SENCO and SEN Staff
At Dean Bank Primary School, we receive a national SEN budget from the Local Authority and this is used to support children and young people with SEND by offering a wide range of intervention and enhancement programmes within school and through our partnerships with other agencies and professionals within the Local Authority. This is monitored each term by the Governing Body.
We have an HLTA and Teaching Assistants who are partly funded from the SEN budget and deliver programmes or interventions designed to meet groups of children’s needs. The budget is allocated on a needs’ basis. The children who have the most complex needs are given targeted support.
The support they (Teaching Assistants) provide for children with SEND is effective as they reinforce essential vocabulary or help to explain new vocabulary being used in lessons. (Ofsted 8-9 May 2019)
All children, no matter what their needs are, receive daily Quality First Teaching. We aim to keep children with SEND part of their whole class as often as possible, therefore support is generally given in the form of a Teaching Assistant working alongside the children and teacher. Interventions are carried out throughout the day at a range of times.
If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.
A Costed Provision Map will be developed in liaison with the child, young person, parent or carer. An example of a costed provision map can be found here:
Costed Provision Map
More details of the SENCO’s role can be found in the SEN Policy which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.
Staffing and any Specialist Qualifications/Expertise
Mrs Katie Hay is our SENCO and is working towards The National Award for SEND Coordination.
Mrs Sharon Temple, who was the previous SENCO, is now the SEN Link Governor to help support Mrs Hay in her new role;
The experienced special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) has a detailed knowledge of pupils with SEND and their families. The most appropriate support for individuals is planned and put into place. Support plans are precise and actions are detailed. The impact can be seen in pupils’ books, during lessons and in the good progress these pupils make.
(Ofsted 8-9 May 2019).
- Miss Allen and Mrs Collin have both attended ELKLAN (Speech and Language) training.
- Mr Murphy has had Lego Therapy Training
- Mrs K Walsh, a qualified counsellor, supports children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs.
External Specialists and Other Bodies
The school enjoys good working relationships with a wide range of people who provide services to children with SEND and their families.
The external specialists may:
- Act in an advisory capacity
- Extend expertise of school staff
- Provide additional assessment
- Support a child directly
- Suggest statutory assessment is advisable
- Consult with all parties involved with the child
These include:
Agencies & Partnerships
Dean Bank Primary School work closely with any external agencies that we feel are relevant to individual children’s needs within our school including people who provide services to children with SEND and their families, particularly when a child is demonstrating further cause for concern or their learning need is more complex and persistent.
The external specialists may:
- Act in an advisory capacity
- Extend expertise of school staff
- Provide additional assessment
- Support a child directly
- Suggest statutory assessment is advisable
- Consult with all parties involved with the child
At Dean Bank Primary and Nursery School, we liaise with the following agencies depending upon the individual child’s needs:
- Bishop Auckland One Point Centre
- Behaviour Support Services
- CAMHS
- Crisis Response
- Education Psychology Service
- Ethnic Minorities and Travellers Advisory Service ( EMTAS)
- Ferryhill One Point Centre
- Learning Difficulties and Disability Support Service
- Learn, Teach, Develop Counselling Service
- Movement Difficulties Service
- Occupational Therapy
- School Nurse Team
- Social Care and Health Team
- Speech and Language Therapy
How We Secure Specialist Expertise
What specialist services are available at your school to meet my child’s needs?
We work with a great range of services and professionals to ensure we meet the needs of each individual child. Our partners are CAMHS, Speech and Language Therapy Services, Educational Psychologist, Emotional health and Wellbeing (EWEL) Team, Medical Practitioners, School Nurse Services, the Learning Difficulties and Disability Support Service and Learn, Teach, Develop Counselling Service. We encourage these professionals to visit school as often as possible to work with our staff and share their expertise. Wherever possible, staff implement programmes of work linked to these professionals e.g. speech and language programmes, exercises recommended by physical therapies etc.
What training do staff supporting children with SEND have?
All teaching staff have Emergency First Aid and Defibrillation training and all TAs have Paediatric First Aid Training. All staff have the Safeguarding Level 1 qualification. In addition, our Senior leadership Team have Level 2 Safeguarding Training, Our SENCO is also the Safeguarding Lead and she has completed several components of Level 3 training. She has recently had training relating from the Anna Freud Centre to develop understanding of Mental Health in children and young people. Our SEND support staff have a selection of training relating to Lego Therapy, Movement Difficulties Programmes and specific training from Speech and Language Therapists.
If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.
