SEND

What is our SEND provision?

We recognise each child as a unique individual with his or her own personal talents, experiences, learning styles and needs. We value their abilities and achievements, and are committed to providing an effective learning environment which promotes their intellectual and personal development. We are an inclusive school - we wish to see children of all abilities, talents and disability educated together. We aim to enable all children to participate fully in school life.

We understand the positive benefits that inclusion brings, enriching and strengthening our community. Where children have additional needs the whole school community is committed to supporting them. All teachers at Oldmixon are teachers of ALL children. We seek to support all children's access to the curriculum so that they have the opportunity to progress and achieve success. We strongly believe in involving the children and you as their parent/carer in a positive working partnership with us.

Go to SEND policies and accessibility plan.

Who is involved with your child?

Your child's teacher:

checks on your child's progress, identifies, plans and delivers any additional help your child may need
plans for all children who need extra help
monitors this help to make sure it is making a difference for your child
with permission ask for further specialist help
discusses with you at all stages how your child is doing, what help and support is needed and together agreeing plans and reviews of how things are working
in partnership with parents/carers sets targets for your child.

How does the school decide who needs extra support?

Each class teacher is responsible for the progress of all children in their class. They use quality first teaching, observations and regular assessment to identify any cause for concern. The school will also check each child’s progress throughout their school year/life and refer any children who appear to be falling behind or struggling in any area. These children will be referred to the SENDCO who will decide if internal interventions will help or whether we need to refer to outside agencies.

Outside agencies may include Speech & Language, Educational Psychologist, Community Paediatrician, Occupational Therapist, School Nurse, Behaviour Improvement Programme, advisory teacher etc.

Parents will be kept informed throughout this process and are always consulted to see if they agree to the school seeking advice and/or acquiring additional support. The SENDCO will then make a referral. Parents will be invited to meet the support agencies. Information from these meetings will be copied to the parents.

What kinds of special needs are provided for at Oldmixon ?

We provide for all kinds of needs at Oldmixon, usually grouped into four categories:

Communication and interaction
Cognition (thinking) and learning
Physical and sensory
Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs.

How does the school make provision for pupils with additional needs with or without an EHC plan?

We provide support for children in many different ways. Some children’s needs will be met by adapted work or small group work with adult support. At times some children may need 1:1 support from a teaching assistant (TA) to help them access their learning. Where necessary children may have a personalised curriculum which suits their learning needs.

The Graduated Response:

What is the Graduated Response? The SEND Code of Practice 2015 states that children and young people with SEND should have their needs met and outcomes achieved in a mainstream education setting; however, it also acknowledges that a specialist provider may be another option for a few children and young people.

A key principle of the Code of Practice is that the views, wishes, and feelings of the child or young person and their parent/carers should inform the support they receive. This begins with making sure they are provided with all the information and support they need to feel confident and participate fully in decisions about their support.

The Graduated Response expects mainstream providers to make full use of all their resources and expertise before accessing increasingly specialist support provision. The Graduated Response follows four stages of action: Assess, Plan, Do, Review, as outlined in the SEND Code of Practice.

What is quality first teaching?

Quality First Teaching (QFT) means high quality inclusive teaching together with our continuous whole school processes for assessing, planning, implementing, tracking, monitoring and reviewing your child’s progress.

The teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class
All teaching builds on what your child already knows, can do and understand
Lessons are appropriately differentiated, which means different ways of teaching are in place so that your child can access the lesson and is fully involved in their learning. Some examples of differentiation are: additional resources to support their learning, opportunities for paired work or small group work, different ways of presenting their work
Specific strategies (suggested by the SENDCo) to support your child to learn
On-going assessment within the day-to-day framework of the classroom of your child’s progress to identify any gap or gaps in their understanding/learning

The Graduated Approach means that provision for a child with a SEND is a continuum between whole class QFT at the one end and highly personalised 1:1 teaching at the other.

All children have access to quality first teaching, but where a potential SEND has been identified, the approach to your child’s teaching and learning becomes increasingly personalised as our understanding of your child and his/her need grows. Thus, support becomes more targeted

What is an Individual Support Plan (ISP)?

Individual Support Plan (ISP)
Some children who receive more long term support will be on the school’s SEN register. Parents will be informed of this. Your child may have an individual support plan created for them which outlines their needs and support that they will receive in school. On the plan, we implement short-term, medium-term and long-term outcomes for the child, giving them achievable and aspirational outcomes to work towards whilst at Oldmixon. The content of the ISP is negotiated, as appropriate, with the class teacher, child and child's family, with a focus on the progress of 'Assess, plan, do, review.'

