Special Educational Needs AND DISABILITIES
Meeting the Needs of Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Our SEND Coordinator/Inclusion Manager is Miss Holly Bennett 
SEND Information
The Highway Primary School is an inclusive school that offers the following range of provision to support children with cognition and learning difficulties including specific learning difficulties; speech language and communication; social communication difficulties; behaviour, emotional and social needs; sensory, physical or medical needs.
The range of support deployed will be tailored to individual need following thorough assessment by internal or external agencies. It is designed to promote pupils working towards becoming independent and resilient learners
and should not be seen in isolation.
The school is required to publish the SEND information, outlining how we meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.
This is detailed in the following document:
Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Policy - SEND (Information) Regulation Annual Report which is found here
At The Highway we are committed to offering an inclusive curriculum to ensure the best possible progress for all of our pupils whatever their needs or abilities. Our aim is to create an atmosphere of inclusion, encouragement, respect and sensitivity.
Specific objectives of our SEND policy
· To identify pupils with special educational needs and disabilities and ensure that their needs are met
· To ensure that children with special educational needs and disabilities can access the activities of the school
· To ensure that all learners make the best possible progress
· To ensure that learners express their views and are fully involved in decisions which affect their education
· To promote effective partnerships and involve outside agencies when appropriate.
EXAMPLES OF THE TYPES OF DIFFICULTY THAT MAY BE CONSIDERED TO BE SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS
Speech and Language Difficulties
- Difficulties can be in the way the child speaks, or in how they process the language that they hear. Sometimes children have difficulties in planning what they want to say and in finding the words that they need.
- It is often very difficult to identify children with Speech and Language Difficulties, it may sometimes be referred to as the ‘hidden disability’.
- It can impact on a pupil’s development, educational progress and life chances. Speech and Language Difficulties, can negatively affect pupil’s behaviour and the ability to socialize and make friends.
- Children with Speech and Language Difficulties generally have average or above average non-verbal intelligence and are often very good at masking their difficulties.
- We aim to identify any underlying Speech and Language Difficulties and, working with parents, the school might refer the pupil to a Speech Therapist.
Specific Learning Difficulties - Often known as Dyslexia
· Dyslexia – a learning difference linked to the way language is processed that affects a SPECIFIC area of
learning. This means that the child’s overall ability is as high, or higher, than their peers but that there is a difficulty with a specific “building block” .
· An example is a child who appears as “bright as a button” when chatting to his parents, friends or teacher, but who struggles to read or to spell.
· The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) estimates that 10% of the population is dyslexic. Some estimates suggested that up to 30% of the population show some traits of this type of difficulty.
· Dyslexia can affect sequencing, memory, motor skills and often leads pupils to have reduced confidence.
· Structured literacy programmes are known to benefit pupils with dyslexic traits.
We have our specialist teacher, Mrs Morkill, who will assess children and tailor programmes to suit their’ different learning styles.
British Dyslexia Association website
Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
· Autism (including Asperger Syndrome) affects the way a person communicates, relates to others and makes sense of the world’ (National Autistic Society).
· Children and young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders tend to see fragments rather than the whole, often recognising details which relate to their interests and experiences rather than fully understanding what they are being taught.
· Pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorders can experience severe difficulty with organisational skills: getting to the right place at the right time with the correct items. Similar difficulties affect the ability to initiate and complete tasks: pupils may require structure, initiation and small step sequencing for there to be successful outcomes.
· Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders also have difficulties with empathy and social interaction.
· It is quite common for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder to be greatly affected by sensory stimuli which can cause anxiety and distress.
· As with other types of special educational needs, our teaching reflects the way that individual children learn.
· Most pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorders prefer a routine approach and can become unduly stressed by sudden changes or unexpected events.
· In order to support pupils we use visual timetables and visual stimuli in all classrooms, to help children to make sense of the routines of school life.
· Autistic children are capable of learning social behaviour that does not come naturally to them, and for this reason Social Skills Training is planned and delivered to groups and individuals by our school support staff.
Developmental Coordination Disorder – Dyspraxia
· Dyspraxia manifests in different ways to different degrees.
· It is thought to be ‘An immaturity of the brain resulting in messages not being transmitted to the body’.
· Dyspraxia can affect pupils in a variety of ways, but tends to manifest itself as co-ordination difficulties with eating, dressing, talking, riding a bike or writing.
· A dyspraxic pupil may appear to struggle with balance and some parents have thought that their dyspraxic child was “clumsy”.
· Very often a child with this difficulty will also display characteristics of dyslexia, or speech and language difficulties .
· Whilst dyspraxia affects only 2 or 3 % of the population, we do sometimes see varying degrees of coordination difficulties as pupils grow and develop.
· Every child is different and we are not all equally well coordinated!
· We run clubs to help promote fine motor skill control and also handwriting. These help a number of children with pencil control difficulties and most of the pupils on these programmes make good progress.
Children recognized as needing particular support at school are given assistance wherever needed and every effort is made to meet their individual needs.
Parental support is also paramount, provided by our dedicated team of teachers and support helpers.
ACCESSIBILITY PLAN - for disabled pupils
If you have any concerns at all about your child's learning or development, please don't hesitate to speak to the class teacher or contact Miss Bennett
USEFUL WEBSITES FOR SPEECH & LANGUAGE SUPPORT
afasic.org.uk/help-for-your-child/
ican.org.uk/i-cans-talking-point/parents/
