Our beliefs and values
At Hilderthorpe primary School, we believe that every teacher is a teacher of every child or young person, including those with SEN.
We believe we provide high quality teaching that is differentiated and personalised and that meets the needs of children and young people. We have high ambitions, set challenging targets, and track the progress of all pupils.
Aim
Objectives
- To identify and provide for pupils who have special educational needs and additional needs
- To work within the guidance provide in the SEND Code of Practice, 2014
- To operate a “whole pupil, whole school” approach to the management and provision of support for special educational needs
- To provide a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) who will work with the SEN Inclusion Policy
- To provide support and advice for all staff working with special educational needs pupils
Your child has special educational needs. What can Hilderthorpe Primary School offer you?
At Hilderthorpe Primary School, we embrace the fact that every child is different, and, therefore, the educational needs of every child is different; this is certainly the case for children with special educational needs.
Our SEND information report is part of the East Riding Local Offer for learners with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). You can view the Local Offer for the East Riding here.
Please see the additional documents below for more information about the Local Offer from Hilderthorpe Primary School and how we can support your child.
What should I do if I think my child may have special educational needs?
If you have any concerns regarding your child’s progress or well-being, then please speak to either your child’s class teacher or Mrs Hoggarth (SENDCo). You can find our contact details on our Contact Us page.
Have a question? Please see a selection of questions and answers below:
Hilderthorpe Primary School is a mainstream school. It is a fully inclusive school and ensures all children achieve their potential: personally, socially, emotionally and academically in all areas of the curriculum and
school life regardless of their gender, social background, ethnicity, religion, physical ability or educational needs.
Teachers are responsible and accountable for the progress and development of all the pupils in their class.
High quality teaching is our first step in responding to pupils who have SEN. This will be differentiated for individual pupils.
Our school currently provides additional and/or different provision for a range of needs, including:
- Communication and interaction, for example, autistic spectrum disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, speech
and language difficulties. - Cognition and learning, for example, dyslexia, dyspraxia.
- Social, emotional and mental health difficulties, for example.
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), - Sensory, Medical and/or physical needs, for example, visual impairments, hearing impairments, processing
difficulties, epilepsy, diabetic. - Moderate/severe/profound and multiple learning difficulties.
If a learner is identified as having SEN, we will provide provision that is ‘additional to or different from’ the normal differentiated curriculum, intended to overcome the barrier to their learning.
Learners can fall behind in school for lots of reasons: they may have been absent from school; they may have attended lots of different schools and not had a consistent opportunity to learn; they may not speak English very well or at all; they may be worried about different things that distract them from learning. At Hilderthorpe Primary School, we are committed to ensuring that all learners have access to learning opportunities, and for those who are at risk of not learning, we will intervene. This does not mean that all vulnerable learners have SEN. Only those with a learning difficulty that requires special educational provision will be identified as having SEN.
There are a variety of ways in which we identify children depending on their age and nature of need:
- Early years Foundation Stage staff carry out home visits which may highlight any additional needs before a child is admitted into school.
- Home visits are also carried out for any new children admitted to school by our school social worker Jo
Brown. - Hilderthorpe Primary School has close links with other Early Years providers which share information
about additional needs of children. - Pupil progress meetings/discussion are held every term from which we track and identify children who are not making expected national progress or ‘falling behind’. The class teacher, head teacher, SENCO and Inclusion Manager are present at these meetings.
- Meetings with class teacher, SENCO, advisory teacher and Speech and Language Teaching Assistant are held every term to ensure the needs of children are being met.
- Class teachers can complete an Initial Concerns form with parent and child.
- Interventions/support programs are then implemented and monitored to ensure that the child makes
accelerated progress. Before a Support Plan is put in place, children may undergo further assessments to narrow down the exact difficulties they are having. In some cases, advice may be sought from our SEN Consultant or other outside agencies. If it is thought that a child would benefit from a Support Plan the class teacher will write this with support from the SENCO if needed. - The Support Plan will include targets for the child to work towards and details of who will help them to achieve these targets and how. Achieving any targets always starts with the child themselves. They will be expected to try hard in their 1:1 sessions and complete homework they may be given to help them succeed. Details of how you, the family, can help the child will be on the Support Plan too. It is very important that home and school work together if a child is to fully achieve their true potential.
- Children who have speech and language difficulties are referred to the Speech and Language Team. Once assessed, the child may be given a program to follow. This program is implemented by a fully qualified teaching assistant and overseen by the inclusion team.
Our SEN profile for 2020-21 shows that we have 16% of children identified as having SEN and 12.6% of
these children have an Education Health and Care Plan.
We will have an early, age-appropriate discussion with the pupil and their parents when identifying whether they need special educational provision. These conversations will make sure that:
- Everyone develops a good understanding of the pupil’s areas of strength and difficulty
- We take into account parents’ concerns
- Everyone understands the greed outcomes sought for the child
- Everyone is clear what the next steps are
We will formally notify parents when it is decided that a pupil will receive SEN support.
Parents are actively encouraged to be partners in their child’s education through informal discussions,
telephone contact, home school diaries, support plan/provision map discussions, progress reviews and mid-year and end of year written reports.
Hilderthorpe Primary School has been an ‘Achievement for All,’ school and values the ‘structured
conversation’ type approach to working with parents.
All children, regardless of SEN, are aware of their next steps. Children who have additional needs have
targets which are shared, discussed and worked upon with those members of staff who are providing their additional support.
We will follow the graduated approach and the four-part cycle of assess, plan, do, review.
