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What to do if your child has Special Educational Needs?

Please see the section below for more information

  1. Contact the SENCo at your child’s school
  2. What to expect from the school
  3. Additional support for schools
  4. Educational Health and Care Plans

Contact the SENCo at your child’s school

Each school has a lead teacher to coordinate and support Special Educational Needs.

The role may be referred to as either

  • SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator); or
  • Inclusion Manager

Their role is to work with the class teacher and parents to support teaching and learning for children with additional needs. 

Where there are concerns regarding a child’s progress, the SENCo will be expected to implement the Code of Practice ( 2014 ) Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle. This will help identify the specific areas of need and support required. 

Through this process, the SENCo will coordinate the identification of SEND, maintain records, monitor progress and set targets, as well as link with outside agencies, if needed. 

The SENCo plays an important role in ensuring children and young people with additional needs and disabilities receive the support they need in school. If the school requires further support, the SENCo/Inclusion Manager is able to contact other agencies to request additional support including health, social care and/ or other education services.

What to expect from the school

Havering expects that all mainstream schools should:

  • Be able to identify pupils with special educational needs, ensuring they are assessed as quickly as possible and appropriate support is put in place
  • Have ‘Quality First Teaching’ in place which means that all teachers understand how to use different approaches to ensure that they can teach pupils with a diverse range of needs
  • Be able to meet the needs of a pupil as set out in their Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
  • Use their funding and other resources efficiently to meet the needs of pupils throughout the school
  • Have an up to date Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Policy, which is available to parents on the school website, along with information on the support they provide for pupils with SEND
  • Work in partnership with pupils and their parents
  • Ensure parents have access to independent information, advice, and support
  • Make sure parents are aware of the provision being made for their child

All mainstream schools are expected to follow a ‘graduated approach’ to supporting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

 

The SEND Code of Practice defines a ‘graduated approach’:

“The approach recognises that there is a continuum of special educational needs and that, where necessary, increasing specialist expertise should be brought to bear on the difficulties that a child or young person may be experiencing” 

The graduated response helps the school to learn more about the pupil and what helps them to make good progress.  A graduated approach has four parts:

  1. Stage 1: the school implements Quality First Teaching which means that reasonable adjustments are in place to engage and support the learning of all pupils.
  2. Stage 2: where a pupil is not making expected progress, the teacher and the SENCo will assess the pupil’s needs and put in place a plan to support the pupil. The plan should remove barriers to learning and put effective special educational provision in place.
  3. Stage 3: The SENCO will help the class teacher(s) to support the pupil and monitor progress. If required, further help from other professionals will be provided, such as support from the local authority or from health and social care professionals.
  4. Stage 4: If the support required goes beyond the resources of the school, and a graduated approach has been used, then the SENCo can apply for an Education, Health and Care Plan from the local authority. 

SEN Support:

Once a child has been identified as having SEN, they will be placed on the SEN register and will be monitored as receiving ‘SEN Support’. This involves setting termly targets and identifying provision which will meet the pupil’s needs.  In Havering, these may be referred to as either an IEP (Individual Educational Plan) or a Pupil Passport. 

The targets are reviewed once a term (three times a year) with the class teacher, SENCo, parent and pupil to ensure the provision, progress and motivation is maintained.  

What is a SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator)? 

A SENCo is a qualified teacher who arranges for extra support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. Their role involves:

  1. Stage 1: the school implements Quality First Teaching which means that reasonable adjustments are in place to engage and support the learning of all pupils.
  2. Stage 2: where a pupil is not making expected progress, the teacher and the SENCo will assess the pupil’s needs and put in place a plan to support the pupil. The plan should remove barriers to learning and put an effective special educational provision in place.
  3. Stage 3: The SENCO will help the class teacher(s) to support the pupil and monitor progress. If required, further help from other professionals will be provided, such as support from the local authority or from health and social care professionals.
  4. Stage 4: If the support required goes beyond the resources of the school, and a graduated approach has been used, then the SENCo can apply for an Education, Health and Care Plan from the local authority.

 

SEN Support:

Once a child has been identified as having SEN, they will be placed on the SEN register and will be monitored as receiving ‘SEN Support’. This involves setting termly targets and identifying provision which will meet the pupil’s needs.  In Havering, these may be referred to as either an IEP (Individual Educational Plan) or a Pupil Passport. 

The targets are reviewed once a term (three times a year) with the class teacher, SENCo, parent and pupil to ensure the provision, progress and motivation is maintained.

 

 

What is a SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator)?

 

A SENCo is a qualified teacher who arranges for extra support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. Their role involves:

  • Ensuring that the school (or nursery) is following the SEND Policy
  • Helping staff to support children with SEND
  • Working with parents to help their child
  • Working with local authority support services
  • Working with other professionals who can support the pupil, for example, health services

All mainstream schools and maintained nurseries must have a SENCo. Smaller primary schools might share a SENCo.

Schools should meet with parents/carers of pupils at SEN support very regularly and if a pupil is not making good progress, the school should involve a specialist, involving parents/carers in that decision.  Find out more about SEN Support and the Graduated Approach here or within the SEND Code of Practice.

Additional Support for Schools

There is a range of agencies and support teams available in Havering which schools and SENCos can refer to for support.

Local Authority Teams

Our team develops and promotes specialist speech and language and social communication provision in Havering schools and pre-school settings. This can include management of associated behaviours, SEMH and cognition, and learning needs. 

We identify and prioritise training needs for school staff and for pupils. We model and train support staff and teachers to assess and monitor progress for pupils in speech, language, social communication, SEMH and behaviour interventions.

We can be contacted at CAD5to19@havering.gov.uk 

  • Sensory and Physical Needs Team:

Our team is made up of qualified Teachers of the Deaf, a qualified Teacher for Multisensory Impairment, a qualified Teacher for the Visually Impaired, a qualified Habilitation Specialist and a Specialist Assistant for Physical Impairment. 

We offer a year-round service working with children and young people from birth – 19 years old. We work with all Havering children offering support to families, in-home and educational settings to enable children to reach their potential. We usually accept referrals from health professionals, schools and families. 

We can be contacted at CAD5to19@havering.gov.uk   

  • Secondary Support Team:

Schools, post-16 colleges and the Pupil Referral Unit may contact the Advisory Teacher for SEND (Secondary / Post 16) if a young person continues to struggle to make progress in school, once all other school support options have been tried.

A young person does not need to have an EHCP for a school to access support from the Advisory Teacher, nor a diagnosis of any kind. A young person must, however, have a recognised SEND (Special Educational Need and Disability) and be on ‘School Support’.

 The Advisory Teacher is able to support schools through:

  • individual consultations with SENCOs
  • co-ordinating and attending SENCo meetings where good practice can be shared
  • staff training
  • lesson observations of a young person, with personalised strategies provided post-observation
  • attending school meetings to provide impartial advice when discussing a young person’s progress

 The Advisory Teacher for SEND is also the Havering link for the National SENCo Award programme run by the University of East London (UEL), a Master’s Level accreditation that all new SENCOs must hold within 3 years of appointment. 

We can be contacted at CAD5to19@havering.gov.uk 

  • Educational Psychology Team:

Other support for schools:

Schools can also access health provision such as:

  • CAMHS   ( Child and Mental Health Services )
  • Physiotherapy
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Speech and Language Therapy

These services can support children and young people ADHD, ASD, SEMH, and other medical conditions

 Other support for schools:

Schools can also access health provision such as:

  • CAMHS (Child and Mental Health Services)
  • Physiotherapy
  • Occupational Therapy

Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP)

The assessment process and information for EHCPs is on this link: EHCP

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