This page sets out information about our provision for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN). They are updated annually.
Whitchurch Primary School is a mainstream school which provides for children and young people with a wide range of special educational needs including those with:
Our special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCo) is: Mrs Dawn Chesters
She can be contacted on: head@whitchurchprimary.org.uk
Our Special Needs Advisory Support Teacher is: Jo Allott
Our governor with responsibility for SEN is: Mrs Eleanor Sugrue
Our SEN policy can be found here:
http://whitchurchprimary.org.uk/information-links/school-policies/
Our Equality Scheme and Accessibility Plan can be found here: http://whitchurchprimary.org.uk/information-links/school-policies/
The school uses Oxfordshire County Council’s guidance ‘Identifying and supporting Special Educational Needs in Oxfordshire schools and settings’.
The guidance sets out:
Click here to read it:
We will always contact parents if we have a concern that a child or young person may have a special educational need. We will raise these concerns with parents as and when necessary through prearranged meetings. Parents will be informed of the concerns and the provision put in place for their child.
We work closely with children and young people with SEN and their parents to agree outcomes and how we will all work towards these, and then to review progress. We do this by: termly meetings, in line with parent evening meetings, using home/school diary, scheduled phone calls etc.
There are also opportunities for parents and children to contribute to our policies on SEN and Equality. We do this by: feedback link on school website, suggestions box, parent focus groups, school council, young people’s consultation activities etc.
We offer a broad and balanced curriculum for all children and young people including those with SEN. Details are published on the school website.
The way we adapt this for children with SEN and disabled children is set out in the School Accessibility Plan. You can read it here: http://whitchurchprimary.org.uk/information-links/school-policies/
Information about these services and what they offer can be found on the Oxfordshire County Council SEN web pages: https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/children-education-and-families/education-and-learning/special-educational-needs-and-disability-local-offer
We always discuss the involvement of specialist SEN services with parents first. We also work with other services and organisations that are involved with a family, with the family’s permission.
The progress of all children/young people is tracked throughout the school through the use of Teacher Assessment, standardised assessments and SATS results.
In addition for children/young people with SEN we regularly review progress towards agreed outcomes assessing whether the support that’s been in place has made a difference and what we need to do next. Sometimes our SNAST will use specialist assessments to measure progress in specific areas.
When we run special intervention programmes for groups of children we assess how successful they have been and use that information to decide on how best to run them in the future.
Information about how the governing body evaluate the success of the education that is provided for pupils with SEN is contained in the governors’ annual SEN report.
All children and young people are included in activities and trips following risk assessments where needed and in accordance with duties under the Equalities Act 2010. We ensure that all children have equal access and make adaptations to support these pupils.
We talk to parents and young people when planning trips so that everyone is clear about what will happen.
There is information about activities and events for disabled children and those with SEN in Oxfordshire in the Family Information Directory:
http://fisd.oxfordshire.gov.uk/kb5/oxfordshire/fsd/disabilities.page
Oxfordshire’s accessibility strategy can be read at:
All children have the opportunity to share their views through their school council representatives and through circle time, PSHE sessions as well as being able to talk to members of staff on request. We have an Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) in School, who works with identified children in school for a range of reasons to support wellbeing.
We listen to the views of children/young people with SEN by including them as part of the termly review process.
We take bullying very seriously. We help to prevent bullying of children/young people with SEN by teaching all children about Special Educational Needs through assemblies and PSHE lessons.
We encourage all new children to visit the school before starting. For children/young people with SEN we seek acquire records from previous schools as soon as possible to ensure a smooth transition. For ASD pupils we work to provide resources to provide resources to familiarise themselves with the new setting.
We begin to prepare young people for transition into the next stage of their education by having step up sessions, as well as additional ‘taster’ days for those transitioning out of school. Additional transition visits are arranged for pupils with specific needs. Pupils new to the school are also invited to have a taster visit.
If you are concerned about your child please speak to your child’s class teacher. Failing this please contact our SENCo, Mrs Chesters.
If you’d like to feedback, including compliments and complaints about SEN provision please contact us through the school office: office@whitchurchprimary.org.uk We aim to respond to any complaints within 7 days.
If you’d like impartial advice from Oxfordshire’s Parent Partnership Service contact:
http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/sendiass
If you’d like to know more about opportunities for children and young people with SEN and their families, support groups or information about SEN these are listed in the Family Information Directory:
http://fisd.oxfordshire.gov.uk/kb5/oxfordshire/fsd/disabilities.page
Oxfordshire’s Local Offer contains lots of information for parents. Click here to see it:
Our school has contributed to the county’s Local Offer through attendance at a training workshop.