Please check emails to see important information regarding core hours September 2024
Phone: 01229 463002 | Email: admin@grjs.cumbria.sch.uk
Please check emails to see important information regarding core hours September 2024
George Romney Junior School is a fully inclusive school. We ensure all pupils achieve their potential – personally, socially, emotionally and academically, in all areas of the curriculum regardless of their gender, ethnicity, social background, religion, physical ability or educational need.
The purpose of this SEND Information report is to inform you, as parents/carers, how we support all of our children, including those with SEND and CLA, to achieve their full potential. It is also intended to provide you with information regarding how you will be updated about your child’s progress, what specialist services the school has access to and how accessible the school environment is.
If you would like further information about SEND provision please do not hesitate to contact our school by telephone or email through the school office or through the school website.
01229 463002 admin@grjs.cumbria.sch.uk
Special Educational Needs and Inclusion Policy
For information on Cumbria Local Authority’s Local SEND Offer please click here
The Local Offer was first introduced in the Green Paper (March 2011) as a local offer of all services available to support disabled children and children with SEN and their families.
This easy to understand information will set out what is normally available in schools to help children with lower-level SEN as well as the options available to support families who need additional help to care for their child. Below are the questions, devised in consultation with parents/carers and other agencies, which reflect their concerns and interests.
These will be answered by agencies, schools and colleges to provide information to parents and carers to enable them to make decisions about how to best support their child’s needs.
At George Romney we provide for a range of different Special Educational Needs and Disabilites. These can be categorised into the following broad areas:
At GRJS staff are aware of the signs that a child may have SEND and are on the lookout for pupils who may not be making expected levels of progress either in their school work or socially.
Class teachers are continually monitoring the children in their class and there are regular discussions between class teachers, the Headteacher and the SENCO to discuss progress and any concerns that there may be about a child’s progress.
Suitable interventions will be put in place to address these concerns and may include 1:1 support, small group support or additional high quality personalised teaching input. If these do not result in the expected progress we will contact parents/carers to discuss the possibility that their child may need to be added to the SEND register and additional provision or advice sought.
If, following discussions with class teachers, SENCO, parents/carers and child, it is felt that despite the additional provision that has been put in place provision expected progress is not being made they will be placed on the SEND register.
School will prepare a Pupil Plan which will outline barriers to learning, the support to be provided and how parents and carers can help at home. These will be reviewed at least twice a year.
Contact school and ask to discuss your concerns with your child’s class teacher, you may wish for a follow up discussion with the Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator (SENCO) who can be contacted by phoning school: 01229 463002 or via e-mail: jodorsett@grjs.cumbria.sch.uk
We follow the ‘graduated approach’ to meeting your child’s SEN needs. The graduated approach is a 4-part cycle of assess, plan, do, review.
As a part of the planning stage of the graduated approach, we will set outcomes that we want to see your child achieve.
Whenever we run an intervention with your child, we will assess them before the intervention begins. This is known as a ‘baseline assessment’. We do this so we can see how much impact the intervention has had on your child’s progress.
We will write a pupil plan which will outline the provision. These plans will be reviewed at least twice a year, this will help us establish how much progress has been made and will form the basis of further assessment and planning.
Termly assessments are undertaken in Reading, Writing, Spelling, punctuation and Grammar and Maths. In addition to this class teachers and Headteacher have regular pupil progress meetings to discuss children’s progress and outcomes and identify next steps.
All children on the SEND register will have a pupil plan. Some children may also be supported with an Individual Behaviour Plan or an Individual Health Care Plan.
Pupils with a higher level of need which meets the Local Authority SEND threshold will be supported with an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP), this is a legal document. It sets out the education, health and social care needs of a child or young person with SEND, who needs more support in their educational setting beyond the usual resource that is provided.
Parents are invited to regular meetings with class teachers and can request a meeting with the SENCO at anytime.
Every pupils learning will be planned by the class teacher. Pupils learning will be differentiated to suit individual’s needs and may include additional in class support with a TA or with the class teacher.
For specific identified leaning needs (eg. reading intervention, maths support, spelling support) pupils may work in small groups or 1:1 outside of the classroom. Progress during these interventions will be regularly assessed and reviewed to inform future planning and the need for further intervention.
