SEND Information and Local Offer

In our school we make provision for pupils who have:

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

We know that some pupils will have difficulties in more than one of these areas and we will always do our best to meet their needs.

Read more: Assess Plan Review Cycle

All children’s progress, including those children or young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN), is tracked using the school’s assessment tracking system.

Pupils are assessed regularly using effective live feedback, observations and questioning as well as formal assessments such as end of unit assessments. 

In Birmingham, we also have access to the Birmingham Language and Literacy and Maths toolkits which support assessment when a child or young person is making small steps of progress or working well below their age-related curriculum. 

Progress will be measured through targets set on ‘Impact Statements’. This helps the school to monitor how well interventions are working.

The progress each child is making is discussed at parent-teacher consultations and pupil progress meetings.

All children have access to our extra-curricular activities. Where appropriate and possible, adjustments will be made to ensure all children and young people with special educational needs are fully included in these activities.

Our school has a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator, we usually call her the SENCo and her name is Miss Mosley.

If you would like to talk to her then you can arrange a meeting by calling the main office on 012 373 1793 or by pressing the SEN option. Alternatively you can send an email to k.mosley@abbeyrc.bham.sch.uk

At The Abbey, we believe that all staff should be involved in supporting pupils with Special Educational Needs and so we make sure that staff have training to help them do this.

Staff training has included: Level 1 Schools Making Sense of Autism, Speech and Language: vocabulary, Speech and Language: Use of task boards, Trauma Informed Attachment Aware Schools (TIAAS) and Positive Handling.

Teaching Assistants receive half-termly training from the SENCo. Topics have included: Emotion coaching, Attention Needing pupils, TIAAS and PACE strategies.

The SENCo holds The National SENCo award.

In our school if we feel a pupil needs more specialist help we can work with the following people to get this: List of Specialist Helpers

Our school has an open door policy to parents ensuring we are always approachable so parents feel involved in the education of their child.

In addition our school aims to regularly involve parents in the education of their child through a variety of different ways including:

• Regular meetings with SENCo, class teacher and support staff.
• Target setting so parents can see what their child is working on next.
• Home/school books to inform parents of important information.
• Regular curriculum letter to inform parents of what will be going on during the term.
• Home reading logs.
• Information on the school website.
• Parents’ evenings.
• INSPIRE workshops.
• SEN workshops.
• Parent drop-ins/coffee mornings.
• Signposting to parent groups.
• Parents’ views on ITP/Annual Review documents.
• Reports

We aim to involve all children in our school in the evaluations and implementation of their own education. For children and young people with Special Educational Needs we use a variety of strategies to support this including:

• Child or young person’s target review meetings.
• Self-assessment at the beginning and end of learning.
• Having a range of equipment available for the child or young person to choose to use.
• Ensuring the child or young person works with a range of different partners.
• Ensuring the child or young person has a designated adult to go to if they need help.
• Pupil conferencing.
• Membership of the school council.
• One page profiles.
• Medical alert cards.
• Emotions scale.
• Visual timetables.
• Prompt cards to promote independence.
• Personalised work stations.
• Learning breaks.

As a school, we will do everything we can to resolve any issues. Please contact your child’s class teacher or Miss Mosley in the first instance. If you feel your concern has not been resolved, please see Mr McTernan (Principal) .

The school and governing body take complaints seriously and will act upon these on an individual basis

After following the above procedure, and you are still not satisfied, you can make a formal complaint about the school, please refer to the Complaints Policy which can be found on our Policies and Documents page.

The policy will explain each stage of the complaint process.

In our school we have a governor who is responsible for special educational needs. Her name is Dawn Richards.

Their job is to meet with the SENCO regularly. In these meetings the SEN governor make sure that children, young people and families are being supported by the right services from in and outside of school. The SEN Governor will also visit the school, observe what happens in classrooms and meet with class teachers, support staff and children and young people.

In addition the Principal and SENCo have to give a report to the SEN governor twice a year. The SEN Governor shares this report with the other governors so that the whole governing body is aware of how special educational needs are being supported in the school and how well this support is working. The governors will challenge, support and advise the Principal if appropriate provision isn’t being made.

Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS), offers impartial information, advice and support to children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities.

The service is impartial, confident and free! If you’re a parent or young person who is being assessed, the service can:

• Help you understand the referral process
• Act as a named contact throughout the process
• Help you to communicate with everyone who is involved in the assessment process
• Provide information about personal budgets
• Currently available by email SENDIASS@birmingham.gov.uk

Alternatively, The Waiting Room is a directory of Birmingham support services for families.

We aim to make times of transition as easy as possible for the children and young people in our school. When starting at our school we:

• Meet with the child or young person and their parents to talk about their needs and answer any questions about our school. This includes a home visit in Reception.
• Meet with staff at the child or young person’s previous school or setting.
• Provide the child or young person with a welcome pack that has photographs of the key staff.
• Read reports from people who have worked with the child or young person.
• Arrange visits to our school so the child or young person gets to see it before they start properly eg through a ‘shared lunch’ and story time.
• Buddy the children up with a child from upper Key Stage 2.

When moving to a new year group we:

• Introduce the child or young person to their new teacher individually.
• Provide children with a two week transition period at the end of the summer term.
• Provide the child or young person with an updated transition book that has photographs of the key staff and areas around school to look at during the school holidays.
• Talk to the child or young person and their family so we can answer any questions they may have about the new year group.
• Give any adults working with the child or young person a one page profile or pupil passport describing the things that help to support them in school.

When moving to a new school we:

• Hold a review and invite key staff from the new school.
• Talk to key staff at the new school about things that help the child or young person to learn well and be happy at school.
• Arrange extra visits to the new school with a member of staff from our school if that is what the child or young person wants.
• Talk to the child or young person and their family so we can answer any questions they may have about the new school.
• Transfer relevant documents.

The Birmingham Local Authority’s Local Offer can be found at: www.localofferbirmingham.co.uk