SEN Information Report

Unsworth Primary School is a mainstream primary school with a specialist resourced provision for pupils with speech and language needs – the Speech and Language Resourced Provision. The provision has 14 places for pupils from Reception Class to Year 6 with complex speech and language disorders and delays. Currently these pupils are at SEN Support + or have an Education Health Care Plan.

In addition, the school will provide for any child with special educational needs across the four broad areas of need:

• Communication and interaction
• Cognition and learning
• Social, emotional and mental health difficulties
• Sensory and/or physical needs.

What is the Speech and Language Provision and who is it for?

The provision has been at Unsworth Primary School since 1983. There are places for 14 children from YR-Y6 (max of 2 per age group).

The speech and language resourced provision caters for children who have severe speech and language difficulties such as:

• Difficulty making the sounds of speech.
• Difficulty expressing what they want to say.
• Difficulty processing the language they hear.
• Difficulty remembering and recalling words.

All the children with resourced provision places either have an EHCP (Education Health Care Plan) or are at SEN Support+, stating speech and language impairments as their primary difficulty. Many children identified and provided for at an early age are able to return to their school in the future or can access learning at SEN Support.

What provision do the children receive?

All the children are members of a mainstream class and as such they take part in all the class/school activities. All the children are assessed and provided for on a basis of individual need. Each child has an IEP with communication and learning targets which are reviewed and revised each term. Each child receives:

• Up to 3 individual speech and language therapy sessions per week delivered by a speech and language therapist.
• Participation in a language group twice per week working on specific speech and language programmes which are devised by the speech and language therapists and delivered by all provision staff.
• Individualised or small group teaching time working on personalised programmes in English and/or maths. Teaching is planned and delivered by the teachers in SLRP and delivered by all staff in the base classroom.
• Teaching assistant support in class for all activities with a high language content, such as maths, science and humanities.

Who works in the Speech and Language Resourced Provision?

We are staffed by:

• 1 part time speech and language therapist.
• A specialist teacher who is also an Assistant Headteacher.
• 3 full time teaching assistants and 1 part time teaching assistant.

There is a close liaison between provision staff and class teachers.

Activity Mornings

Activity mornings involving children and families take place twice each year. They provide opportunities for:

• Social communication activities for the children.
• Families to meet each other and the other children.
• Enhancement of communication between families and staff.
• Families to feel a part of their child’s school life and for children to enjoy the opportunity to share this with their families.

What the provision has meant to our families

“The Speech and Language Resourced Provision within Unsworth Primary School has been invaluable to our son who started there with speech problems in Reception class. We are always kept up to date with his development and our son has made fantastic improvement not only with his speech and language but also with his confidence.”

"This is an excellent provision for children who need regular speech and language therapy within a normal mainstream school. They learn in a happy, fun environment which helps them to thrive.”

“The Speech and Language Provision has given my daughter a tremendous start to her education and now in year 5, she is accessing an age appropriate curriculum and is full of confidence. I feel that she has the potential to go far.”

When identifying and assessing the needs of pupils with SEN, the school follows the guidance contained within the Code of Practice, 2014 and its own Policy for Special Educational Needs (revised September 2018).

The range of actions include:

• Information from a pupil’s pre-school setting or previous school.
• Discussions from home visits prior to admission into school or parental meetings.
• Daily assessment of children through observation, questioning and learning conversations.
• Close analysis of data including EYFS entry data, termly and yearly assessments.
• Termly pupil progress meetings -data used to identify attainment and progress to show whether a child is falling behind their peers and/or whether the child is not progressing as expected.
• Tracking of progress through the use of Integris.
• Close liaison with a wide range of outside agencies such as the Educational Psychologist, Additional Needs Team ( cognition and learning, speech language and communication difficulties, physical) sensory – visual and hearing, behaviour outreach ( ARK), Speech and Language therapists, social care, CLAS  and health professionals.
• Learning plan reviews.
• Person centred reviews for children at SEN support+ and for those who have an Education Health Care Plan.

A panel comprising of representatives from the school, the SEN Team,  the Educational Psychology team of Bury Children’s Services and the Speech and Language Speech Therapy Service meet termly to identify and assess the needs of pupils referred to the panel for their SLC Needs. Places at the SLRP are allocated by the SEN Team in consultation with parents and members of the panel.

