FAQ

We have a number of methods to help us identify if a child needs extra help. These include:

• Communication with parents
• Collecting information from your child’s pre-school or previous school
• Class teacher or Inclusion manager observations at pre-school and/ or communication with key worker
• Information from other services who have worked with your child, for example a speech and language therapist (SALT)

Once your child is in school the class teacher will:

• Continually assess each child and note areas where progress is made and areas where more support may be needed.
• Communicate with other members of staff
• Discuss with the inclusion Manager
• If we have concerns we may ask other professionals to give advice and support

Kirby Muxloe staff will be aware that a child may have additional needs if they are demonstrating a lack of progress, poor test scores, a change in behaviour or if the child or parent asks for help.

If you are concerned about your child’s progress in school then please make an appointment with the class teacher initially as this is the person in school who knows your child best..

If you are feel that concerns are not being managed and that your child is still not making progress you should speak to the Inclusion Manager or Headteacher.

If you are still not happy you can speak to the school Inclusion Governor.

All staff working with pupils at Kirby Muxloe care about their well-being and progress. If any member of staff working with a child identifies that they have difficulties in particular areas, that they find it harder than their peers to gain skills or knowledge, or that they are not making the progress that is expected, they will bring this to the attention of the class teacher initially, who will ensure through ‘Quality First Teaching’ that the child is given every opportunity to progress.

Concerns about a child will be raised with the Inclusion Manager and the parent at this point. After a period of in class support, should the child still be experiencing significant difficulties and not making expected progress then this will be further discussed with the Inclusion Manager and parent and a decision will be taken jointly as to whether the child should require a higher level of intervention and help.

A variety of measures can be used at this point, including spelling tests, reading age, maths results and more specialist testing. In other cases parents, previous schools or settings or outside agencies such as Speech and Language Therapy bring a child’s specific needs to our attention. 

Our Headteacher is responsible for:

• The day to day management of all aspects of the school, this includes the support for children with SEND.

• Ensuring that your child’s needs are met (by delegating responsibility to the Inclusion Manager and class teachers)

• Ensuring the Governing Body is kept up to date about any issues in the school relating to SEND.

Our Inclusion Governor is responsible for:

• Making sure that the necessary support is made for any child who attends the school who has SEND.

Our Inclusion Manager is responsible for:

• Coordinating all the support for children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) and developing the school’s SEND Policy to make sure all children get a consistent, high quality response that meets their needs in school.

• Ensuring that parents and carers are:

  • involved in supporting a child’s learning

  • kept informed about the support their child is getting

  • involved in reviewing how children are doing

• Liaising with all the other people who may be coming into school to help support your child’s learning e.g. Speech and Language Therapy, Educational Psychology etc.

• Updating the school’s SEND register (a system for ensuring all the SEND needs of pupils in this school are known) and making sure that there are excellent records of your child’s progress and needs.

• Providing specialist support for teachers and support staff so that they can help the children make the best possible progress.

• Allocating appropriate support and resources as appropriate.

Our Classteachers are responsible for:

• Providing Quality First Teaching that is carefully adapted to the needs of pupils to ensure that all children reach their full potential.

• Checking on the progress of your child and identifying, planning and delivering any additional help your child may need (this could be things like targeted work, additional support) and letting the Inclusion Manager know about any issues as necessary.

• Ensuring that all staff working with your child in school are helped to deliver the planned provision for your child, so that they can achieve the best possible progress – this may involve the use of additional adults, outside specialist help and specially planned work and resources.

• Ensuring that the school’s SEND Policy is followed in their classroom and for all the pupils they teach with any SEND.

Our Learning Support Assistants:

• Work collaboratively with class teachers to ensure that children who have special educational needs and/ or disability have access to the curriculum.

• Work with individuals or small groups of pupils in the classroom under the direct supervision of teaching staff and provide feedback to the teacher.

• Support the teacher in monitoring, assessing and recording pupil progress/activities.

• Pupils at Kirby Muxloe are considered on an individual basis and their specific needs matched up to appropriate support and intervention.
• Pupil progress meetings take place each term.
• Children’s progress is monitored on a termly basis when normal assessments take place.
• Provision is altered and adapted as necessary to meet the individual needs of children.
• In addition to this when a child takes part in a specific intervention programme their entry and exit levels are measured.
• The Inclusion Manager meets with the Inclusion Governor termly to feedback on the progress of pupils with SEND.

• We pride ourselves on building positive relationships with parents. We are open and honest with parents and hope that they are able to do the same with us.
• Your child’s progress is continually monitored by his/her class teacher.
• His/her progress is reviewed formally every term and a level given in English and Maths.
• If your child is not reaching current School expectations for their age, then class teachers will move to another level which will provide a more appropriate assessment.

Sometimes, a more sensitive assessment tool is used which shows their level in more detail and will also show smaller but significant steps of progress. The levels are called ‘P levels’.

• 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 these are the results that are published nationally.
• Children on our SEN register have an IEP (Individualized Education Programme) which is written by the class teacher. It contains targets that have been agreed by the Inclusion Manager and parents/carers. This is reviewed termly with parental involvement and a plan for the next term is created.
• IEPs often outline what support parents can give to assure their child’s progress.
• The progress of children with a statement of special educational needs/EHC Plan is formally reviewed at an Annual Review with all of the adults involved with the child’s education.
• The Inclusion Manager will also monitor that your child is making good progress.
• Each year group’s Long Term Plan is published on the website and details which themes will be studied throughout the year. Reinforcement of key skills at home is very useful in helping children with SEND to make progress.
• The class teacher may suggest ways of supporting your child’s learning through messages, at parents’ evenings or if you are requested to attend a meeting.
• The Inclusion Manager may meet with you to discuss how to support your child. You may be asked to attend a meeting to discuss strategies to use if there are problems with your child’s behaviour or mental health.
• If outside agencies or the Educational Psychologist have been involved suggestions and programmes of study are normally provided that can be used or adapted for use at home.

