Here at St Silas we are committed to ensuring an inclusive curriculum for all of our learners including those with Special Educational Needs or Disability.

Our teachers have a good understanding of the needs of all their pupils and these are met through a carefully planned curriculum.  Our teachers are able to focus on clear explanations, modelling the use of different strategies to suit different learners and also check children are understanding what they are being taught.

In our teaching, we use high quality resources,  technology and research-based interventions where needed.  We are dedicated to supporting children with learning difficulties, those with a physical disability and children with emotional or behavioural problems.  

We assess our children regularly and any concerns are raised with parents and our Inclusion Manager.  We then use a variety of different strategies to support the needs of our children and regularly review progress made.  If we are concerned following this cycle of support, we are then able to refer to a number of outside agencies for further support, with parental consent.

We love to invite our parents into school for informal and friendly chats as well as sessions to help you and your child.  We have successfully run the Incredible Years parenting course which is an evidence based programme to develop positive parent- child relationships to promote social, emotional and academic competence in our children. 

We are very proud to have been recently awarded the SENDIA Inclusion Award via Award Place.  This award is to ensure we deliver high-quality education for pupils with SEND and that we are compliant with the SEND Code of Practice.  The award focuses on removing barriers through early identification, inclusive teaching and leadership.   

 

Effective safeguarding of our children with SEND

We are able to provide early help for our families via a Child and Family Assessment (CAF) which school can coordinate.  If you feel you need such support, you can contact our Pupil, Family Wellbeing coordinator, Mrs Rehana Patel at school.  Mrs Patel supports the emotional wellbeing of our children who need extra support, including those with SEND needs.

 

We are aware as a school that children with SEND can face additional safeguarding challenges and our safeguarding policy reflects this.

 

We understand that SEND children can:

  •  be more prone to peer group isolation than other children

  •  be more impacted by behaviours such as bullying, without necessarily showing any    signs; 

  •  find it hard to communicate if they are subject to something which has caused them emotional or physical harm.

  • Sometimes display behaviour which may be thought to relate to the child’s disability and not a potential safeguarding issue. 


 

Our strong ethos helps to embed our core values of love, belonging, service and thankfulness.  We are therefore able to promote that everyone belongs in our school and is loved.

Our children are taught through PSHE about bullying, friendships and staying safe including online safety which is particularly relevant.

 

Mrs Laura Smith is our Designated Safeguarding Lead and ensures staff are well trained in understanding the needs of our SEND children in relation to safeguarding issues.

If you have any queries please phone school and ask to speak to Mrs Laura Smith, our Inclusion Manager.

Blackburn with Darwen’s local offer sets out a range of support and services available to you and your child. This can be accessed using the link at the bottom of this page.

 

 

Please see below for our Special Education Needs and Disability policy and Information Report.

The SEND Information Report is available below

 

The SEND Code of Practice (2014) categorises special educational needs and disabilities into the following areas:

Communication and Interaction- this includes children who struggle communicating with others.  This could be due to unclear speech or a difficulty in understanding what is being said to them.  We work closely with the NHS Speech and language therapy service and use a very experienced private Speech Therapist to meet the needs of our children in this area.  We also run high quality, evidence based interventions to ensure we close language gaps to promote learning across all areas of the curriculum.

Cognition and Learning- Some children learn at a slower pace than their peers and we monitor carefully to ensure all children are able to make progress due to high quality teaching and learning in the classroom.  We are able to scaffold learning for our SEND children to help them learn for example by extra teacher input and the use of high quality resources and technology. We are aware how to reduce cognitive load for children through the use of visuals and chunking information to free up working memory.  Our staff are regularly trained on how to do this effectively.

 We have access to excellent outside agencies who can help children who are struggling to learn such as the Educational Psychology Service and the SEND Support service.

 

Social, Emotional and Mental Health- At St Silas, we understand how important it is that our children are settled and happy.  We employ a very experienced and skilled Pupil Family Wellbeing Coordinator, Mrs Rehana Patel,  who regularly takes groups of children for nurture sessions where they can enjoy therapeutic activities in a safe environment which develop skills which the children can use in all aspects of their lives. 

Our staff are trained in supporting pupils with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and we work closely with community paediatricians and ADHD North West so we can provide as much support as possible to our families.

We see all behaviour as a form of communication and take time to unpick issues children may have and support them to be the best that they can be.  We love to celebrate excellent behaviour through our school values.

