SEND Information Report

Reviewed by Mrs N. Leyland SENDCo & Miss L Palmer SEN Link Governor February 2023

School SENDCO is Mrs N. Leyland

At Thorney Close Primary School, all teachers are teachers of children with SEND.

Special Education Needs and Disabilities Local offer - Introduction

All Sunderland Local Authority (LA) maintained schools have a similar approach to meeting the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities and are supported by the LA to ensure that all pupils, regardless of their specific needs, make the best possible progress in school.

All schools are supported to be as inclusive as possible, with the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) being met in a mainstream setting wherever possible.

The broad areas of SEND need are:

Communication and Interaction.
Cognition and Learning.
Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties.
Sensory and/or Physical.

What is the Local Offer?

The LA Local Offer

The Children and Families Bill was enacted in September 2014. From this date Local Authorities (LA) and schools are required to publish and keep under review information about services they expect to be available for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) aged 0-25. The LA refer to this as the 'Local Offer'.

The intention of the Local Offer is to improve choice and transparency for families. It will also be an important resource for parents in understanding the range of services and provision in the local area.

Further information about the SEN local offer can be found by clicking the link below.

Sunderland SEN Local Offer

DfE statutory guidance on Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years can be found by clicking the link below.

Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years

What is the Special Education Needs Information Report?

The Special Education Needs Information Report

Schools utilise the LA Local Offer to meet the needs of SEND pupils as determined by school policy and the provision that the school is able to provide. Schools refer to this as ‘The Special Education Needs Information Report. The report is written in accordance with Section 69 of the Children and Families Act 2014.

Your Child has Special Educational Needs. What can we at Thorney Close Primary School offer you?

At Thorney Close Primary School, we embrace the fact that every child is different, and, therefore, the educational needs of every child is different; this is certainly the case for children with Special Educational Needs. The 13 questions below provides further information about the Special Education Needs Information Report for Thorney Close Primary School.

Question 1

Who are the best people to talk to in school about my child’s difficulties with learning/ Special Educational Needs or Disability (SEND)?

Key responsibilities of:

The SENDCo: Mrs N. Leyland

Overseeing the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEND policy
Coordinating the provision for the children with SEND
Liaising with the relevant Designated Teacher where a looked after pupil has SEND
Advising on the Graduated Approach to providing SEND support
Advising on the deployment of the school’s delegated budget and other resources to meet pupils’ needs effectively
Liaising with parents of pupils with SEND
Liaising with early years providers, other schools and other agencies
Being a key point of contact with external agencies, especially the local authority and its support services
Liaising with other schools to ensure a pupil and their parents are informed about other options and a smooth transition is planned
Working with the head teacher and school governors to ensure that the school meets its responsibilities under the Equality Act (2010) with regards to reasonable adjustments and access arrangements
Ensuring that the school keeps the records of all pupils with SEND up to date
Coordinating all the support for Deaf children and developing the school SEND policy.
Monitoring the teaching and support of the Deaf children ensuring individual needs are being met
Ensuring that the parents of children with SEND are kept informed about how their children are progressing

The Headteacher: Mrs C. Jones

The day-to-day management of all aspects of the school; this includes the support for children with SEND.
The Head teacher will give responsibility to the SENDCo and class teachers, but is still responsible for ensuring that your child’s needs are met.
Ensuring that the Governing Body is kept up to date about issues relating to SEND.

The SEN Governor: Miss L. Palmer

Making sure that the necessary support is given for any child with SEND who attends the school.
Liaising with the school on a regular basis to ensure that they are aware of the SEND process and system that the SENDCo has implemented

The above can be contacted at school on 0191 5250808 or email info@thorneycloseprimaryschool.co.uk.

A termly meeting will take place between the SENDCo and Link Governor in order to ensure that they are kept up to date regarding provision for SEND pupils.

Special educational needs provision is the responsibility of the whole teaching staff and will be dealt with, on the whole, by presenting a scaffolded and or differentiated curriculum to meet the needs of pupils whole addressing specific, measurable targets that are agreed with alongside the child, parents, school staff and, where required, external agencies.

Teachers have a responsibility to:

Use appropriate assessment to set targets which are deliberately ambitious
Plan lessons to address potential areas of difficult and remove barrier to a child’s achievement. In many cases, such planning will mean that children with SEND and disabilities will be able to study the full National Curriculum
Maintain records and assessments for pupils with SEND
Provide provision and differentiation
Provide support plans in liaison with support staff, children, parents and carers and SENDCo (when necessary).