Pupil Progress meetings are held termly and enable discussions between class teachers and the head teacher to identify any issues which may arise from the discussion and identify and plan for further intervention and support.
Where significant support may be needed a pupil will have a pupil plan which will identify short term targets and the provision which school will provide in order to achieve the targets. Each plan will be reviewed every term and new targets agreed. Pupils and parents/carers will be asked to contribute to the plan.
When it is felt further specialist help is needed in order to identify barriers to learning and to provide targeted support (eg Educational Psychologist, Speech and Language support, Paediatrician) school will work with the family to open an Early Help Plan in order to request specialist support. Once the agency has had the opportunity to undertake assessments school will work with specialist advice to provide additional targeted support.
At George Romney we believe all children have entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum which is differentiated to enable children to:
High quality teaching is our first step to responding to children’s needs and ensuring inclusion. We will differentiate how we teach to respond to individual needs. Some children may need additional support to enable them to access the curriculum and this could include 1:1 support provided by class teacher/ teaching assistant, working in a mixed ability group, working with buddy support. Where appropriate additional equipment may be provided to support pupil learning (Clicker word processing, sloped writing bench, easy grip pencils, coloured overlays etc.)
Our special educational advice coordinator (SENCO) is Mrs Jo Dorsett, she is also a class teacher and has had 15 years experience in her role as SENCO.
All our teaching staff receive in house SEND training and are supported by the SENCO to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. Specialist training is arranged according to school need.
At school we have a number of staff who have undertaken specialist training and are able to teach specialist intervention programmes. These include:
If a pupil continues to make less than expected progress, despite the targeted intervention and support offered in school it may be necessary to ask for specialist support from outside agencies. Referrals can be made through the Early Help process. This will be arranged by the SENCO and parents will be kept fully informed of any involvement of other agencies.
These may include:
Parents evenings take place in the Autumn and Spring terms to discuss progress and we encourage all parents/carers to attend. Pupil plans for pupils with SEND will be discussed and shared at these meetings with reviews of the previous plan. These will include ways that you may support your child at home. A formal report will be prepared for each child at the end of the Summer term
At George Romney we have an ‘Open Door’ policy and encourage parents/carers to contact school for an informal discussion if they have any concerns over children’s learning at any point in the year.
School have a number of online programmes which may help your child with their learning.
We talk to children when preparing their individual pupil plans and involve them in setting their targets and reviewing their learning. Children’s views, including children with SEND, are sought through regular school council meetings.
Children with EHCP’s are involved in reviewing their progress and outcomes and sharing their views during their annual review meetings.
At George Romney we know how important it is that all children feel secure and supported in order for them to make the most of all learning opportunities. We have a number of ways that we can support pupils with their social and emotional well-being including:
We take incidents of bullying very seriously and our anti-bullying policy is available to view on the website alongside our mental health and well-being policy. Children are encouraged to talk to a trusted adult in school if they are experiencing difficulties.
Children are also taught to recognise and address bullying and to develop emotional resilience through out PHSE curriculum.
We strive to enable access and inclusion for all children and will happily discuss modifications to regular routines if this is beneficial to you or your child. Please refer to the school’s access plan but include
Before children move to school from our feeder infant school we arrange for a number of visits with different foci, including a sports afternoon, science visit, World Book Day visit and transition morning. We also arrange for a small group visit for identified pupils to include meeting key staff and taking photos for transition book. Staff also visit children in their infant school class. The SENCO will also meet with Headteacher and SENCO from the feeder school to discuss SEND needs.
If a child is transferring to or from school appropriate information and data will be shared with the other school.
School will put in additional transition sessions for identified pupils moving to secondary school in Y6 and will run enhanced transition programmes.
We ensure that all children who have SEND will have their needs met to the best of the school’s ability with the funds available.
We have a team of LSAs/TAs (Learning/Teaching Support Assistants) who are funded from the school budget and deliver programmes designed to meet groups of children’s needs and individual needs.
The budget is allocated on a needs basis.
If you have a concern about the SEND provision for your child then you should initially discuss this with the class teacher. If the matter cannot be resolved satisfactorily then you can contact the SENCO or Headteacher. The SEND governor can also be contacted with concerns.
