SEND & Inclusion

Mrs D Camicia- - SENCo

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School is committed to inclusive education, supporting and promoting the development of the whole child with a learning journey that leads every child to be the best they can be, from all starting points, and ready for the next phase in their education. We want all children at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School and in order to ensure progress, they work in a vibrant, inclusive and welcoming atmosphere.

The range of support deployed will be tailored to individual needs following thorough assessment by internal or external agencies. It is designed to promote pupils working towards becoming independent and resilient learners and should not be seen in isolation.

What are Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND)?

Children have SEND if they have a learning difficulty that calls for additional 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.
Have a disability that prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in schools within the area of the local authority.
Are under compulsory school age and fall within the definitions above or would so do if special educational provision was not made for them.’ (Code of Practice September 2014)

There are four broad areas of SEND. Some children may have needs in one or more of these areas, these are:

Communication and Interaction
Cognition and Learning
Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties
Sensory and/or Physical Difficulties

EXAMPLES OF THE TYPES OF DIFFICULTY THAT MAY BE CONSIDERED TO BE SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

Speech and Language Difficulties

Difficulties can be in the way the child speaks, or in how they process the language that they hear. Sometimes children have difficulties in planning what they want to say and in finding the words that they need.
It is often very difficult to identify children with Speech and Language Difficulties, it may sometimes be referred to as the ‘hidden disability’.
It can impact on a pupil’s development, educational progress and life chances. Speech and Language Difficulties, can negatively affect pupil’s behaviour and the ability to socialize and make friends.
Children with Speech and Language Difficulties generally have average or above average non-verbal intelligence and are often very good at masking their difficulties.
We aim to identify any underlying Speech and Language Difficulties and, working with parents, the school might refer the pupil to a Speech Therapist.

https://ican.org.uk/i-cans-talking-point/parents/

Specific Learning Difficulties - Often known as Dyslexia

Dyslexia – a learning difference linked to the way language is processed that affects a SPECIFIC area of

learning. This means that the child’s overall ability is as high, or higher, than their peers but that there is a difficulty with a specific “building block” .

An example is a child who appears as “bright as a button” when chatting to his parents, friends or teacher, but who struggles to read or to spell.
The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) estimates that 10% of the population is dyslexic. Some estimates suggested that up to 30% of the population show some traits of this type of difficulty.
Dyslexia can affect sequencing, memory, motor skills and often leads pupils to have reduced confidence.
Structured literacy programmes are known to benefit pupils with dyslexic traits.

NHS information re Dyslexia

British Dyslexia Association website

Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

Autism (including Asperger Syndrome) affects the way a person communicates, relates to others and makes sense of the world’ (National Autistic Society).
Children and young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders tend to see fragments rather than the whole, often recognising details which relate to their interests and experiences rather than fully understanding what they are being taught.
Pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorders can experience severe difficulty with organisational skills: getting to the right place at the right time with the correct items. Similar difficulties affect the ability to initiate and complete tasks: pupils may require structure, initiation and small step sequencing for there to be successful outcomes.
Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders also have difficulties with empathy and social interaction.
It is quite common for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder to be greatly affected by sensory stimuli which can cause anxiety and distress.
As with other types of special educational needs, our teaching reflects the way that individual children learn.
Most pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorders prefer a routine approach and can become unduly stressed by sudden changes or unexpected events.
In order to support pupils we use visual timetables and visual stimuli in all classrooms, to help children to make sense of the routines of school life.
Autistic children are capable of learning social behaviour that does not come naturally to them, and for this reason Social Skills Training is planned and delivered to groups and individuals by our school support staff.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autism/autism-and-everyday-life/help-for-families/

https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/support-in-the-community/family-support

Developmental Coordination Disorder – Dyspraxia

Dyspraxia manifests in different ways to different degrees.
It is thought to be ‘An immaturity of the brain resulting in messages not being transmitted to the body’.
Dyspraxia can affect pupils in a variety of ways, but tends to manifest itself as co-ordination difficulties with eating, dressing, talking, riding a bike or writing.
A dyspraxic pupil may appear to struggle with balance and some parents have thought that their dyspraxic child was “clumsy”.
Very often a child with this difficulty will also display characteristics of dyslexia, or speech and language difficulties .
Whilst dyspraxia affects only 2 or 3 % of the population, we do sometimes see varying degrees of coordination difficulties as pupils grow and develop.
Every child is different and we are not all equally well coordinated!
We run clubs to help promote fine motor skill control and also handwriting. These help a number of children with pencil control difficulties and most of the pupils on these programmes make good progress.

https://dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/advice/how-parents-can-help/

Children recognized as needing particular support at school are given assistance wherever needed and every effort is made to meet their individual needs.

Parental support is also paramount, provided by our dedicated team of teachers and support helpers.

If you have any concerns at all about your child's learning or development, please don't hesitate to speak to the class teacher or contact Mrs Camica.

Link to policies belowPolicies