Question 2

What are the different types of support available for children with SEND in our school?

a) Class teacher input via excellent targeted classroom teaching (Quality First Teaching). For your child this would mean:

That the teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class.
That all teaching is built on what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
Different ways of teaching are in place so that your child is fully involved in learning in class. This may involve things like using more practical learning.
Specific strategies (which may be suggested by the SENDCO) are in place to support your child to learn.
Your child’s teacher will have carefully checked on your child’s progress and will have decided that your child has a gap or gaps in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to help them make the best possible progress.

Specific group work intervention (SEN school support) which may be:

Run in the classroom or outside the classroom.
Run by a teacher or a Teaching Assistant (TA).

b) Specialist groups run by outside agencies eg Speech and Language therapy

This means they have been identified by the SENDCO /Inclusion Manager/ class teacher as needing some extra specialist support in school from a professional outside the school. This may be from

Local Authority central services such as the ASD Outreach Team or Sensory Service ( for students with a hearing or visual need)
Outside agencies such as the Education Psychology Service (EPS).

What could happen:

You may be asked to give your permission for the school to refer your child to a specialist professional e.g. a Speech and Language Therapist or Educational Psychologist. This will help the school and yourself understand your child’s particular needs better and be able to support them better in school.
The specialist professional will work with your child to understand their needs and make recommendations as to the ways your child is given support.

c) Specified Individual support

This type of support is available for children whose learning needs are, severe, complex and lifelong.
This is usually provided via an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This means your child will have been identified by professionals as needing a particularly high level of individual or small group teaching.
This type of support is available for children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through Quality First Teaching and intervention groups (“Including All Children” documentation from LA).
Your child will also need specialist support in school from a professional outside the school.

This may be from:

Local Authority central services such as the ASD Outreach Team or Sensory Service ( for students with a hearing or visual need)
Outside agencies such as the Speech and Language therapy (SALT) Service For your child this would mean:
The school (or you) can request that Local Authority Services carry out a statutory assessment of your child’s needs. This is a legal process which sets out the amount of support that will be provided for your child.
After the request has been made to the ‘Panel of Professionals’ (with a lot of information about your child, including some from you), they will decide whether they think your child’s needs (as described in the paperwork provided), seem complex enough to need a statutory assessment. If this is the case they will ask you and all professionals involved with your child to write a report outlining your child’s needs. If they do not think your child needs this, they will ask the school to continue with the current support .
After the reports have all been sent in, the ‘Panel of Professionals’ will decide if your child’s needs are severe, complex and lifelong. If this is the case they will write an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP). If this is not the case, they will ask the school to continue with the current level of support and also set up a meeting in school to ensure a plan is in place to ensure your child makes as much progress as possible.
The EHC Plan will outline the number of hours of individual/small group support your child will receive and how the support should be used and what strategies must be put in place. It will also have long and short term goals for your child.
The additional adult may be used to support your child with whole class learning, run individual programmes or run small groups including your child.

Question 3

How can I let the school know I am concerned about my child’s progress in school?

If you have concerns about your child’s progress you should speak to your child’s class teacher initially.
If you continue to be concerned that your child is not making progress, you may speak to the Special Education Needs/ Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCO).
The school SEND Governor can also be contacted for support.

Question 4

How will the school let me know if they have any concerns about my child’s learning in school?

If your child is identified as not making progress, the school will set up a meeting to discuss this with you in more detail and to:

listen to any concerns you may have
plan any additional support your child may need
discuss with you any referrals to outside professionals to support your child’s learning

Question 5

How is extra support allocated to children and how do they progress in their learning?

The school budget, received from Sunderland LA, includes money for supporting children with SEND.

The Headteacher decides on the deployment of resources for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in consultation with the school governors, on the basis of needs in the school.
The Headteacher and SENDCO discuss all the information they have about SEND in the school, including:
- the children getting extra support already
- the children needing extra support
- the children who have been identified as not making as much progress as would be expected and decide what resources/training and support is
- the child’s view will be sought informally and for review meetings; this may not always be possible with very young children / children with delayed

Schools identify the needs of their pupils on a school provision map which for SEND pupils identifies all resources/training and support are reviewed regularly and changes made as needed.

Question 6

Who are the other people providing services to children with SEND in this school?

