How we identify, assess and review children with special educational needs

Most children and young people in mainstream schools will have their special educational needs met through good classroom practice. This is called Quality First Teaching.

Early Identification of Need

A special educational need can be a number of different things. For example, a child may be having problems with reading, number work or behaviour, which can be helped by putting extra support in at school and by working in partnership with parents. It may also be due to a disability which makes it harder for a child to use the same educational facilities that the school provides for the majority of children. For some children this may be a temporary difficulty, while others may have a long term need for special help.

Types of special educational needs can include:

General Learning Difficulties – children whose learning progresses at a slower pace

Social and Emotional Difficulties

Cognition and Learning Difficulties (difficulties with reading, writing and spelling or maths)

Communication and Interaction Difficulties

Speech and Language Difficulties

Delays with gross or fine motor skills

Other Physical or Medical Needs/Conditions

All of our children’s needs are identified and met as early as possible through:

observation, assessment, target setting and monitoring arrangements (cycle of assess, plan, do and review)

listening to, and following up , parental concerns

listening to and taking into account the child’s views, wishes and feelings

the analysis of data including baseline assessments linked to the EYFS to track individual children’s progress over time

reviewing and improving staff understanding of a wide range of needs and effective strategies to meet those needs

liaison with schools and other settings on end of year transfer

exchanging information from other services across education, health, care and the voluntary sector

involving an external agency, where it is considered that a special educational need may be significant and long term and may require more in-depth and frequently reviewed cycles of assess, plan, do and review.

data on progress is stored and analysed through the school tracking system. Pupils’ needs are discussed and decisions are taken as to which intervention is needed.

SEN Support

Teachers at Dunmore Primary School make regular reasonable adjustments to their daily practice in order to support as many children as possible. When these reasonable adjustments are proving to be insufficient, then a decision may be made to add the child to the school’s SEN register and to implement a SEN Pupil Profile. At Dunmore Primary, we follow a graduated support approach, which is called “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.  This means that we will:

Assess a child’s special educational needs

Plan the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes

Do put the provision in place to meet those outcomes

Review the support and progress

As part of this approach every child with SEN will have an individualised SEN Pupil profile that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs.  Parents/carers and child/YP (where appropriate) views are integral to this process.

What We Offer:

regular informal review meetings with children, parents and teachers, as necessary

an open door policy for parents of SEND children.

Gathering pupils views

termly review meetings led by the class teacher with parents present. At this meeting the focus is the child’s SEN pupil profile where progress is measured and new outcomes are agreed for the following term

consultations with the school’s SENCO

A small percentage of children and young people with significant and/or complex needs may require an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.

Having followed cycles of plan, do etc if the gap is widening or not making progress or an identified need we may seek a request for an EHCP The school will provide the evidence about the child’s progress over time, documentation in relation to the child’s SEN and any action taken to deal with their needs, including any resources or special arrangements in place. 

Children may be taken off the SEND register if they make progress or their needs change, this will always be discussed with the parents

How we respond to parental concerns

We always encourage parents to come in and discuss any concerns with us face to face. All parents of children with SEND are invited in three times a year to speak to staff.  We strive to ensure access to appropriate high quality teaching, differentiation and intervention for all of our SEND children.  All planning is monitored by the SLT, books are collected in frequently and learning walks take place regularly across the school to ensure high standards for all of our learners, including those with SEND