Special Educational Needs
We want all of our pupils to be happy, feel safe and secure and get the best education so that they can succeed. This includes any child with Special Educational Needs or a disability.
Miss Emma Brown is our SENCo/DHT. We support children with additional needs by setting individual targets, accessing support from outside agencies such as the Education Psychology Service, Speech and Language Therapists (SALT) and reviewing provision with parents/carers to ensure that you are fully involved.
We are committed to providing an accessible environment which values and includes all pupils, staff, parents and visitors regardless of their education, physical, sensory, social, spiritual, emotional and cultural needs. We are committed to challenging negative attitudes about disability and accessibility and to developing a culture of awareness, tolerance and inclusion.
You can contact the school office (0121 770 4063) or email s72send@bishop-wilson.solihull.sch.uk to make an appointment to see the SENCo or if you have any questions.
What are Special Educational Needs (SEN) or a Disability?
A pupil has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability that requires special educational provision to be made for them.
They have a learning difficulty or disability if they have:
- A significantly greater difficulty in learning than most others of the same age, or
- A disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools
Special educational provision is educational or training provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for other children or young people of the same age by mainstream schools.
Disability
Pupils are considered to have a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to do normal daily activities.
The school will make reasonable adjustments for pupils with disabilities, so that they are not at a substantial disadvantage compared with their peers.
The 4 areas of need
The needs of pupils with SEND are grouped into 4 broad areas. Pupils can have needs that cut across more than 1 area, and their needs may change over time.
Interventions will be selected that are appropriate for the pupil’s particular area(s) of need, at the relevant time.
| Area of Need | |
|---|---|
Communication and interaction | Pupils with needs in this area have difficulty communicating with others. They may have difficulty understanding what is being said to them, have trouble expressing themselves, or do not understand or use the social rules of communication. Pupils who are on the autism spectrum often have needs that fall in this category. |
Cognition and learning | Pupils with learning difficulties usually learn at a slower pace than their peers.
|
Social, emotional and mental health | These needs may reflect a wide range of underlying difficulties or disorders. Pupils may have:
These needs can manifest in many ways, for example as challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour, or by the pupil becoming withdrawn or isolated. |
Sensory and/or physical | Pupils with these needs have a disability that hinders them from accessing the educational facilities generally provided. Pupils may have:
These pupils may need ongoing additional support and equipment to access all the opportunities available to their peers. |
What should I do if I think my child has special educational needs?
How does the school know if children have special educational needs and need extra help? How will the school help my child?
We know children need help if:-
- Concerns are raised by parents/carers, teachers or the child’s previous school or setting, or from information from the Local Authority or outside support agency regarding a child’s level of progress or inclusion.
- A pupil asks for help.
- Observation of the pupil indicates that they have additional needs in one or more of the four broad areas of need as described in the Code of Practice for SEND:
- Communication and interaction
- Cognition and learning
- Social, emotional and mental health
- Sensory/physical
Class teachers regularly assess the progress of all children and identify any child whose progress:
- is significantly slower than that of their peers starting from the same baseline
- fails to match or better their previous rate of progress
- fails to close the attainment gap between them and their peers
This may include progress in areas other than attainment, for example, wider development or social needs. Slow progress and low attainment will not automatically mean a pupil is recorded as having SEN.
Class teachers will speak to parents and the SENCo to decide on how best to support your child. Once a pupil has been identified as having SEN, we will take action to remove any barriers to learning, and put effective special educational provision in place. This support will be delivered through successive rounds of a 4-part cycle known as the graduated approach.
All children will be provided with high quality teaching that is differentiated to meet the diverse needs of all learners. Staff will receive regular training opportunities to ensure that they have up to date knowledge and skills to be able to support learners with a range of needs effectively. Children with a disability will be provided with reasonable adjustments (such as auxiliary aids and services) to overcome any disadvantage experienced in school and increase their access to the taught curriculum. Children on the SEND register will have individual targets and your child may receive additional teaching activities (we call this an intervention) to help them to meet these targets.
Please see the documents below for further information about how we support children with SEND.
Accessibility Plan
The building is purpose built, in line with current building regulations related to access for all. The school is all on the ground floor level (with no stairs), wide corridors and doorways and smooth pathways onto the playground, enabling wheelchair users and those with physical impairments to travel with ease around the building and access to all of our resources and learning activities. There are two disabled parking spaces in the school car park, a wider toilet cubicle in every classroom, disabled toilets and shower room, hearing induction loop and a medical room. We will purchase additional furniture/resources as and when our pupils require.
The aim of our plan is to:-
- Increase the extent to which pupils with disabilities can participate in the curriculum
- Improve the physical environment of the school to enable pupils with disabilities to take better advantage of education, benefits, facilities and services provided
- Improve the availability of accessible information to pupils with disabilities
The full plan is listed in the policies below.
Information for parents of children with an additional need
- SEND resources from Parentzone
- Autism West Midlands
- All Age Autism Directory
- National Autism Society
- Autism Education Trust
- ADHD strategies for supporting your child's learning at home
- Supporting your child with ADHD to read
- Speech and Language UK - resources for parents
- Ordinary Magic - mental health and wellbeing support for families
- Kooth - online mental health support for 11-25 year olds
- SOLAR - support for children with emotional and mental health needs.
Bishop Wilson Additional Resource Provision (ARP) for children with Speech, Language and Communication Disorders (SLCD)
Bishop Wilson ARP is for children with SLCD as their primary area of need. The provision is directly managed by Solihull Local Authority and is staffed and resourced by the Specialist Inclusion Support Service. It is for pupils with Speech, Language and Communication Disorders as their primary need, who, with additional SLCN support, can succeed in a mainstream environment. There is capacity for up to 12 pupils from Key Stages 1 and 2.
The provision offers:
- Access to intensive specialist support and small teaching groups for core subjects within the ARP.
- Access to evidence-based interventions, following a rigorous process of assessment and target setting. Targets are reviewed regularly.
- Access to weekly SALT intervention.
- Access to the wider curriculum independently, with reasonable adaptations, in mainstream classrooms.
The placing authority is Solihull MBC. The child will have a diagnosis of speech and/or language disorder or severe speech and language difficulties that have a significant impact upon their learning and well-being. The children will have had involvement from professionals that may include SALT, SLCD Outreach team and the CLD team. The child will not always require an Education, Health and Care Plan but will have SLCD identified as their primary need.
For more information email: ruth.beeston@solihull.gov.uk |
