We have created an accessibility plan for those students with physical needs. This is downloadable HERE
You can see our parent information video here
Please click the links below to find the answers of the questions below:
The SENCO at The Hollyfield School is Mrs S Ward, who is also an Assistant Head Teacher. She is a qualified teacher and has worked at Hollyfield since 1998. She holds a BA Hons in Education in Context and teaches Key Stage 3 Mathematics.
She has been a SENCO continuously since before 1 Sept 2009 and is not required to undertake the National Award for SEN Co-ordination.
Mrs Ward is available on 0208 339 4500 or if she is not available her second in charge is Dr Steven Duckworth.
Responsible for:Coordinating support for children with Special educational needs or disability (SEND) and developing the schools SEN Policy to ensure all children are gaining consistency in meeting their needs.
Ensuring that parents are involved in the progress of their child/children, are well informed about the support they are getting and are involved in their reviews.
Communicating with all other professionals who may be involved in supporting your child’s needs e.g. Speech and Language Therapist and Educational Psychologists.
Providing support to teachers and support staff in the School to ensure children with SEND achieve their best through the delivery of Quality First Teaching.
Monitoring the progress of your child, identifying, planning and delivering any extra help and resources that your child may require through Quality First Teaching.
Liaising with the SEN Co-ordinator and Learning Support Team.
Ensuring that the Schools SEND policy is being followed within the classroom and for each pupil with SEND.
Monitoring the day to day management of all aspects of school, this includes the schools SEND Policy.
Liaising with the SEN Co-ordinator to ensure your child’s needs are met.
Ensuring that the Governing Body is kept well informed and up to date about any issues on school regarding SEND.
The Hollyfield School is a secondary mainstream school for boys and girls aged 11 to 18.
The Hollyfield School is dedicated to achieving the highest possible levels for all pupils and that each pupil should be given equality of opportunity to achieve their full potential by recognising the uniqueness of each individual and providing a rich and varied learning experience for all.
At The Hollyfield School we can make provision for every kind of frequently occurring special educational need without a Education, Health and Care Plan, for instance dyslexia, dyspraxia, speech and language needs, autism, Asperger’s syndrome, visual impairment and other physical impairements, learning difficulties and mental health difficulties. There are other kinds of special educational need, which do not occur as frequently and with which the school is less familiar, but we can access training and advice so that these kinds of needs can be met.
The school also currently meets the needs of pupils with a Education, Health and Care plan with the following kinds of special educational need: Visual Impairment, Hearing Impairment, Physical Disabilities, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Speech and Language Difficulties Decisions on the admission of pupils with a Education, Health and Care plan are made by the Local Authority.
The admission arrangements for pupils without a Education, Health and Care Plan do not discriminate against or disadvantage disabled children or those with special educational needs and will follow the usual school admissions procedures.
The school has ensured that it is fully accessible to those students who may need to use a wheelchair. This is outlined in our accessibility plan which downloadable HERE
‘Special educational provision is underpinned by high quality teaching and is compromised by anything less’ (SEN CoP, 2014)
‘High quality teaching, differentiated for individual pupils, is the first step in responding to pupils who have or may have SEN. Additional intervention and support cannot compensate for a lack of good quality teaching. We regularly and carefully review the quality of teaching for all pupils, including those at risk of underachievement. This includes reviewing, and where necessary improving, teachers’ understanding of strategies to identify and support vulnerable pupils and their knowledge of the SEN most frequently encountered.’ (CoP 6.34)
We work to ensure that our approach to teaching and learning is of high quality and personalised to meet the individual needs of the majority of children/young people. Some children/young people need educational provision that is additional to or different from this. This is special educational provision.
In meeting the requirements of The National Curriculum Framework the school employs some additional teaching approaches, as advised by internal and external assessments e.g. one to one tutoring /precision teaching/mentoring, small group teaching, and use of ICT software learning packages. These are often delivered by additional staff under the close direction of teachers employed through the funding provided to the school. This is known as ‘notional SEN funding’. The class/subject teacher will remain responsible for working with the pupil on a daily basis.
We have a duty to make arrangements to support pupils with medical conditions. Individual healthcare plans will normally specify the type and level of support required to meet the medical needs of such pupils. Where children and young people also have special educational needs, their provision will be planned and delivered in a co-ordinated way with the healthcare plan. We will have regard to the statutory guidance supporting pupils at school with medical conditions.
Pastoral care for students is delivered by various means. SEND student receive extra support from the Learning Support Department which provides a safe space for students to talk through any issues they may have. They are also able to access support from our Student Services team who are situated centrally in school and always available to talk to and to support any medical needs. The School employs a counsellor for one day each week and have access to a Health Link Wokrer deployed by Public Health.
Medicines are kept at Students Services and parents are invited to write in with instructions on how the medicines are to be taken. Student Services staff do not administer medicine but will oversee students whilst they take them.
