SEND

Abbey Lane Primary School is an inclusive school that welcomes learners with SEND. The staff, governors, pupils and parents work together to make Abbey Lane Primary School a happy, welcoming place where children can achieve their full potential whatever their starting point and develop as confident individuals.

The whole team at Abbey Lane work closely together and in partnership with families and external professionals to meet the needs of our children, delivering the SEND Code of Practice so that each child can get the most from their time with us.

We believe that you begin with the child. This often starts with observations in the classroom. We like families to keep talking to us in order for us to have a very clear picture of the needs of their child. Where appropriate, we will arrange to meet regularly, so there is clarity and consistency around your child’s needs. External professionals will be asked to contribute if necessary.

Local Offer, SEN Policy and Information Report.

Our Local Offer, SEN Policy and Information report can be viewed below.

If you do have any further questions or feedback, please do get in touch as we value your views and are here to help, and to signpost to other services as required.

Please see below for the SEND information

What is SEND?

A child has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability that we need to make special provision for.

Some key terms explained:

Learning Difficulty: when a child finds it harder to learn than most children do.
Disability (that we need to make special provision for): something that hinders a child from using our school facilities.
Special provision: is support that is extra or different to what is typically provided.

What are our ambitions for children who have SEND?

The aims of our policy and practice at Abbey Lane are for all to be happy, settled and to thrive in school. We are ambitious for all children with SEND. We want them to make excellent progress. This means they will know more, remember more and be able to do more, despite their SEND. We want to give them the knowledge and skills they need for adult life.

To achieve this we aim:

To ensure the identification of all pupils requiring SEND provision as early as possible in their school career
To make reasonable adjustments for those who require it by ensuring access to the curriculum, the environment and by recognising and regarding diversity positively.
To ensure that children and young people with SEN engage in the activities of the school alongside pupils who do not have SEN,
To reduce barriers to progress by embedding the principles in the National Curriculum Inclusion statement and ensuring all staff have a responsibility for inclusion
To use our best endeavours to secure special educational provision for pupils for whom this is required, that is “additional to and different from” that provided within the differentiated curriculum
To listen to and respond to parent/carer and pupil views in order to ensure high levels of confidence and partnership and to establish positive and trusting relationships
To ensure a high level of staff expertise to meet pupil need, through well‐targeted continuing professional development
To support pupils with medical conditions to achieve full inclusion in all school activities by ensuring consultation with health and social care professionals in order to meet the medical needs of pupils
To work in co‐operative and productive partnership with the Local Authority and other outside agencies, to ensure inclusion and a multi-professional approach to meeting the needs of all our vulnerable learners

How do we decide if a child has SEND?

We will assess the child. This might be an assessment of reading, writing or maths. It could also be assessing a child’s social skills or behaviour.

Some parents give us extra information to help us make decisions. For example, this could be an eye clinic report about sight loss, or an autism diagnosis letter.

Sometimes our assessment might be quick. Sometimes SEND only becomes clear when we assess a child over a longer period.

When we assess, we always look out for:

A child making less progress than their classmates;
A child making less progress than they did before;
A child not closing the gap between themselves and their peers (despite any extra help that we have given).