School provision

Teaching Assistants / Learning Support
Breakfast club
School clubs
School based Early Help Officer
Local Authority Provision delivered in school
Autism Outreach Service
Educational Psychology Service
Sensory Service for children with visual or hearing needs
Parent Partnership Service
KS1 & KS2 Behaviour Intervention Team
Language and Learning Team
Health Provision delivered in school
Additional Speech and Language Therapy input to provide a higher level of service to the school.
School Nurse
Occupational Therapy
Physiotherapy
CAMHS
Deaf CAMHS

Question 7

How are the teachers in school helped to work with children a SEND and what training do they have?

The school provides training and support to enable all staff to improve the teaching and learning of children, including those with SEND. This includes whole school training on SEND issues such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Speech and language difficulties.
Individual teachers and support staff attend training courses run by outside agencies that are relevant to the needs of specific children in their class e.g. from the Autism Outreach Team (AoT) service.

Question 8

How will the teaching be adapted for my child with SEND?

Class Teachers plan lessons according to the specific needs of all groups of children in their class, and will ensure that your child’s needs are met.
Support staff, under the direction of the class teacher, can adapt planning to support the needs of your child where necessary.
Specific resources and strategies will be used to support your child individually and in groups.
Planning and teaching will be adapted on a daily basis if needed to meet your child’s learning needs.

Question 9

How will we measure the progress of your child in school?

Your child’s progress is continually monitored by his/her class teacher.
His/her progress is reviewed formally every term in reading, writing and numeracy.
At the end of each key stage (i.e. at the end of year 2 and year 6) all children are required to be formally assessed using Standard Assessment Tests (SATS). This is something the government requires all schools to do and are the results that are published nationally.
Children may have an IEP / personal targets which will be reviewed, and a future plan made
The progress of children with an EHC Plan is formally reviewed at an
Annual Review, with all adults involved with the child’s education.
The SENDCO will also check that your child is making good progress within any individual work and in any group that they take part in.

Question 10

What support do we have for you as a parent of a child with a SEND?

The class teacher is regularly available to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns you may have and to share information about what is working well at home and school so similar strategies can be used.
The SENDCO is available to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns/worries you may have.
All information from outside professionals will be discussed with you with the person involved directly, or where this is not possible, in a report.
Personal progress targets/Support plans may be reviewed with your involvement.
Homework will be adjusted as needed to your child’s individual needs.
A home/school contact book may be used to support communication with you, when this has been agreed to be useful for you and your child.

Question 11

How is Thorney Close Primary School accessible to children with SEND?

The building is accessible to pupils in a wheelchair. There is ramp access to the school building through Foundation Stage, Bottom Corridor and Top Corridor.
We have stair lifts and disabled toilets on both levels. The corridors are wide and enable blind children to be safe when moving around.
Staff and pupils across school, have access to teachers and support staff who have a British Sign Language qualification.
We ensure, where ever possible, that equipment used is accessible to all children regardless of their needs.
Extra curricular activities and school trips are accessible to all children including those with SEND, as appropriate to the individual’s needs.

Question 12

How will we support your child when they are leaving this school? OR moving on to another class?

We recognise that transitions can be difficult for a child with SEND and take steps to ensure that any transition is a smooth as possible. If your child is moving child to another school:

We will contact the school SENDCO and ensure he/she knows about any special arrangements or support that need to be made for your child.
We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible.

When moving classes in school:

Information will be passed on to the new class teacher in advance and in most cases, a planning meeting will take place with the new teacher. Support plans will be shared with the new teacher.
If your child would be helped by a book to support them understand moving on then it will be made for them.

In Year 6:

The SENDCO will discuss the specific need of your child with the SENDCO of their secondary school.
Your child will do focused learning about aspects of transition to support their understanding of the changes ahead.
Where possible your child will visit their new school on several occasions and in some cases staff from the new school will visit your child in this school.

Question 13

What Emotional and Social Development support we have for a child with a SEND?

We recognise that pupils with SEND may well have Emotional and Social Development needs that will require support in school.

The Emotional Health and Well being of all our pupils is very important to us.
We have a robust Safeguarding Policy in place, we follow National & LA Guidelines.
We have a robust Pastoral Care Discipline Policy in place.
The Head teacher, Deputy Head teacher and all staff continually monitor the Emotional Health and Well being of all our pupils.
We are an Anti bullying school.