Support for those students who have behavioural needs is delivered by form tutors, Heads of Year, Student Support Officers and the Assistant Head Teacher in charge of Pastoral Care in conjunction with the Learning Support Department. This may include students being on report to key personnel to give them an opportunity to reflect on their behaviour or working within the Re-Start Centre.
Attendance is closely monitored by the Attendance Officer who refers to Learning Support in cases of students with SEND.
At The Hollyfield School class/subject teachers monitor the progress of all pupils regularly to review their progress. If a pupil is not making progress teachers may then refer to the SENCo for assessment. We also use a range of assessments with all the pupils at various points e.g. NFER Reading tests, CATS, phonics screening, speech and language observations, spelling age, reading age and Dyslexia Screening. On admission to Year 7 pupils Reading ages are assessed and all pupils are screened for Dyslexia. The results of this testing determines whether further assessment is required. The School uses Accelerated Reader programme for all students in the lower school.
The principle of early identification and intervention underpins our approach to identifying those pupils who need extra help. This is often put in place, even if special educational need has not been identified. This extra support will enable the pupil to catch up.
Examples of extra support are;
Despite high quality targeted teaching some pupils may continue to make insufficient progress. For these pupils, and in consultation with parents, strengths and weaknesses are identified and used to identify an appropriate individualised intervention programme. In many cases these underlying needs often explain inadequate progress or challenging behaviour. At times it may be necessary to consult with outside agencies to receive more specialised expertise. The school follows the Code of Practice with regard to identifying a student with SEN. The school will follow the graduated approach outlined in the Code of Practice, which draws on identification through assessment and, where a need is identified, planning of appropriate support will take place together with the parent/carer.
Support is then implemented and reviewed.
The purpose of this more detailed assessment and review is to understand what additional resources and different approaches are required to enable the pupil to make better progress. These will be shared with parents, put into a support plan and reviewed regularly, and refined/revised if necessary. At this point because the pupil requires additional and extra provision we will have identified that the pupil has a special educational need.
If the pupil makes good progress using this additional and different intervention (but would not be able to maintain this good progress without it) we will continue to identify the pupil as having a special educational need. If the pupil is able to maintain good progress without the additional and different resources he or she will not be identified with special educational needs.
We will ensure that all teachers and support staff who work with the pupil are aware of the support to be provided and the teaching approaches to be used. All SEND students have an Individual Provision Map which outlines the need and strategies which teachers should employ when planning for the student.
Additional SEN support can be offered to any student who has a learning difficulty of disability, which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. High quality teaching that is differentiated and personalised will meet the individual needs of the majority of students. However students may need additional provision that is additional to or different from this.
Where students are withdrawn from lessons this is set within clearly defined parameters with the focus being on supporting achievement in mainstream lessons. Interventions are time limited. Impact of the intervention is assessed regularly.
When additional support is given by the Learning Support Department we will assess skills prior to the intervention, plan and then deliver the most appropriate intervention and then review the intervention to judge its impact.
When a pupil has been identified as having special educational needs because special educational provision is being made for him or her, the pupil will be consulted about and involved in the arrangements made for them as part of person-centred planning.
Pupils will be consulted about their provision and a discussion will take place around the most effective provision for the individual. This will be discussed at review meetings primarily but conversations may happen at other times.
a) What Activities are available for pupils with special educational needs in addition to those available in accordance with the curriculum?
All clubs, trips and activities offered to pupils at The Hollyfield School are available to pupils with special educational needs. For some pupils ‘reasonable adjustments’ may need to be made. This is always done in partnership with families and carers.
Parents are invited to plan support for students with extra needs for trips and extra staff are deployed should a student need individual support over and above the needs of the entire group so that they can participate.
There are specific clubs in the Learning Support Department for SEND pupils every day at lunchtime and four days each week after school. These include;
b) What support is available for improving the emotional and social development of pupils with special educational needs?
At The Hollyfield School we understand that an important feature of the school is to enable all pupils to develop emotional resilience and social skills, both through direct teaching for instance social skills groups, anti-bullying training, tutor time and indirectly with every conversation adults have with pupils throughout the day.
For some pupils with the most need for help in this area we also can provide the following list;
Pupils with emotional and social needs because of their special educational needs will be supported to enable them to develop and mature appropriately.
We are interested in hearing parents/carers and pupils’ views. Pupil and parent forums are held in school to hear the views of parents/carers and pupils.
Young people with SEN may be more likely to be the victims of bullying, so it is important to ensure that they report any behaviour that concerns them. They are provided with safe, supervised places that they can go to during social time. Peer support systems are in place in addressing bullying behaviour, as well as raising awareness of SEN for everyone in the school community through assemblies. All students all The Hollyfield School receive Anti-Bullying Intervention Training from our SSO's.
c) How will equipment and facilities to support children and young people with special educational needs will be secured?
Specialist equipment will be considered on an individual basis.
