Special Educational Needs & Disability (SEND)
What is meant by Special Educational Need ?
A child or young person has a special educational need if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. A child or young person is considered to have a learning difficulty or disability if they:
How do I know if my child has SEND ?
Identifying SEND needs early is crucial. Parents know their children best, so we have regular meetings with parents and rely on the information they provide us in helping us to identify if a child or young person has SEND. In our school we believe that inclusive teaching is the first step in responding to any possible special educational need and we carry out checks on teaching to make sure that practice is inclusive. The SENCo meets with each class teacher on a termly basis to review learning progress data for all children in the class at Pupil Progress Meetings. During these meetings, the possibility of a child having SEND may be discussed. If it is considered necessary, further checks are carried out, for example, detailed lesson observations by the SENCo and a review of interventions the child has been part of so far. We will also consider whether a further, more specialist, assessment for SEND is needed from another service provider, eg, from the Educational Psychology Service.
What happens if my child is not making the same progress as other children ?
If a child is falling behind, or not responding to inclusive teaching, we will bring together all the information we have about the child’s needs and difficulties and share this with parents. The school uses Oxfordshire County Council’s ‘Identifying and Supporting Educational Needs’ handbook (2014) as way of identifying if there is a SEND and what levels of support should be offered. The handbook helps us to make sure we are offering the provision expected from all schools in Oxfordshire. There are four broad areas of SEND:
A child or young person has a special educational need if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. A child or young person is considered to have a learning difficulty or disability if they:
- Have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age or
- Have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age
How do I know if my child has SEND ?
Identifying SEND needs early is crucial. Parents know their children best, so we have regular meetings with parents and rely on the information they provide us in helping us to identify if a child or young person has SEND. In our school we believe that inclusive teaching is the first step in responding to any possible special educational need and we carry out checks on teaching to make sure that practice is inclusive. The SENCo meets with each class teacher on a termly basis to review learning progress data for all children in the class at Pupil Progress Meetings. During these meetings, the possibility of a child having SEND may be discussed. If it is considered necessary, further checks are carried out, for example, detailed lesson observations by the SENCo and a review of interventions the child has been part of so far. We will also consider whether a further, more specialist, assessment for SEND is needed from another service provider, eg, from the Educational Psychology Service.
What happens if my child is not making the same progress as other children ?
If a child is falling behind, or not responding to inclusive teaching, we will bring together all the information we have about the child’s needs and difficulties and share this with parents. The school uses Oxfordshire County Council’s ‘Identifying and Supporting Educational Needs’ handbook (2014) as way of identifying if there is a SEND and what levels of support should be offered. The handbook helps us to make sure we are offering the provision expected from all schools in Oxfordshire. There are four broad areas of SEND:
- Communication and Interaction Needs
- Cognition and Learning Needs
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs
- Sensory and/or physical needs
Please click on the links below to access the Oxfordshire 'Local Offer' and other useful organisations. Here, you can find useful information about support systems, opportunities and policies, and lots of helpful guidance.