"We Care, We Believe, We Succeed - Together"

SEND at Dunnington CofE Primary School

At Dunnington C of E Primary School the well-being and development of each child underpins all that we do. Our aim is to develop children into confident and resilient learners, for them to develop a love of learning and to encourage them to explore opportunities to step outside of their comfort zone whilst not neglecting the need to develop wider life skills that they can use to underpin their future development. The most up to date SEND information report can be found in the link section below.

We value all children equally whatever their background, and aim to provide a welcoming, inclusive atmosphere. We ensure that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are given equal opportunities to fulfil their academic and personal potential and are enabled and encouraged to feel worthy and important pupils.

At Dunnington Primary School we support children with a variety of differing 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 practice (2015):

What counts as SEN?

Special educational needs (SEN) is defined as a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made.

A pupil 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

• Have a disability that prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools

• Don’t make progress without support in place

Special educational provision is provision that is different from, or additional to, support normally available to pupils of the same age. It is designed to help children with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) to access the curriculum.

Respond first with high-quality teaching

The first response to a pupil underachieving should be high-quality teaching targeted at the pupil's areas of weakness. This could be achieved through:

• Differentiation
• Adapting classroom practice to suit the pupil’s needs
• Short-term interventions

If progress continues to be less than expected, then the child should be assessed for additional needs.

Identifying and Assessing needs: 

At Dunnington we work closely as a team and if staff have a concern about a child, they fill in an initial concern form and discuss concerns with parents. A child will then be placed on the monitoring register and we begin to follow the Graduated Response approach of ‘Assess, Plan, Do and Review’.

After a period of 6 – 8 weeks we will decide if a child needs to be placed on the SEND register and invite you in for a meeting, where we will share the targets, your child is working on and the support they are receiving. 

Some children will be monitored using the Birmingham Audit Continuum, this allows the children who are working at below key stage standards to have small step targets set in lessons to allow them to achieve and begin to work independently.

Some children may require more support than is ordinarily available and we may ask outside agencies to support us in ensuring that we are offering the best support we can.

Assess, Plan, Do, Review

The SEN graduated approach is a four-part cycle. Through this cycle, actions are reviewed and refined as understanding of a child's needs and the support required to help them secure good outcomes increases. This is known as APDR:

Assess: Identify strengths and barriers to learning

Plan: Agree specific intentions for targeted improvements

Do: Implement

Review: Review the impact and success to the intended outcomes

Our approach to teaching children with SEND

We are an inclusive school.  Wherever possible children are taught alongside their peers in flexible teaching groups. Teachers adapt their high-quality teaching to cater for their pupils’ needs and plan individual timetables where necessary. When appropriate, staff are deployed to give children additional interventions in small groups outside the classroom, or to provide one-to-one support.

We use the EEF guidance ‘Five-a-day’ and embed the key principles into all our lessons.

Curriculum Adaptations

We use a range of strategies across our lessons to ensure we offer an inclusive approach to learning and allow all children to access the classroom environment. We also seek advice and equipment from outside agencies as and when the need arises.

Parent Consultations

At Dunnington Primary School we work closely with parents and carers and recognise that they have much to contribute to our support for children with SEND.

For children who have an EHCP (Education Health Care Plan), IPM (Individual Provision Map) or require specialist support (over and above what is ordinarily available) we will invite you in for 3 further meetings a year in the Autumn, Spring and Summer term.  These meeting are used to celebrate your child’s learning, looking at the progress they have made against the targets set, create new targets and discuss next steps.  A copy of this will always be sent home after the meetings.

During the year a parental questionnaire is sent out to gain views on the school and the SEND provision.

Child Consultations

Pupil’s views are very important; they have a right to be involved in decisions about their education and they are made aware of the support that surrounds them in school.

Children are fully involved and their views feed directly into all policies, procedures and daily teaching of children with SEND. 

