Contents

 

  1. The SEND Information Report
  2. Our School
  3. Who do I contact about my child’s special educational needs?
  4. Which children does the school provide for?
  5. How does the school identify children’s special educational needs?
  6. How does the school teach, support and adapt the environment for children with SEND?
  7. How will the school evaluate whether the support in place is helping my child?
  8. How are parents and carers involved in reviewing children’s progress and planning support?
  9. What training do school staff have?
  10. How does the school measure and evaluate how well it teaches and supports children with SEND?
  11. How accessible is the school and how does the school arrange equipment or facilities for children?
  12. How will my child be included in activities with other children, including school trips?
  13. How will the school ensure effective links with other schools and suitable transfer arrangements?
  14. What support will there be for my child’s overall well-being and their emotional, mental and social development?
  15. Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions
  16. What specialist services does the school use to support children and their families?
  17. Where can I get advice, information and support?
  18. South Tyneside’s SEND Local Offer
  19. What do you do if you are not happy or if you want to make a complaint?
  20. How do the governing body involve other agencies in meeting the needs of families of pupils with special educational needs?
  21. Other relevant policies
  22. Glossary and Appendix 1(Support and Interventions), Appendix 2 (STC Ranges)

 

 

 

1.       The SEND Information Report The Children and Families Act (DfE, 2014) states that all schools and academies must publish a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Information Report every year. This report explains how our school meets the needs of children with SEND. It will be published on the school website and as part of South Tyneside Council’s ‘Local Offer’. In the report, we explain how we meet our duties towards pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. This should be read in conjunction with the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Policy. The school’s Local Governing Body will also review this report every year, and will involve pupils  and parents/carers. If you want to give us feedback about the report, please contact the school office.
2.       Our School At Toner Avenue Primary the well-being and development of each child underpins all that we do. Our aim is to develop children into Independent, Tolerant, Resilient pupils that Achieve Well and Care. We want to prepare our children for adulthood in an ever-changing society.

If you want to know more about our arrangements for SEND, read our SEND policy alongside this Information Report.

You can find our SEND policy on our website

 
3.       Who do I contact about my child’s special educational needs?

 

 

 In the first instance, parents should speak to their child’s class teacher if they have any concerns about their child’s progress or development. Staff are available to speak informally to parents before and after school on the yard, and appointments can be made for more detailed discussions at any point throughout the year.

 

The class teachers work closely with the SENCO and Deputy SENCO.

The SENDCO is Mrs K McKenna

The Deputy SENDCo is Mrs H Storey

If you would like to contact Mrs McKenna or Mrs Storey, please call

school on 0191 420 2588 or email the school office on [email protected]

 
4.       Which children does the school provide for?

 

 

 We are a mainstream primary school and admit pupil from age 3 to 11. At Toner Avenue Primary School, we support children with a variety of special educational needs and we pride ourselves on being a highly inclusive school with an ethos which encourages and celebrates diversity and difference.

 

SEND is categorised into the following areas in the SEN code of practice2014:

·         Cognition and Learning

·         Communication and Interaction

·         Social, Emotional and Mental Health

·         Sensory and Physical

 

Please refer to Appendix one which explains the ways in which we support pupils with SEND.

 
5.       How does the school identify children’s special educational needs?

 

 As part of our commitment to ensuring each child reaches their full potential, staff at Toner Avenue are constantly assessing the children in their class. We also collect data at specific points throughout the year to ensure children are making the progress we expect.

 

There are times when all children find something tricky. If a child has found a particular concept difficult, staff will intervene immediately to support the child and help them ‘catch up’. This may mean a change to planned activities or short, additional booster lessons during an assembly or at another point in the school day.

 

Where a child is experiencing recurring difficulties in a specific area (e.g., spelling), the teacher may decide to plan an intervention. This will mean that the child will work with an adult (either the teacher or a teaching assistant) on a regular basis for short, focused sessions to address their area of difficulty. This will be recorded on an Intervention Plan. The progress will be monitored closely and evaluated after a period of time. If good progress has been made at the end of the intervention, the child will no longer be included in the intervention. If there are still concerns, a Support Plan may be written for the child which will include details of strategies and techniques which will be used to support the child.

 

Assess If your child is not making the expected level of progress, we will make an assessment to find out what strengths and difficulties your child has. We will ask for you and your child’s input, as well as getting help from external professionals where necessary.

