SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITIES (SEND)
OUR VISION
We are committed to delivering exceptional learning experiences that enable all people to thrive in a competitive world and lead successful and fulfilling lives.
All students, including those identified as SEND, have a common entitlement to a broad and balanced academic and social curriculum, which is accessible to them, and to be fully included in all aspects of Academy life.
KEY SEND INFORMATION
WHAT DOES SEND MEAN?
A student has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability that requires special educational provision to be made for them.
They have a learning difficulty or disability if they have:
•A significantly greater difficulty in learning than most others of the same age, or
•A disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of facilities generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream Academies.
•Special educational provision is educational or training provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for other young people of the same age by mainstream Academies.
Our students with SEND are enabled to engage all activities available to students who do not have SEND.
WHAT IS THE SEND INFORMATION REPORT?
The aim of this information report is to explain how we implement our SEND policy. In other words, we want to show you how SEND support works in our school.
If you want to know more about our arrangements for SEND, read our SEND Policy.
Note: If there are any terms, we’ve used in this information report that you’re unsure of, you can look them up in the Glossary at the end of the report.
WHAT TYPES OF SEN DOES THE ACADEMY PROVIDE FOR?
Currently our school provides for young people with the following needs:
| Area of need | Condition |
|---|---|
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Communication and interaction |
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Cognition and learning |
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Social, emotional and mental health |
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Sensory and/or physical |
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WHAT IS THE ACADEMY'S APPROACH TO TEACHING YOUNG PEOPLE WITH SEND?
SEND Support is broadly classified into three levels:
Universal is generic and available to all children.
Targeted is used for the provision of services to specific subgroups of children who have been identified as having a special educational need (K)and who the SENDCo anticipates will respond to the intervention concerned. Interventions and support are needs-led and tailored to meet individuals' needs.
Specialist is reserved for children whose need is persistently preventing children from accessing the mainstream provision and are not making progress, accessing additional to or different from and despite earlier intervention and support or who need specialist approaches to address their Special Educational Need.
This approach to SEND provision in school aims to ensure that children access the right support at the right time. There is a connectivity and fluidity between the level of support: the support required by most children will predominantly be met through the Universal Offer.
UNIVERSAL OFFER
HOW WILL THE ACADEMY ADAPT ITS TEACHING FOR MY CHILD?
All teachers are teachers of SEND.
Your child’s teacher/s is/are responsible and accountable for the progress and development of all the students in their class.
“High-quality teaching is our first step 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.”
(SEND Code of Practice).
We will adapt 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.
THE OFFER
All teachers are teachers of SEND and are upskilled to meet the needs of learners within the classroom.
| PLD Delivered | Audience | Impact |
|---|---|---|
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Introduction PLD |
New Starters |
All staff have access to a SEND induction to ensure staff can utilise the information provided. |
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INSET PLD- Delivered at each INSET day |
All Staff |
All staff have access |
|
ECT PLD |
ECTs |
All trainees access a SEND specific session around the four broad areas of need and inclusive teaching. |
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SEND Bulletin |
All Staff |
The SEND team share a half termly bulletin, focusing on an area of need, highlighting recent research and best practice. |
|
EAL strategies |
All Staff |
Staff continue to have access to EAL strategies. |
UNIVERSAL OFFER
| Cognition and Learning | Communication and Interaction | Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties | Sensory and/or Physical |
|---|---|---|---|
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SUBJECT LEADS
All leaders are leaders of SEND
•Leaders at all levels have a responsibility to ensure facilitation, are shared to influence resource availability, decision making and goal setting for children with SEND.
•Subject leaders are upskilled to ensure that their department area and curriculum planning considers the needs of all learners to ensure that the curriculum is ambitious and accessible for all.
•Subject Leads sequence the curriculum to build in opportunities for over learning, recall, recap.
SEND CHAMPIONS
SEND Champions support the distributed leadership of SEND across the school.
SEND Champions share best practice and contribute to SEND plans for their specific area.
The following staff are our current Champions for each faculty area:
- English- Mrs E Matthews
- Maths- Mrs R Cooke
- Science- Mr N Gibson
- Geography- Miss G Fells
- History- Mr J Thorpe
- MFL- Miss A Ponce
- RSS- Miss G Walker
- ICT/ Business- Mrs J Smith
- Art and Technology- Mr W Tullett
- Performing Arts- Mrs J Hole
- PE- Mr N Handley
WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I THINK MY CHILD HAS SEN?
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Tell us about your concern
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We will invite you to a meeting to discuss your concerns
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We will decide whether your child needs SEND Support
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If you think your child might require specialist SEN provision, the first person you should tell is your child’s pastoral manager. They will pass the message on to our SEND Team who will be in touch to discuss your concerns. You can also contact the SENDCO directly. egreenfield@wathacademy.com |
We will meet with you to discuss your concerns and try to get a better understanding of what your child’s strengths and difficulties are. Together we will decide what outcomes to seek for your child and agree on next steps. We will make a note of what’s been discussed and add this to your child’s record. |
If we decide that your child needs SEN support, we may require more information before organising a meeting in school. We will formally notify you in writing and your child will be added to the school’s SEND register.
