What is the school's graduated response to SEND?

The graduated response is a framework within which schools identify students’ special educational needs and supports them. It recognises that children’s needs will be different at different times.

Initial Concern: Needs met through school universal offer (ordinarily available provision)

When we have an initial concern, it is most likely that your child’s class teacher will approach you informally. At this stage we discuss our concerns and how we are using quality first teaching within class or additional small group activities to support your child. If your child’s needs can be met through our universal offer we won’t add them to the SEN register, but will continue to provide this support and review to ensure that it is having the desired impact.

SEN Support: Needs met through in-school targeted support and intervention

The teacher, with support from the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo), will be responsible for planning further targeted support for your child that is specific and directed to their individual needs (although this may still be delivered as part of a group).  This is where our universal offer or, Ordinarily Available Provision, that we provide for all learners who may need support at any stage – both long and short term – is not meeting the needs of your child.   At this stage we may add the pupil to our Special Educational Needs Support register in order to monitor progress and we can (with permission from parents) ask for advice and support from external specialists and advisors such as SENDIASS or the LA SEMH Advisory Teacher.  We will implement an Individual Learning Plan on Provision Map ad review this using the assess-plan-do-review cycle. Parents are informed about the level of support at each stage during our three times a year parent- teacher consultations, however, informal consultations throughout the year are welcome and you can contact the SENDCo for an appointment using the above contact details.

SEN Support and EHCP: Needs met through specialist support and intervention

If your child needs further support the SENCo and the class teacher may ask for your permission to request additional support from another agency, such as the Educational Psychology service, Speech and Language Therapy service, Occupational therapy etc. These professionals may work directly with a pupil, but are more likely to provide strategies and support to his or her teachers and SEND school team. Your child’s Individual Learning Plan on s Provision Map will continue to be updated to include any new targets and strategies. At all stages parents are informed and support from parents is hugely beneficial, and necessary for best progress.

Education Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) and Plans (EHCP)

An education, health and care (EHC) plan is for children and young people aged up to 25 who need more support than is available through special educational needs support.

EHC plans identify educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support to meet those needs.

School may discuss with parents the need for an Education Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) to ensure that your child’s needs can continue to be monitored and supported with an EHCP. Reasons for this may include when your child has significant, long-term special educational needs (SEN) or disabilities that cannot be fully supported by the SEN support available, or more support than the school's existing funding/resources can provide.  An EHCP is a legal document that will ensure a co-ordinated combined approach for education, health and care needs, but can also guarantee specific, tailored provision (such as a Resource Base or Specialist placement).

School will use their local format of Individual Learning Plans to evidence that a minimum of two cycles of assess-plan-do-review have been completed to support he application.  It is important to note that not all pupils who require specialist intervention will require an EHCP.

Voice and involvement of the Child

At every stage of SEND intervention, from the intial concern process to graduated SEN support, we will seek to gain the views of the child to inform our apporaches. This is done in a variety of ways through observations (both in class and on the playground), speaking to the child, evaluating their learning and progress in books, and noticing how they share their voice and views in other ways -  this is especially important for our Resource Base pupils who may communicate thier needs, wants, likes and dislikes in unconventional ways.

Where age and stage approrpiate, children may be invited to join some meetings or share in another pre-prepared way such as a drawing, choosing a piece of learning they want to share, sharing their views with a familiar member of staff to share or even a video recording.

How will the school measure my child’s progress?

At Christ the King Catholic School, we will follow the 'graduated approach' to meeting your child's SEN as detailed above. This is part of the 'Assess-Pla-Do-Review' cycle, which you can see below.

Whenever we run an intervention with your child, we will assess them before the intervention begins. This is known as a ‘baseline assessment’. We do this so we can see how much impact the intervention has on your child’s progress.

We will track your child’s progress towards the outcomes we set over time and improve our offer as we learn what your child responds to best.

As the image above demonstrates, this process will be continual. If the review shows a pupil has made progress, they may no longer need the additional provision made through SEN support. For others, the cycle will continue and the school's targets, strategies and provisions will be revisited and refined.