SEND
Springfield Infant School and Nursery gives every child the opportunity to enjoy learning and achieve their full potential in an emotionally supportive, respectful and inclusive environment. We have high ambitions for all pupils, however, recognise that some pupils, either for a short period or throughout their time in school require additional support due to a range of Special Education Needs.
Please find a brief summary of our SEND support in school, for further details of our SEND school offer please see the attached document.
What are Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)?
A child has special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) if they have a learning difficulty or disability which means that they find it significantly harder to learn or to do activities which children the same age is able to do.
These children may need extra help, support or special provision that goes beyond the differentiated approaches and learning arrangements that are normally provided in class.
If your child has special educational needs or a disability their needs will fall into one or more of the four main areas of SEN;
1. Communication and interaction
· Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)
· Autism/ADHD
2. Cognition and learning
· Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD)
· Moderate Learning Difficulty (MLD)
· Severe Learning Difficulty (SLD)
· Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty (PMLD)
3. Social, Emotional and Mental Health
· Global Developmental Delay
· Autism/ADHD
· Trauma/attachment difficulties
4. Physical / Sensory
· Visual Impairment (VI)
· Hearing Impairment (HI)
· Multi-Sensory Impairment (MSI)
· Physical Disability (PD)
Our School
Springfield Infant School and Nursery is a mainstream school part of the Orwell Multi Academy Trust that takes pupils aged 3 to 7 years old. The main building is on one floor with two levels with wheelchair access available throughout via a lift between the two levels. We have an onsite kitchen that provides free school meals for all our pupils. A 52 place Nursery is situated onsite. There are 3 classes per year group with an average of 30 pupils per class, 7/10 of the classes have immediate access to an outside space.
Springfield Infant school is an inclusive school, and we welcome pupils with SEND, and are regarded as full members of the school community. We aim to include them in all opportunities, both curricular and extra-curricular. This may involve a degree of forward planning and the establishment of extra resources. It may also involve the preparation of a Risk Assessment or behaviour support plan and careful consideration of the health and safety of all our pupils and staff.
We understand the importance of choosing the ‘right’ school and strongly recommend a visit to our school prior to application. We welcome visits with both you as the parent/carer and your child. Please contact the school office to arrange a visit where we will happily take you on a tour of our school.
Mrs J O’Neill is our specialist Educational Needs Co-coordinator (SENCO) and can be contacted via the school office or email. Her normal working hours are Monday-Wednesday term time only.
Who do I speak to about SEND?
In the first instance we recommend you speak to your class teacher first. Mrs O’Neill works closely with all staff and children’s needs/progress are regularly monitored.
You may also want to speak directly to either:
The SENCO (Mrs O’Neill)
The family support worker (Julie Rolfe)
The Early Year Lead (Mrs Wesson), if your child is starting in the EYFS.
You could also contact:
SENDIASS
Family services at the local authority
Your GP
Your Health Visitor (preschool only)
School Nursing
We continually monitor progress of all our pupils and follow the graduated Approach to Plan, Assess, Do, Review. If your child is identified as having SEND their details will be kept securely on an electronic SEND register. This is continuously monitored and if a need is no longer identified they will be removed.
What is an Education Health care plan (EHCP)?
If a pupil has severe SEND needs, then the school and or the parent may decide to request a Statutory Assessment to be carried out by the Local Authority. This process will be completed within 20 weeks by the Local Authority. During the time that these procedures are being followed, the Class teacher, SENCo and specialists will continue to try to meet the needs of the pupil through personalised planning. The writing of an EHCP will be completed in consultation with parents, the SENCo and a representative from the Local Authority.
How will you support my child in school?
We aim to endeavor and provide an inclusive learning environment. In addition to quality first teaching (QFT) within every classroom we offer a range of interventions to support the individual needs of children we teach. These are tailored to meet the child's individual specific needs and are designed to ensure that learning opportunities are enhanced, and progress carefully monitored. These are delivered by trained in school staff and/or outside agencies.
