SEND Information Report 2021-22

Our Vision

To have nurtured children to love learning, love one another and love God. We seek to provide a home for all within an inclusive and inspiring Christian community.
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself’

Pupils’ Voice

‘The school should help people who need it, letting children have places where they can do their work and teachers to help them.’

What others say about us

‘Love and care for others are at the heart of Holy Trinity’s work and ethos … Staff, parents and pupils all feel supported and nurtured as part of a family… Support for vulnerable pupils is a strength … This is a caring, nurturing school with a positive learning environment in which everyone flourishes. It enables all to love learning, love one another and love God.’

All Richmond maintained schools have a similar approach to meeting the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disability and are supported by the Local Authority to ensure that all pupils, regardless of their specific needs, make the best possible progress in school. All schools are supported to be as inclusive as possible, with the needs of pupils with a Special Educational Need/s and / or Disability being met in a mainstream setting wherever possible, where families want this to happen. Information about how Richmond supports children with SEN (called their local offer) can be found on their website https://www.afcinfo.org.uk/local_offer. Please click on the questions below for more information about how we support children with Special Educational Needs at Holy Trinity. Further information can be found in our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities policy.

Holy Trinity is a mainstream primary school for children aged 3 – 11 years.

What is Special Educational Needs?

Children with Special Educational Needs have learning difficulties that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age. These children may need extra or different help from that given to others.

Special Educational Needs are broadly defined by the following four areas of need:

  • Communication and Interaction
  • Cognition and learning
  • Social, emotional and mental health
  • Sensory and / or physical needs

The Inclusion Leader and SENCo

Holy Trinity has a dedicated full time Inclusion Leader and SENCo who is an Assistant Head Teacher and part of the School’s Leadership Team. This post is currently held by Fiona Whiteside. Fiona is a qualified teacher and has successfully completed the National Award for SEN Co-ordination, as part of the MA in Special and Inclusive Education, and been accredited by the Institute of Education, UCL. In addition, Fiona holds post graduate qualifications in Child Development and Specific Learning Difficulties and accreditation as a specialist teacher. She can be contacted on: 020 8940 2730 or fwhiteside@htprimary.com

Responsible for:

Developing the school’s SEN policy to make sure all children get appropriate support and high quality teaching

Coordinating all the provision for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEN)

Ensuring that parents are: involved in supporting your child’s learning; kept informed about the support your child is getting; involved in reviewing your child’s progress; supported through other agencies such as your GP, local charities and support organisations, the local authorities information, advice and support service

Liaising with external agencies who may be coming into school to help support your child’s learning, for example, the Speech and Language Therapist, Educational Psychologist or Occupational Therapist

Updating the school’s SEN register (a system for ensuring all the SEN needs of pupils in this school are known) and making sure that there are excellent records of your child’s progress and needs

Providing specialist guidance to colleagues in the school so they can help children with SEN in the school achieve the best progress possible

Liaising with potential next providers of education to ensure a smooth transition is planned

Specified Individual support

Class Teacher Responsible for:

Quality first teaching that meets the learning needs of all pupils

Checking on the progress of your child and identifying, planning and delivering any additional help your child may need (this could be things like targeted work, additional support) in agreement with the Inclusion Manager using SEN threshold guidance from the local offer https://www.afcinfo.org.uk/local_offer

Learning and progress of pupils within intervention groups and 1:1 sessions etc, outside of the classroom

Providing input and targets for SEN Support Plans, and sharing and reviewing these with parents at least once each term and planning for the next term, as part of the assess-plan-do-review cycle

Ensuring that all staff working with your child in school are helped to deliver the planned work/programme for your child, so they can achieve the best possible progress; this may involve the use of additional adults, outside specialist help and specially planned work and resources

Ensuring that the school’s SEN Policy is followed in their classroom and for all the pupils they teach with any SEN

Specified Individual support

Head Teacher Responsible for:

The day to day management of all aspects of the school, this includes the support for children with SEN

Ensuring the Governing Body is kept up to date about any issues in the school relating to SEN

Specified Individual support

SEN Governor Responsible for:

Making sure the necessary support is made for any child who attends the school who has SEN

Ensuring that quality improvement of all areas of the school are delivered with a focus on SEN

Outlined below are the different types of support that are offered to children with SEN.

Quality First Teaching

For your child, this means:

The teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class

All teaching is based on building on what your child already knows, can do and can understand

Different ways of teaching are in place so that your child is fully involved in learning in class; this may involve things like using more practical learning All children at Holy Trinity should be getting quality first teaching as a part of excellent classroom practice

Specific small group work (sometimes called Intervention Groups in school)

For your child, this means:

Your child’s teacher will have carefully checked on your child’s progress and will have decided that your child has a gap in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to help them make the best possible progress

Programmes of support will be put in place on a short term basis to help your child to ‘catch up’

This may be:

Run in the classroom or in the shared area

Run by a teacher or most often an Assistant Teacher using the teacher’s plan

This type of support is available for any child who has specific gaps in their understanding of a subject/area of learning.

