Peatmoor Community Primary School

Definition of Special Educational Needs (SEN)

“Children have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for them.  Children have a learning difficulty if they: -

Have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age;  or

Have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in school.”

Special educational provision means: -

“For children of two or over, educational provision which is additional to, or otherwise different from, the educational provision made generally for children of this age in schools maintained by the LA, other than special schools in the area.” 

See Section 312, Education Act 1998 in Special Educational Needs Code of Practice p. 6

Aims

We believe all children have a right to a broad and balanced curriculum, relevant and differentiated, which demonstrates progression and allows a child the opportunity to learn and progress, even if only in very small steps. We aim to work as a school team to identify the children experiencing learning difficulties, assessing their needs and setting realistic targets enabling them to access the whole curriculum.

Objectives

The objectives of our policy are:

To identify and monitor children’s individual needs from the earliest possible stage, including through liaison with pre-school settings, so that appropriate provision can be made and their attainment raised;

To plan an effective curriculum to meet the needs of children with special educational needs  by ensuring that the targets set on pupil-friendly Individual Education Plans are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time related;
To involve children and parents/carers in the identification and review of the targets set for individual children and where necessary those targets identified in their Individual Provision Plans;
To work in close partnership with, and involve, parents/carers of children who have special educational needs;
To ensure that all who are involved with children are aware of the procedures for identifying their needs, supporting and teaching them; and
To work in close partnership, where appropriate, with outside agencies to support the needs and provision for children who have special educational needs.

At Peatmoor, we use a wide variety of interventions to support our learners.

Careful thought is given to specific programmes to decide whether an intervention will work with an individual child. The impact of any intervention is closely monitored to assess whether it is supporting the child’s learning.

These programmes include: 

Peatmoor is a Dyslexia Friendly School. This means that our approach to teaching all of our pupils, involves methods which ensure dyslexic pupils are not hindered. Small changes within the classroom such as cream backgrounds on our interactive whiteboards, the careful use of specific fonts on printed sheets, daily visual timetables help support all the learners.

We work alongside many outside agencies including Speech and Language therapy, Educational Psychologist, ASD pathway, School nursing etc.

If you would like further information about any of the above or have concerns about your child’s progress – academically and socially – Mrs McDonald, our SENCO (Special Educational Needs co-ordinator) will be happy to meet with you.

Informal drop-ins are offered throughout the year or an appointment can be arranged through the school office.