Schools receive funding for SEN pupils. This funding is used to support and enhance high quality of teaching in the school. It helps to ensure there are sufficient resources to for pupils requiring special educational provision. The support offered is matched to needs of individual pupils with SEN and evidenced based. The amount of support required for each pupil to make good progress will be different in each case. In very few cases a very high level of resource is required. In this case the school will request ‘top up’ from the Local Authority where the child or young person lives.
The Head teacher has the final say in the use of the personal budget within the school.
Where necessary we will offer support to students and their parents from outside agencies. An example this may be from the Educational Psychologist. We would seek support if the school felt it needed additional support and guidance.
We can also refer parent to Parenting classes run by the Local Authority.
All teachers and teaching assistants have had the following awareness training:
In addition the following teachers and teaching assistants have received the following enhanced and specialist training.
Teaching Assistants:
Where a training need is identified beyond this we will find a provider who is able to deliver it. Training providers we can approach are, Linden Bridge School, Educational Psychologist, Speech and language therapist, occupational therapists and physiotherapist and other schools within AFC and Every Child, Every Day Academy Trust.
At The Hollyfield School we follow the advice in The National Curriculum Framework on how to adapt the curriculum and the learning environment for pupils with special educational needs. We also incorporate the advice provided as a result of assessments, both internal and external, and the strategies described in Education, Health and Care Plans.
‘All pupils should have access to a broad and balanced curriculum. The National Curriculum Inclusion Statement states that teachers should set high expectations for every pupil, whatever their prior attainment. Teachers should use appropriate assessment to set targets which are deliberately ambitious. Potential areas of difficulty should be identified and addressed at the outset. Lessons should be planned to address potential areas of difficulty and to remove barriers to pupil achievement. In many cases, such planning will mean that pupils with SEN and disabilities will be able to study the full national curriculum.’ (Code of Practice 6.11).
Identifying SEN in schools
As part of our requirement to keep the appropriateness of our curriculum and learning environment under review the Governors have recently made the following improvements;
Core subjects of English and Maths are now taught in four streamed sets. This means that class sizes are smaller. Staff training now happens weekly which means that specialist training can be updated regularly Olsen House has now been demolished and a new extension to Sharman House is being built which will house our new Specialist Resource Provision and the Learning Support Department. It is hoped that the new extension will be ready for use in February 2019. The new provision is for those students who have Social and Communication Difficulties including Autism and will open in September 2019.
Every pupil in the school has their progress tracked regularly. In addition to this, pupils with special educational needs will have more frequent and detailed assessments to inform targets and to measure small steps of progress.
If these assessments do not show adequate progress is being made the support plan and planned outcomes will be reviewed and adjusted.
Regular monitoring and review will focus on the extent to which planned outcomes have been achieved. The views of the pupil, parents and class/subject teachers will be taken into account. The assessment information from teachers will show whether adequate progress is being made.
The SEN Code of Practice (2014) describes adequate progress as:
For pupils with or without a Education, Health and Care Plan there will be an annual review of the provision made for the child, which will enable an evaluation of the effectiveness of the special provision to be made. The collation of all annual review evaluations of effectiveness will be reported to the governing body.
At The Hollyfield School we work closely with the educational settings used by the pupils before they transfer to us in order to seek the information that will make the transfer is a seamless as possible. We have strong, well-established links with local Primary Schools and we encourage them to contact us as soon as possible regarding transition SEND pupils. A review meeting is planned by them and we attend and plan for transition. Those pupils with SEND are invited to visit us as many times as they like either with parents or with staff from the Primary school. They are encouraged to take photographs of the school and key personnel to take back with them. They are also encouraged to bring a list of questions they want to ask. Where a pupil has a EHCP a teaching assistant from The Hollyfield School visits them in the Primary setting during the last of half term of the academic year and works with them in their Primary school. Information is gathered through observation and discussion with the class teacher, which is fed into our Individual Provision Maps. These are shared with our staff and regularly updated.
We also contribute information to a pupils’ onward destination by providing information to the next setting. This may include accompanied visits to colleges and universities, sharing reports and documentation, and attending transition meetings
The same arrangements for the treatment of complaints at The Hollyfield School are used for complaints about provision made for special educational needs and disabilities. We encourage parents to discuss their concerns with form tutor, subject teacher, SENCO, Head of Pastoral Care or Headteacher to resolve the issue before making the complaint formal to the Chair of the GB. (See the Complaints Policy on the school website).
The governing body have engaged with the following:
The contact details of support services for the parents of pupils with special educational needs, including those for arrangements made in accordance with clause 32 (Parent Partnership Services)
Enhanceable, a local voluntary sector organisation, delivers the Parent Partnership Service and provides free, impartial, confidential, advice, support and options around educational issues for parent/carers who have children with special educational needs or disabilities (0-19/25). You can visit their website at Enhanceable website.
SEND Family Voices, a group run by parents for parents.
T: 07469746145
E: sendfamilyvoices@outlook.com
W: http://www.sendfamilyvoices.org
The local authority’s local offer is published on the Achieving For Children website, which can be access by clicking here.
