Support for students with Special Educational Needs (SEND)
At Pleckgate, we ensure that a child with SEND gets the support they need – this means doing everything we can to meet children and young people’s SEND. A guiding principle for the SEND department is to put the student and their family at the centre of what we do and to ensure that children with SEND engage in activities of the school alongside children who do not have SEND.
The SEND Code of Practice principles makes it clear that all class and subject teachers are responsible for meeting SEND and must make every effort to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND. Most children and young people with SEND have their needs met through universal, mainstream education provision.
Assess – plan – do – review
The SEN Code of Practice is specific about good practice once a potential SEND is identified. The four types of action needed to put effective support in place, through the ‘graduated: approach are:
- Assess: the class teacher and SENCO should clearly analyse a child’s needs before identifying them as needing SEN support.
- Plan: schools must notify parents wherever it is decided that a child is to be provided with SEN support, and involved in planning towards an agreed set of outcomes.
- Do: the class or subject teacher remains responsible for working with the child on a daily basis. Where the interventions involve group or individual teaching away from the main teacher, he/she still retains responsibility for the child’s progress.
- Review: schools must review the effectiveness of the support in line with an agreed date included in the plan.
By taking these four steps, schools will be following a “graduated approach” to meeting SEND needs. It is important to note that this cycle will be continually revisited for as long as the child has SEND.
All children will be monitored, their progress tracked and significantly differentiated learning opportunities will be provided. Parents/carers and pupils will always be consulted and kept informed of action taken to help their child and of the outcome and the school will use a range of evidence based interventions.
Transition Support for students with SEND
How will staff support my child/young person?
The Learning Support Department comprises a team of twenty six staff who work in a variety of roles to promote the learning and wellbeing of all pupils. The nature of the support provided is determined by the needs of the individual pupil.
Many teaching assistants work within whole class lessons, with the aim of removing the barriers to learning that pupils with SEN can experience. This involves the differentiation and adaptation of resources, as well as ensuring, through additional explanation, that the pupil is fully aware of the desired learning outcome of the lesson, i.e. what the lesson objective is and what is expected of them. Pupils completing work as independently as possible is an absolute priority at Pleckgate; teaching assistants will never complete the work for a pupil, as this would be detrimental to their progress, impacting negatively too on the acquisition and development of their independence skills.
The school also has a comprehensive programme of interventions, usually taught 1:1 for 2 half-hour sessions per week. These include Literacy Catch-up, Numeracy Catch-up, Speech and Language, Dyslexia Support and Motor Skills Practice. The purpose of these sessions is to give pupils the basic skills to enable them to access the whole curriculum effectively throughout the wider school.
How will the delivery of the curriculum be adapted to my child’s/young person’s needs?
In addition to extensive liaison with the primary school and with parents/carers, all pupils are assessed on entry to Pleckgate and this informs setting; at Key Stage 3, pupils are taught across 8 or 10 sets for all subjects. This enables pupils of similar ability to be taught together and that the curriculum is tailored to their ability levels with a relatively small range of ability within each set.
Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Local Offer for Children & Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) – Pleckgate High School