SENDCO: Christine Mead
Headteacher: Bryony Surtees
SEND Governor: Yvonne Skillern
If you are worried about your child please contact the School Office to make an appointment to see Mrs Mead or Mrs Godfrey, who will talk through your concerns via sendco@isleofelyprimary.org/ admin@isleofelyprimary.org
SEND Local Offer
What is the Local Offer?
The Children and Families Act places a duty on every Local Authority to publish a Local Offer, setting out in one place information on the provision they expect to be available in their area for children and young people (from 0-25 years) who have SEN and Disabilities (SEND)
It is a ‘front door’ to information on the SEND provision from the Local Authority, Health, schools and settings and the voluntary sector.
The Local Offer has two main purposes:
- to provide clear, comprehensive and accessible information about the support and opportunities that are available; and
- to make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving children and young people with SEND, parents/carers, and service providers in its development and review
Isle of Ely’s view
At Isle of Ely, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive and SEND friendly school. Our staff work to make reasonable adjustments within the classroom to ensure all students with SEN can access learning.
We believe:
- all teachers are teachers of all children;
- all children have a right to participate fully in the Curriculum;
- all children have a right to participate in the extra-curricular life of the school;
- Inclusion equates to higher achievement for all children.
What is SEND?
A child or young person has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability, which calls for special educational provision to be made.
What we offer:
Here at Isle of Ely we follow the graduated model of Assess, Plan, Do, Review [APDR] for all children we feel need support. All teachers, alongside the SENCo are responsible for monitoring progress of all the children, including those with SEND needs. If no progress has been made after three cycles of APDRs, the SENCo will seek further support from outside agencies, such as SEND services or Speech and Language.
We provide numerous forms of support for all children, including those with SEND, such as:
- An online APDR programme which can be accessed by parents at all times.
- Morning sensory circuits
- A sensory room
- Small group interventions with dedicated specialist learning support assistants
- Dyslexia friendly environments and standard
- Neutral learning environments to reduce sensory overload
- A curriculum designed around reducing cognitive overload and embedded in the latest research
- Alternative morning provision for our highest need KS1 children
- Two purpose build Thrive rooms
Diagnosis:
- In order to get a child diagnosed with Autism or ADHD, there needs to be at least three cycles of APDR evidence before community paediatrics will even consider a triage.
- If you think your child may have ADHD, a parenting course and an anxiety/mental health referral needs to take place before any referral to community paediatrics will be considered. This referral can be done through Mrs Godfrey. If, after parents have engaged with the behavioural support and parent courses there are still concerns, we will then consider a referral to community paediatrics.
- It is important to note that a diagnosis does not necessarily mean support will change in school since most of our needs are met through our fantastic quality first teaching offer and adapting the classroom environment
EHCPS and highest needs:
At Isle of Ely, we follow what we call the 'Team around the Learner' approach when supporting our children with high needs or EHCPs. This might be different from what you've experienced elsewhere, but there's a good reason for this. We've looked at extensive research that shows attaching children to one-to-one learning support assistants can actually be detrimental to their independence and learning attitudes. This is something we feel very strongly about.
For our KS2 children with EHCPs or high needs, we may provide additional adults in their classrooms during maths and English sessions, and they might receive support from intervention learning support assistants in the afternoons. However, there won't necessarily be a named adult per child because we strongly believe in promoting independence in learning. The only exception to this is children with physical needs, who will have a named adult with them for safety purposes.
Our philosophy is simple but powerful - all teachers are teachers of SEND, and all children deserve to be in the classroom with their qualified teachers. This means we run a precision teaching intervention programme that provides personalised and flexible interventions right in the classroom to help close gaps. We believe in creating a 'keep up not catch up' classroom that provides high quality teaching to support the needs of all children.
What makes our classrooms special is that they're inclusive, adaptive, calm, flexible and supportive. Because all our teachers are teachers of SEND, all children, including those with SEND, have a right to be taught in the classroom by a highly qualified teacher. This approach ensures that learners aren't separated from their peers and can benefit from the full curriculum alongside their classmates.
As a school, we're extremely proud of our unique SEN offer. We strongly believe it's the best way to support all children with SEND whilst also promoting independence, inclusion and social interactions. These are skills that will serve our learners well throughout their lives.
Accessibility
How is the school accessible to children with SEND?
- Children in SEND needs and EHCPs will be admitted before other children.
- The school is fully compliant with DDA requirements
- The school is on one level with easy access and double doors
- Outside facilities can be accessed via exit doors
- There are four disabled toilets, one with a full changing bed
- We ensure, wherever possible, that equipment used is accessible to all children regardless of their needs, such as laptops, coloured overlays, visual timetables and larger fonts
- We differentiate our teaching and curriculum, for example, giving longer processing times, pre-teaching of key vocabulary, reading instructions aloud, etc
- All of our extra-curricular activities and school visits are available to all our pupils, including our before-and after-school clubs
- All pupils are encouraged to go on our residential trip(s)
Mental Health
Isle of Ely strongly believes that children learn best when they are confident in themselves.
We, as a school, acknowledge that mental health needs are becoming increasingly apparent in primary aged children and we offer numerous ways to support children with these needs such as:
- Two bespoke thrive rooms
- One full time and one part time thrive practitioner
- A dedicated vulnerable pupils lead
- A sensory room
- A therapeutic behaviour approach embedded in positive relationships
If you feel your child may need support with their mental health, please contact our vulnerable pupils lead Mrs Natalie Godfrey by emailing admin@isleofelyprimary.org
SEND