Special Educational Needs and Disability
Inclusion
At Northfield Manor Primary School we believe passionately in the importance of inclusion and equality for all children and adults, and strive to ensure that these values are at the heart of our Inclusion practices. We believe that an effective school is an inclusive school. We recognise the need to implement our ethos in the classroom and beyond to meet the needs of our children. We want them to be safe, achieve well, be healthy, enjoy life and grow up to be successful adults who will make a positive contribution to the society in which they live.
Our school welcomes all learners and is committed to providing them with the support and encouragement to succeed and reach the highest level of personal achievement. Where children have additional needs, steps will be taken to prevent these from becoming a barrier to learning. By this positive action, we believe all our children, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, special needs, attainment and background, will receive an equal opportunity to make progress and fulfil their potential.
What School Leaders and Academy Councillors do to ensure all children feel welcome, included and reach their potential
Mrs McCarty is our SENDCo and has overall responsibility for SEND within Northfield Manor. Mrs McCarty is also the Assistant Head and is part of the Senior Leadership Team.
Mrs McCarty is supported by Mrs Thorp the SEND support assistant.
We follow Birmingham’s Graduated Approach which provides; guidelines for all learners, criteria for placing children on the SEND register and suggested strategies for supporting learners.
All teachers will assess the progress children make in each lesson. Should they feel a child is struggling to make the appropriate progress, they will initiate the ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ cycle to increase the support in place for that child, in order to reduce their barriers to learning.
Mrs McCarty keeps a register of children we identify as having a Special Educational Need or Disability and monitors this regularly to ensure it is up to date, assessing children termly. She also keeps a record of the provision of all the different ways that we provide extra support (for example: support for reading/ maths/ writing, intervention for communication difficulties and Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs) for children with SEND.
A child’s provision can also be found on their Pupil Profile document. This document is created by class teachers – in conjunction with Mrs McCarty – and shared with children and parents to ensure that all involved are aware of the child’s needs, strengths, areas for development and the strategies and/or resources put in place to ensure they make progress.
The Academy Councillor for SEND, Mandeep Vryaparj, challenges us to make sure we constantly improve the quality of provision for children with SEND and the outcomes that they achieve. He does this during Academy Council meetings and when he visits to observe our practice.
How we identify and assess children with potential special educational needs
SEND may be identified if a child’s progress: – is significantly slower than that of their peers – fails to match or better the child’s previous rate of progress – fails to close the attainment gap between the child and their peers. Information is gathered through the teachers’ observations and assessment, standardised assessments conducted by the SENDCo, parent/carer concerns, or by external agencies.
School is also supported by an NHS Speech and Language Therapist who visits school to assess children and provides targets for them, as well as a private therapist, Mrs Lynne Dallaway, who visits the school bi-weekly.
How we work in partnership with parents and carers
The school has termly coffee mornings where parents of children on the SEND register can meet and discuss their child’s needs, or listen to the guest speakers invited in by school.
We invite parents in to school twice a year to attend Parents’ Evenings (Autumn and Spring Term) and provide a written, end of year Annual Report in July. During parents evening, parents of children on the SEND register are invited to review their child’s Pupil Profile alongside a discussion on strategies for supporting their child at home.
Our SENDCo is full-time and can be contactable by phone (0121 594 0898). We have an ‘open door’ policy and encourage parents to take an active interest in their child’s learning and progress in school.
BBC Bitesize SEND
BBC Bitesize have a specific SEND section on their website, offering lots of advice and resources to support remote learning for young people.
SEN Teacher
The materials are free to use at home. The Print tools on SEN Teacher allow you to create, adapt and share teaching resources for a wide-range of abilities. No login or registration is required to use SEN Teacher.
The National Autistic Society
The National Autistic Society website, the main UK charity for supporting people with ASD and their families (contains lots of useful advice and resources)
Autism West Midlands
Autism West Midlands provide up-to-date about autism. The site contains free information and visual resources.
Widgit
Symbols and picture resources for different topics and areas of life.
Young Minds
Support for children’s mental health, and information about ADHD.