Inclusion - Rhodes Avenue Primary School

SEND Information Report (Summer 2024)

This report outlines how we support children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

Our vision and how we hope to achieve it

At Rhodes Avenue, we want our children to:

Know who they are

Respect others for who they are

Never stop learning

School Values:

We will act with cooperation because we are a community.

We will use creativity to learn and grow.

We will show consideration as everyone is of equal value and importance.

Inclusive Admissions Statement

We believe that the admissions criteria should not discriminate against pupils with SEN or any disability and has due regard for the practice advocated in the Code of Practice, in that;

‘All schools should admit pupils already identified as having special educational needs, as well as identifying and providing for pupils not previously identified as having SEN. Pupils with special educational needs or EHCPs must be treated as fairly as all other.’

How we know if a child has special educational needs or disabilities?

During the summer term before children start at the school, we invite all parents/carers in to the school to meet their child’s class teacher. We ask parents/carers to let us know if their child has a disability or they feel their child has any special educational needs so that we can discuss this and make sure the right support is in place for their child. We contact all children’s key workers in nurseries or pre-school settings to let us know about the children.

Where necessary, the Nursery/Reception Year Group Leader and/or Inclusion Manager/Special Educational Needs Coordinator visit the nursery settings to observe children and meet with their key person. The class teacher and the Inclusion Manager may also visit the child in their home and to meet their parents.

The school will be informed of children who have been assessed by the Local Authority and have an Education, Health Care Plan (EHCP) when Reception places are allocated. The Inclusion Manager/SENDCO will liaise with all lead professionals and parents/carers to arrange a planning meeting in the summer term prior to admission in order to plan the provision and objectives set out within the child’s plan. The Inclusion Manager/SENDco (and class teacher, if known) will attend any transition meeting in their nursery setting (if applicable).

If a child has special educational needs it is very important that they get the help they need as soon as possible. In order to make sure that any special educational needs not known about before starting school are picked up early, all pupils are assessed in an informal manner during the first three weeks at the school. We look closely at children’s speech, language and communication skills. We plan for and put in place interventions needed in order to be able to refer children with parental permission, to Haringey’s Speech, Language and Communication Service, if necessary. Intervention evidence is often a pre-requisite for referrals.

Our termly assessment and monitoring procedures continue throughout the children’s time at the school to look out for any special educational needs that develop later. Each child’s progress is discussed at a termly Pupil Progress Meeting which is attended by the Headteacher, Inclusion Manager/SENDCO and class teacher. The school uses additional assessments and screening tools to explore children’s progress further and these are administered by the Inclusion Manager (INCO) and/or Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENDCo).

We work hard to maintain strong links between home and school and parents are always welcome to speak to us if they have any concerns. Parents’ first point of contact should always be their child’s class teacher.

What we do to help children with special educational needs and disabilities?

Rhodes Avenue Primary School has developed a wide range of ways in which we support children with different special needs or disabilities. We provide and monitor support using the ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ (APDR) cycle:

First, we identify what the particular challenge/need is. We ask parents to meet with us in order to discuss their child’s challenges/needs.
We agree a programme of support that is carefully targeted on the particular area or difficulty. This describes what we will do to support a child and what we hope the support will achieve.
The action plan is put into place and monitored using appropriate qualitative/quantitative data to show progress against the support.
To see whether support is effective we set a time-frame and we review the progress made.

How we adapt our teaching for children with special educational needs

Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are taught alongside other children but lessons are designed so that all children in the class learn and make progress.

We do this by adapting mainstream lessons to meet the specific needs of all the children in the class. For example, both a child with special educational needs and a very able child have different learning goals within the lesson. Every class teacher plans, monitors and provides support for pupils within their class including children with special educational needs. Class teachers can access support from the Inclusion Manager or Special Educational Needs Coordinator to help them provide support for children with special educational needs.

Rhodes Avenue is committed to ensuring that disabled pupils are not treated less favourably than other pupils.

The school also leads assemblies throughout the year that focus on various special educational needs and disabilities (e.g. Autism, Hearing Impairment, Dyslexia etc.)

How we decide what resources we can give to a child with special educational needs

Part of the school’s budget is set aside for supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities. This is a fixed amount and so we have to use the money as cost-effectively as possible and make sure we can give help to all the children who need it. We have costed all the ways we support children in order to evaluate the impact of the support on children’s progress. Decisions about which support programmes are best for a child are made by the INCO and/or SENCO in consultation with a child’s class teacher and parents/carers. Parents are invited to contribute to planning. The school may also seek advice from the Educational Psychology Service in order to decide which programmes/interventions to use with children.

In exceptional circumstances, where we feel we are not able to meet a child’s needs from our own funds, we will apply to the local authority for additional support for a child. Parents can do this too. We are happy to discuss all of this in more detail with parents. The school will follow the criteria as set out by the SEND Code of Practice when requesting additional support for children beyond school resources and will follow professional advice as part of the process.

How we check that a child is making progress and how we keep parents informed

We work hard to maintain good home/school links. We have a half-termly newsletter with general news about the school. We have three parent consultation evenings per year (one per term) where children’s attainment and progress data is shared. Parents also receive an annual report about their child’s attainment and progress.

For children with special educational needs on the school’s SEND register and those with an Education, Health Care Plan we have a meeting each term. We invite external professionals and parents to these meetings. Due to constraints with cover for staff in school the school sets the dates of meetings. We endeavour to provide as much notice as possible for these meetings.

Mental and Emotional Well-being

The school is committed to supporting and improving the mental and emotional health and well-being of all of our pupils. In line with Local Authority policy, the lead in school is our Assistant Headteacher (Inclusion Manager) Jette Rayner supported by our Senior Mental Health Leader (Amber Bowrey-Hall). Jette Rayner leads the work around emotional, health and wellbeing at Rhodes Avenue and liaises with external agencies. As well as accessing external support for children (from CAMHS), the school may provide emotional support in the form of our School Counsellor, time with our ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant). Unfortunately, the school’s own provision is limited and operates a waiting list dependent on need.

Support we offer for children’s health and general well-being

Children need to be happy and be able to behave appropriately to learn well so all our class teachers work with children in their class on social skills, behaviour and wellbeing. If a child has a particular difficulty, their class teacher will have help from colleagues to support the child, e.g. from the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO), Inclusion Manager (INCO).

Our School Council has class representatives from each class from year 2 to year 6. Council representatives meet with a member of the Headship team weekly to discuss issues that pupils wish to raise about any aspect of school life.

Our Inclusion Champions are selected from volunteers amongst the children in KS2 who have a strong sense of inclusion. Inclusion Champions meet twice a half term to discuss issues around inclusion.

Specialist external services we use when we think extra help is needed

Sometimes a child will have needs that will benefit from additional help from specialists outside the school. Depending on a child’s needs we may draw on support from:

Speech and language therapy;
Occupational therapy;
Physiotherapy;
Educational Psychology Service;
Hearing Impaired service;
Visually Impaired service;
Early Help/Social Services;
School nurse;
Parenting programmes.

We always communicate with parents if we think additional support is needed and receive permission before we contact other specialists. There is no guarantee that a referral made will be agreed as each service operates its own referral criteria and waiting lists.

Staff training

Every year we have 5 staff training days. Teachers have a weekly training session. At least one of these per half term focuses on special educational needs to make sure that staff understand/know:

the varying needs of all children in their class, including those with special educational needs;
how to plan and teach their lessons in a way that is appropriate for all children, including children with special educational needs;
how to support the emotional needs of all children, including those with special educational needs;
how important it is to work closely with parents/carers.

Support staff have a half-termly training session. All staff are required to attend training. The school may send individual teachers and support staff on courses which are specific to their role.

How we include children/young people in activities and school trips

The aim is for all educational visits we plan to always include children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. We explore reasonable adjustments that can be made in order to include children with special educational needs. We use part of our budget to make sure that any support needed can be provided. The school will undertake risk assessments where necessary and if risk assessments identify that a child cannot be included within an educational visit the school will put in place alternative provision within school. We consult with parents/carers before arrangements are finalised.

Our school environment

All facilities in the school (inside and outside) are fully accessible for children with mobility issues. There are disabled toilets located in the Early Years Foundation Stage building Block, Key Stage 1 corridor and on the ground floor and first floor of the Key Stage 2 building. There are two lifts in the Key Stage 2 building.

In school we have a range of equipment designed to support the development of children’s coordination and motor skills in class but if any child needs additional equipment we will refer to access this through specialist services, e.g. Occupational Therapy.

We are committed to making sure that all pupils are able to access high quality teaching and adaptations are made to the learning environment as appropriate (e.g. teachers wearing transmitters for pupils with hearing aids, pupils accessing quiet spaces when needed, enlarged or coloured print outs).

How we prepare for children joining our school and leaving our school

Children joining our school from our school nursery visit their new classroom several times before the start of the new school year. Reception class teachers introduce the children to the rest of the school once they start to make sure they are confident in their new surroundings in the early years building. Children joining our school and not from our school nursery are invited to join in with these sessions.

We invite all the parents/carers of children joining the school to meet their child’s class teacher at the end of the summer term before their children start at the school at the New Parents Information Evening. We also ask parents to let us know if their child has a disability or they feel their child has any special educational needs so that we can make sure the right support is in place for their child.

We help older children prepare for secondary school through our transition programme. This helps the children understand for example how a typical day works in a secondary school, what their timetable might look like, and how to find out who to go to for help if they need it. Children identified as needing further support are included in additional secondary transfer groups.

How parents are involved in school life

At Rhodes Avenue Primary we believe in working with parents/carers as partners and our parents share that belief.

We are always ready to speak to parents about concerns they have about their child. There is an active Parent/Teacher Association called Rhodes Avenue Primary School Association (RAPSA). Parents/carers are represented on the school’s Governing Body in the form of elected Parent Governors.

Who to contact for more information or to discuss a concern

Your child’s class teacher is always your first point of contact;
The Year Group Leader allocated to your child’s year group;
The Inclusion Manager – Jette Rayner (Assistant Headteacher)
A member of the Headship team – Maria Panayiotou (Headteacher), Cigdem Mourat (Deputy Headteacher) and Emel Ali (Assistant Headteacher)
Inclusion and Diversity Governor – Shanuk Mediwaka
Chair of Governing Body –Fiona Doyle;

If in doubt, please ask the school office. The school telephone number is 0208 888 2859.

The School Offer

Our school offer to children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities was prepared in March 2023. It will be reviewed in March 2024.

School Offer

Useful Information

Inclusion Policies – click here

Haringey’s Local Offer Poster

What can you do if you are concerned about your child?

Inclusion Quality Mark Review 2016

Inclusion Quality Review June 2017

How to help your child with Maths at home:

Mrs Rawcliffe shows us how. Click on the links below.