The ISP is reviewed three times a year with the parent, the class teacher and the SENDCO. This is where we will review the outcomes for the child and plan for next steps to further their progress. We shall also look at their strengths and barriers to learning and parent and child views as it is important to take on board external factors when reviewing these plans.

If you do have any questions about the plan, please do contact your child's class teacher, or the SENDCO - Mrs Avci.

What are the arrangements for supporting children who are looked after by the LA and have SEND?

Mrs Amanda Martin is our designated person with responsibility for Children Looked After (CLA). She will attend Personal Education Plan (PEP) meetings, PEP reviews and liaise closely with the Virtual School. Mrs Amanda Martin and Mrs Lindsay Avci (SENDCo) will liaise to oversee provision that is put into place to support the child’s special educational need and will attend child progress meetings and reviews.

How will the children with additional needs be consulted about and involved in their education?

Children who have an ISP or EHC plan will be asked their views and take part in a ‘pupil voice’ meeting at review points throughout the year.

Speech, Language and Communication

A child naturally acquires language from a very early age and goes through a recognised pattern of learning vocabulary, sentences and concepts to be able to communicate verbally. Add to this speech sound processes, attention and social development and you realise how complex communication is.

When this natural process diverges from the normal pattern, e.g. when a child has difficulty with grammar or speech sounds, poor listening or stammering, it is called a speech, language and communication difficulty.

We are in the fortunate position to be able to offer targeted speech and language provision on site from a specially trained speech and language assistant - Mrs Beth Brown.

We work with outside agencies to deliver 1:1 speech and language programmes as well as designing group activities that will cater to children's specific needs.

Our Speech and Language provision also includes delivery of intervention programmes. This includes Talk Boost which is a target intervention for children in Reception, KS1 and KS2 focused on narrowing the language gap between them and their peers.

Motor Skills

To support children with physical needs, we use Smart Moves. This is a programme full of fun activities and games to encourage children with motor coordination difficulties to succeed. Through this programme, we create a simple, effective tailored programme for each child.

Pastoral Support

Our Learning Mentors - Mrs Dawn Palfrey and Miss Chloe Daniels are available to meet with parents to discuss any social and emotional issues which they feel may be affecting their child’s ability to learn. They can work with small groups and/or with individual children depending on the child’s specific needs. Appointments can be arranged via the school office.
For more Information on pastoral support please see the ‘Mental Health and Well-Being’ section on the website.

SEND Parent Partnership

We believe in giving parents a voice and strengthening the voice of the child.

Engagement with parents/carers is very important to us and we make use of a variety of strategies to do this:

SEND Parent workshops
SEND Coffee mornings/afternoons ( twice a year )
SEND Review meetings- which happen three times a year where your child's needs and the provision within school is shared and reviewed together.

Sensory Rooms

What is a sensory room?

A sensory room is a place designed to be a safe space for children with physical and/or sensory needs but is also used to support children with communication and interaction difficulties and social, emotional and mental health needs.

How are sensory rooms used?

Sensory rooms provide a safe space to relax, de-stress and diffuse anxieties. They can be used for children with a wide range of needs and difficulties.

They can be used to stimulate or calm the senses — sight, touch and hearing — and provide a space for pupils to explore and develop their sensory skills. They can calm pupils’ mood, improve focus, build social skills as well as cognitive and motor skill development.

They are proven to reduce the risk of crisis situations occurring and help children to manage their emotions in an effective, gentle way.

Sensory rooms at Oldmixon.

At Oldmixon we have two sensory rooms: 'The Nest' and 'The Den'. They are used for individual children, pairs and small groups. The sessions are always supervised by an adult and are offered when beneficial/needed.

Sensory Rooms

Sensory Circuits

A sensory circuit is a form of sensory integration intervention. It offers a short and snappy sensory motor skills programme.

It involves a sequence of physical activities that are designed to alert, organise and calm the child.

The sensory circuit aims to facilitate sensory processing to help children regulate and organise their senses in order to achieve the optimum level of alertness and regulation required for an effective learning/ interactions. The circuit should be an active, physical and fun activity that children enjoy doing.

Sensory circuits are a great way to both energise and settle children so they can focus and engage better in the classroom or engage in activities within the community.

Many children can benefit from attending a sensory circuit, even for a short period of time. The activities can also be utilised at different times of the day as part of a sensory diet to help the child regulate.

Sensory circuits are designed to start with alerting activities, move to an organising stage and then finally to a calming stage.

Doing the activities in the recommended order is vital. The right order results in a well-regulated, happy child. The wrong order may well result in a dysregulated, upset or irritable child and have the opposite effect.