Our children know that they can come and speak to key members of staff if they have concerns and we have an open door policy so that we can listen to and support our children.

 

Sensory/Physical Needs- Some of our pupils require ongoing support or equipment to access the curriculum.  We are also able to identify when pupils have sensory issues and if they need help to regulate.  We have a sensory room where our pupils with such difficulties can relax which helps them to feel safe and ready to learn.  Our children enjoy sensory play and sensory circuits which encourages learning through exploration, curiosity, problem solving and creativity.

 

Admission Arrangements

Pupils with SEND are admitted to St Silas CE Primary following our admissions policy. Children starting in Foundation Stage are able to come to induction sessions to help familiarise them with their new school and make them feel comfortable when starting. We set up bespoke induction for those who need additional sessions or something over and above what the other children require.

Children with SEND who start our school in another Year group will be supported by staff in class as well as the Inclusion Manager to ensure their needs are met and that they are happy. We will liaise with staff from previous schools to ensure all relevant information is shared to help this process. Further details can be found regarding admission arrangements, including those for pupils with disabilities can be found in our Admission Policy and Accessibility plan on our website.

 

 

Our children are monitored very carefully by their class teachers and through regular assessments in the classroom.  If they feel a child is not making enough progress or if a child has a behavioural need this will be raised to parents and our Inclusion Manager.  We are aware that not all children who are behind their peers have SEND needs and therefore careful monitoring needs to take place.

If we feel a child requires extra support, we will consult with parents and give children individual target plans. We also regularly provide opportunities for children to discuss their learning and progress with their teacher and SEND staff and there are a number of carefully planned interventions in school which some children benefit from.

 

Our SEND team are trained in the use of a large number of assessments in order to help pinpoint just where a child needs support with their learning. These include Wellcomm to assess language ability and the Sandwell Mathematics assessments.  The Inclusion Manager is also able to carry our additional screening tests and assessments.

 

We are always happy to discuss any concerns you may have about your child’s learning and development and will always make time for such conversations.

We recommend an initial conversation with your child’s class teacher who knows your child best and is responsible for their learning.  They will then raise your concerns, if needed, to additional members of staff within the school.

Our Senior Leadership team together with class teachers carefully track the progress of all children and set targets for expected levels of progress. If a child does not achieve the required levels they are highlighted and brought to the attention of the Inclusion Manager.  Our class teachers will always inform you if they are concerned about your child.  

 

We provide many different interventions both in and out of class to boost progress and self-esteem. These include Wellcomm to support speech and language and Nurture sessions to improve social and emotional well-being.  

 

We welcome parents into school and will keep you fully informed about your child’s progress through target plans and parents meetings. We believe that parents should be regularly consulted on how the school supports their children. If we feel a child needs to be placed on the SEND register to ensure regular monitoring of their needs, a discussion will take place with parents. This ensures we can work together as a team to best support your child. 

We hold regular events where parents are welcomed into school for informal gatherings and also high quality training and workshops.  We are proud to have helped run the Incredible Years Parenting Programme which has taken place twice in our school.  We also invite parents into Friday assemblies when your child is awarded a certificate so you can be involved in celebrating their success.

 

 

Teachers are trained to deliver their teaching to meet the needs of the individual and to cater for different learning styles through adapted learning.   Different resources are used for different children according to their level of need. The way we teach encourages all our learners to be independent and to be able to access the curriculum at their own level and the children are supported with this process through use of scaffolding, use of technology and strategies to reduce cognitive overload and improve memory skills.

We use the graduated response at St Silas which is a way of meeting the needs of our children through effective implementation of support before moving a child onto higher levels of support by following the assess, plan, do and review cycles. 

We follow three waves of teaching which all class teachers adopt for all their pupils with SEND.

Wave 1 Universal Quality First Teaching:  Teaching is adapted to ensure all children can learn and progress.  Our teachers use knowledge of where the children are in their learning to plan their next steps.

Wave 2 Targeted intervention: Children can be provided with a Graduated Response when they require further support. This consists of Wave 2 Teaching initially where they have access to small group intervention tailored to their needs in areas such as English, Mathematics, Motor Skills or Speech and Language support.

Wave 3 Special Intervention: Children who have SEND will also, at times, receive specific targeted support which addresses specific barriers they have to their learning. This can include work provided by external agencies such as the Speech and Language Service. Wave 3 support attempts to help children acquire the learning necessary to better access both Wave 1 and 2 teaching.

Should a child need extra support they are given additional individual targets which are carefully monitored by our SEND team.