1. Communication and interaction
· Speech and language therapy (NHS and Communicate private service), follow up therapy with designated speech teaching assistant.
· Neli (Nuffield Early language intervention)
· Thrive-About us | The Thrive Approach
· Nursery narrative
· Communication friendly classrooms-use of visual aids, symbols, timetables.
2. Cognition and learning
· Read Write Inc groups
· Phonic/maths/reading boosting
· Dyslexia Gold
· Handwriting interventions
3. Social, Emotional and Mental Health
· Thrive-About us | The Thrive Approach
· Family Support Worker
· Breakfast club
· Gym trails/sensory circuits
· Transition groups to support transition into KS2 (please note an application for a KS2 place will have to be made in Year 2). Please speak to admissions or the school office for further advice.
4. Physical/Sensory Needs
For Physical/Sensory needs (PD) we have an adapted environment with access to one disabled toileting facility (located at the front office). We also access advisory teachers for visual and hearing impairments and take advice from the physiotherapists and occupational therapist where necessary. We have experience of working with the diabetic nurses to support children with diabetes.
We also commission, where appropriate, an Educational Psychologist service across the academy trust. Referrals are completed in conjunction with the SENCO, class teacher and parent.
Acorntree PCS | Educational Psychology Services | Suffolk, Norfolk – Educational Psychology Services
What is an Education Health Care Plan (EHC)?
If a pupil has a severe SEND need, then the school and or the parent may decide to request a Statutory Assessment to be carried out by the Local Authority. This process should be completed within 20 weeks by the Local Authority. This is a legal document that is designed to be person centred following the child/young person from 0-25 years old if required.
The SENCo with the support of the Headteacher and the Class teacher and in consultation with other adults (including the parents) working with the pupil, will be responsible for planning and coordinating the provision. Personalised targets will relate to the objectives set out in the EHC. A formal Annual Review meeting, involving the SENCO, Class teacher, Parents/Carer and any specialists involved with the child will be held annually. If there are significant changes in the pupil’s circumstances between the normal dates for the Annual
Reviews, an additional Review Meeting may be called. An EHC will name the provision that your child attends, if you wish to apply for specialist provision this must be completed via the review or named during the return of the family advice form/draft copy of EHC.
The link below provides information on the EHC process:
Suffolk Children and Young People's Portal
The link below offers advice from SENDIASS regarding an EHC request.
Requesting an EHC needs assessment - Suffolk SENDIASS
Below are some parent friendly flowcharts of the EHC process, all copy rights reserved to the Special Needs Jungle. Please note there may be some slight differences between local authorities, and this should be only used as guidance.
Further information
Important Department for Education (DfE) SEND Document
SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Young person’s guide to the Children and Families Act 2014 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
SEND and alternative provision improvement plan - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Summary of the SEND review: right support, right place, right time - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Parents/Carers can also contact SENDiass (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice and Support Service), a confidential and impartial information, advice and support service on issues related to Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)
Please also find the link for family services and who to contact within each area. Our school is covered by the South and West Family services on page 6 of the available document to download.
Suffolk InfoLink | *SEND Family Services
For further information on Suffolk’s local offer for SEND please follow the link.
Suffolk InfoLink | Suffolk SEND Local Offer
Complaints Procedure for SEND
Where a parent or carer has a SEND related complaint, they should always attempt to resolve this directly with the school. Many issues can be resolved by initially reporting or requesting, rather than raising a formal complaint, we would strongly advise parents/carers to talk to staff and other professionals in the first instance.
If the Headteacher is unable to resolve the issue, or the complaint involves the Headteacher and SENDCo, the governing body should then be approached. The governor for SEND can be contacted via a telephone call to the school office. If a complaint is not resolved at school level, the Local Authority should be contacted and this is often most effectively accomplished with the support of SENDIASS, who can also advise on the next steps if the Local Authority do not resolve an issue.
Please see below for official complaints via Suffolk County council if you would like to raise a concern directly with the local authority.