Special Educational Needs

For some children further support and provision is needed. The academy strives to identify a child’s additional needs early. When identifying a child’s need we:

Gain pupil voice to ensure adults are understanding barriers to learning and milestones from the child’s perspective

• Work in partnership with parents/carers, pupils
• Consult with all adults working with the child
• Consult with relevant external agencies
• Use assessment tools & materials
• Use observations
• Use both formative and summative data

Where a pupil is identified as having special educational needs, we follow a graduated approach which takes the form of cycles of “assess, plan, do, review”.

This means that we will:

• Assess a child’s special educational needs. This is through ongoing assessment; discussions with parents and children and advice from other professionals.
• Plan: Through discussion with class teacher, support staff, inclusion leader, parents and where possible children, pupils’ needs, aspirations, agreed outcomes and goals are established.
• Children most commonly have three targets to work towards, although this number will vary depending on a child’s needs. Advice from other professionals will help to generate these targets where appropriate. All targets are recorded on the child’s pupil passport.
• Do: Carefully planned intervention and provision is quickly put into place. Typically interventions last for approximately 10-12 weeks. Additional support may be delivered in a variety of ways to meet a child’s needs. It could be individual, group intervention, teacher, teaching assistant and peer support. Where possible, support is given in the classroom, although for some interventions it is more appropriate to work outside of the classroom for a short period of time.
• Review: At the end of this period a review takes place to discuss impact and plan next steps. All interventions have a carefully planned outcome to meet the child’s needs. The impact of provision is evaluated in relation to the outcomes set for pupils therefore it is not solely based on assessment data.

We have a range of teaching assistants and support who are trained to deliver interventions such as speech and language, phonics keep up and catch groups, Lego therapy, maths keep up and catch groups, English as an additional language (EAL) and early language groups etc.

Outside Agencies
We work with the following agencies to provide support for pupils with SEND:

• Speech and language therapists
• West Sussex Learning and Behaviour Team
• Virtual school
• West Sussex autism, social Communication Team
• Occupational therapy
• Child Adolescent Mental Health Service
• Child Development Centre
• Educational psychologist
• School Nursing Team

The academy also takes advice and involves other bodies, including those within health and social care, local authority support services and voluntary sector organisations, in meeting pupils’ SEND and supporting their families.

An education, health and care plan (EHCP) describes a child's special educational, health and social care needs. describes your child’s special educational needs (SEN) and the help they will get to meet them. An EHCP also includes any health and care provision that is needed. It is a legal document written by the local authority (West Sussex County Council) and is intended to ensure that children with an EHCP receive the support they need to achieve their goals and aspirations.

Who qualifies for an EHCP?

EHCPs are for children with significant, often complex needs, requiring support greater than we, or indeed any school setting, can provide alone. Most children with special educational needs will have help and support given to them without the need for an EHCP. This is called SEND support. However, some children may not make the progress expected of them even with this help. When this happens, the Local Authority (West Sussex County Council) carry out an education health care (EHC) needs assessment.

How do I apply for an EHCP?

Parents or the academy can ask the local authority to make an EHC needs assessment. When this assessment is finished, the local authority must decide whether to issue an EHCP. We would always encourage parents to work with the local authority to form a joint request, based on evidence over time and reports from outside agencies.

Talk with our inclusion lead about the need for an EHCP as good communication and understanding help make the process more successful.

How are children with an EHCP supported?

Children with an EHCP often require individualised planning. This ensures the outcomes and provision detailed in the EHCP are planned for and EHCP targets are constantly worked towards.

We aim to have an open culture around the discussion of mental health and wellbeing to empower our children be able to regulate their emotions. We are committed to proactive, early intervention and recognise the importance of promoting positive mental health and emotional wellbeing to our children and their families. We recognise that our role as early educators is to support children to develop a solid foundation of positive mental health to benefit fully from all of the opportunities that are available to them. We want our children to be resilient and mentally healthy, so that they can succeed now and in the future.

The whole academy uses the colour monster to teach our pupils to identify emotions in themselves and others and provide them with bank of strategies to help regulate their emotions and improve their wellbeing. Targeted work with our learning mentor may also support the children to recognise their own triggers, learn to read facial expressions, develop problem solving skills, and become more attuned to how their actions affect other people.

Pound Hill recognises the effects early childhood trauma can have on our pupils, both now and in their future lives. Staff receive training in this area and specialist support is provided to children and their families through our play therapist.

Wellbeing ConcernsIf you are concerned about the wellbeing of child there are many avenues of support both within school and from outside agencies.

Families can also be supported by a family liaison officer, who is another point of contact and support for parents and children if they have any concerns, issues, worries or feedback they wish to raise or discuss.