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.
In deciding whether to make special education provision to support educational, social, physical or emotional needs:
Where a pupil is identified as having a special educational need we follow a graduated approach which takes the form of cycles of “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.
This means that we will:
As part of this approach every child with SEN will have an individualised SEN Support Plan that describes the child’s needs, outcomes & provision to meet those needs. Parents/carers and child (where appropriate) views are integral to this process.
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.
For more detailed information see the Local Offer.
As a school we measure children’s progress in learning against national age related expectations. The class teacher continually assesses each child, looks at improvements and where further support is needed.
We formally assess the children each term and level their reading, writing and mathematics. As a school, we track children’s progress from entry through to Year 6, using a variety of different methods including national expectations and reading ages .A bespoke sentence writing assessment progression is utilised for children working below Year 1 National Curriculum expectations so that progress can be clearly identified.
Children who are not making expected progress are identified in data analysis and discussed in Pupil Progress meetings. In this meeting a discussion takes place concerning why individual children are experiencing difficulty and what further support can be given to aid their progression. When the child’s support plan is reviewed, impact is measured. If the child has not met the outcome, comments are recorded. The reasons for this are discussed, then the outcome may be adapted into smaller steps or a different approach may be tried to ensure the child does make progress.
Key Stage 2 staff and the SENCO liaise with our feeder school or the child’s previous school.
How is the decision made about what type and how much support my child will receive?
The class teacher, alongside the SENCO, will discuss the child’s needs and what support would be appropriate. Teachers also assess the children on a daily basis and review and evaluate their lessons to accommodate the needs of their children.
Termly assessment is undertaken and staff moderate books together. Data is collated termly onto a tracking system. These are reviewed in Pupil Progress meetings, where we look at closing the gap in children’s learning. We identify what we can provide to meet the child’s needs and we discuss and measure the effectiveness of the interventions the children have undertaken that term. Different children will require different levels of support in order to narrow the gap to achieve age related expectations. Throughout this process, we keep an on-going dialogue with yourselves as parents.
How do we assess and review progress?
As a school, we assess all children continuously by completing formal assessments at the end of every term to measure their progress and identify the next steps in their learning.
Most children and young people will have their special educational needs met in mainstream schools through good classroom practice. This is called Quality First Teaching.
At Acre Rigg Academy, we follow a cyclical support approach which is called “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.
This means that we will:
As part of this approach, we will produce a SEN Support Plan that describes the provision that we will make to meet a child’s special educational needs and agreed outcomes. Parents and carer’s will be fully involved in this process. A small percentage of children and young people with significant learning difficulties might need an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.
If your child has SEND, it is important for us to carry out formal assessments to identify their strengths and identify their needs accurately. To do this, we will use a range of methods depending upon their needs. When your child enters our school, their current attainment is assessed to give us a ‘baseline’ from where they will progress.
At Acre Rigg Academy, all children receive Quality First Teaching, where they access a broad and balanced curriculum where barriers to inclusion are accommodated. We currently have children with a variety of needs in school and adapt our curriculum in the following ways:
Support for children with physical needs:
Support for commnunication and interaction
Support for children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties:
Support for children with cognition and learning needs:
Depending upon their needs, other assessments may be needed. These could include:
How do we evaluate the effectiveness of SEN provision?
At Acre Rigg Academy, we evaluate the effectiveness of SEN provision to ensure that pupils receive the best support to meet their needs and as part of the graduated approach of Assess, Plan, Do and Review. We currently evaluate the effectiveness of SEN across the four broad areas of SEN provision in the following ways:
Communication and interaction
We use specific programmes recommended by out speech and language therapist. All have a baseline recorded at the start of the programme and at the end so we can measure their impact.
Cognition and learning
We use the assessment data provided by teaching and support staff to assess before and after any intervention to evaluate the impact of provision.
Social, Emotional and Health Difficulties
We use several programmes, we assess before and after any intervention to evaluate the impact of the provision. We can also assess through observations of pupils throughout the school day over a period of time.Our Educational psychologist can measure using Conners and this can be done with parent and school each term.
Sensory and/or Physical Difficulties
SMART Movement Programme is used to assess concentration, attention, gross motor skills and behaviour. Impact is evaluated termly. Fine Motor Skills are assessed using Write from the Start/ Staywrite Programmes and handwriting evidence from before and after interventions to evaluate the impact of the provision.
For further information please view or download our Accessibility Plan which can be found in the School Policies section of our website.
'Teach and Inspire; Engage and Enrich'