SEND

Special Educational Needs Information Report

Our mission is to promote care and respect for self, others and all of God's creation through the belief that we are made in God's image and likeness and so called into the fullness of life.

We will achieve this by: providing a quality education and curriculum which reflects the distinctive beliefs, values and stories of our community, helping pupils to be creative and make full use of their gifts and nurturing the values of virtue, truth, goodness and holiness. Growing and learning through faith, love and laughter.

St George’s Catholic Primary School Mission Statement

Our mission statement is the back drop for all we do in school, including our work with our children with additional learning needs. This document gives families information about the variety of ways we support our children with special educational needs (SEN) to help them reach their potential. We provide a full range of support and strive to secure improved outcomes for our SEN children.

The information here is general; each child is an individual and will receive unique provision and support where necessary.

Please use this link to find out more about Newcastle upon Tyne Local Authority's local offer.

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There are a number of reasons why a child may be identified as having SEN:

They are having significant difficulty with their learning and making far less progress than would be expected.
They have a specific learning difficulty, for example dyslexia.
They have emotional or mental health difficulties.
They have difficulties with social communication and interaction.
They have sensory and/or physical needs, for example a hearing or sight impairment

For all children at St George’s Catholic Primary who have an additional need we:

• Recognise that the family is the expert on their child and work in partnership with them.
• Deliver high quality teaching, adapting the curriculum and our resources to ensure children can access the learning.
• Employ a fully qualified Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) to lead on SEN provision across the school.
• Assess and review the learning of our SEN children, using that information to inform future planning and teaching.
• Provide teaching assistants in class who work with SEN children and also, importantly, support other children so that the teacher has more opportunities to work with the SEN children.
• Hold regular meetings for teachers and teaching assistants with the SENCO, to review children, interventions and resources and to adapt provision where necessary.
• Support our families with children with SEN, formally through review meetings and informally through our “open door” approach. Families are also advised of other services and organisations which may offer further advice and support.
• Work closely with outside agencies to ensure each child’s needs are fully identified and understood and to learn from specialists how best to support our SEN children. (Link: Outside Agencies)
• We evaluate intervention groups and strategies on a termly basis.
• Regularly evaluate our teaching resources to ensure they are accessible to all SEN children.
• Ensure our school activities and trips, as far as is possible, are accessible to all our SEN children.
• Hold termly review meetings with families for children with a higher level of SEN.
• Provide on-going SEN training and information for teachers and teaching assistants
• Liaise closely with pre-school settings, other school and high schools at transition times to ensure SEN pupil information is clearly communicated and recommendations heard, so that every move is as smooth as possible.

(See SEND policy in the section below)

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Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Speech, Language and Communication Needs

• We use visual timetables
• When needed to support children to understand what will happen and when we use red and green boards or now and next boards
• We provide areas with reduced distractions and low stimulus
• We offer additional support during break and lunch time when appropriate.
• We use social stories to help children learn how to approach different social situations.
• We offer 1-1 or small group intervention.
• We have a variety of resources available to use, depending on a child’s sensory difficulty. Eg wobble cushions, oral motor devices, isolation earphones, personal workstations.
• Counselling sessions like Draw Talk are available with our PSA for anxiety or anger
• We run small group speech and language sessions.
• We deliver speech and language workshops for parents.
• We access the expertise and advice of the local authority Speech, Language and Social Communication team.

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Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD), Specific Learning Difficulties ( SpLD)

• We access the expertise and advice of the Special Educational Needs Teaching and Support Service (SENTASS) to ensure the needs of children are clearly identified.
• We buy the support of our own Educational Psychologist when and where needed.
• We buy the weekly support of a specialist dyslexia teacher to help support key children.
• We provide small group support with a focus on literacy or numeracy skills, depending on need.
• We use intervention programmes to improve literacy or numeracy skills- e.g Read Write Inc and Numicon.
• We provide resources to support children with specific needs- e.g. coloured overlays and reading rulers to help with reading for our dyslexic children.
• We buy packages proven to close gaps like Lexia and Nessy
• We use Dynamo Maths to target dyscalculia and mathematical delay
• We use interventions like Toe by Toe and Power of Two to ensure small steps of daily progress are made

Mental Health Condition, Social Difficulties, Emotional Difficulties

• We create behaviour contracts and individual risk assessments  where necessary, to ensure children can access the curriculum and all children remain safe.
• We complete risk assessments and then take action to ensure the safety and inclusion of all children, whenever possible, in all activities
• We provide one to one counselling sessions for vulnerable children through the use of Mrs Cafferkey our Parent Support advisor and through Kalmer Counselling.
• We use Draw Talk and Social Story techniques.
• We put in place short term support for a child with a specific emotional need, for example, bereavement.
• We run 1-1 and small group sessions with a focus on social skills.
• We use resources from the 'Zones of Regulation' materials.
• We seek the expert advice and support of outside agencies, including our school nurse and the Children and Young People’s Service (CYPS)

(See Behaviour and Anti-Bullying Policies)

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Hearing/Visual Impairment, Physical Disabilities, Multi- Sensory Impairment & Medical Needs

• We provide support and practical aids where appropriate to ensure pupils can access the curriculum.
• We seek advice and guidance from school health, CYPS and Occupational Therapy for pupils with significant medical needs
• We run intervention sessions to improve pupil skills, e.g. gross and fine motor skills, proprioception exercises.
• We request and act upon advice and guidance from the Newcastle Children’s Vision Team and Hearing Impairment Team.
• We request and act on advice and training from the Newcastle Occupational Therapy team.
• When it is appropriate we use technology to enhance pupil’s access to the curriculum.
• When required staff receive training in understanding the impact of a physical or sensory need on the teaching of learning of the child.
• There is wheelchair access at the KS2 entrance.
• Our staff understand and apply the Medicine Policy

(See Accessibility Policy; Medicine Policy)

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If you have any concerns about your child’s learning or well-being please come in to school.  We shall be happy to discuss things and work with you as we all seek to support your child in our school.

Contact Helen Douglass (acting SENCO):

send@stgcps.org or telephone 0191 267 5677.

For local authority support. Here are the best contact details: