SEND Information Report 2023-2024 

    Written: November 2023 

     Review date: November 2024 

Introduction 

Welcome to Pulham Primary School’s SEN Information Report for 2023-24.   

Our SEN information report is part of the Norfolk Local Offer for learners with Special  

Educational Needs (SEN). This report outlines what our school can offer for pupils with SEND. To find out more about how the Norfolk Local Authority can support children with SEN and for more information about Norfolk’s Local Offer please visit   

www.norfolk.gov.uk/children-and-families/send-local-offer. 

Mrs McClure (SENDCo) will always take time to talk about and guide you through the local offer and to talk about how all children regardless of need are important members of Pulham Primary school.   

At Pulham Primary School, we are committed to working together with all members of our community. This report has been produced to explain what we offer as a school and shows how we support children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Disabilities (D) to achieve their very best outcomes. It is updated annually and aims to set out the vision, values and broader aims of our school’s arrangements for pupils with SEND and disabilities.   

Below is a list of key people to contact:  

SEND Governor: Debbie Leahy– via school; dleahy@pulham.norfolk.sch.uk 

SENDCo: Vicki McClure – 01379 676313; sen@pulham.norfolk.sch.uk 

Chair of Governors: Gill Hipwell - via school; ghipwell@pulham.norfolk.sch.uk 

Headteacher: Harriet Beckett – 01379 676313; head@pulham.norfolk.sch.uk 

Our SEND Profile 2023-2024 

We currently have 32 pupils identified as having SEND, which equates to 26.2% of our school population. We currently have 4 children with an EHCP.  We are working really hard to establish a consistent approach to the identification and support of our pupils with SEN and our data is likely to increase as a result.  

Nationally 17.3% of children are identified with SEN, and locally, across Norfolk 18.6% of children are identified with SEN.   

Our SEND Profile for 2023-24 currently shows that:   

25% of children with SEN have Cognition and Learning needs 

19% of children with SEN have Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs 

50% of children with SEN have Communication and Interaction needs 

6% of children with SEN have Sensory and/or Physical needs 

(Please note, that children may have more than one area of need and that data across the year will change as the needs of the children change).   

The school receives a budget to support children with SEND within the school. This is used to provide additional support for pupils on the SEND Support Register. The amount for 2023-24 is £72,375. If a child has an EHCP or an exceptionally high level of need, we can apply to the Local Authority for additional funding via INDES web forms which Norfolk County Council use as a way of assessing the needs of the individual child against the provision the school provides and the planned targets and outcomes for the child’s learning and meeting of their needs.  

At present, our SEND funding is used to fund Teaching Assistant (TA) support in class, targeted SEND interventions, training for the SENDCo and for staff across the school, and external professional support.

Our Approach to Teaching Learners with SEND 

Our ambition is that every child, whilst at the school, will be provided with the knowledge, skills and experiences which will enable them to blossom during their time here and be ready for the next stage of their journey. We work to support every child as they grow emotionally, academically and spiritually and as a school, we serve the children, their families and our community to do this.  

We want every adult and child to actively participate in learning. We celebrate all members of our community. Our aim is to create a sense of welcome and an inclusive culture in our school. This includes being responsive to the diversity of children’s backgrounds, interests, experience, knowledge and skills.  

We value the abilities and achievements of all our pupils and are committed to providing for each pupil the best possible learning environment. We recognise that all children have different styles of learning and we respond to this accordingly. We are a school that values the child as a whole and the strengths that they have.    

Inclusion is the process of taking necessary steps to ensure that every child and adult is given an equality of opportunity to develop socially, to learn and to enjoy school and community life. We aim to create a learning environment which is flexible enough to ensure that every child fulfils their potential, regardless of their background or circumstances.   

Through quality first and adaptive teaching, a versatile curriculum, personalised learning and specific intervention groups, we aim to identify the needs of all learners, whilst encouraging self-motivation and independence. Our inclusive approach recognises the entitlement of all pupils to a balanced, broadly based curriculum that ensures every pupil achieves their optimum potential. We endeavour to make every effort to achieve maximum inclusion for all our pupils whilst meeting pupils’ individual needs. We do not tolerate discrimination towards anyone and have measures in place to prevent bullying of any kind.   

As a school we value high quality teaching for all learners and actively monitor teaching and learning in the school as part of our ongoing quality assurance cycle. All staff have high standards and strive to create a learning environment which is flexible enough to meet the needs of all members of our school community. We monitor progress of all children through pupil progress meetings, book scrutiny, learning walks, moderation of work and close monitoring of our assessment data/tracking systems. We also work closely with other schools within our Trust to share good practice and achieve the best outcomes possible for all children.    

We have just introduced the 7Cs, a strengths based, learner centred approach to supporting our pupils with SEN. The 7Cs puts the curriculum at the centre, however, it looks at the wide range of barriers to learning that pupils need to overcome in order to successfully access and therefore achieve in the specific curriculum areas. 

How we identify SEN  

All teachers are a teacher of children with SEN and provision for children with SEN is a whole school issue. The continuous cycle of planning, teaching and assessment takes account of the wide range of abilities, aptitudes and interests of all the children. Within this provision the majority of children will learn and progress but some children, whose overall attainment, or attainment in specific areas, falls significantly below their peers, may have SEN. We aim to identify such children as early as possible through continual discussion with parents, the potential for the involvement of outside professionals and ongoing assessment which leads to support that is over and above what the other children in the class are receiving.   

