Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)
Every child is of equal importance and unique in their own way. All teachers at Burley Oaks are teachers of SEND who successfully provide for the diverse needs of pupils through good differentiated teaching. Children may require ‘additional ‘ or ‘different’ provision and the quality of their provision is relevant and matched to their individual needs.
The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENDCo) and Senior Mental Health Lead at Burley Oaks is Emma Learmonth (elearmonth@burleyoaks.mlt.co.uk), whose knowledge and skills are underpinned by a Psychology degree, PGCE and most recently, the NASENCo qualification. Please click here to read more from our SENDCo. Our headteacher, Claire Lee, also has 23 years of SEND experience and leads our school with inclusion at the heart ensuring all children ‘Belong, Believe, Achieve’.
The SENDCO role includes leading and coordinating:
- the strategic direction and development of SEND provision in this school
- the quality of teaching and learning which we deliver to our children with SEND
- the leading and management of our staff to support the needs of our children who have SEND
- the efficient and effective deployment of staff and other resources to support our children with SEND
At different times children may require different levels of support. We aim to:
- to promote inclusion (in the broadest sense) of all our children
- to ensure that every child’s needs are met through our culture (i.e. the way we behave and do things), agreed practices, procedures and our management and deployment of resources
- to facilitate early identification, assessment and provision for all children with special educational needs
- to ensure that all children receive a broad and balanced curriculum which is tailored to develop their individual abilities
- to consider the wishes and views of the child as well as the views of their parents
- to ensure that parents of children with SEN are encouraged to work in partnership with professionals
Graduated Response
A child or young person has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability which requires Special Educational Provision to be made for them.
According to the Special Needs Code of Practice (2014), a child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they:
a) Have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age
or
b) Have difficulty which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post 16 institutions.
Areas of Need
The below definitions are termed ‘broad areas’ as some children may have difficulties in one or more areas or it may not be clear which area their difficulty falls under. Most children’s needs will come under one of the following categories.
Links
DfE SEND guide for parents and carers
DFE Guidance - Complaints relating to SEND
We encourage any parent with a question or concern regarding their child to contact Mrs Learmonth (SENDCo) or the class teacher.
Inclusion
Burley Oaks Primary School has been annually accredited as a Flagship School for the Inclusion Quality Mark.
'Relentless in its commitment to providing aspirational opportunities for every child, with inclusion embedded at its core, Burley Oaks provides a curriculum where learning is fun, meaningful and purposeful, with the aim being to foster skills for life-long learning. Every child is valued as being unique, living the school values of ‘Belong, Believe and Achieve’.' IQM May 2024
More information about how the school as achieved this huge accolade can be read here: https://iqmaward.com/news/burley-oaks-primary-school-achieves-flagship-status/