Highly personalised support, called Special Educational Needs Support

For your child, this means:

In consultation with you, your child will have been identified by the Class Teacher and Inclusion Manager as needing extra specialist support in school instead of, or in addition to quality first teaching and intervention groups

You will be asked to come to a meeting to discuss your child’s progress and help plan the focused support for your child through agreeing a SEN Support Plan

Personalised support through specific strategies (which may be suggested by the Inclusion Manager or specialist professional) are in place to support your child to learn and make progress

A Teacher or Assistant teacher (in a learning support role) will run these small group sessions using the Teacher’s plan

You may be asked to give your permission for the school to refer your child to a specialist professional such as a Speech and Language Therapist or Educational Psychologist to help the school and yourself understand your child’s particular needs in order to provide focused support

The specialist professional will work with school staff and your child to understand their needs and make recommendations, which may include:

  • Making changes to the way your child is supported in class, for example, some individual support or changing some aspects of teaching to support them better
  • Support to set better individual targets for your child, which will include their specific expertise
  • A group run by school staff under the guidance of the outside professional, for example, a social skills group
  • A group or individual work with the outside professional

This type of support is available for children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through quality first teaching and intervention groups. This is called Special Educational Needs Support (and replaces School Action and School Action Plus).

Specified Individual support

This support is usually provided via an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) which has replaced the Statement of Special Educational Needs.
This means your child will have been identified by the School as needing a more intensive level of specialist help that cannot be met from the normal allocation of resources available to schools to provide SEN Support.

For your child this means:

The school (or you) can ask the Local Authority for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment for your child

This is a legal process which sets out the amount of support that will be provided for your child

After the school (or you) have sent in the request to the Local Authority (with a lot of information about your child, including some from you), they will decide whether they think your child’s needs (as described in the paperwork provided), meet the threshold for an EHC assessment. Threshold information can be found on the local offer website https://www.afcinfo.org.uk/local_offer

If this is the case, they will ask you and all professionals involved with your child to write a report outlining your child’s needs

After the reports have all been sent in, the Local Authority will decide if your child’s needs require an EHC Plan in order to make good progress in their learning
If this is the case, they will write an EHC Plan

If this is not the case, they will ask the school for more information or to continue with Special Educational Needs Support to ensure your child makes as much progress as possible

The EHC Plan will describe need; outline long and short term objectives for your child and detail what provision and resources they will receive in order to achieve these outcomes

This type of support is available for children whose learning needs are complex and lifelong.

If you have concerns about your child’s progress you should initially speak to your child’s class teacher

If you are not happy that the concerns are being managed and that your child is still not making progress, you should speak to the Inclusion Manager or Head Teacher
If you are still not

If your child is identified as not making expected progress, the school will set up a meeting to discuss this with you in more detail and to:

Listen to any concerns you may have

Plan with you any additional support your child may receive

Discuss with you any referrals to outside professionals to support your child’s learning

Agree the type of additional support required for a SEN support plan if one is needed

Over an agreed period of time, the school will deliver the additional support and arrange a review meeting with parents to discuss:

The effectiveness of the support

Progress towards the agreed outcomes

Set new targets, if required, and where appropriate, we will also have a conversation with your child about their learning and fully involve your child in agreeing the desired outcomes and how we will achieve them

The school budget, received from Richmond Local Authority, includes money for supporting children with SEN – a notional budget based on baseline entry data and our school SEN profile

The Head Teacher decides on the budget for Special Educational Needs in consultation with the school governors, on the basis of needs in the school

The Head Teacher and the Inclusion Manager discuss all the information they have about SEN in the school, including:

The children getting extra support already

The children needing extra support

The children who have been identified as not making as much progress as would be expected

The Head Teacher and Inclusion Manager decide what resources, training and support are needed in collaboration with the Deputy Head who oversees staff training applications

All resources, training and support are reviewed termly

At Holy Trinity we work in partnership with a range of professionals in order to support children with SEN.

Directly funded by the school:

Family Support Worker through Riverbank Trust (a local charity)

Additional Educational Psychology input to provide a higher level of service to the school

Pastoral Interventions delivered by staff trained in Nurture based interventions and Forest School

Paid for centrally by the Local Authority but delivered in school:

Educational Psychology Service which acts in an advisory way, and consultatively for pupils who are identified as meeting the threshold for an EHCP

Sensory Service for children with visual or hearing needs

Speech and Language Therapy (provided by Health but paid for by the Local Authority)

Provided and paid for by the Health Service (Hounslow and Richmond NHS Trust) but delivered in school:

School Nurse

Occupational Therapy (for pupils with an appropriate EHCP)

Speech and Language Therapy (for pupils with an EHCP)

Physiotherapy (for pupils with an appropriate EHCP)

In addition, the Inclusion Manager can make referrals to:

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)

