SEN Information report

Whitehouse Local Offer

SEN Information report for Pupils with Special Educational Needs and / or Disabilities 2020- 2021

Whitehouse Primary School is a fully inclusive school who ensures that all pupils achieve their potential personally, socially, emotionally, physically and educationally.  

Our SEN information report lets you understand how we support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.  

We consult with pupils and their families on our local offer by meeting with parents regularly through SEN reviews, parents’ evenings and informal meetings, these can be prompted by parents, teachers or external professionals. 


Children are identified as having a special educational need when their level of progress has become a cause for concern.  Interventions are quickly put in place to cater for individual needs. 


 If your child is placed on the register at school you will be contacted and a meeting arranged between you and your child’s class teacher. At this meeting your views about your child’s education, strengths, additional needs and what you feel works best for them will be discussed and included in the plan as will your child’s views. This is so you know exactly what support your child will be receiving in school and how long for, also how we expect this support to help them.  


When a pupil is identified as having special educational needs, we support their development and progress by using provision maps to monitor the support given to all children with additional needs and to review the use of resources to maximise the effectiveness.  Small group work, individual support and support within the classroom should ensure your child meets their individual targets.  SEN support plans will allow class teachers to differentiate work and provide support where needed. Individual support is used to teach, practice and develop skills related to targets on their IEP’s.  Support staff will have a clear understanding of targets and how to achieve them.  


Whitehouse Primary School has a Teaching Assistant in every year group, including a Learning Mentor in Key Stage 2. There is an extra support assistant in Key Stage 1 who carries out 1:1 reading using the Reading Recovery programme. The Additionally Resourced Provision (ARP) has three Support Assistants.

5 of these support staff work across early years and key stage 1 and 2 work in key stage 2. The support staff regularly attend training to ensure that their knowledge and skills are up to date and they are confident in supporting children with additional needs. 


The other people / agencies and teams providing services to children with a special educational need / disability in school include:

  • Educational Psychologist 
  • Speech and Language Team
  • Language and Communication Team
  • Children’s Services
  • Dyslexia Team
  • Public Health (School nurse)
  • CAMHs
  • Sensory Services 
  • Pupil Referral Outreach Team
  • GPs
  • Occupational Therapist
  • Ethnic Minorities and Travellers Asylum Seekers

We will work in partnership with other education providers 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 scheduled transition days to the local secondary school and further visits for vulnerable children, we liaise with staff, including form teachers and SENCOs of the transitional schools.  Should children need to transfer to specialist provision; a transition plan will be put in place.    


All staff have completed, and will continue to receive, ongoing training in special educational needs and disabilities including:

  • Reading Recovery (Key stage 1 only)
  • Boosting Reading Potential 
  • First Class at Number 
  • 1:1 tuition (Year 6 only)
  • Social Nurture Groups 
  • BLAST (Early Years Only)
  • Phonics
  • Fresh start (Key Stage 2)

Our fully qualified / trained Special Educational Needs Coordinator provides advice and guidance to staff in relation to any concerns which may arise.  The SENCO has the accreditation of The National Award for SEN Coordination (NASC).


The school works in partnership with families to help them support their children’s learning outside of school.

  • Learning mentors
  • Open school policy
  • Early Health Assessments  (EHA) will be reviewed every six weeks
  • Family entrepreneurs
  • Team around the Family (TAF)

Families are also signposted to services / organisations in the region.


Behaviour and anti-bullying policies are regularly reviewed with a focus on how they affect pupils’ with special educational needs or disabilities.

Other useful documents such as our Special Educational Needs and Inclusion Policy are also available on the school website.  

The school’s self-evaluation process will look at teaching and learning for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.  

All school-related activities are evaluated in terms of their benefit to the learning and inclusion of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

If you would like further information about what we offer here at Whitehouse Primary School then please contact the Special Educational Needs Coordinator, Miss Gill Watts on: 0191 643 2890.