 
Plan In discussion with you and your child, we will decide what outcomes we are hoping to achieve. We will make a plan of the support we will offer your child to help them meet those outcomes. We will make a record of this and share it with you and all relevant school staff.
Do We will put our plan into practice.

The class teacher, with the support of the SENCO, will be responsible for working with your child on a daily basis, and making sure the support we put in place is having the impact we intended.
Review We will assess how well the support we put in place helped the pupil to meet the outcomes we set. We will use our improved understanding of your child’s needs to improve the support we offer; this may mean the Plan, Assess, Do, Review cycle continues.

 

 

We use the South Tyneside SEND ranges to assess children’s needs and identify effective strategies, resources, intervention and provision to support their progress and well-being.

 

The SEND Ranges provides a framework for all professionals working with the pupil and gives parents/carers a greater understanding of the needs of their child and the support they are receiving. At Toner Avenue Primary School, pupil ranges are monitored and reviewed at least once a year and more frequently for those that require it.

 

We complete provision maps which provide information about the specific interventions that have been put in place and how pupils are progressing. This evidence will be the basis for any additional funding that may be required over and above what is being provided by the school’s SEND budget.

 

 
6.       How does the school teach, support and adapt the environment for children with SEND?

 

 Your child’s teacher/s is/are responsible and accountable for the progress and development of all the pupils in their class. A Sensory Inclusive environment as standard and high-quality teaching are our first steps in responding to your child’s needs. We will make sure that your child has access to a broad and balanced curriculum in every year they are at our school. We use the EEF guidance ‘Five-a-day’ and embed the key principles into all our lessons.

 

 

We will adapt our approaches to how we teach to suit the way the pupil works best. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to adapting the curriculum, we work on a case-by case basis to make sure the adaptations we make are meaningful to your child.

 

 

These adaptations may include:

 

·         Adapting our approaches, for example, giving longer processing times, pre-teaching of key vocabulary, reading instructions aloud, etc.

 

·         Adapting our resources and staffing

 

·         Using recommended aids, such as laptops, coloured overlays, visual timetables, larger font, etc.

 

·         Teaching assistants or support staff will support pupils appropriately depending on their presentation of need

 

·         Scaffolding lesson materials

 

We may also offer;

 

·         Forest School

·         Sensory Room Intervention

·         Sensory Diet

·         ELSA

·         Counselling

 

We may look to external agencies to support children including;

 

·         Speech and Language

·         Educational Psychologist

·         Healthy Minds

·         Lifecycles

·         Escape Interventions

·         Treetops Occupational Therapy
7.       How will the school evaluate whether the support in place is helping my child? We will evaluate the effectiveness of provision for your child by:

 

·         Reviewing their progress towards their goals each term through an evaluated support plan.

·         Reviewing the impact of interventions after 6-8 weeks

·         Using pupil questionnaires

·         Monitoring by the SENCO

·         Using provision maps to measure progress

·         Holding an annual review (if they have an education, health and care (EHC) plan)
8.       How are parents and carers involved in reviewing children’s progress and planning support?

 

 Universal Offer

All children across school, including those children with SEND will receive bi annual parents’ evenings and an end of year written report. Target will be set and reviewed during Pupil Progress meetings which happen three times during an academic year.

 

SEND support

Children who are identified as needing targeted support will have a SEND support plan, detailing support and interventions in place. This will be discussed at parents evening and evaluated once per term and sent home. A phone call appointment is offered in place of this should a parent wish to have a more detailed discussion and the SENCO is also available for any parents that has additional questions. In the Summer term, parents will have the opportunity to meet with the class teacher following the end of year report, should they wish to do so.

The support plan incorporates the child’s views with the children providing their teacher with information about their achievements and strengths, their barriers to learning and how they prefer to be supported or how they learn best

 

EHCPs

Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan and will have their targets informally reviewed every 6 week and in addition, an EHC Review will be held annually in order to discuss and update the plan and decide on next steps or outcomes to work towards the following year. The EHC document is a legal document overseen by the local authority. More information can be found at;

 

https://www.southtyneside.gov.uk/article/37981/Education-Health-and-Care EHC-Plan

 
9.       What training do school staff have?

 

 The SENCO attends half-termly local authority SEND network meetings to update and revise developments in Special Needs Education and Inclusion.  Meeting additional needs and Inclusion are targeted each year through the school’s long-term goals and the School Improvement Plan. In-Service training and individual professional development is arranged to match these targets. In-house additional needs and inclusion training is provided through staff meetings by members of the SLT and SENDCo as well as other professionals such as therapists, lecturers and professors of education and educational psychologists. All staff have access to professional development opportunities and are able to apply for additional needs or inclusion training where a need is identified either at an individual pupil or whole class level.