At different times in their school career, a child or young person may have a special education need (SEN). We identify children with SEN as those who have difficulties with learning, which are significantly greater than other children of the same age or who have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age. We define the areas of difficulty as those identified by the Code of Practice:   

• Communication and Interaction 

• Cognition and Learning 

• Social, mental and emotional health 

• Sensory and/or Physical 

Some children have a disability. These children may not necessarily have SEN and may just require reasonable adaptations to the curriculum, but there is a significant overlap between disabled children and those with SEN. The equality act 2010 has a definition of disability which can be accessed via the link at the end of this document. 

Assessing SEN at Pulham Primary School 

At Pulham Primary School we have introduced clear documentation to ensure that assessment of educational needs directly involves the learner, their parents/carer and the class teacher. The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-ordinator 

(SENDCo) will also support with the identification of barriers to learning. Examples of barriers to learning can include: poor working memory, slow processing speed, anxiety, speech difficulties and limited self-regulation. Sometimes we simply want to overcome the barrier, so the child can take part in an activity or lesson and engage in learning. However, we will also work to address the barrier to learning and ultimately aim to remove it. We focus particularly on working with children to develop their independence and self-help strategies, so that they can become successful, independent learners.   

 We have a range of assessment tools and strategies that we use within school; however, for some learners we may want to seek advice from specialist teams. W which are described on the local offer website and we also commission support from:   

• Educational Psychologists    

• Specialist Learning Support Teachers  

• Behaviour Support Services   

• Speech and Language Therapists   

• Access through Technology   

• Dyslexia outreach services   

• School 2 school 

• Advice and support from the Specialist Resource Base Teams  

Most support services have to be commissioned, which means they have to be paid for by the school and are part of the expenditure linked to the notional SEN budget.   

What we do to support learners with SEND 

Every teacher is required to adapt the curriculum to ensure access to learning for all children in their class; i.e. Quality First Teaching. Sometimes, our teachers will need to explore a variety of strategies to adapt in order for a child to access the  

curriculum. These are 'reasonable adjustments' and include: 

• Visual timetables 

• Computers, tablets or other recording devices 

• Sensory stimulation or de-sensitising strategies 

• Fidget Tools and sensory cushions 

• Special pencil grips 

• Coloured overlays 

• Writing Slopes 

• Writing Frames 

• Whole school behaviour system 

• Sensory Circuits 

• Differentiated teaching and small group work 

• Social stories 

• Quiet working spaces 

• Practical resources 

• THRIVE 

• Knowledge organisers 

• Specialist handwriting and fine motor programmes 

• Lego Therapy 

• Adapted seating 

The type of support is dependent on the individual learning needs and is intended to enable access to learning and overcome the barrier to learning identified. Additional support and intervention is shown on a provision map which is modified regularly, as our learners and their needs change.   

Monitoring Support  

The progress of all learners is closely monitored by teachers, senior leaders, the Head Teacher and SENDCo. Parents/carers, pupils and staff are involved in reviewing the impact of interventions for learners with SEND. We follow the ‘assess, plan, do, review’ model. The school has started to implement the 7Cs to ensure that every child with SEND makes progress that can be monitored relative to their starting point. Children with an Educational Health Care (EHC) Plan will have an annual review involving parents, the SENDCo, the class teachers and external agencies. We encourage all parents to maintain regular contact with their child’s class teacher as it is through regular communication that we work together to achieve the best for every child.   

Staff Training  

We are committed to ensuring that our staff receive a range of appropriate training and development opportunities that will help to support the children in our school.  Some of the recent training sessions attended by individuals or groups of staff include:   

• 7Cs approach to supporting learners with SEND 

• Code of Practice 

• APDR 

• Zones of Regulation 

• SEMH strategies 

• Quality First Teaching and adaptive Teaching 

• STEPS 

• Quality deployment of TAs and interventions 

Extra-curricular activities 

At Pulham Primary School, we believe that all learners should have the same opportunity to access extra-curricular activities. Pulham Primary School places high value on every child participating in school trips, experiences, residential trips and enhanced learning opportunities across the school day. We offer a range of after school clubs that change regularly and are committed to making reasonable adjustments to ensure participation for all. 

Transition 

Transition is a part of life for all learners. This can be transition to a new class in school, having a new teacher or moving to another school. Whenever any pupil transfers to another school, including special schools, the home school will pass on all relevant information. In addition, for pupils with SEND, there will also be dialogue between the class teacher and/or SENDCo and /or head teacher and a senior member of the other school’s staff.  Pulham Primary School is committed to working in partnership with children, families and other providers to ensure positive transitions occur.   

We start planning from the moment your child arrives at Pulham Primary School for a positive future as an independent confident adult who will make a positive contribution to their community; every child has an important part to play in their community and every child will bring their own skills set which needs to be recognised, enhanced and celebrated. 

Useful links 

www.norfolk.gov.uk/SEN 

Disability Act 2010  

Family Voice  

SEND Parent Partnership  

National SEN Code of Practice  

Autism.org  

Asthma information and advice  

Just One Norfolk – Website full of advice and support  

SEND guide for parents  

Education Endownment Fund Research based interventions  

Top Tips on Reading, Handwriting, Spelling, Memory and Organisation 

This report is updated annually and reviewed by the Governing body.  

November 2023