The Emotional Health Service

Social Care services

Paediatric Occupational Therapy Service

Speech and Language Service (for pupils who have met the threshold for an EHCP)

The Inclusion Leader’s job is to support the class teacher in teaching children with SEN and help them to coordinate SEN support in their classroom

The school has a training plan for all staff to improve the teaching and learning of children, including those with SEN, this involves whole school training on SEN issues such as Autism and Speech and language difficulties

Individual teachers and support staff attend specialist training courses run by outside agencies, usually through Achieving For Children’s Workforce Development Team, that are relevant to the needs of specific children in their class

Class Teachers plan lessons according to the specific needs of all groups of children in their class and will try to ensure that your child’s needs are met

Planning and teaching will be adapted on a daily basis, if needed, to meet your child’s learning needs

Teachers will adapt and differentiate their planning so that they or assistant teachers can support the needs of your child in a smaller learning group or 1:1 teaching, where necessary, for pupils who meet the threshold for a SEN support plan

Specific resources and strategies will be used to support your child individually and in groups

Your child’s progress is continually monitored by his/her class teacher

Your child’s progress is reviewed formally every term

The school uses a data handling tool called Target Tracker to record and evaluate progress and attainment

Information is shared with you every term at parent’s evening

If your child is in Year 1 and above, but is not yet working at National Curriculum levels, a more sensitive assessment tool is used which shows their achievements in more detail and will also show smaller but significant steps of progress

At the end of each key stage (i.e. at the end of year 2 and year 6,) the government requires all children to be formally assessed using Standard Assessment Tests (SATS) and the results are published nationally

In addition:

For children at SEN Support, they will have a support plan that will be reviewed with your involvement, every term

The progress of children with an EHC Plan is formally reviewed at an Annual Review meeting with all adults involved in the child’s education

The class teacher will also check that your child is making good progress within any individual work or in any group that they take part

The effectiveness of the school’s provision for pupils with SEN is evaluated through the schools on-going monitoring cycle by the Senior Leadership Team. This includes:

Termly pupil progress meetings

Weekly learning walks

Termly Book looks

Termly Provision Management audit and data check

In school:

The class teacher is regularly available to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns you may have and to share information about what is working well at home and school so similar strategies can be used

The Inclusion Leader is available to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns or worries you may have, initially with the class teacher too

All information from outside professionals will be discussed with you with the person involved directly, or where this is not possible, in a report

SEN support will be reviewed each term

Home Learning will be adjusted as needed to your child’s individual needs

A home/school contact book may be used to support communication with you, when this has been agreed to be useful for you and your child

The Inclusion Manager will share information with you about local support groups, courses for parents and holiday activities that are relevant to your child’s needs

In the local area:

The Richmond-Kingston SEND Information, Advice and Support Service, managed by the national charity Kids, provides free, impartial, confidential advice and support on SEN-related issues to parents/carers and young people from the age of 16 -25. They can be contacted on 020 8831 6179; email Richmondkingston@kids.org.uk; website https://www.kids.org.uk/richmond-and-kingston-sendiass

At Holy Trinity we strongly believe in fulfilling our statutory requirement to be an inclusive school.

The school site is fully accessible to children with physical disability via ramps

We ensure that equipment used is accessible to all children regardless of their needs

After school provision is accessible to all children including those with SEN

Extra-curricular activities are accessible for children with SEN (NB* Where school clubs are delivered by outside agents using the school grounds, they are responsible for their own inclusive practice)

For aftertime extra-curricular activities parents of pupils with SEN support and EHCPs that require 1:1 support may need to make separate arrangements with the activity provider

Access arrangements are made by the Inclusion Manager for children with SEN and Disabilities who take part in Standard Attainments Tests (SATs) in Year 6
Support is provided for children with SEN and Disabilities who require it at lunchtimes and breaks

We recognise that transitions can be difficult for a child with SEN and take steps to ensure that any transition is as smooth as possible.

If your child is moving to another school:

We will contact the school SENCo and ensure he/she knows about any special arrangements or support that needs to be made for your child

We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible, with your permission

When moving classes in school:

Information will be passed on to the new class teacher in advance and in most cases, a planning meeting will take place with the new teacher

A social story or transition book to support your child’s understanding of moving on, will be made for them if needed

In Year 6:

The Inclusion Leader/ SENCo and when possible your child’s year 6 teacher will attend the Primary Transition Day to discuss the specific needs of your child with the SENCO/ Transition lead of their secondary school

Your child will have focused learning tasks about aspects of transition to support their understanding of the changes ahead

Where possible, your child will visit their new school on several occasions and in some cases staff from the new school will visit your child in this school

In addition, for children with an EHC plan we will:

Hold the Transition Annual Review in Year 5 at the end of the Autumn Term or beginning of the Spring Term to plan for your child’s needs in secondary school

Hold the Annual Review in Year 6 at the end of the Spring Term or beginning of the Summer Term and invite the SENCo/ Transition lead of the named secondary school to attend