Support staff are encouraged to extend their own professional development and the management team will ensure tailor-made training where this is appropriate.

 

Recent training completed by our staff include;

 

·         Inclusive Leadership

·         Sensory Diets

·         ADHD

·         Autism

·         Vision and Hearing Impairment

·         Makaton

·         British Sign Language

·         ELSA

·         Trauma Informed Practice

 

 

 

 
10.   How does the school measure and evaluate how well it teaches and supports children with SEND? Monitoring of teaching and learning of children with SEND will be carried out on a termly basis by the SENDCo and SLT. The SENDCo in conjunction with class teacher, SLT and headteacher will review assessment information through the Pupil Progress meetings that occur termly. Here they will make adjustments to the provision for the individuals or groups of children, if appropriate.

Inviting other professionals to share their expertise and assess or support children within school, develops opportunities for school staff to be advised and challenged on the provision offered to children.

Support Plans are reviewed three times a year, although some pupils may need more frequent reviews. Parents meet with the class teacher to discuss their child’s progress.  The SENDCo can also be involved in pupil review processes, where required. Parents and carers will be invited to contribute and will be consulted about further actions and next steps. Analysing how effective the current provision is for the child is a key focus of this meeting and adaptations, recommendations or requests for alternative resources and strategies may be made at this time by anyone attending the meeting.

At the end of blocks of intervention, progress is measured and recorded on the school’s Provision Map. Analysis of this is shared with class teachers and intervention TAs in order to understand successful strategies / programmes or to adapt future intervention sessions.
11.   How accessible is the school and how does the school arrange equipment or facilities for children?

 

 The school, a new building built in 2019, is a 2-storey building with lift and stair access between floors. Wheelchair access is available throughout the school and at the main entrance. There are a number of accessible toilets throughout the school, on both floors, in each key stage.  There is a fully equipped wet room with shower and medical bed downstairs. Disabled parking is available.  We work with all relevant services to meet the needs of our pupils on a case-by-case basis. Further details can be found in the Accessibility Policy and Plan.
12.   How will my child be included in activities with other children, including school trips?

 

 We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relationships. Through careful planning and reasonable adjustments, pupils with SEND engage in the activities of the school together with those who do not have SEND, and are encouraged to participate fully in the life of the school and in any wider community activity.  We work with parents and pupils to listen to their views, feelings and wishes to ensure pupils with SEND have equal opportunities.
13.   How will the school ensure effective links with other schools and suitable transfer arrangements?

 

 At Toner Avenue, we help prepare children for key transitions in their school life from joining our Early Years department, right up to leaving primary, ready for their secondary school career.

We will work in close partnership with other education providers, the Emotional Resilience team and the Healthy Minds team to ensure that pupils make a successful transition to the next stages of their learning, through careful and coordinated planning of the transition.

We provide the following support to pupils when they are joining or leaving the school:

·         Opportunities for parents to meet and talk with staff prior to their child joining Toner Avenue. This is carried out at Home Visits, Open Evenings and ‘stay and play’ sessions.

·         Multi-agency meetings including parents/pupils and staff from both schools/settings.

·         Opportunities for children joining Toner Avenue to visit school prior to starting both with and without parents/ carers.

·         Systems for ensuring all relevant paperwork is passed on.

·         Meetings/ planning sessions with appropriate staff.

·         Transition aids e.g., photo books when required.

 

All children are different and some will move between settings without any additional support, beyond that offered to their peers. However, where children require a higher level of support this will be planned on an individual basis, in consultation with the child, parents and all relevant staff.

Reception class staff will meet with staff from partner nursery schools prior to pupils starting school. Concerns about particular needs will be brought to the attention of the EYFS Lead in the first instance and if needed, the SENDCo after this meeting. Where necessary, the EYFS Lead and/or SENDCo will arrange a further meeting and implement a transition plan between settings and with parents.

Class teachers of children joining from other schools will receive information from the previous school; if there is a SEND issue, the SENDCo will telephone to further discuss the child’s needs. Children transferring from Toner Avenue Primary School to new schools will have details of their particular needs and additional provision passed-on in a handover meeting. The SENDCo will discuss these children, alongside class teachers, with other schools on request and attend relevant meetings where possible for a suitable period of time.

