SEND Overview
SEND At Sheffield Park Academy:
Aims and purpose - Intent
At Sheffield Park Academy we very much pride ourselves in providing students the opportunity to progress academically and holistically.
We understand and appreciate that children learn at different speed and in a variety of ways. We support our young people in a wide range of ways. There are a wide range of ability within each year group. Some children will need extra support or provision to help them meet their targets, personal development and be happy at Sheffield Park Academy.
At Sheffield Park Academy we aim to be as inclusive as possible and endeavour to remove barriers to learning.
The ‘Bridge’ is a supportive learning environment which is staffed by experienced colleagues. Students focus on additional targeted work to enable them to overcome learning difficulties and/or disabilities so that they can make progress in-line with national ‘age related’ expectations.
The Bridge offers:
- Literacy and Numeracy intervention and catch-up programmes for SEN groups and individuals. Pupils accessing the literacy provision receive additional literacy sessions as part of their timetabled lessons. In these sessions intensive the Read Write Inc Fresh Start programme if followed. We avoid taking students out of ‘word-rich’ subjects. Students are continually accessed using placement testing and the New Generation Reading Tests.
- Support for SEND students who may require bespoke provision when they are unable to access the mainstream curriculum (this is a short-term bespoke support, and the aim is to re-integrate the young person into the mainstream setting as soon as practicable.
- Revision/catch up lessons for SEND students to support progress in specific curriculum areas.
- Dyslexia Screening and Intervention Programmes (IDL)
- Testing and applications for Exams Access Arrangements
- EAL support
- Support for students with short-term medical issues
- EHCP Provisions
Meeting Need – Graduated Approach (Implementation)
Identifying and Assessing Need
Any parent can discuss their concerns about their child’s learning needs directly with the SENDCo. Concern may be addressed by the the SENDCo through further investigation in school, referrals to specialist services or advice given to parents about next steps for them to take in overcoming any barriers.
Members of school staff can also refer a concern the to the SENDCo who will note the concerns and carry out further assessment of the area of difficulty in school. This will always involve parental discussions and may also involve specialist services and assessment from professionals such as Educational Psychologist.
Once the student’s needs have been assessed and identified, the level of need will be determined and therefore the type of provision required will be explored.
Categories of Need
- Communication and Interaction
- Cognition and Learning
- Social Emotional and Mental Health
- Sensory Impairment and/or Physical Disability
What might happen then?
If needed, we will put in place the appropriate level of provision to support your child to make progress and access the curriculum. This could include one or more of the following:
- Teaching staff having information to support your child (e.g. size and font of texts, differentiated work, colour of overlay, seating arrangements). This is communicated through a Learner Profile.
- Catch-up Literacy and Numeracy
- Targeted withdrawal from lessons to work on specific areas (e.g. self-esteem support)
- In-class support in specific lessons
- Access Arrangements for internal and external exams (these include extra-time and, in rare cases, a scribe)
- Social and Communication groups
- Time-out passes
- Sensory support passes
- Support at unstructured times (break club and lunch club)
If your child needs support to physically access the curriculum, the support could include some of the following:
- Lift passes
- Learning Support lunch and break passes
- Early lunch passes
- Use of laptops to allow easier recording and presentation of work
- Buddies to support access throughout the building
- Care plans and fire evacuation plans
- Sloping boards, pen grips, coloured overlays
- Medical passes
Level of Need – Provision
The level of need 1-5 and type of provision needed follows once the category of need has been identified. This will be decided by the SENDCo and discussed with parents at every stage.
Level 1 Quality First Teaching
Area of need and Teaching Strategies are shared with all staff through the SEND rgister teachers make the necessary adjustments and adaptations to their teaching strategies to fully include students in all lessons.
Level 2 ILP / Short-term intervention
If a student is not making the expected progress through accessing Quality First Teaching, then a more detailed one-page profile may be produced with bespoke differentiation needed. There may be an identified need for short-term school intervention teaching in small group setting. Progress will be reviewed termly and there will be opportunity to meet to discuss SEND progress at parents’ evenings and additional meetings or telephone contact where necessary.
Level 3 - Outside Agency involvement /Personalised Outcomes / My Plan
Sometimes it is necessary to involve external specialist services to provide advice and support. We may want to ask for help from, for example:
- An educational psychologist
- A speech and language therapist
- Other health professionals
This will help to gather information and co-ordinate support to determine a more personalised provision. This means there will also be a termly support plan in place that will form the basis of the termly Plan, Do, Review processes. This process allows ‘personalised outcomes’ and progress reviewed with the student and family on a termly basis.
A My Plan document may be needed if school is considering a request to assess by the Local Authority.
Level 4/5 Statutory Assessment - EHCP (Education and Health Care Plan)
For students with complex needs it is sometimes necessary to carry out statutory assessments when all other stages of support have been delivered without success, and the student needs a curriculum that is additional and different to the curriculum being taught. The SENDCo or parent can request a statutory assessment. If the Local Authority are provided with suitable evidence that the student meets their criteria, they will carry out the assessment which may result in the student being issued with an Education Health Care Plan.
This is a statutory document which outlines the child’s needs and provision to meet their needs. The school will need to ensure they are meeting the needs through the provision outlined in the document and are working with the child and parent/carer to support them to achieve the personalised outcomes. These will be reviewed on a termly basis with the student and parents. The plan will be reviewed each year with the student and parents to ensure it remains up to date and that it needs to be maintained.
Criteria for exiting SEND Register
Where a student makes sufficient progress based on the assess, plan, do and review cycle, it may be agreed that a student needs no further support and at this point, she/he would be taken off the SEND register. Further support can be introduced at any point should progress reviews indicate this is required.
You are welcome to discuss any aspect of your child’s SEND needs.