Inclusion & SEND

Mrs L Guy – Inclusion Lead

At St. Mary’s, all brains are celebrated. We understand that all children work and learn at a different pace, and we hope that we can inspire our SEND children to face challenges and discover and follow their passions.

“We have to teach children how they can learn, not what we think they should learn.” – Henry Winkler (Dyslexic)

Our aim is for ALL children to accesses an age-related curriculum through targeted support. All SEND children will have an ILP (Individual Learning Plan) to highlight their needs and specific areas of support. This may include individual or group interventions, 1:1 support in class, outside agency involvement, resources, and adaptions to your child’s learning. The ILPs will be shared with the children and their families termly and families will be invited to an ILP review meeting with the form tutor at the end of each term.

Should you have any concerns about your child relating to SEND provision, please contact your child’s form tutor in the first instance.

Mrs Lauren Guy
inclusion@brewood.staffs.sch.uk
01902 851266

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

At St Mary’s CE First Academy we prioritise support for SEND children. We have several experienced Teaching Assistants that work with SEND child to support their learning. This support may be class based or if the support is more specific, they may work in quieter areas of school such as our breakout spaces.

Each child on our Special Educational Needs Register has an Individual Learning plan created by their form tutor and this is reviewed with families three times yearly. Children with Educational Health Care Plans have additional annual review to ensure their needs are fully met in line with legal requirements.

The current coordinator of this area is our Inclusion Lead, Mrs Lauren Guy. Please contact her via email or through the school office.

PUPIL SUPPORT– STAGES OF INTERVENTION

Pupil support at our school is arranged in a variety of different ways.
The SEN Code of Practice (Jan 2015) describes a ‘graduated response’ to identifying and meeting special educational needs which are described in ‘waves’ of response for all children.

Stage One: Quality First Teaching
The effective inclusion of all children in high-quality differentiated lessons.
This provision meets most children’s needs within a school setting and no further provision should be required.

Stage Two: Small-group intervention
This can be within a class setting or through withdrawal work in the breakout spaces located around school.

Stage Three: Specific targeted intervention.
This is for children that may have very specific learning needs in mathematics or literacy, or needs associated with other significant barriers to learning. Provision at Stage Three is likely to draw on specialist advice from outside agencies as children are not making progress in certain areas, such as a speech and language therapist, educational psychologist, CAMHS, behaviour support etc. It may also be part of the 1:1 tuition programme for identified children and relate specifically to individual maths or English targets organised through the Subject Leader for each subject area. Gifted and Talented children also receive additional support opportunities through each head of department.

OTHER TYPES OF SUPPORT:

Working with a range of ages we understand the importance of family life and the impact this can have on their mental health and learning.

Our staff are dedicated to supporting all aspects of your child’s education as well as being committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. This includes listening to concerns, supporting parenting at home, referring to outside agencies and providing food bags via the community food hub. Where individual support for children is required our Pastoral Officer, Mr A Martin, works with identified children.
We are also lucky to have model pupils providing peer support through school council, house captains, form captains and the many roles of responsibility within school which allow all children to access support and advice from peers in a more informal manner, should they feel the need to do so.
The school nurse also regularly drops into school allowing children to discuss any worries or concerns they may have regarding personal issues.

Should you, your child or your family need support please do contact the school office.