The Head Teacher, SENDCo and Phase Leader (Upper KS2) and Y6 teachers liaise with the SEND Department of their next school regardless of school choice.

 
14.   What support will there be for my child’s overall well-being and their emotional, mental and social development?

 

 At Toner Avenue Primary School, we support the emotional, mental and social development of children and young people with SEN and disabilities by providing extra pastoral support when needed.

We have the following provision for ensuring a high standard of emotional and social development which is coordinated by our SENDCo, PSHCE coordinator, OPAL Lead teachers and Computing coordinator:

·         ELSA

·         Bereavement Support

·         E-safety training

·         PSHE sessions

·         Wellbeing curriculum

·         Mindfulness

·         Circle time

·         Playground buddies

·         Links with Emotional Resilience Team, Educational Psychologists and other professionals

·         Zones of Regulation

·         In-school Educational Mental Health Practitioner (accessed through a referral to Healthy Minds)

·         In school counsellor (accessed through Escape Interventions)
15.   Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions

 

 If a pupil has a medical need, then a detailed Care Plan is compiled by school staff in consultation with parents/carers, the School Nursing Team and any other external agencies that may be involved with the care needs of the child.  These needs are discussed with all staff involved with the pupil.

A high number of our staff receive basic First Aid training, in addition to those that have full paediatric first aid training.

Where necessary, and in agreement with parents/carers, medicines are administered in school but only where a signed medication agreement (in line with the medication policy) is in place to ensure the safety of both child and staff member.
16.   What specialist services does the school use to support children and their families? The Educational Psychologist should visit the school regularly following a planning session with the SENDCo every term, as to the purpose of each visit. SEND Services visit when required to provide specific information, share resources and provide guidance and advice.

We also have an Education Mental Health Practitioner from Healthy Minds who provides school-based support at both a whole class / school level and also 1:1 targeted support for mental health issues.

The SENDCos liaise frequently with a number of other outside agencies, for example:

·         Lifecycles / Healthy Minds

·         Counselling

·         School Nurse / Health Visitor

·         Speech and Language Therapy

·         Physiotherapy

·         Occupational Therapy

·         CYPS

·         Paediatricians

·         Emotional Resilience Team

·         Inclusion Team

·         The Toby Henderson Trust

·         The Beacon Centre

·         Developmental and Coordination Disorder Clinic

·         Ethnic Minority, Traveler and Refugee Achievement Service (EMTRAS)

·         Hearing Impairment Team and Teachers for the Deaf

·         Vision Impairment Team

·         Early Help Team

·         Social Services

 
17.   Where can I get advice, information and support?

 

 Parents can contact;

 

The local SENDIASS Service for impartial information, advice and support in relation to their child’s SEND and/or disability:

https://www.southtynesidesendiass.co.uk/

Telephone: 0191 424 6345

 

South Tyneside Council

https://www.southtyneside.gov.uk/article/22493/SEND-Information-Advice-and-Support-in-South-Tyneside

Telephone: 0191 424 7410

 

The PLACE (Project for Looked After Children)

[email protected]

Telephone: 0191 427 3490

 

CYPS

Telephone: 0191 566 5500

 

South Tyneside Lifecycle Primary Care Mental Health Service

Telephone: 0191 283 2937

 

 
18.   South Tyneside’s SEND Local Offer

 

 The Local Offer is the publication, set out in one place, of information about provision available across education, health and social care for all children and young people in South Tyneside, who have SEND or are disabled.

 

Our Local Offer can be found at:

 

https://sendlocaloffer.southtyneside.gov.uk/
19.   What do you do if you are not happy or if you want to make a complaint?

 

 Any parent/carer wishing to complain about special educational provision in the school should follow the school complaints procedure. The policy can be found within the policies section of the Toner Avenue Primary School website.
20.   How do the governing body involve other agencies in meeting the needs of families of pupils with special educational needs? The Governing Body fully supports the school in seeking advice and guidance from other agencies to support children with Special Educational Needs. We have bought into Local Authority Services to support children (e.g., Educational Psychology Service, Emotional Resilience Team).
21.   Other relevant policies
  • Behaviour Policy
  • Accessibility Policy
  • SEND Policy

 

Please see the “Policy” section under the “Key Information” tab on the Toner Avenue Primary School website.