Pupils are given regular opportunities to:

Evaluating Provision

• Review progress in SLT meetings and discussing next steps.
• Discuss and share ideas in staff meetings to ensure up to date research and policy is in place.
• Reviewing children’ individual progress towards their goals at regular intervals, as a minimum every term.
• Establishing children’s baseline before receiving interventions and reviewing the impact of interventions at regular intervals.
• Asking our children if they feel the adjustment or intervention is helpful and makes a difference.
• Monitoring by the SENCO.
• Regularly using a tracking tool to update targets and measure progress.
• Holding termly reviews for children who are on Education Health and Care Plans, SEND Support Provision Plans and those requiring specialist support.
• Holding annual reviews for children with Education Health Care Plans.

Birmingham Small Steps

If children are working towards the expected standard, then we track their progress using the Birmingham Small Steps document. The Small Steps document have the most impact when they are used to identify pupils’ needs and support personalised planning within whole class teaching through the graduated response. The assessment criteria is designed to be used in schools and settings with pupils in Year One or above who are working below the expected level for their age, and are not making progress towards closing the gap. They support settings in clearly identifying the profile of strengths and weaknesses a pupil has in the areas of English and Maths. The implementation of the documents follows the ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ cycle.

The document follows pupils up the school, when the child is in the following year groups, the statements will be highlighted in the designated colour. The document will be saved in the children’s electronic SEND folders.

Assess: The continuums documents are used to assess a pupil’s current skills against the National Curriculum descriptors. By clearly identifying what a pupil can do, the profile created will highlight the next steps. Teaching staff can use this profile to set appropriately challenging success criteria to ensure that pupils can access the lesson at a relevant level for the pupil.

Plan: The profile that the assessment framework builds can be used to support teachers to plan appropriate support and provision.

Do: Teaching staff are supported by the teaching and learning ideas should they require ideas appropriate to the level the pupil is working at.

Review: Finally, the marking of the pupil’s work acts as an ongoing review and the profile updated as required to demonstrate progress and inform future planning.

Transition Support

Nursery to Reception

We hold a parent and carer session in the summer term for our new Reception starters, providing parents with the opportunity to meet with the class teacher and SENCO. 

We hold ‘taster’ sessions in the second half of the summer term in preparation for their September start as well as a parent information evening. Class teachers and TAs meet with each other during the summer term to discuss the needs of the children and share Individual Provision Maps as well as pupil passports.

Secondary Transition

We liaise very closely with our partner schools to ensure that the transition from primary school to the secondary school is as smooth as possible.

Mid-Year new starters

When we are aware that pupils joining us from other settings have identified special educational needs, we arrange a meeting with the family to enable us to gain a greater understanding on the support we need to put in place.

Transition to Reception, and then into each successive year-group, is supported by meetings, information leaflets and taster sessions in each new class.

End of Year transition

When children move up a year, we provide transition sheets which include photos of the teacher, TA and classroom environment.

We hold a transition session during the summer term allowing the children to go up to their new classroom and meet their teacher. 

Some children may require extra transition visits to their new classroom to help reduce their anxiety and ensure that the transition is successful and positive.

Outside Agencies

We work with the following agencies to provide support for children with SEND:

• Communication Autism Team,
• Warwickshire SENDAR,
• Warwickshire Educational Psychology Service,
• Life-space Mentoring,
• School Health Advisory Service,
• Speech and Language Therapy,
• Visual and Hearing impairment team and Behaviour Support,
• SEND Supported.

We will ask your permission before we arrange for any outside agencies to come in and work with your child.  Once the feedback has been received, we will call you in for a meeting to share the advice.

SENCO Information

Our Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) is Mrs Charlotte McGrath

She can be contacted by email at mcgrath.c2@welearn365.com or through the school office. 

Warwickshire SEND Support Links

For the latest Warwickshire SEND news and information, please visit Warwickshire's SEND Local Authority’s website. Sign up to get SEND Voice and other SEND updates by email. 

Worcestershire SEND Support Links

for families who live outside of Warwickshire County Council (Dunnington)