We work in partnership with parents, recognising their knowledge and expertise in relation to their child and recognising that the impact of SEN support is strengthened by increasing parental engagement in the approaches and teaching strategies that are being used.

Parents are consulted and informed from when a concern is first expressed about their child. Actions include:

• Discussions with parents about school concerns and parental views.
• Information about any support or interventions provided.
• Regular discussions and feedback on the attainment and progress their child is making both through termly meetings but also by means of informal and on-going discussions between staff and parents.
• Opportunities to meet with specialist teachers involved with their child to discuss progress and next steps.
• Consultations with outside agencies eg Educational Psychology Service and the Additional Needs Team, both with their child’s class teacher and also with the SENCO.
• Person centred review meetings.
• Twice yearly progress evening meetings with class teachers.
• YR drop in sessions.
• Parental representation on the governing body.
• Termly activity mornings for parents of children in the SLRP to engage in an activity with their child and engage with other children, parents and staff.
• Opportunities to observe their child’s speech and language therapy sessions on a termly basis.
  Home school message books for children in the SLRP, between specialist teachers and parents and for any other children with SEN where deemed appropriate.

• Person centred reviews are held for children who are at SEN Support+ or have an Education Health Care Plan.
• Involvement of some children with SEN on the school council.
• Children’s involvement in meetings to set desired outcomes and progress towards these, through attendance at termly reviews.

• Quality of teaching and pupils’ learning is monitored through lesson observations and learning walks.
• Book scrutiny by the Leadership team and Task Team.
• Learning conversations with pupils.
• Interventions are evaluated for their effectiveness and value for money.
• Progress of children with SEND is monitored on the Integris school tracking system.
• Analysis of termly progress is made during meetings between the Headteacher and class teachers.
• Progress and barriers to learning are discussed and what further support can be given.
• Use of the Assess, Plan, Do, Review process.
• Annual reviews of those children who are at SEN Support+ or have an Education Health Care Plan.
• Use of a costed provision map to record outcomes and evaluate value for money.
• Parent and pupil surveys, feedback on reports and at parent’s evenings.
• Discussions during termly SEN planning meetings.
• Report on progress of children with SEN given to Governors as part of the annual report on outcomes.

• Pre-school home visits are made by the YR teacher and school PSA. Opportunities for children to attend a half daily session in YR and a variety of play sessions in the term prior to starting school. Visits by the YR teacher to the child’s pre-school setting.
• Pupil profiles are created for most children with SEN and incorporate child, parent and school views
  Three moving up half day sessions for children when transferring to each new year group.
• Liaison meetings held between class teachers and between SENCOs, PSA and each class teacher before yearly transfers.
• Transition booklets are created with all children with social communication difficulties.
• At the Year 6 annual review, representatives of the receiving high school are invited to attend.
• Additional visits to High schools in Y6 are attended by the child and an Unsworth teaching assistant so that follow up work can be carried out. Transfer visits sometimes involve members of the Additional Needs Team. Visits cover a variety of sessions during the school day including lunchtimes.
• Attainment and progress data plus information on behaviour, attendance, health needs and social care is passed to any receiving school.
• Liaison meetings between the Unsworth SENCO and  receiving school SENCO are held prior to a child in the SLRP returning to their local school.

We provide for all children with SEN in a variety of ways depending on the individual needs of the child. Class teachers and the SENCO discuss with the parent the most appropriate approach to be taken with each child. The majority of children with SEN are taught in their own classroom for most of the time. We operate a graduated approach based upon assess, plan, do and review.

• Resources and teaching are differentiated according to the child’s individual needs. Teaching is planned to accommodate all learning styles.
• TAs work alongside the class teacher to support children with SEN individually/in small groups and to facilitate the class teacher to work with children with SEN, so that there is an emphasis on quality first teaching for all children.
• 1-1 teaching from specialist teachers based on an individual’s needs.
• Links between specialist teaching and the classroom are strongly maintained to ensure continuity.
  Access to evidence based interventions in small groups or 1-1.
• Kagan strategies are used which promote involvement of children with special educational needs.
  Children’s groupings are varied according to the task to promote engagement, learning and self- esteem.
• Adapted resources as required eg table top visual timetables, task sheets, use of individual laptops and individual behaviour reward systems.
• Equipment is loaned from specialist professionals including the occupational therapist and physiotherapist.
• Recommendations from outside agency assessments and observations are utilised eg environmental needs for a child with ASD.
• Where a child has an Educational Health Care Plan, the recommended resources needed to provide appropriate support are adhered to.
• The PE curriculum is adapted where a child has a physical difficulty and given 1-1 where appropriate.
• The school has full wheelchair access.
• A disabled toilet and shower are available.