The effectiveness of provision for SEND is evaluated through carefully measuring progress which children have made during interventions using entry and exit assessment data. Children are tracked termly and monitored to ensure they make good levels of progress and parents are kept informed.

Children on the SEND register are assessed individually using a bank of internal tests in order to unpick and target where they need support. These consist of the British Picture Vocabulary Scale, RAVENS, Digit Span Memory test, Motor skills assessments, Good Enough Draw a Man and numerous Speech and Language assessments.  Many of these are carried out or overseen by external agencies when parents give consent such as speech therapists and advisory teachers.

Through using these tests we are able to build up a picture of how effective provision is for the children and what areas they need more support with.

The effectiveness of SEND provision is measured in outcomes. This is done through tracking individual, classes, year groups and whole school assessment data, along with monitoring additional outcomes for SEND pupils such as better behaviour, higher self esteem and improved speech. The Inclusion Manager reports termly to Governors and our SEND Governor, Mrs Patricia Knight meets with the SENCO regularly to discuss the SEND and Inclusion Action Plan. 

 

All staff in our school strive to deliver quality first teaching (Wave 1). Some children require additional support and in such cases we implement Wave 2 or Wave 3 interventions. These are overseen by the Inclusion Manager. We keep parents regularly updated through meetings and welcome parents at any time to discuss their child’s progress. Our SEND children are given an individual target plan which captures their voice, strengths and weaknesses.  This contains targets which are reviewed at least termly.  Our children are shown their targets regularly in school and these are shared with parents too.

We use our SEND budget to deliver interventions for those children who need them. We are also able to apply for top up funding from the authority in the form of an Education, Health and Care Plan should we feel that any child requires support which school cannot meet through existing resources.  This is a process which requires building up key evidence over a minimum of two assess, plan, do, review cycles involving a number of outside agencies over a long period of time.

 

We openly welcome our parents to come and see us whenever they wish and are proud of our good communication with parents. We value your contribution and will always aim to help you to support your child in the best way we can.  

We offer high quality early help through our experienced and skilled Pupil, Family Wellbeing Coordinator, Mrs Rehana Patel.  Mrs Rehana Patel works with many of our families to help address different issues which may be impacting upon a child’s life.

We encourage our children to read daily and homework is given most weeks in order to allow parents to build on what has been taking place in the classroom. This enables parents to become actively involved in their child’s education. We also offer individual advice to some parents who require further support which gives them the confidence to help their child at home. We invite parents to regular meetings and sessions in class to find out how we help children learn.

8.What specialist services and expertise are available or accessible through our school?

 

We are proud of our excellent and long standing working relationships with a number of outside agencies who enable us to better support our children through a wealth of expert knowledge.  All outside agency referrals require parental consent.

 

Should a child need more support we have access to and frequently use additional services provided by:

  • The Blackburn with Darwen Educational Psychology team

  • Reachout ASC- a private company providing expert advisory teachers to help our children with Autism.

  • SEND Support service- A team of advisory teachers who support children with specific needs including Behavioural, Social and Emotional needs, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Visual Impairment, Hearing Impairment, Motor Skills, Cognition and Learning, Speech, Language and Communication, Early Years and Complex Needs.

  • NHS speech therapy and an experienced private speech therapist

  • Mental Health in School team who are based at St Silas.

  • ELCAS (East Lancashire Child and Adolescent services)/ Child Psychology service

  • Children’s Services

  • CAF Team (Child and Family)

  • EWO (Educational Welfare Officer)

  • School Nursing team

8. What specialist services and expertise are available or accessible through our school?

We are proud of our excellent and long standing working relationships with a number of outside agencies who enable us to better support our children through a wealth of expert knowledge.  All outside agency referrals require parental consent.

 

Should a child need more support we have access to and frequently use additional services provided by:

  • The Blackburn with Darwen Educational Psychology team

  • Reachout ASC- a private company providing expert advisory teachers to help our children with Autism.

  • SEND Support service- A team of advisory teachers who support children with specific needs including Behavioural, Social and Emotional needs, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Visual Impairment, Hearing Impairment, Motor Skills, Cognition and Learning, Speech, Language and Communication, Early Years and Complex Needs.

  • NHS speech therapy and an experienced private speech therapist

  • Mental Health in School team who are based at St Silas.

