Information
Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)
Every child is of equal importance and unique in their own way. All teachers at Blakehill Primary School are teachers of SEND who successfully provide for the diverse needs of pupils through good differentiated teaching. Children may require ‘additional ‘ or ‘different’ provision and the quality of their provision is relevant and matched to their individual needs. Blakehill are proud to have designated and experienced SEN support staff who offer specialised SEN support to children in both key stages.
At different times children at Blakehill Primary may require different levels of support. We aim to:
- promote inclusion in the broadest sense
- ensure that all children’s needs are met through the culture, agreed practices and procedures, management and deployment of resources in school.
- facilitate early identification, assessment and provision for all pupils with special educational needs
- ensure that all pupils are in receipt of a broad and balanced curriculum which is well differentiated.
- ensure the wishes of the child are considered in light of their age and understanding alongside the views of individual parents
- ensure that professionals and parents are encouraged to work in partnership.
The Local Authority must publish a ‘Local Offer’ which provides clear, comprehensive and accessible information about the support and opportunities that are available to children with SEN and their parents.
Blakehill have also completed a 'school offer' and information report.
All schools are supported to be as inclusive as possible, with the needs of pupils' with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities being met in a mainstream setting wherever possible.
The four broad ‘areas of need’ are defined as:
Communication and Interaction, Cognition and Learning, Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties, and Sensory and Physical Needs.
Mrs Pinder and Mrs Gould have the responsibility for leading and managing the SEN. If you have any questions or comments about SEN provision in school please speak to either SENDCO or alternatively email the school office. We encourage any parent wishing to discuss their child's SEN provision to speak to our SENDCOs.
At Blakehill the SEN Team pride ourselves on providing a high level of support for parents. In addition to the weekly surgeries, we have held a number of enrichment training events for parents. Our most recent event was a workshop in February 2020, led by the SEN consultant Andrew Whitehouse, a specialist in neurological diversity. This focused on supporting children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and was attended by over forty parents, together with staff from Blakehill and other local primaries. It is our intention to continue to support parents in this way, when we are able to hold such events again. We have invited Andrew to return to Blakehill in November 2021 to deliver staff and parent workshops.
As a school we regularly invest in our staff development, so that all staff feel supported and involved. The SEN Team are constantly looking for training opportunities to enable us to fully meet the needs of all our children. Since the start of Autumn Term 2020 SENDCO and SEN Support Staff Training has covered a wide range of issues including: Inclusion, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Behaviour Management, Attachment Issues, Neurodiverse Learners, Selective Mutism, Precision Teaching and more recently Makaton. Class teachers, teaching assistants and lunchtime staff have also attended all training that is relevant to the individual children in their class. This includes epilepsy training, haemophilia training and behaviour management training. Some staff have also attended Mental Health Champions training and we hold whole school training sessions as appropriate. In addition, the SENDCOs attend termly SENCO Network Meetings, to ensure that we are up to date with national and local developments and with current practices.