Teaching, Learning and the Curriculum

At Gainford Church of England Primary and Preschool we are extremely proud of our commitment to ensure the equal inclusion of all pupils in all areas of school life. We recognise that all pupils are entitled to a quality of provision that will enable them to achieve their potential. We believe in positive intervention, removing barriers to learning, raising expectations and levels of achievement and working in partnership with other agencies to provide a positive educational experience for all our pupils including those with a Special Educational Need or Disability.

 

To successfully match pupil ability to the curriculum there are some actions we may take to achieve this:

  • Ensure that all pupils have access to the school curriculum and all school activities.
  • Help all pupils achieve to the best of their abilities, despite any difficulty or disability they may have.
  • Ensure that teaching staff are aware of and sensitive to the needs of all pupils, teaching pupils in a way that is more appropriate to their needs.
  • Pupils to gain in confidence and improve their self-esteem.
  • To work in partnership with parents/ carers, pupils and relevant external agencies in order to provide for children’s special educational needs and disabilities.
  • To identify at the earliest opportunity, all children that need special consideration to support their needs (whether these are educational, social, physical or emotional)
  • To make suitable provision for children with SEND to fully develop their abilities, interests and aptitudes and gain maximum access to the curriculum.
  • Ensure that all children with SEND are fully included in all activities of the school to promote the highest levels of achievement.
  • To promote self-worth and enthusiasm by encouraging independence at all age and ability levels.
  • To give every child the entitlement to a sense of achievement.
  • To regularly review the policy and practice to achieve best practice
 
A special educational need can be a number of different things.

For example – your child may be having problems with reading , maths or behaviour and school can help the child by assessing their needs and putting together some extra support to help. Parents will be included in this process and information will be shared between school and home about any concerns and ways to help your child. Teachers meet with parents each term to discuss pupil progress but at times extra meetings with parents will be held to help monitor a child’s progress more carefully and /or discuss any further issues and concerns.

We are an ‘open school’ and welcome parents to come to talk to us whenever there is a need.
 
Our SENCO (Miss Farley) is the member of staff assigned to support families with concerns regarding SEND. 
 
Here at Gainford C of E Primary and Preschool we follow the Code of Practice for SEND to support children within our care. Staff are trained and kept up to date with how best to meet the needs of SEND children. We hold regular review meetings with parents, carers and children to assess the impact of the support provided and to plan next steps. 
 
Children in school who receive additional support to best meet their needs will have an SEND Support plan, This outlines exactly what school aims to do to in order to provide support for each SEND child. we hold regular review meetings of SEND Support Plans and invite parents to a termly review. We work in partnership with parents. carers and outside agencies and consider all view viewpoints equally as important.

The SEND policy fully explains what this school can do to support SEND and includes the SEND code of Practice, which is advice given by the government about what schools should do to support pupils with SEND.
 
Types of SEND
Our school have a wealth of experience supporting children with a wide range of needs. We provide data on the levels and types of need to the Local Authority via the school census. 
 
Teaching, Learning and the Curriculum
 
We believe that inclusive education means providing all pupils with appropriate education and support alongside their peers. The Curriculum is all the planned activities that the school organises in order to promote learning, personal growth and development.

It includes not only the formal requirements of the National Curriculum, but also the range of additional opportunities that the school organises in order to enrich the experiences of our children. Our curriculum also includes the social aspects that are essential for life-long learning.
 
How we identify and assess children with special educational needs

Most children and young people will have their special educational needs met in mainstream schools through good classroom practice. This is called Quality First Teaching.

At Gainford Cof E, we follow a graduated support approach which is called “Assess, Plan, Do, Review”.

This means that we will:
  • Assess- a child’s special educational needs
  • Plan- the provision to meet your child’s aspirations and agreed outcomes
  • Do- put the provision in place to meet those outcomes
  • Review- the support and progress.
As part of this approach, we will produce a SEN Support Plan that describes the provision that we will make to meet a child’s special educational needs and agreed outcomes. Parents and carers will be fully involved in this process.

A small percentage of children and young people with significant learning difficulties might need an assessment that could lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan.
 
Full details can be found on the Local Offer website.

We aim to identify children who have difficulties as soon as possible so that appropriate support can be given from an early age. Full use is made of information passed to the school when a child transfers from early education provision and we use assessments during the Foundation Stage to identify pupils and any difficulties they may have. We use observations on the child in school, the Foundation Stage Profile, Speech and language link and teacher assessments to inform us of pupil progress.

Other methods used by teachers to identify pupils are as follows:
  • Discussion with parent/carer about any concerns they may have at home
  • Teacher assessment and observations
  • Progress towards learning goals and targets
  • Progress within the National Curriculum for English and maths
  • Standardised screening/; Assessment tasks
  • Results from SATS
If it seems that your child may have SEND, your child’s class teacher or SENCO will assess:

  • What your child is good at and what help they need with learning
  • What your child would benefit from learning
  • How best to help your child learn.

Once provision is identified, time is allocated to individuals or groups to best suit their needs, learning style and ability.

If you would like to discuss your SEND requirements in detail please contact the school to arrange an appointment.