Children accessing specialist support will be assigned a Key Worker and all students in the SEN register will have an IEP.
You will be invited to review your child's IEP three times a year through SEND support meetings or at our annual parent's evenings. |
HOW WILL THE SCHOOL KNOW IF MY CHILD NEEDS SEN SUPPORT?
If the teacher notices that a pupil is falling behind, they try to find out if the pupil has any gaps in their learning. If they can find a gap, they will give the pupil extra support through quality first teaching to try to fill it. Pupils who don’t have SEN usually make progress quickly once the gap in their learning has been filled.
Child still not making progress
•If the pupil is still struggling to make the expected progress, the teacher will talk to the SENDCo, and will contact you to discuss the possibility that your child has SEN.
•The SENDCo will collect information from teachers to see what their strengths and difficulties are. And identify if there have been any issues with, or changes in, their progress, attainment or behaviour. They will also compare your child's progress and development with their peers and available national data.
•The SENDCo will ask for your opinion and speak to your child to get their input as well. They may also, where appropriate, ask for the opinion of external experts such as a speech and language therapist, an educational psychologist, or a paediatrician.
•Based on all of this information, the SENDCo will decide whether your child needs SEN support. You will be told the outcome of the decision in writing.
•If your child does need SEN support, their name will be added to the school’s SEN register, and the SENDCo will work with you to create a SEN support plan for them.
•The SENDCo will ensure a graduated response to provision is in place. As a part of the planning stage of the graduated approach, we will set outcomes that we want to see your child achieve.
TARGETED OFFER
TARGETED OFFER
- Some children may require targeted intervention and support that is additional to or different from the universal offer.
- These children will be recorded as SEND (K code)
- Staff throughout the school SEND staff are well placed to identify needs, provide evidence-based interventions.
- Identifies child is not making progress over clear asses, plan, do, review cycle is implemented.
PLAN AND DO
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Cognition and Learning |
Communication and Interaction |
Social Emotional and mental health difficulties |
Sensory and/or Physical |
|---|---|---|---|
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INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION PLANS (IEPs)
- If your child is identified as having a special need they will be recorded on Sims as K.
- Individual Education Plans are used to communicate identified needs and strategies to support children to access their learning.
- All IEPs are linked to Provision Maps.
- Parents/carers you will be invited into school on two occasions across the year, in addition to one parents’ evening, in order to fully comply with the SEND Code of Practice.
- All parents and carers have live access to their child’s IEP from September 2023 and you will be asked to contribute to your child’s plan.
INTERVENTIONS
Whenever we run an intervention with your child, we will assess them before the intervention begins. This is known as a ‘baseline assessment’. We do this so we can see how much impact the intervention has on your child’s progress.
We will track your child’s progress towards the outcomes we set over time and improve our offer as we learn what your child responds to best.
This process will be continual. If the review shows a pupil has made progress, they may no longer need the additional provision made through SEN support. For others, the cycle will continue, and the school's targets, strategies and provisions will be revisited and refined.
Interventions and support should be needs-led and tailored to meet individuals needs
•Intervention for SEND K include:
Key Worker support
Adapted resources
These interventions are part of our contribution to Rotherham SEND’s local offer
WHICH STAFF WILL SUPPORT MY CHILD AND WHAT TRAINING HAVE THEY HAD?
Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator, or SENDCO
Our SENDCo is Miss E Greenfield.
Miss Greenfield has over 2 years of experience in this role and has experience as a PE Key Stage Leader and Academic Year Leader within Wath Academy. Miss Greenfield is also a qualified PE and Dance teacher.
Miss Greenfield achieved the National Award in Special Educational Needs Co-ordination in August 2022.
Miss Greenfield also worked for 2 years within a Special School in Sheffield prior to Wath Academy.
Email: Egreenfield@wathacademy.com
Assistant SENDCo
Our Assistant SENCO is Mrs J Stone-Riley
Mrs Stone Riley has 15 years of experience in this role and whilst she has a good knowledge base and understanding of students with all SEN needs, her specialism is working with students with Autism.
Mrs Stone-Riley is also our Exam Access Arrangement Assessor and has achieved certificate of Psychometric Testing, Assessment and ACCESS Arrangements (CPT3A) in January 2023; she has undergone training in all areas of SEND and is qualified to carry out exam access testing.
