SEND Information Report

Mrs Tariq is the Inclusion Leader. She has day-to-day responsibility for reviewing our SEN policy and arranges specific provision made to support individual pupils with SEN, including those who have Education, Health and Care plans. She also helps our children who have physical, medical and speech & language needs.

To discuss your child’s education and needs with Mrs Tariq (Inclusion Lead) please contact the school office to make an appointment. Please note, Mrs Tariq's working days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. If your request is urgent and Mrs Tariq is not available, please ask to speak to a member of the Senior Leadership Team. 

Phone: 0121 464 2909                                       

Email: enquiries@gosseylane.academy

Cognition and Learning

Some children find learning more difficult than others. They may need:

• More time to learn new things and to think about their answers;
• For information to be repeated or presented in a different way;
• Help to hold information in their heads during a lesson;
• For new learning to be broken down into small bits of information.

Examples of specific learning difficulties include: Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Dyscalculia.

Communication and Interaction

Some children need help to develop their communication skills and learn how to interact with other people. They may need:

• Help with their speech and language skills;
• Help to understand what others mean when they are talking;
• Help to deal with things in the environment that are new, like unusual smells and sounds;
• Help to learn about topics that are new and unfamiliar;
• Help to feel ok about times when things change.

Social, emotional and mental health difficulties

Some children find it hard to manage their feelings and behaviour. They made need help to:

• Follow the Gossey Way
• Understand how they are feeling
• Make friends
• Keep themselves and others safe
• Listen and follow instructions

Sensory and/or physical needs

Some children have a disability which can mean that accessing the school building and the curriculum can be more challenging. They may need:

• Help with their hearing or vision;
• Help getting around the building
• Help with their specialist equipment such as specialised chairs, hearing loops, CCTV monitors, wheelchairs, feeding and special medical equipment, medication, other walking aids etc.
• Help with writing and using handheld equipment such as writing and in PE lessons.
• Help if they have more than one physical disability or medical needs that need a trained person to support with.

Our intent is that SEND pupils have access to a broad and balanced curriculum that provides pupils with the knowledge and skills they need in order to take advantage of opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. School Leaders have high expectations for pupils with SEND, so set aspirational target to challenge pupils and encourage them to take full advantage of future opportunities. To support SEND pupils access the curriculum our learning environments, curriculum content and lesson delivery is tailored to meet individual needs enabling good progress. Our curriculum is underpinned by Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction which includes, regular opportunities to review learning; receive new learning in small steps; modelling and scaffolding learning; guided practice and independent practise to achieve high success rates. We use the Language and Literacy and Mathematics Continuums to help implement this for SEND pupils. The continuums follow the national curriculum by breaking down the objectives into smaller steps of learning leading to the same outcomes over time. This allows for vital gaps in learning to be identified and taught so the necessary foundations for future learning are secured and pupils make good progress.

We implement the following adaptations to ensure all children’s needs are met using the 5 a day principles as an overarching approach. 

One of the key ways in which we adapt learning for children with SEND is through scaffolding work. 

Teachers provide scaffolds in a range of forms for difficult tasks rather lowering expectations. We work on the principle that scaffolding is eventually withdrawn when the children are ready. Scaffolding is temporary and must not be relied upon in the long run.

The teachers consider the component parts of the task and consider the difficulties that children may encounter. Teachers design resources that support these children.  Scaffolds are used as a tool to reduce cognitive overload, so pupils can focus on the task e.g. if the objective of the lesson is to develop understanding of vocabulary, then the process of writing can be removed so pupils can focus on the words without becoming stressed about the writing part.

Examples of scaffolds in different subjects could include:

Whole class

Whole class prompts on the IWB/flipchart

Checklists (on tables or washing line)

Washing line or working wall.

Worked examples on the board to refer to. 

Explicit modelling- e.g. written and teacher reading aloud. (for the latter element, children need to hear phrased and expressive reading)

For groups or individuals:

Word lists and key vocabulary identified.

Cloze procedure- these are varied such as providing the first letter of the missing word, whole word is missing, phrases missing and the word bank is accessible in the book.

Sentence starters in books in a different colour. 

Dual coding

Useful phrases and connectives

Prompts for ideas

Snippets of text for the less able so they do not have to wade through a whole chapter of text.

Page number references so children know where to look for an answer.

We vary the style of questions rather than expecting lengthy written responses eg

Matching

Sorting

Sequencing

Multiple choice

Partially completed examples.