Within the Speech and Language Resourced Provision, children receive up to three sessions of speech and language therapy each week delivered by an onsite speech and language therapist. They also take part in two language groups each week directed by the speech and language therapist and delivered by a teaching assistant. A package of support is drawn up for each child on a basis of individual need. Most children are taught literacy either in a very small group or 1-1 in the language base classroom. Some have a mixed package of literacy teaching both in base and in class. Depending on need, some children are withdrawn for individual or small group teaching in maths. Others access their learning in class as part of a group with teaching assistant support. All children have shared support for subjects with a high language content such as science, history and geography.

The SENCO is Mrs G Eisen (Wed, Thu, Fri)

Telephone: 0161 766 4876

Email: Unsworth@bury.gov.uk

The SENCO is a member of the Leadership Team and has extensive experience of working in specialist resourced provisions and has particular expertise with pupils with autistic spectrum condition.

• The school accesses training through the BEST Trust.
• Members of the Additional Needs Team deliver training in school in whole school or group situations as required.
• The SENCOs attend the termly training and the monthly SENCO partnership meetings.
• Teaching staff and teaching assistants are very experienced in supporting children with a variety of special educational needs and have a range of expertise particularly in the area of speech, language and communication needs.
• Ongoing training for SLRP staff in relation to the particular needs of individual children by the onsite speech and language therapist.
• Attendance by teaching assistants at teaching sessions given by specialist teachers and at speech and language therapy sessions to enable continuity and transfer of skills.
• The specialisms of staff are used to support others.

Unsworth Primary is a fully inclusive school and all activities are available to those children with and without SEN.

• Risk assessments are carried out prior to all educational visits and procedures put in place to enable all children to participate.
• Where necessary parents/carers are consulted over prospective trips and if an intensive level of 1-1 support is required they may be asked to accompany their child during the activity.
• A range of extra – curricular activities are available, many of which take place at lunchtime to make them more easily accessible for those children who live at a distance.
• Free placement is provided in the after school club when necessary for children in the Speech and Language Resourced Provision who live at a distance, in order that they can attend events beginning early in the evening such as school discos.

The emotional health and well-being of all our pupils is very important to us and is demonstrated through the following:

• We have a robust safeguarding policy in place.
• The headteacher and all staff have a pastoral role and continually monitor the emotional health and well-being of all our pupils.
• We have a pastoral system in place and additional support is available for children who are vulnerable and those that experience a range of emotional, social and mental health difficulties.
• A trained member of staff (parent support advisor) works with children individually or in small groups where necessary eg friendship groups, matters of anxiety, self- esteem or bereavement.
• Support for some children at lunchtime.
• Use of circle time and PATHS.
• Use of Educational Psychology funding to provide consultations involving parents, children and staff as part of the assess, plan, do, review process for particular children experiencing difficulties in these areas.
• Adherence to our behaviour policy.
• Anti- bullying given strong focus. Any issues acted upon immediately in line with school policy.
• We have developed a Therapeutic Inclusion room where our PSA undertakes emotional literacy groups, 1-1 transformative play and CBT. 

School has access to a range of services which it calls upon as required, as listed below:

• Educational Psychologist and Additional Needs Team for assistance when a child has learning difficulties and difficulties with communication and interaction.
• Vision and hearing sensory support.
• Speech and Language therapy service involvement.
• SEMH Outreach through the SEMH Partnership.
• Requests for involvement from the school nurse and referrals to occupational therapy and physio.
  Liaison with paediatricians eg writing reports to give information regarding particular children’s difficulties.
• Referrals to social care and the multi-agency safeguarding hub as required.  Involvement in CAFs and Team around the School.
• Referrals to Healthy Young Minds.
• Attendance at PEP meetings and discussions with CYPIC professionals.
• Notification of Bury Parent Partnership and other organisations given to parents and accompaniments where necessary by the Parent Support Advisor.

We ask parents to first approach class teachers or the SENCO and hopefully any matters can be resolved. If concerns remain the headteacher can be contacted. The Complaints Procedure is available via this website.