At Benhall Infant school and Pre-School we work hard to ensure our children thrive in their development and learning through high quality teaching within our engaging learning environments and our rich and challenging progressive curriculum.  We encourage all children to develop as 'Purple learners' as we believe curiosity and creativity are paramount in supporting every child to become independent, self-motivated, engaged and resilitent learners.  We ensure that high expectations for all, alongside developing mutual respect and trust for one another and our environments is at the heart of everything we do at Benhall.   

 

What happens if my child has special educational needs?

We follow the 'Graduated response' to identification and assessment of need. We ensure that this puts every child and their family at the centre of planning and decision making.    If your child has been identified as having a disability or special educational need prior to joining our pre-school or school, our SENDCo will contact you to arrange a meeting.  This will ensure that we can carefully plan the transition to meet the individual needs of your child.  If staff identify gaps in your child's learning or feel that they require further support to progress and attain in identified areas of the development and learning, this will be monitored and assessed by their Key person (preschool) / class teacher in the first instance.  If concerns regarding your childs progress and attainment continue and identified gaps have not reduced through differentiating the curriculum, the pre-school manager (preschool) / class teacher will ask the SENDCo for further support and advice.   This may include adding your child to our SEND register and implementing a 'My Plan' which will identify specific developmental/learning objectives and resources/support to be provided. Following pre-school/school based interventions (delivered both in the classroom and in small groups or 1:1), it may be necessary to ask for further advice and assessment from outside agencies; including Educational Psychology, The Advisory Teaching Service, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapy and/or Occupational Therapy.  Children who are in receipt of additional assessment and support from multi-agency services will be moved to 'My Plan +'.  At all stages of this identification process, the pre-school manager/class teacher and SENDCo will maintain an open dialogue with parents and permission will be sought for each external referral.   For children with complex and ongoing learning and development needs, it may be appropriate for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) multi-agency assessment to be completed. This could result in your child having an EHC plan which would be reviewed by the SENDCo, multi-agency professionals and yourselves at least annually.

 

The assessment, plan, do, review (APDR) cycle runs on a termly basis through 'My Plan' meetings. 

Assessment - This begins with pre-school/school based tacking and assessments as part of our termly pupil progress process.  During further cycles, specific assessment from external agencies may be used.

Plan -  Parents/carers, pre-school/school staff, SENDCo and (where appropriate) your child, meet to set targets for the coming term.  This includes who will support your child at each stage of the plan, ensuring all members of your child's team understand and fulfil their responsibilities.

Do - There is a period of time when your child will be involved in interventions and programmes that meet their identified needs.  These may require your child to take part in one to one or small group activities . 

Review - Parents/carers, pre-school/school staff, SENDCo and (where appropriate) your child, meet to discuss how the 'do' part of the cycle has progressed and it's impact on narrowing identified gaps in progress.  At this point there may be a need to renew the APDR cycle with a new plan.

 

What should I do if I have concerns about my child?

The pre-school manager (pre-school) / your child's teacher will be able to answer questions relating to your child's wellbeing and / or progress. 

If you require more information you can book a meeting with our SENDCo, Miss Hazel Everett; senco@benhall.gloucs.sch.uk 

Between these scheduled appointments, the SENDCo can be contacted via the school office or the email address above.

 

Useful Links

Gloucestershire Families Directory

Families Information Service

Citizens Advice