The class teacher will work with the SENCO and SEN advisory teacher to carry out a clear analysis of the
child’s needs. This will draw on;
- The teacher’s assessment and experience of the pupil
- Previous progress, attainment and behaviour
- The child’s development in comparison to their peers and national data
On-going programs of training are in place to ensure teachers and support staff have appropriate skills and
knowledge in areas that will improve teaching and support of children with SEND.
Recent training has covered:
- Safeguarding
- Disadvantaged Champion attachment training
- Autism -Understanding Autistic Behaviour
- Psychological First Aid
- Managing difficult behaviour – behaviour team
- Adverse Childhood experiences Training
All staff including dinner supervisors have had training in ‘Attachment’ and the school has completed the Nurture Group Network Programme and now has The National Nurturing Schools Award.
We also have staff with specialised expertise and qualifications in school including:
- Certificate of professional Practice (Speech and Language)
- First Class Degree Special Educational Needs and inclusion BA (Hons)
- BSc (hons) Child Psychology
- Specialist Leader in Behaviour and attendance
- Certificate in Bereavement and Loss
- Living/ working with Disabled children and children with SEN
- Level 2 Helping pupils with SEN
- Outstanding Nurture groups
- Troubled Children
- ELSA
- CHATTA Project
- ‘If not CAMHS what?’
- Supporting children with social communication needs
- Theory and Practise of Nurture Groups
- Accelerating Early Language Development
- Epilepsy training (EYFS staff and SENCO)
- Supporting Successful Learning in a Primary School (TAs)
- 12 condition-specific videos from SENDgateway including ADHD, Autism, Dyscalculia, Dyslexia, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia (all TAs)
- An awareness of Type 1 Diabetes in Schools and Other Settings(all Year 2 bubble)
- The national Autistic Society Early Bird Plus programme
- Cygnet for Practitioners
- Understanding eating disorders
- Supporting children with Language and Communication Difficulties in Early years Settings and Primary Schools
- Working with Children who have been abused
- Supporting Children with histories of Trauma and Loss
- Mental Health Awareness
- Impact on Children of Parental Mental illness/substance misuse
- Children and Young People’s Social and Emotional
- The Vulnerability of Babies
- Self-Harm and suicidal Thoughts in Young People and Children
- Substance Misuse Awareness
- Youth Mental Health First Aid
- Troubled Children
- Boxall Profile Competencies
- Elevate (year 6)
- SEED – Eating Disorders
- Worry and anxiety
- Introduction to adverse childhood experiences and early trauma
- Introduction to childhood counselling
- Mental well-being in children and young people
- Mental health First Aid
- Dealing with bereavement and loss (Early Years and Primary)
Hilderthorpe Primary School works with a number of external agencies to seek advice and support. These
include;
- Speech and language therapists
- Educational Psychologists
- Acorn Consultancy ( a SEN support service)
- School nurse
- Behavior support team
- Parent support advisor
- Referral to CAMHS
- Children’s Social Care
- Youth and Family Support
- Children’s Centre
- Health Visitors
- Sensory and physical Disability Team
Hilderthorpe Primary School is a two-storey building. It has wide doorways and a lift making it easily
accessible for wheelchair users. Disabled toilets are located on both floors. The children are encouraged to
walk around the school on the left hand side, which makes corridors less busy and easier to negotiate at
changeover times such as lunchtimes and coming out of assemblies.
Disabled parking bays are provided.
Teachers are responsible and accountable for the progress and development of all the pupils in their class.
High quality teaching is our first step in responding to pupils who have SEN. This will be differentiated for all pupils.
We make the following adaptations to ensure all pupil’s needs are met:
- Differentiating our curriculum to ensure all pupils are able to access it, for example by grouping, 1:1 work, teaching style, content of the lesson
- Adapting our resources and staffing
- Using recommended aids e.g equipment is purchased to meet individual needs of children whether or not
they are deemed to have SEN. e.g. sloping boards for children who struggle with fine motor skills, sensory
cushions for children with attention difficulties. Teachers are aware of children who may prefer coloured
backgrounds when using an interactive whiteboard or need coloured overlays when reading texts. - Differentiating our teaching for example, giving longer processing times, pre-teaching of key vocabulary
- Specific interventions will be provided if it is felt that they are timely and appropriate e.g.Speech and Language programmes (Time to Talk, Talking Partners),Numicon, Plus 1, Power of 2, Word wasp, Toe by Toe.
We evaluate the effectiveness of provision for pupils with SEN by:
- Reviewing the pupils’ individual progress towards their outcomes each term and sharing this with parent
and child - Reviewing the impact of interventions each term in Pupil Progress / Phase meetings
- Monitoring by the SENCO
- Holding Annual Reviews for pupils with EHC plans
Children with SEN can become particularly anxious about ‘moving on’ so we seek to support transition by;
- Consultation with parents/carers in how we can best meet the emotional needs of the child.
- When moving classes we will ensure information is shared with the new teacher and that the child
attends the ‘transition’ session. When considered to be necessary, the child will access support from nurture staff to help them cope with ‘change’. - Consultation with teaching staff, support staff and other lead professionals as to how we can best
support the academic, medical and social needs of the child. - Opportunities for the child and parent to have supported visits to the new situation.
- ‘Social Stories’ written with/ for the child to support them in their transition
- Contacting the SENCO of a new school to share information about special arrangements and support
that has been made to help your child achieve their learning goals. We will ensure records are passed on as soon as possible. - In year 6 the SENCO and/or key stage leader will attend the primary/secondary transition meeting to
discuss specifics needs of your child and the nature and level of support needed.
In some cases children considered to be more ‘vulnerable’ will have additional visits prior to the official transition day supported by nurture staff.