SEND | Peak Dale Primary

“No child left behind…

No barrier can’t be overcome…”

At Peak Dale Primary School, we are proud of our work with our children who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). It is really important to us that we are a welcoming school and that Inclusion is at the heart of everything we do. Inclusion means making sure all pupils have equal access to opportunities in school. This sometimes involves making reasonable adjustments to help children join in, or keep them safe.

The approach we take in school is in line with the National Code of Practice and SEND reforms, which came into effect in September 2014. If you would like to chat to us about anything to do with SEND, please contact our SEND Co-ordinators (SENDCos), who lead and manage SEND in our school: headofschools@peakdale.derbyshire.sch.uk

Mrs N. Doughty

Head of School

SENDCO

What is SEND?

A child has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability that we need to make special provision for.

Some key terms explained:

Learning Difficulty: when a child finds it harder to learn than most children do.
Disability (that we need to make special provision for): something that hinders a child from using our school facilities.
Special provision: is support that is extra or different to what is typically provided.

What are our Values?

Every child with SEND can thrive. We do everything that we can to make sure that happens.

That means we:

provide lessons that meet the needs of every child;
make reasonable adjustments to lessons and our school environment;
provide staff training to expand our SEND expertise.

What are our ambitions for children who have SEND?

We are ambitious for all children with SEND. We want them to make excellent progress. This means they will know more, remember more and be able to do more, despite their SEND.

We want to give them the knowledge and skills they need for adult life. We think about both long term and short term.

In the long term, we want our children with SEND to:

have excellent basic skills (especially in reading, writing and maths)
have good friends and relationships
live a healthy and independent life in the community
be successful in work.

How do we decide if a child has SEND?

We will assess the child. This might be an assessment of reading, writing or maths. It could also be assessing a child’s social skills or behaviour.

Some parents give us extra information to help us make decisions. For example, this could be an eye clinic report about sight loss, or an autism diagnosis letter.

Sometimes our assessment might be quick. Sometimes SEND only becomes clear when we assess a child over a longer period.

When we assess, we always look out for:

A child making less progress than their classmates;
A child making less progress than they did before;
A child not closing the gap between themselves and their peers (despite any extra help that we have given).

Sometimes, we ask outside experts to assess children and give us advice.