Early Years Local Offer response

Learning and development

Systems and strategies we have in place to identify children that may require additional support

 For full details of our SEND Local Offer, please see our school website - www.st-stephens-salt@cornwall.sch.uk

It is essential to identify children’s needs as early as possible. Parents/guardians may have concerns regarding their child’s learning, speech, understanding or use of language, their social, emotional or behavioural development, or concerns about their sight, hearing or physical skills.  If you have any concerns regarding your child’s development please come and speak to your class teacher as soon as possible. 

The nursery teacher and teaching assistants carry out a continuous cycle of “assess- plan-do-review”. The progress of all pupils is monitored and assessed regularly by class teachers and discussed with the Senior Leadership Team. 

 

How we identify and support children's learning and development needs

Concerns about a child’s progress may be raised by teachers and parents through:

• Informal discussions with teachers, parents and teaching assistants  


• Parents’ evenings  


• Staff meetings to discuss children   


• Senior Leadership meetings – children causing concern  


• Pupil Progress meetings between Head and teachers  


• Reviews of child’s progress after class interventions   


• Teacher completing SENDCO referral form


• SEN Analysis of data  

St Stephens have regular meetings every term between class teacher and senior staff members to ensure all children are making good progress.  If a child is identified as making insufficient progress the school may decide to put an intervention (often called Intervention Groups) in place. This extra support aims to close the gap between a child and their peers.  A Learning support assistant, teacher or outside professional (like a Speech and Language Therapist) will run these small groups. Regular reviews take place to identify progress, and the next steps for the child. 

However, some children have more complex needs and require increased support and further investigation to access learning further.  

The school will discuss with parents/carers:

• The concerns they have  


• Any further intervention or referrals to other professionals available  


• How we can all work together to support your child at home/school 

Links we have to other agencies

Many professionals are involved in supporting pupils with SEND and their families at St Stephens School.  All these, and many more, can be found in the directory within Cornwall Council’s Local Offer. This directory will give information on what support is available, including targeted and specialist services across the county.

 

How we support children transferring to school

At St Stephens School we recognise that transition can be difficult for a child with SEND or a disability and take steps to ensure that this is as smooth as possible.

When starting in foundation:

• All children are offered an intensive transition programme including parents evenings, stay and play sessions, home visits, ‘try a school meal day’, liaison between any previous setting and the new teacher and much more.  


• In addition, children who are already identified as having SEND will be offered enhanced transition to include additional visits where appropriate and liaison between the child’s previous setting SENDCO and the school SENDCO as well as meetings between the area SENCO and the school SENDCO.

Welfare

Specialist skills or training our staff have

SEND awareness is kept on the agenda by the SENDCO who provides teachers and support staff specialist training courses run by external partner agencies. 

All staff have undertaken training led by a range of professionals to develop their knowledge and understanding of the four SEND areas of need and difficulties and how to support Children with SEND. Future training is always planned to match children’s needs and to current national developments in SEND provision.  

Training has included:   

• Speech, Language and Communication Needs  


• Autistic Spectrum Disorder  


• Adverse Childhood Experiences


• Headstart


• Tray learning


• Visual Impairment


• Hearing Impairment


• Attachment


• Thrive


• Growth Mindset

Further training for staff is ongoing supported ‘in house’ or through outside support. 

 

Ways we inform parents about how their child is being supported

We, at St Stephens, really value our strong relationships with parents and recognise the importance of listening to parents’ views and concerns and working together to secure the best possible outcomes for all children. The ways we communicate with you include: 

• Meetings with the class teacher if there is a need from either home or school 


• Surveys and Questionnaires.  


• Parent Evening Meetings.  


• Meetings, which may involve additional adults including the SENDCO, headteacher, deputy headteacher or external professionals  


• APDR meetings


• TAM (Team Around Me) meetings.  


• Annual Reviews for pupils with EHC (Education, Health and Care) plans.  

Our complaints policy

We encourage parents to raise their concerns with a member of staff in the first instance. If we are unable to resolve your query, there is a comprehensive Complaints policy that can be downloaded from our school website - http://www.st-stephens-salt.cornwall.sch.uk/web/policies/137930

Access

Alterations we have made to make our building accessible

We review our Accessibility Plan every year to ensure that our facilities,curriculum, services and information are fully accessible to all.  Our Accessibility Plan can be downloaded from our school website (not on their at present though!) We also publish an SEN information report, updated annually, to inform parents about what we can do to support them.

In addition our SENDCO offers termly SEND coffee mornings and offers individual meetings with the families of all children with SEND at least termly.