  • ELCAS (East Lancashire Child and Adolescent services)/ Child Psychology service

  • Children’s Services

  • CAF Team (Child and Family)

  • EWO (Educational Welfare Officer)

  • School Nursing team

 

We regularly invest both time and money to ensure our staff are well trained to support children with SEND. Our Inclusion Coordinator holds the National Award in Special Educational Needs and has recently completed the SENDIA Inclusion Quality Mark by Award Place.

Miss Alison Morgan is our Beehive teacher and is an experienced SEND teacher.  Each morning, Miss Morgan teaches in our Beehive classroom with two teaching assistants and provides bespoke teaching in order to support our SEND learners.

 

 

We aim to ensure that no child with SEND is treated less favourably than other pupils because of their disability. We offer a wide variety of after school clubs for all year groups to ensure every child can engage in an extra curricular activity regardless of SEND. Children are given extra support during clubs if required for example through increasing staffing levels. Risk assessments are carried out where necessary to ensure the safety of the children.

  • We offer a wide variety of after school clubs through Blackburn's Children’s University for all year groups to ensure every child can engage in an extra curricular activity.  There are also weekend trips available.

  • We run Nurture groups at lunchtime to cater for children needing more support with their social and emotional needs.  

  • We open our library at lunchtimes and have an outdoor library in the playground.

  • All children are able to take part in our Year 6 Residential trip.

  • Regular school trips for all classes and visitors to school for which risk assessments are carried out.

SEND children at St Silas are fully involved in all aspects of school life to ensure that they are given an inclusive education and are not treated less favourably than other pupils. 

 

 

We have a dedicated and professional staff who take pride in supporting the social and emotional needs of our children.  We are very aware that first and foremost, our children need to be happy and settled in school.  This impacts greatly on reducing the number of incidents of bullying as it supports children in being able to talk about their feelings and to be happy and confident.  

Mrs Rehana Patel, our Pupil and family Wellbeing Coordinator, works with many of our children and provides carefully planned Nurture interventions.   We measure attitude and behaviour carefully before interventions take place so we are able to measure progress. This is done through use of the Boxhall profile.

Our SEND children complete an All About Me section on their learning plans which enables us to capture their voice and lets them know they are valued and have a key role in their own learning.  All pupils are helped to become independent learners, with appropriate scaffolding, through having more choice about what and how they want to learn in class. Pupil voice is taken seriously and we encourage children to share what they feel they need more help with.

All children are given additional support at lunchtimes outside through additional staff working at lunchtimes to play with, monitor and interact with the children. This ensures close observation of SEND children during this more unstructured time to make sure they are happy and safe.

 

Our new school building has a lift to all floors, disabled toilets and changing facilities. Further details can be found in our school accessibility policy, which is located in the Information section of the site. We work closely with the SEND Support Service to ensure all children with SEND are catered for in terms of additional resources and adaptations to the learning environment. We have access to a number of computer based programmes which mean that children can access their learning through technology in order to further promote independence.

 

We make visits and have meetings with all our feeder nurseries as well as consulting with all relevant professionals. This ensures your child’s transition to our EYFS is as smooth as possible.  We also carry out home visits to see your child in the setting they are most comfortable in which further helps establish key relationships before they start school.

Year 6 children attend visits to High School and  if needed, St Silas staff will arrange additional transition.  Last year we successfully took part in two new transition programmes organised by the Mental Health in Schools team and the SEND Support Service SEMH team.  This meant children were supported at St Silas and followed up on when they started High School to ensure everything was in place for them and that they were happy.

When children are moving up to a new class they meet their teacher and spend time in the new environment. We will arrange for your child to attend a number of introductory events at our school. These will include activity days where your child can meet their class teacher and other children who will be starting school at the same time.

 

 

Inclusion Manager

Name: Mrs Laura Smith

Phone: 01254 698447 ext 2.

Email: stsoffice@cidari.co.uk

 

SEND Governor

Name: Mrs Patricia Knight 

Phone: 01254 698447 

Email: stsoffice@cidari.co.uk

 

Blackburn with Darwen’s local offer sets out a range of support and services available to you and your child. This can be accessed at www.bwd-localoffer.org.uk

Details about our school’s complaints procedures can be found in our school brochure. We always encourage parents to speak to their child’s class teacher if there is an issue and if necessary our Inclusion Manager and other senior members of staff can become involved.

Parents are also able to contact the Parent Partnership Office for further support.

 

 

SEND Documents

Updated: 06/03/2023 71 KB
Updated: 23/02/2023 110 KB

Blackburn with Darwen Local Offer