SEND Specialist Expertise

SEND Staff Responsibilities and Expertise Training

There are a number of people in school who are responsible for special educational needs in school:

The Executive Head Teacher (Mr Chris Baines) is responsible for:

• The strategic leadership and management of the school, including the strategic leadership of all aspects of SEND.
• Ensuring that the ALP Trust and Brandon Primary Academy Council is kept up to date about any issues in the school relating to SEND.

The Head of School (Mrs Katie McGough) is responsible for:

• The day-to-day management of all aspects of the school, including support for children with SEND.
• Making sure that your child’s needs are met but they will give this responsibility to the SENDCo and class teachers.
• Making sure that the Academy Council is kept up to date about any issues in the school relating to SEND.

The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENDCo) Mrs Louise Stabler is responsible for:

• Coordinating all the support for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and developing the school’s SEND Policy to make sure all children get a consistent, high-quality response to meeting their needs in school.
• Ensuring that parents/carers are:
  • Involved in supporting their child’s learning
  • Kept informed about the support their child is getting
  • Involved in reviewing how they are doing
  • Involved in planning for their future.
  • Contacting other people who may be coming into school to help support your child’s learning for example, an Educational Psychologist.
  • Making sure that there are records of your child’s progress and needs.
  • Provide specialist support for teachers and support staff in the school, so they can help pupils with SEND in the school make the best possible progress.
  • Support class teachers in writing Support Plans that specify your child’s targets.
  • Ensuring that all staff working with the pupil in school are helped to deliver the planned work/programme so the pupil can make the best possible progress. This may involve the use of additional adults, outside specialist help and specially planned work and resources.

The Class Teachers are responsible for:

• Making sure that all children have access to Quality First Teaching and that the curriculum is adapted to meet your child’s individual needs.
• Checking on the progress of your child and identifying, planning and providing any additional help your child may need and letting SENDCo know if necessary. This could be things like targeted work, additional support.
• Writing Support Plans with the SENDCo. These will be shared and reviewed with parents at least once each term.
• Planning for the child’s next term based on their progress.
• Ensuring that all staff working with the child in school are helped to deliver the planned work/programme so the child can make the best possible progress. This may involve the use of additional adults, outside specialist help and specially planned work and resources.
• Ensuring that the school’s SEND Policy is followed in their classroom and for all the pupils they teach with any SEND. The Teaching Assistants work with the class teacher to identify areas of support for pupils with SEND. They:
  • Support pupils to access the curriculum.
  • Help to implement scaffolding and specialist support strategies in the classroom.
  • Keep pupils focused on learning activities during lesson.
  • Attend all training opportunities related to SEND and scaffolding.
  • Are mainly classroom based, however they are able to deliver specific SEND programmes outside of the classroom.
  • Help pupils to develop effective ways of becoming independent learners.

The SEND Governor (Mrs Pat Nelson) is responsible for:

• Making sure that the school has an up to date SEND Policy
• Making sure that the school has appropriate provision and has made necessary adaptations to meet the needs of all children in the school.
• Making sure that the necessary support is made for any child who attends the school, who has SEND.

School staff are trained in specific areas where there is a current need. The Executive Headteacher and Head of School collect information on areas for development through appraisals and staff meetings and ask the appropriate professionals to deliver it as whole staff or individual training. The Executive Headteacher, Head of School and Senior Leadership Team find appropriate specialist support training and enrol staff on courses. Training is also provided for staff when pupils are admitted to school with a SEND that no-one in school has experience of.

Teaching Assistants in school have attended training to deliver specific interventions to support children in areas of social communication, reading and maths and areas of children’s Social and Emotional development, including mental health and wellbeing.

Staff within school have different levels of expertise in order to support pupils with Special Educational Needs:

Awareness – this is basic awareness of a particular type of SEND. All staff who come into contact with the pupil will have this level of training and it will be carried out by the SENDCo, Durham specialist trained school staff, Durham SEND services such as Cog/Learning or EWEL or other specialist service.

Enhanced – this level of training will be carried out by staff working with the pupil regularly, such as class teachers, and will focus on how teaching and learning can be adapted to meet the pupil’s needs. The training can be carried out by the SENDCo, Durham SEND services such as Cog/Learning or EWEL Team, staff from special school provision or other specialist services.

Specialist – this is in-depth training about a particular type of SEND for staff who will be advising staff who support pupils at an enhanced level. This could be a specialist SEND teacher or a SENDCo if they had appropriate qualifications. At Brandon Primary Academy, staff have had awareness training in, but not limited to, Specific Learning Difficulties, Language Training, Autism, ADHD, Emotional Literacy, Positive Handling, Administration of inhalers and adrenalin pens. Brandon Primary Academy is proactive in seeking training when the need arises.