Support Available Within School
Communication and Interaction Needs:

e.g.
▪ Autistic Spectrum Disorders
▪ Speech, Language and Communication Needs
▪ Social communication difficulties
▪ Visual timetables
▪ Support / supervision at unstructured times of the day.
▪ Social skills programme / support including strategies to enhance self-esteem.
▪ Small group work to improve skills.
▪ ICT is used to support learning where appropriate.
▪ Strategies / programmes to support speech and language development.
▪ Strategies to reduce anxiety / promote emotional wellbeing.
▪ Where appropriate we will use support and advice from other partners to meet the needs of pupils.
▪ Planning, assessment and review.
▪ Work with pupils, parents, carers and staff to develop and review plans based on the need of the pupil.
▪ Teaching resources are routinely evaluated to ensure they are accessible to all pupils.
▪ Differentiated curriculum and resources
Cognition and Learning
Needs:
e.g.
▪ Moderate Learning Difficulties
▪ Strategies to promote/develop English and Maths.
▪ Provision to support access to the curriculum and to develop independent learning.
▪ Small group targeted intervention programmes are delivered to pupils to improve skills in a variety of areas, i.e. reading skills groups etc.
▪ ICT is used to reduce barriers to learning where possible.
▪ Support and advice is sought from outside agencies to ensure any barriers to success are fully identified and responded to.
▪ Planning, assessment and review.
▪ Access to teaching and learning for pupils with special educational needs is monitored through the schools self-evaluation process.
▪ Teaching resources are routinely evaluated to ensure they are accessible to all pupils.
▪ Work with pupils, parents, carers and staff to develop and review plans based on the need of the pupil.
▪ Differentiated curriculum and resources
Social, Mental and Emotional health
e.g.
▪ Behavioural needs
Social need
▪ Mental health needs
▪ Emotional Health and Wellbeing
▪ The school ethos values all pupils.
▪ Behaviour management systems encourage pupils to make positive decisions about behavioural choices.
▪ The schools behaviour policy identifies where reasonable changes can be made to minimise the need for exclusions.
▪ Risk assessments are used and action is taken to increase the safety and inclusion of all pupils in all activities.
▪ The school provides effective pastoral care for all pupils.
▪ Members of staff are trained Thrive practitioners
▪ Support and advice is sought from outside agencies to support pupils, where appropriate.
▪ Small group programmes are used to improve social skills and help them deal more effectively with stressful situations.
▪ Outdoor learning is used to offer a different approach to the curriculum.
▪ Information and support is available within school for behavioural, emotional and social needs.
Sensory and Physical Needs:

e.g.
▪ Hearing/Visual Impairment
▪ Multi-sensory impairment
▪ Physical and Medical Needs
Support and advice is sought from outside agencies to support pupils, where appropriate.
▪ ICT is used to increase access to the curriculum.
▪ Support to access the curriculum and to develop independent learning.
▪ Advice and guidance is sought and acted upon to meet the needs of pupils who have significant medical needs.
▪ Access to Medical Interventions.
▪ Access to programmes to support Occupational Therapy / Physiotherapy.
▪ Support with personal care if and when needed.
▪ Staff receive training to ensure they understand the impact of a sensory need upon teaching and learning.
▪ Staff understand and apply the medicine administration policy.
▪ The Special Educational Needs Coordinator completes any necessary training in order to offer advice and guidance to staff about the needs of pupils.
▪ The school has disabled toilets / facilities

 

If you have any concerns about your child’s special educational needs or disability, their progress or the support you receive, we would ask that you to come into school and discuss matters further with your child’s class teacher and / or the Special Educational Needs Coordinator.  

Although school complaints procedures are in place and can be accessed through our website we would always hope to resolve any issues or concerns informally by working in partnership with parents. 


The Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) provides advice and information to young people, and parents whose children have Special Educational Needs. They provide impartial and factual support on all aspects of the SEN framework to help parents and young people play an active and informed role in their child’s or their own education.

Link to Local Offer: local offer 

SENDIASS can be contacted by: 

Telephone: 0191 643 8317