Email: Jstoneriley@wathacademy.com
TEACHING ASSISTANTS
- The SENDCo deploys TA support
- TAs are deployed to ensure that children with statutory hours can access their learning
- Teacher’s use Other Adult plans to ensure that TA support is purposeful and supports children to access learning
- Teaching assistants contribute to the positive messages home and are directly in contact with the parents and carers for whom they are key worker for
- TAs act as Key Workers for every SEND child
SPECIALIST OFFER
THE OFFER
Where clear assessments and targeted interventions have been implemented within the school and the child has not made progress in this area a more specialist intervention or advice will be sought.
Children may also require specialist support to compliment and enhance the universal and/or targeted support.
The setting is aware of and regularly communicates with any other professionals who are involved with each student. Advice received from other professionals is used to inform teaching and learning.
A request for an EHC needs assessment will be made when a child does not make expected progress following the assess-plan-do-review cycle and the special educational provision required cannot reasonably be provided from within the resources normally available to their educational setting.
SPECIALIST OFFER
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Cognition and Learning |
Communication and Interaction |
Social Emotional and mental health difficulties |
Sensory and/or Physical |
|---|---|---|---|
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EXTERNAL AGENCIES AND EXPERT ADVICE
Sometimes we need extra help to offer our pupils the support that they need. Whenever necessary we will work with external support services to meet the needs of our pupils with SEN and to support their families. These include:
•Speech and language therapists
•Hearing Impaired Team
•Visual Impaired Team
•Educational psychologists
•Occupational therapists
•GPs or paediatricians
•School nurses
•MAST Counselling
•Social services
•Voluntary sector organisations
For more information please use the following link: Local Offer - Specialist Education Support Services
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
•Reviewing the impact of interventions after [number of] weeks
•Using pupil questionnaires
•Monitoring by the SENDCO
•Using provision maps to measure progress
•Holding an annual review (if they have an education, health and care (EHC) plan)
•We will follow the ‘graduated approach’ to meeting your child’s SEN needs.
•The graduated approach is a 4-part cycle of assess, plan, do, review.
HOW WILL I BE INVOLVED IN DECISIONS MADE?
We will provide half-termly/termly/annual reports on your child's progress [annually at a minimum].
Your child’s class/form teacher will meet you a minimum of once a year, to:
•Set clear outcomes for your child’s progress
•Review progress towards those outcomes
•Discuss the support we will put in place to help your child make that progress
•Identify what we will do, what we will ask you to do, and what we will ask your child to do
The SENDCo may also attend these meetings to provide extra support.
We know that you’re the expert when it comes to your child’s needs and aspirations. So we want to make sure you have a full understanding of how we’re trying to meet your child’s needs, so that you can provide insight into what you think would work best for your child.
We also want to hear from you as much as possible so that we can build a better picture of how the SEN support we are providing is impacting your child outside of school.
If your child’s needs or aspirations change at any time, please let us know right away so we can keep our provision as relevant as possible.
After any discussion we will make a record of any outcomes, actions and support that have been agreed. This record will be shared with all relevant staff, and you will be given a copy.
If you have concerns that arise between these meetings, please contact your child’s class teacher.
HOW WILL MY CHILD BE INVOLVED IN DECISIONS MADE ABOUT THEIR EDUCATION?
The level of involvement will depend on your child’s age, and level of competence. We recognise that no 2 children are the same, so we will decide on a case-by-case basis, with your input.
We may seek your child’s views by asking them to:
•Attend meetings to discuss their progress and outcomes
•Prepare a presentation, written statement, video, drawing, etc.
•Discuss their views with a member of staff who can act as a representative during the meeting
•Complete a survey
WHAT SUPPORT IS AVAILABLE FOR ME AND MY FAMILY?
If you have questions about SEND, or are struggling to cope, please get in touch to let us know. We want to support you, your child and your family.
To see what support is available to you locally, have a look at your local authority’s (Rotherham) local offer. Both Rotherham Local Council and Barnsley Metropolitan Council publish information about the local offer on their websites:
Rotherham Local Offer Barnsley Local Offer
Our local special educational needs and disabilities information advice and support services (SENDIASS) organisations are:
Local charities that offer information and support to families of children with SEND are:
National charities that offer information and support to families of children with SEND are:
- IPSEA
- SEND Family Support
- NSPCC
- Family Action
- Special Needs Jungl
HOW WILL THE SCHOOL MAKE SURE MY CHILD IS INCLUDED IN ACTIVITIES?
•All of our extra-curricular activities and school visits are available to all our students, including our before and after-school clubs.
•All students are encouraged to go on our school trips, including our residential trip.
•All students are encouraged to take part in sports day, school plays, special workshops, sponsored walks and house activities in school.
•As of September 2023 all students will take part in enrichment activities every Wednesday afternoons
•No student is ever excluded from taking part in these activities because of their SEN or disability and we will make whatever reasonable adjustments are needed to make sure that they can be included.
HOW IS THE ADMISSIONS PROCESS FAIR FOR STUDENTS WITH SEND OR A DISABILITY?
