Special Education Needs

SEN at Danegrove

This page outlines the SEN Information Report on the implementation of the Special Educational Needs policy.

Types of SEN provided

  1. Communication and Interaction

    This includes the Autistic spectrum condition and speech, language and communication (SLCN)

  2. Cognition and Learning

    This includes specific learning difficulties such as; dyslexia (literacy), dyscalculia (numeracy) and dyspraxia (motor)

  3. Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties

  4. Sensory and/or Physical needs

    This includes physical disability (PD) and complex medical needs, as well as sensory impairment such as hearing impairment, visual impairment and multi-sensory impairment

These four broad areas give an overview of the range of needs that are planned for. The purpose of identification is to plan what action needs to be taken, not to fit a pupil into a category. At Danegrove the needs of the pupil are identified by considering the needs of the whole child, not just any special educational need.

Policies for identifying children and young people with SEN and assessing their needs

In school, class teachers monitor student progress and attainment throughout the year and if a student is not reaching their target teachers provide appropriate intervention to support that student. Should the student require a greater degree of support to attain adequate progress then the SEN Department will become involved in further provision. Meetings are held every term for each year group to discuss every child's progress. Any concerns will be addressed with appropriate interventions put in place.

If you have any concerns about your child’s educational needs then you are always welcome to contact the SENCo, Mrs Osabu-Matthews on the school number or email her at emily@danegrove.barnetmail.net . We invite parent/carer input as we find we can achieve far better results for our students if parents/carers and school work together to support our students.

Arrangements for consulting parents of children with SEN and involving the min their child’s education

We meet every term with parents/carers of children with SEN to discuss progress. This may be a parents evening or a meeting to specifically look at the SEN support and provision, as well as progress with outcomes. School reports are sent out yearly.

Parents/carers are always very welcome to contact us regarding any aspect of their child’s education and progress. We also operate an open door policy where parents/carers are welcome to phone, email or come in to school. Our Inclusions Manager holds a surgery every Friday.

Arrangements for consulting young people with SEN and involving them in their education

Outcomes and provision are discussed with the child to ensure they understand what they are working towards, and how to get there. This may be before, after or during the meeting depending on what suits the individual child the best.

Arrangements for assessing and reviewing children and young people’s progress towards outcomes

We use diagnostic reading and maths assessments to monitor children’s progress with specific difficulties in those subjects. We also use baseline assessments to monitor progress with social, emotional and mental health difficulties. Teacher assessments and the National Curriculum outcomes are also used to measure progress towards specified long and short term outcomes. The thoughts of parents and children are sought during review meetings as part of this process.

Arrangements for supporting children and young people in moving between phases of education.

The needs of all children receiving SEN support are discussed with the new SENCO. Where possible there are also meetings between the current and the new teacher / head of year. All information is passed on, with lines of communication established to enable further discussion if necessary.

The approach to teaching children and young people with SEN

At Danegrove our mission statement is “Secure, self confident, successful.” We believe that every pupil has the right to an education that maximises his/her personal potential and life opportunities.Every teacher is a teacher of every child including those with a special educational need. Every pupil with a special educational need has the right to a broad and balanced curriculum, including full access to the national curriculum. The needs of all our pupils with special educational needs, whether short or long‐term, should be effectively addressed. These rights can only be ensured in a positive learning environment that fosters respect and dignity, values differences, and ensures high expectations, whilst providing the support needed to meet these expectations.

How adaptations are made to the curriculum and the learning environment of children and young people with SEN

Through “high quality teaching – noting that every teacher is responsible for responding to the strengths and needs of all pupils (Teachers’ Standards 2012)”

“CYP (children and young people) and parents are involved in action-planning, target-setting and progress reviews. This will ensure that appropriate decisions are made about what needs to happen next and that progress and successes can be celebrated.” London Borough of Barnet Local Offer Series.

Each child’s provision and planned outcomes are matched to their need, their ability and their potential. All students have the opportunity to study a full curriculum with a structured and graduated response to meet individual needs. For example; boosting groups, class TAs, TA's providing specific SEN support.

The expertise and training of staff to support children and young people withSEN, including how specialist expertise will be secured

All SEN staff are internally trained to support all areas of student learning.
We regularly invest time and money in training our staff to improve their high quality first teaching(wave 1) for all students, and to develop enhanced skills and knowledge to deliver short term interventions (wave 2) and individualised interventions (wave 3). Our Special Needs Co-ordinator(SENCo) is a qualified teacher and has recently completed the SENCO National Award, as well undertaking other relevant SEN training.

All our TAs receive regular training to best support our pupils with SEND. The school has systems in place to access or make referrals for a wide variety of specialist expertise, including Speech and Language, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, CAMHS etc

How children and young people with SEN are enabled to engage in activities available with children and young people in the school who do not have SEN

Danegrove is a highly inclusive school. We promote children’s strengths across a full range of activities, whether school based or extra-curricular.

Our Equality Policy promotes involvement of all our students in all aspects of the curriculum including activities outside the classroom. Where there are concerns of safety and access, further thought and consideration is put in place to ensure needs are met when possible through reasonable adjustment and where applicable parents/carers are consulted and involved in planning.

Support for improving emotional and social development

Social and emotional wellbeing includes being happy, confident and in control, with the ability to solve and cope with problems and have good relationships with other people.
All staff in school have a responsibility for supporting your child’s overall wellbeing, especially his/her class teacher and the Inclusion Team.

We provide nurture groups for those children who need it. We also have a Learning Mentor who works with small groups as well as providing one to one sessions. Please also see our anti-bullying policy on the website.

How the school involves other bodies, including health and social care bodies, local authority support services and voluntary sector organisations, in meeting children and young people’s SEN and supporting their families

The school uses a number of different agencies to support children and their families who may benefit from such provision, this can be by direct access or a referral systems. Agencies and services include; Educational Psychology, Speech and Language, Advisory teachers, SENDIASS (formerly Barnet Parent Partnership), CAMHS, Occupational therapy, Social workers etc.

Arrangements for handling complaints from parents of children with SEN about the provision made at the school

Please see our complaints procedure from available the school office.

Related Policies