All Sunderland Local Authority (LA) maintained schools have a similar approach to meeting the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and are supported by the LA to ensure that all pupils, regardless of their specific needs, make the best possible progress in school. All schools are supported to be as inclusive as possible, with the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities being met in a mainstream setting wherever possible.
Partnership with Parents
We work closely with parents in support of children with SEND and encourage an active partnership through ongoing conversation with them.
At UCPS, our job is to help your child achieve the very best they can at school. You know your child best and you may feel that they need some additional help or support for some or all of their time at school.
If you require any further information please contact Sarah Jones (SENDCO and Lead Teacher of the ASD Provision) through the main school office on: info@usworthcolliery.co.uk or 0191 417 8888.
Curriculum Vision
At Usworth Colliery, we have high expectations and aspirations for all. We pride ourselves on providing a safe, happy and healthy environment which supports our children to become confident, caring and independent learners. As a highly inclusive school, we support all our learners to access an education pathway that supports them to build on their starting points, considers their social and emotional needs and challenges them to thrive. Our ethos and core values, along with our engaging curriculum, prepares our childern for modern day life and their next stage of learning. We aim to deliver a curriculum that supports our children to be ready for the real world with opportunities to problem solve, develop resilience, be inspired, curious and creative and develop aspirations for their futures. We are determined that our children will make strong progress regardless of their starting points through a well sequenced, broad and balanced curriculum. Oracy development is at the heart of the entire curriculum: children use key stem sentences to develop language structures and progression is designed across the curriculum in the Physical, Linguistic, Cognitive and Social & Emotional strands. Lessons are crafted to support pupils to build on prior knowledge, revisit key learning, practise key skills and make links, to help them learn more and remember more. We actively encourage respectful, positive relationships for all and promote British Values to maintain a strong whole school community.
Curriculum Intent
We hold very high ambitions for all of our learners by adopting a curriculum model which seeks to enable each and every learner to be the best they can be and do the best they can do, regardless of the challenges they face. Our SEND offer is an ongoing, developing process that seeks to accurately assess attainment and progress of children on our SEND register and work with other agencies because we believe that children are entitled to a sense of achievement both academically and personally. We work with parents, listening to their concerns and seek support from other professionals in developing SEND Support Plans to detail extra support that will help children to make appropriate progress from their starting points.
All children accessing the provisions have an Educational Health Care Plan or SEND support plan with individual outcomes which support both their global development and learning. Children will be engaged in an adaptive learning process incorporating the Equals Curriculum and the National Curriculum. We want our children to be independent learners who can recognise basic emotions in themselves and others and develop their ability to self-regulate.
Within our provisions, children will access a curriculum that meets their individual needs. This curriculum is designed to develop resilient learners who aspire to meet their full potential.
Identifying Support
We identify the level of support your child needs to access by using Together for Children's Ranges of Need Guidance. They support professionals to assess a child's level of need and they types of services and support they may need to access. They also help clarify the points at which professionals should begin to work with school and/or families.
Range 1 – Quality First Teaching
Class teacher input, via excellent targeted classroom teaching (Quality First Teaching).
For your child this would mean:
- That the teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child, and all pupils in their class.
- That all teaching is built on what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
- Different ways of teaching are in place so that your child is fully involved in learning in class. This may involve things like using more practical learning or having access to adapted lesson resources.
- Specific strategies (which may be suggested by the SENDCO) are in place to support your child to learn.
- Your child’s teacher will have carefully checked on your child’s progress and will have decided that your child has a gap or gaps in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to help them make the best possible progress and this wil be noted on a SEND Support Plan.
Range 2 - Specific group work
Class Teachers’ may identify that your child needs a little more support so they would plan for intervention which may be:
- Run in the classroom or a smaller room elsewhere in school.
- Run by a teacher or a Teaching Assistant (TA).
This intervention may run for a half term and the impact of it would be evaluated by the Class Teacher. Class Teachers’ meet with the SENDCO each term to review the progress children with SEN are making and they evaluate how successful interventions have been in ensuring that the children are making progress. The impact of the interventions are monitored by the Senior Leadership Team.
Range 3 – Introducing Professional Support
Normally, a child will work through Range 1 and Range 2 interventions and if they don’t make progress, we may need to refer them into an outside agency to begin to receive some professional support as part of a graduated approach. This means that the child has been identified by the SENDCO and class teacher as needing some extra specialist support in school from a professional outside the school. This may be from:
- Local Authority central services such as the Autism Outreach Team or Sensory Service (for students with a hearing or visual need)
- Outside agencies such as our Education Psychologist.
What could happen:
You may be asked to give your permission for the school to refer your child to a specialist professional e.g . a Speech and Language Therapist or Educational Psychologist. This will help the school, and yourself, understand your child’s particular needs better and be able to support them more effectively in school.
The specialist professional will work with your child to understand their needs and make recommendations as to the ways your child is given support.
Range 4 - Specific Individual Support
This type of support is available for children whose learning needs are more complex and who have not made expected progress despite intervention at Ranges 1-3.
This may be provided by an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
This means your child will have been identified by professionals as needing a particularly high level of individual or small group support but will still be accessing mainstream learning. This type of support is available for children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through Quality First Teaching and intervention groups (“Including All Children” documentation from LA).
Your child may also need specialist support in school from a professional outside the school. This may be from:
- Local Authority central services such as the Autism Outreach Team or Sensory Service (for students with a hearing or visual need)
- Outside agencies such as the Speech and Language therapy (SALT) Service.
If you still feel your child requires additional support, you may be able to apply for an EHCP. If this the case, you will already have been in contact with school regularly and your child will have accessed professional support already. As a school or yourself as a parent, we can request that Local Authority Services carry out a statutory assessment of your child’s needs. This is a legal process which sets out the amount of support that will be provided for your child.
After the request has been made to the ‘Panel of Professionals’ (with a lot of information about your child, including some from you), they will decide whether they think your child’s needs (as described in the paperwork provided), seem complex enough to need a statutory assessment. If this is the case they will ask you and all professionals involved with your child to write a report outlining your child’s needs. If they do not think your child needs this, they will ask the school to continue with the current support.
SEND Documents
Complaints Procedure relating the children with SEND
The school’s complaints procedure is outlined in the school complaints policy which is on our policies page under "other policies". This can also be obtained from the school office. The SEND Code of Practice outlines additional measures which Together for Children must set out for preventing and resolving disputes. Please ask at the school office or email Sarah Jones (SENDCO and Lead Teacher of the ASD Provision) for further details.
.
Sunderland Local Offer
Supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. To find out more please click on the link below:
https://www.sunderlandinformationpoint.co.uk/
Further Information
Our school works closely with The Autism Outreach Team, further information can be found here.
We also receive support from the Speech and Language Therapy Team, further information can be found here.
Large Print letters are available on request from the school office.