Author: Bronwyn Cork

To live, love and learn joyfully in the family of Christ.
Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities parent information
2023-2024

At Sacred Heart, we want all of our children to feel that they are a fully-included and are a valued member of our school community.
We recognise that all children are unique individuals and endeavour to enable each child to achieve to their fullest potential, whatever their ability or specific need by providing equal opportunities for all within our school.
We aim to achieve this through ‘Quality First Teaching ‘

What is Quality First Teaching?
This is what is on offer for all children: the effective inclusion of all pupils in high-quality everyday teaching.
Such teaching will include:
Clear objectives;
Carefully explained new vocabulary;
Lively, interactive teaching styles and
resources;
Pupil involvement and engagement with their
learning;
Clear teacher questioning, modelling and explaining;
Giving children regular opportunities to talk both individually and in groups;
Expecting that pupils will accept responsibility for their own learning and work independently;
Regularly using encouragement and authentic praise to engage and motivate pupils.

We recognise that children:
Have different educational and
behavioural needs
Have different aspirations
Require different strategies for learning and participation
Learn at different rates
Need a range of different teaching approaches and experiences

There is a SEND page on the school website:
www.sacredheart312.herts.sch.uk/special-educational-needs/
On this page you can find key SEND policies; documents, useful websites which contains information about local and national information

“There is a variety of gifts, but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done, but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them. The particular way in which the spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose.”
(1 Corinthians 12:4-7)
Diocese of Westminster Statement on Special
Educational Needs.

The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice
The Code of Practice provides guidance for supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. The law says that a child has special educational needs if he or she needs significant additional help, above and beyond that of the majority of others of the same age, to access their work. This help is known as Special Educational Needs Support (SEN Support).
Many children at some time will need some additional support. For most, this just means that they need a little help in a certain area to get back to the level we would expect. For others, this support may last for a longer period of time.

Sometimes, your child’s teacher may feel that your child needs more support to achieve to the best of their abilities. They will speak to you about the help they feel your child needs and ask you for your thoughts. They may also speak to your child to gain their view. Once we have agreed the best way to support your child and plans have been put in place to support your child, they will be reviewed at least once a term.
Please don’t worry if you or your child’s teacher thinks your child may need extra support with their learning. There are many highly skilled people in school to work with you to make sure your child receives all the support they need to make. progress.

Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
In some cases school may conclude that a child’s learning difficulties remain so substantial that they cannot be met effectively within the resource normally available to the school.
In these cases a request for statutory assessment will be made by the school, an outside agency or the parents. If you would like further information about statutory assessment leading towards an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP), please contact your child’s teacher or the SENCO, Mrs Cork .

Interventions
If we identify that your child needs extra support in a particular area of the curriculum which is not covered in class, we will organise an intervention to help them. This may include literacy, numeracy, extra reading, friendship group support or help with phonics. These interventions take place with a teacher or teaching assistant throughout the week.

External Agencies
There may be times when we may ask other agencies to help a child.
These include:
The SPLD outreach service (offers support in specific English or maths skills)
Speech and Language team
Educational Psychology service
Physiotherapy service
Behaviour support team, Rivers and Amwell View
Physical and neurological impairment team
Communication and Autism team
Child and Adolescent Mental Health service
Child Development Centre
If your child has a range of needs that require support from a variety of different people, we may suggest completing a Families First Assessment to ensure that we can all work together to meet their needs. Following this we will have regular meetings to review progress, support and set targets.

Questions?
If you have any questions or queries about Special Educational Needs and Disabilities at any point during your child’s time at Sacred Heart please speak to your child’s class teacher or the SENCO, Mrs Cork.