Our School Ethos:

At Littletown school, we have an inclusive ethos, we have high aspirations for every child in our school and we aim for them to reach to their full potential. Every teacher believes that they are all teachers of pupils with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). As a tribute to our inclusivity, our school has gained the Kirklees Inclusion Award (KIQS) and the Basic Skills Quality Mark. We believe early identification and intervention is the key to ensuring that our children gain the best possible start to their school journey and beyond.

Admissions:

We follow Kirklees admissions policy for the admission of all pupils.  We accept children with EHCP's where we are the named school.  Any children new to the school will often have a home visit (or currently a doorstep visit).  Where possible, children new to school will come for additional visits into school to meet their teacher, see their classroom and meet their peers.  This may take place before, during or after school.  It may only be one visit or a number of short visits as appropriate to each child.

Identification:

Children are identified as having special educational needs or a disability (SEND) through a variety of means.  This might be through information from a previous school, a child performing below age expected levels, concerns raised by teacher for example behaviour or self-esteem is affecting performance, concerns raised by a parent, talking to other agencies i.e. Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists, or a health issue that has been diagnosed by a paediatrician or family doctor.  Parents, and where appropriate the child, are involved in all discussions, at every step.  Once identified, appropriate paperwork may be then put in place, such as a provision map, pastoral plan, learning passport or My Support Plan (MSP).  We have a number of children across all four areas of SEND, including Cognition and Learning, Communication and Interaction, Social and Emotional and Sensory and Physical.

Assessment:

Assessment is on-going and takes place within every lesson. More formal assessments take place every half term. Pupil progress interviews take place with all staff where the progress of every child is discussed and provision is adapted. For some children with SEND, further assessments may take place in order to understand and support their needs further, such assessments may be undertaken by outside agencies such and speech and language therapists dependent upon the child’s need. Quality, inclusive teaching is an expectation within all classrooms, with work and resources differentiated to meet the needs of all children. However, some children need additional support therefore appropriate interventions are identified and monitored by class teachers with the support of the SENDCO.

Every Child is Unique:

This is our motto.  Our school family is varied and diverse, we celebrate each child as an individual and put in place what is appropriate for them.  Staff have regular training opportunities for understanding children's needs and specific additional needs to ensure we are as knowledgeable as possible to understand a child and their ability and disability.    We do not tolerate any child being treated less favourably, we always endeavour to find ways to complete tasks and activities for everyone.  The approaches for all our children are appropriate to them. 

Training:

Teachers within school can develop their own expertise – this might be in a subject area (all teachers lead on a curriculum area) and receive appropriate and up to date training. All teachers are expected to follow our inclusive classroom checklist and this is monitored during observed lessons. To support this, all teachers complete the IDP (Inclusion Development Programme) modules as a minimum in terms of training for quality, inclusive teaching. We work very closely with outside agencies who also support and deliver training to our school with our specific needs in mind. Teaching Assistants receive support and training and are equipped to deliver quality interventions, eg, 1st Class at Writing, 1st Class at Number, CODE reading intervention, Numicon for maths and speech and language programmes as recommended by the speech and language therapists, turn taking, nurture and social games.  We have children with a wide range of needs including, autism, ADHD, social, emotional, mental health, dyspraxia, dyslexia, speech, language and communication difficulties.  Training is sought appropriate to the needs of the children in a specific class or as a whole school.

Leadership:

Littletown school is effective at leading on SEND. The Deputy Head teacher is a trained Special Needs Co-ordinator (SENDCO) and works very closely alongside the other Deputy Head (also trained SENDCO), Head Teacher, SEND Governor and class teachers in ensuring quality provision for the children at Littletown. We monitor, review and evaluate our SEND provision every half term through the analysis of assessment data and progress meetings with class teachers. Our SEND register is updated regularly and additional plans for individuals are updated and shared with parents termly. There is an open door policy at Littletown which welcomes parents in to school to discuss any concerns or worries with any appropriate member of staff. For children with an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP), termly reviews and formal annual reviews are held in school in line with statutory guidance. Regular meetings with the SENDCO and the SEND governor are held throughout the year and termly reports are shared with the Governing Body showing how children with SEND are performing in school.

Budget:

Within school, we receive funding for children with SEND. Some of this supports children with a 1:1 key worker. Other children might be supported in small groups within lessons at set times in the day. Also, additional resources may be purchased, eg, visual aids, as recommended by external agencies or as necessary.  Interventions take place throughout the day and timetabled appropriately by the class teacher. We have a skilled team of teaching assistants within school, who support children in a wide variety of ways. Our inclusion worker and Phoenix Room nurture provision supports children in school with behavioural, social and emotional difficulties.

Facilities:

We have a sloped drive way with a disabled parking space at the back of school.  We have a ramp into the playground to access 5 of the 6 classrooms.  We have disabled toilets and we have a range of resources to help support your child in the classroom, such as squeezy scissors, communication cards, raised writing slope etc.

Partnerships:

We are part of the Spen Valley Trust. This is made up of one High School and eight primary schools. We work together to provide the best for children aged 0-16. We have a good relationship with the Local Authority and some of our members of staff are Local Authority moderators. We engage with a number of agencies such as Social Care, Speech and Language, CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health), Locala Health team (including School Nurse and Occupational Therapy), Parent Partnership, Pupil Referral service, Portex and Educational Psychology.

Curriculum, teaching and learning:

Our curriculum is based upon the motto ‘Every Child is Unique’’ and believed by all of our staff. We have very clear values and we understand firmly that children need to be happy in order to learn. For this reason, we invest time in building positive relationships and teach social, emotional and personal skills. Our key drivers are Communication, Inclusion, Environment, Aspiration and Community, and teachers plan with these in mind. Our curriculum is designed to engage and excite our children and all children are able to access the lessons that they receive. We have effective teaching across school and learning is supported in class with additional teaching assistants where appropriate – these might support the delivery of lessons, work with small groups or on a 1:1 basis, depending on the content of the lesson and the needs of the class. Any additional plans for specific children are regularly reviewed and new targets set – staff are supported with these by the SENDCO. We provide appropriate interventions – from social use of language programmes to gross motor skill development and further support with maths. We believe in delivering lessons that rely less on intervention and more upon delivering high quality and inclusive provision. We have good transition arrangements in place from Reception to Year 6 and strong relationships with the local high schools. Visits are set up at appropriate times in the year and personal arrangements are made where appropriate.

Our SEND Information Report has been created with our SEND Governor in July 2014 and with our SEND parent group November 2014. It is reviewed and updated regularly with our SEND parents in our SEND coffee afternoons.'