Please see the Academy’s Admission information Wath Academy Student Admissions for information on:
- The arrangements for the admission of prospective students with a disability and prospective students with SEN.
- How all prospective students whose EHC plan names the school will be admitted before any other places are allocated.
- An explanation of how the oversubscription criteria avoid unfairly disadvantaging prospective children with a disability or special educational need.
HOW DOES THE ACADEMY SUPPORT STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES?
Please see the Academy’s Accessibility Plan regarding information about how we support children with disabilities and the steps that the Academy have taken to prevent disabled pupils from being treated less favourably than other children.
It covers how the Academy will:
Increase the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the curriculum.
Improve the physical environment to enable disabled students to take better advantage of the education, benefits, facilities and services you provide.
Improve the availability of accessible information to disabled students.
The facilities you provide to help disabled pupils access your school, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services.
HOW WILL THE ACADEMY RESOURCES BE SECURED FOR MY CHILD?
The Academy is funded according to the national framework. The national threshold is approximately £10k per year made up of an element for core quality first teaching for every child and up to £6,000 for effective additional support for children with special educational needs. It is not the case that every child identified as having SEN has £6,000 that must be spent on them individually.
For more information regarding school funding and the national framework please visit: Rotherham SENDIASS
The school will cover up to £6,000 of any necessary costs for:
- Staff training and upskilling
- Overall SEND department facilities
- Overall SEND Department Staffing
- Extra equipment or facilities
- Thrive and Exceed provisions
- Transition-Bridging Project
- SEND Department Extra Curricular Clubs and experiences
- More teaching assistant hours above statutory
- Further training for our staff
- External specialist expertise
- SEND Parent Partnership
- SEND Administration
SUPPORT
WHAT SUPPORT WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR MY CHILD TO SUPPORT WITH TRANSITION POINTS?>
Transitions include:
• Moving from one activity to the next within a lesson
• Moving from lesson to lesson
• Changing from structured to unstructured times preparing for weekends, the start of holidays and beginning of term
• Changes of staff - permanent and temporary
• Special events at school
• Life events
Procedures are in place for ensuring smooth progression within and between settings.
At Y6, transition support includes:
• Y6 Transition- 6-week transition programme for Vulnerable Learners
• Attending primary review meetings
• Primary day visits including meeting with key staff, meeting parents/carers, student voice, nurture group work
• Transition days
• Parent/carer transition evening
WHAT SUPPORT IS IN PLACE FOR LOOKED AFTER AND PREVIOUSLY LOOKED AFTER CHILDREN WITH SEND?
The Designated Teacher, Pastoral Year Leader and Academic Year Leader will ensure that all teachers understand how a looked-after or previously looked-after pupil’s circumstances and their SEN might interact, and what the implications are for teaching and learning.
Children who are looked-after or previously looked-after will be supported much in the same way as any other child who has SEND. However, looked-after pupils will also have a personal education plan (PEP). We will make sure that the PEP and any SEN support.
HOW WILL THE ACADEMY SUPPORT MY CHILD'S MENTAL HEALTH AND EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT?
Students with low level mental health concerns will be supported by our ELSA lead, carrying out 1-1 sessions working on increasing self-esteem and discussing anxieties around school
Further support needed students will be referred to either our With Me in Mind or MAST counselling services within school
Students in school receiving support for their mental health may or may not be added to the SEN register depending whether their needs are impacting their learning in school plans or EHC plans are consistent and complement one another.
WE PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS TO PROGRESS IN THEIR EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE FOLLOWING WAYS
- Children with SEN are encouraged to be part of the school council
- Children with SEN are also encouraged to be part of circle of friends group to promote teamwork/building friendships
- We provide extra pastoral support for listening to the views of pupils with SEN by assigning each child with a key worker
- We run a breakfast club for children who need extra support with social or emotional development
- We have a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to bullying.
WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I HAVE A COMPLAINT ABOUT MY CHILD'S SEN SUPPORT?
The Academy encourages parents to voice any concerns that arise. We aim to solve issues swiftly and in person, with the aim of reaching a mutual agreement and understanding.
A parent’s first point of contact should be the subject teacher. Teaching staff are always happy to discuss student progress and attainment at any given point in the year. Parents can also contact the school Assistant SENDCo/SENDCo who would be happy to answer any questions or concerns.
Parents who wish to make a complaint regarding SEND provision are strongly encouraged to speak to the Assistant SENDCo/SENDCo in the first instance. If the issue cannot be resolved at this level or the complaint is about the Principal, please access information via the MLT Complaints Policy .
If you are not satisfied with the school’s response, you can escalate the complaint. In some circumstances, this right also applies to the pupil themselves.
To see a full explanation of suitable avenues for complaint, see pages 246 and 247 of the SEN Code of Practice.