• The class teacher and planning team know the profile of their class and individual needs consequently learning activities are planned to match children’s learning needs.
• The environment is stimulating, supportive and well resourced. Wall and interactive displays provide prompts and reminders to encourage children to learn and achieve independently. Classrooms have a range of resources close at hand to support learning and children are actively encouraged to utilise what is provided.
• Each class has some support from a Learning Support Assistant. If children have a Statement of Special Educational Need or an Education, Health and Care Plan, there may be additional teaching assistance so that specialised support is available.
• Specialist staff also work with children as required.
• We will ensure that all staff know and understand the needs of all pupils.
• All staff will have access to training, advice and resources to enable them to contribute to developing fully inclusive practice.
• All children with an Individual Education Plan (IEP) have an ‘IEP’ book or folder, where observations and assessments are recorded after personalised IEP work takes place, this is used by anyone working with the child.
• Some children have targets reinforced within class activities and will therefore work on these during lessons as well as during targeted time. This helps children makes links and see why and how targets can be achieved. 

• 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.
• Specially trained support staff can adapt the teacher’s 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. 

The type of support provided for your child will depend on their level of need. It can include: 

• Class teacher input - Quality First Teaching. For your child this would mean:

1. That the teacher had the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class.
2. That all teaching builds upon what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
3. At times the teacher may direct the class based Learning Support Assistant to work with your child as part of normal working practice.
4. 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.
5. Specific strategies (which may be suggested by the Inclusion Manager or external agencies) are in place to support your child to learn.
6. Your child’s teacher will have carefully checked on your child’s progress and will have decided that your child has gaps in their understanding/learning and needs some extra support to help them make the best possible progress.
7. It may also involve group work with in a smaller group of children. This group, often called intervention groups by schools, may be run in the classroom or outside and run by a teacher or most often a Learning Support Assistant who has had training to run these groups.

• If a child has been identified eg by the Inclusion Manager as needing some extra specialist support in school then outside professionals may become involved in supporting your child (with your involvement and approval) This may be from Local Authority services such as Autism Outreach or Specialist Teaching Service, Educational Psychologist, Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapist, Outside agencies such as the Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) Service.

The specialist professional will work with your child to understand their needs and make recommendations, which may include:

• Making changes to the way your child is supported in class e.g. some individual support or changing some aspects of teaching to support them better.
• Support to set better targets which will include their specific expertise.
• A group run by school staff under the guidance of the outside professional e.g. a social skills group.
• A group or individual work with outside professional.
• The school may suggest that your child needs some individual support in school from one of these agencies. They will tell you how the support will be used and what strategies will be put in place. This type of support is available for children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through Quality First Teaching and intervention groups.

Specified Individual support

This is usually provided via a Statement of Special Educational Needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and will be defined by SENA (Special Educational Needs Assessment). This means your child will have been identified by the class teacher or Inclusion Manager as needing a particularly high level of support or small group teaching (the amount of hours will be specified by a Statement of Special Educational Needs/EHCP), which cannot be provided from the budget available to the school.

Usually your child will also need support from professionals outside the school. This may be from:

• Local Authority central services such as the Autism Outreach Team or hearing and visual support.
• Outside agencies such as the Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) Service.

The school (or you) can request that the Local Authority 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. The Local Authority has boundaries of need that a child must fall into to be considered for this level of support.

The Statement or EHCP will outline the number of hours of individual/small group support your child will receive from the LA, 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.

This type of support is available for children whose learning needs are:

• Severe, complex and lifelong
• Need more than a specified number of hours support in school

• All children are included in all parts of the school curriculum and we aim for all children to be included on school trips. We seek to provide the necessary support to ensure that this is successful.
• Risk assessments are carried out for each trip and a suitable number of adults are made available to accompany the pupils, with 1:1 support if necessary.
• Parents/carers are invited to accompany their child on a school trip/to after school activities if this ensures access.
• Extracurricular school clubs are available to all pupils and if possible adjustments will be made to support the participation of vulnerable pupils.
• Health and safety audits will be conducted as and when appropriate. 

• The school site is wheelchair accessible with ramps and a lift.
• We have disabled toilets that are large enough to accommodate changing and suitable for wheelchair users.
• Visual timetables are used in most classrooms.
• We have an accessibility plan.

Support we can provide in school may include:

• Circle Time and R Time activities or PHSCE lessons as part of class teaching
• Nurture groups
• ELSA groups with a trained member of staff
• Social skills and friendship groups
• Behaviour programmes including rewards and sanctions.
• Access to a learning mentor
• A named adult in school
• Medicines can be administered in school with signed parental permission. There are nominated first aiders in school and several members of staff have paediatric first aid qualifications. If your child has significant medical needs you will need to speak to the Inclusion Manager to discuss how we can best support you and your child. This might include drawing up a Health Care Plan.
• The class teacher has responsibility for the overall well-being of every child in their class. If you have any worries speak to the class teacher first. If further support is needed the class teacher will speak to the Learning Mentor and the Inclusion Manager.