Delivering our curriculum this way, has significant impact on our SEND pupils. They have access to a well-constructed, well-taught curriculum leading to good progress for our pupils. All learning builds towards an end point and enables pupils to show they know more, remember more and are able to do more. We review the children’s individual continuums termly to assess the progress they have made and the impact our curriculum.

At Gossey Lane, our in house assessment and tracking tool- INSIGHT to review the progress children make on a half termly basis. This takes into consideration their prior attainment and where they are in relation to age related expectations.

Children with Special Educational Needs are also tracked using the Birmingham Access to Education Language and Literacy Continuums and Maths Toolkit which tell us in more detail about the progress made as the continuum is broken down into smaller chunks.

Each child on the SEND register has a Learning Plan. This is where targets for each child is set. These are reviewed each term by the classteacher. 

These systems are really good at showing us small steps of progress for children with additional needs so we know exactly how best to help them. 

We provide support for children to improve their emotional and social development in the following ways:

• Children with SEN are encouraged to be part of the Pupil Leadership Team
• We are a UNICEF Rights Respecting Gold  Award school
• Zone of Regulation are a feature of all classrooms to enable pupils to identify feelings or emotions and use the agreed tools to regulate. 
• The school makes use of regulation stations  and two sensory rooms for children who need support to regulate. 
• Talking passes are given to children to give them an opportunity to speak to adults they feel most comfortable with
• Mentoring from the Senior Learning Mentor
• Parent support on strategies from the Senior Learning Mentor
• Accessing Beacon School Support for further advice and strategies which are available to both school and parents

We believe that all children are entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum. This includes access to fun and stimulating contexts and extra-curricular activities.

All children, including those with SEND can participate in school clubs. Examples of such clubs may include: football, multi-skill sports, revision, gymnastics, cooking and breakfast club. Different school clubs are run at varying points throughout the year so may differ from this list.

Gossey Lane has a number of children who have physical and sensory needs. For some children with these needs, it’s necessary to seek and follow the advice of medical professionals about how they may access our sports clubs. We make every effort to ensure children with SEND can access as many of these clubs as possible.

When booking a trip, staff will consider whether all children can access and take part in the activities. Reasonable adjustments will be made to ensure SEND children are not excluded from such trips. If it is not possible to make appropriate adjustments it will be considered whether or not the trip goes ahead.

Gossey Lane Academy have an open door policy and we are always available for parents to contribute to their child’s education.

Our website has lots of information about our curriculum and the support children can get. In addition to this website information, we offer our parents:

• Regular meetings with the Inclusion leader during parents’ evenings;
• Parents are invited to reviews of provision where appropriate
• Meetings with the school’s Family Support worker or Learning Mentor where necessary

We encourage children to become independent learners. We involve children in a variety of ways, including:

• ‘one-page profile’ to help them and their teachers understand their needs and opportunity to assess their leaning
• visual timetables which help children understand what they need to do;
• pupil surveys to collect the children’s views on their learning

When a child with special educational needs start at Gossey Lane, we:

• Meet with them and their parents to ask and answer questions about their needs;
• If necessary, provide a transition book with photos and information about their new school;
• Arrange visits to the school and any workshops that are appropriate prior to their start date.

When a child with special educational needs moves into a new class at Gossey Lane, we:

• Can give the child a transition book so they have information and pictures about their new classroom and teachers;
• Talk to the child and their family about any changes and how to support at home;
• Introduce the child to their new class and teacher well before their transition.

When a child with special educational needs leaves Gossey Lane in Year 6, we:

• Work with the child’s new school to make sure they have a transition which is as easy as possible for them;
• Talk to key staff at the new school about the child’s needs and hold a review meeting if needed;
• Help to arrange visits to the new school if required and appropriate to do so and a member of staff would attend the visits where necessary

Birmingham City Council has a website which has up-to-date information about the range of services provided for children with Special Educational Needs. You can access the Birmingham Local Offer by visiting the following website:

Local Birmingham OfferAs we are aware, some of our families live on the borders of Solihull. This doesn’t affect the provision we provide in school or our access to Birmingham school support services. However, it may mean that external assessments via the NHS or applications for Education, Health and Care Plans are processed through Solihull services, which differs slightly to Birmingham’s processes. If you are a Solihull resident, you may also wish to view Solihull’s Local Offer by visits the following website:

Social Solihull