St Anne's Catholic Primary School

achieving excellence in all our God given talents

Lowe Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B12 0ER

0121 675 5037

enquiry@st-annes.bham.sch.uk

SEND Information and Support 

A child has Special Educational Needs if he or she has learning or physical difficulties that call for special educational provision to be made.

My name is Jane Rhodes and I am the  SENCO and  support the pastoral team and mental health and well being at school.

You can contact me by phoning the school or emailing enquiry@st-annes.bham.sch.uk

Receive children in reverence, educate them in love, and let them go forth in freedom.

Rudolf Steiner

Children have a learning difficulty if they:

  • Have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age;
  • Have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age. This may relate to impairments in communication and interaction, cognition and behavioral learning, emotional and social development, or sensory or physical needs. 

At St. Anne’s Catholic School, we provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all pupils based on three principles: Setting suitable learning challenges; Responding to pupils’ diverse learning needs;Overcoming potential barriers to learning. Saint Anne’s Catholic Primary School values all pupils and celebrates diversity of experience, interest and achievement. All pupils need to experience praise, recognition and success, and pupils with SEND have equal entitlement to this. we ensure to provide a high-quality education to all of our pupils, including pupils with SEND, and to ensure we do everything we can to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. 


Through successful implementation of our policy, the school aims to:

  • Eliminate discrimination
  • Promote equal opportunities.
  • Foster good relationships between pupils with SEND and pupils without SEND.


The school will work with the LA, or equivalent, within the following principles;

  • The involvement of pupils and their parents in decision-making
  • The identification of pupils’ needs
  • Collaboration between education, health and social care services to provide support
  • High-quality provision to meet the needs of pupils with SEND
  • Greater choice and control for pupils and their parents over their support
  • Successful preparation for adulthood, including independent living and employment. 

Which SEND needs do we provide for at Saint Anne's Catholic Primary School?

Saint Anne's Catholic Primary School will meet the needs of children with the following SEND: 

  • Communication and interaction (C&I)
  • Cognition and learning (C&L)
  • Social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH)
  • Sensory and/or physical needs

There are four key areas of Special Educational Needs outlined in the SEND Code of Practice:

Area of SEN

Definition

Communication and Interaction

Children with Speech, language and communication needs have difficulty in communicating with others such as those with an ASD diagnosis. This could include difficulties with producing or responding to expressive or receptive language. They may have difficulty in uttering speech sounds, difficulties in understanding spoken language and communications from others. 

Cognition and Learning

This refers to when children and young people learn at a slower pace than their peers, even with appropriate differentiation. Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs, including moderate learning difficulties (MLD), specific learning difficulties (SpLD) such as dyslexia and dyspraxia, severe learning difficulties (SLD) and profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD). This encompasses a range of conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.

Social, emotional and mental health difficulties

This may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour. These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties and traumas. It also includes ADHD and attachment disorder.

Sensory and/or physical needs

Some children will require special educational provision because they have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of the educational facilities generally provided. These include visual impairment, hearing impairment, multi- sensory impairment and physical impairment, which may require additional equipment to assist with learning.

You can read more about our provision at St Anne’s and the local offer below:

 

Examples of support given at St Anne's

Communication and Interaction

  • Using a variety of teaching styles in class
  • Wellcomm
  • Additional support in smaller groups and intervention
  • Use of visual timetables and social stories
  • Individual targets and one page profiles

Cognition and Learning

  • Using a variety of teaching styles in class
  • Targeted intervention in small groups or 1:1
  • Use of resources in the classroom including task boards, timetables and child-specific resources.
  • Support from external agencies including Pupil and School Support (PSS), Communication and Autism Team (CAT) and the Educational Psychologist (EP)
  • Individual targets and one page profiles

Social, Emotional and Mental Health

  • Individual action plans and rewards system
  • Learning Mentors 
  • External counselling support
  • Mental and emotional well-being is weaved throughout the curriculum.

