and Language Therapist.

The external specialist may act in an advisory capacity, or provide additional specialist assessment or be involved in teaching the child directly. Individual targets for the child will set out recommended strategies for best supporting their progress. These will be implemented, where possible and, in the main, during the normal classroom setting. The delivery of these identified interventions continues to be the responsibility of the class teacher.

Outside agencies may become involved if the child:

continues to make little or no progress in specific areas over a lengthy period of time
continues working substantially below that expected of children of a similar age
continues to have difficulty in developing literacy and mathematical skills
has emotional or behavioural difficulties which regularly and substantially interfere with the child's own learning or that of the class group
has sensory or physical needs and requires additional specialist equipment or regular advice or visits by a specialist service
has ongoing communication or interaction difficulties that impede the development of social relationships and cause substantial barriers to learning
continues to fall behind the level of their peers, despite having received planned intervention

School request for Education Health and Care Plans (from September 2014)

When a child has demonstrated significant cause for concern, a request to the Local Authority for an Education and Health Care Plan may be made by the school. If the Local Authority decides to implement an EHC plan, the parents/carers and the pupil will be informed, including the reasons for this decision. Where a decision is taken not to issue an EHC plan, the school will consider and implement the recommendations of feedback from the Local Authority regarding how the pupil’s outcomes can be met through the school’s existing provision.

The school will fully cooperate with the Local Authority when research about the pupil is being conducted. The Local Authority will receive documentation in relation to the child's special educational needs and will be given information about the child's progress over time, and any action taken to deal with those needs, including any resources or special arrangements put in place.

The evidence will include:

Previous ILPs and targets for the pupil;
Records of regular reviews and their outcomes
Records of the child's health and medical history where appropriate
Attainment levels in literacy and numeracy
Attendance information
Education and other assessments, for example from an advisory specialist support teacher or educational psychologist
Views of the parents
Views of the child

The parents of any child who is referred for statutory assessment will be kept fully informed of the referral process.

If the Local Authority decides not to issue an EHC plan, the parents/carers of the pupil, or the pupil themselves, will be informed within a maximum of 16 weeks from the initial request of an EHC assessment.

Our school ensures that all those teaching or working with a pupil named in an EHC plan are aware of the pupil’s needs and that arrangements are in place to meet them. The progress of children with Education Health and Care plans will be reviewed internally every term in line with the whole school review cycle and in addition with an annual review. When this coincides with transition to High school the SENCO from the High School will be informed of the outcome of the review.

Provision Maps and Individual Learning Plans

Interventions and supportive programmes employed to enable the child to progress will be recorded on Provision maps where provision is met through the School’s Notional funding and Individual Learning Plans (ILP's), along with their reviews, for individuals who receive additional funding, either through and EHCP or Early Years Intervention Grant.

A Provision Map will include information about:

the name and description of the provision and the area of concern to which it relates
the timings and costings of the provision
short term targets and desired outcomes for the child as a result of receiving the intervention
entry and exit data to track an intervention’s success
reviews of outcomes identifying the impact of the intervention

An Individual Learning Plan will include information about:

areas of strength, areas of need and nature of difficulty
short term targets and desired outcomes related to areas of concern
the provision to be put in place including the teaching strategies/intervention to be used including key staff
entry and exit data to track provision success
reviews of outcomes for the child every term linking to targets; the impact of the intervention and next steps where applicable

Provisions, Interventions and Individual Learning Plans are recorded on Edukey Provision Mapping Tool.

Access to the Curriculum

All children have an entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum, which is differentiated to enable children to understand the relevance and purpose of learning activities and experience levels of understanding and rates of progress that bring feelings of success and achievement.

Teachers use a range of strategies to meet children's special educational needs. Lessons have a clear learning focus and teachers differentiate work appropriately, and use assessment to inform the next stage of learning.

We support children in a manner that acknowledges their entitlement to share the same learning experiences that their peers enjoy. Wherever possible, we do not withdraw children from the classroom situation. It may be of benefit for children with special educational needs to work within a smaller group of children with additional adult support within the classroom. However, there are times we ask the children to work in small groups, or in a one-to-one situation outside the classroom, in order to maximise learning,

Children at Blackheath Primary School have access to a range of Healthy Minds Intervention Programmes to support positive mental wellbeing.

Children who are working on personalised curriculums may have access to bespoke ‘pop-up’ interventions driven by targets outlined within their Education and Health Care Plan.

Associated Policies and Plans

This plan is written in association with and should be read in conjunction with other relevant documents including:

Accessibility Plan
SEN Information Report
Equal Opportunities Policy
School Evaluation and Development Plans
Health & Safety Policy
Fire Evacuation Procedures

The role of the governing body

The governing body will review this policy annually and will consider any amendments in light of the annual review findings.