Sensory and/or Physical Needs

  • Seek specialist advice from external agencies
  • Use of specialist equipment
  • Fine and gross motor skills groups

 

Outside Agency Support

Educational Psychologist - The role of the Education Psychologist is to support staff, pupils and parents on a daily basis for a range of needs. Examples might be pupils with Downs Syndrome, Attachment or anxiety. The EP uses psychological methods and techniques to enable children to access the curriculum. If parents and school agree a child needs an EHC (Educational Health Care Plan) the Educational Psychologist is always involved in this assessment. 

Pupil and School Support Officer - The role of Pupil and School Support Teacher is to support school staff and children in the area of cognition and learning. This can be achieved by training staff for interventions, assessment and observation of children, guidance and coaching for staff on using an alternative strategy to achieve an agreed outcome. 

Communication and Autism team (CAT) - The role of the Communication and Autism team is to monitor children with Autism and give staff appropriate support and training. Also in this remit they assist school in identifying any communication, language or social issues that can occur as a result of these difficulties. The team monitor children who may display difficulties in this area who may not have a formal diagnosis of Autism.

Speech and Language Therapist - At St Anne’s we have a Speech and Language Therapist for half a day a week. Her role is to support the SENDCo and staff to identfy and assess any child with speech and communication difficulties. She also works with small groups and individual children on their specific targets. 

Local Offer Birmingham | SEND Advice and Information

The Birmingham Local Offer Website includes information about the wide range of services that are available to support all areas of a child’s life (0-25 years) especially those with a Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND).  This includes support with education, physical and mental health, social care, leisure activities and moving towards independence and adulthood. 

Other organisations

Other organisations that may be able to help:  

  • Autism West Midlands  
  • Downs Syndrome Association  
  • British Dyslexia Association 
  • Dyspraxia Foundation  
  • Birmingham NHS Speech and Language Service  

National Deaf Society for Children (https://www.ndcs.org.uk 

  • Birmingham NHS ADHD Service (Nurse led service for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) 
  • School Nurse  
  • Your own GP  
  • Click on the questions at the end of this page  to find out more:

 

At Saint Anne's Catholic Primary we identify pupils where:



    • Progress is significantly slower than that of peers starting from same baseline.

    • Fails to match or better the child's previous rate of progress.

    • Fails to close the attainment gap between the child and peers.

    • Widens the attainment gap.


In school we use a variety of different ways to assess whether a child or young person has special educational needs. Some of these ways include:



    • Observations.

    • Assessments.

    • chool based test results/tracking and monitoring, eg. Language and Literacy continuum.

    • Information from parents and carers.

    • Information from the child or young person.

    • Specialised assessments carried out by members of the school's support services.

    • Information from previous schools or settings.

    • Results from end of key stage assessments.

    • Discussions with adults who work with the child or young person.


Once a child or young person is identified as having a special educational need, a graduated approach to support is taken. The child or young person's needs will first be assessed, then support will be planned, carried out and then reviewed. At the review any necessary changes will be made.

 

 

All children's progress, including those children or young people with special educational need, is tracked using the school's assessment tracking system. Pupils are assessed regularly using teacher marking, observations and questioning as well as more formal assessments such as curriculum tests and standardised test.


In Birmingham we also have access to the Birmingham Language and Literacy and Maths toolkits which support assessment when a child or young person is making small steps of progress. In addition for children or young people with special educational needs we also set individual targets that are reviews at least three times a year. This helps the school to monitor how well interventions are working.


The progress each child is making is discussed at pupil progress meetings with a member of the Senior Leadership team, the class teacher and the SENCo.

 

 

If you think your child may have special educational needs, contact the SEN co-ordinator, or ‘SENCO’ in your child’s school or nursery.


Contact your local council if your child is not in a school or nursery.


Your local Information, Advice and Support (IAS) Service can give you advice about SEND.

 

 

Your child may be eligible for:



    • SEN support - support given in school, like speech therapy


 

Put It In God's Hands: What It Means to Truly Let Go and Let God

Child of God know that you were formed by God's hands, dreamed up in His heart and placed in this world for a purpose.