Special Educational Needs

Fakenham Academy is committed to the early identification of Special Educational Needs. We value parental support and if you have any concerns regarding your child we would like to hear from you. There are a number of people you can contact. You can speak to your child’s form tutor / Head of Key Stage or the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO), Romala Gill. The SENCO is available at all parents’ evening meetings.

Prior to joining the school you are able to note any additional needs on the school admission form.

The SEND department provides support for students across 4 areas of need as laid out in the SEN Code of Practice 2014:

• Cognitive and Learning (CL) – dyslexia, slow processing, literacy, numeracy, mixed neurodevelopmental disorder, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, moderate learning difficulties, developmental delay.
• Communication and Interaction (CI) – aspergers, autistic spectrum disorder, speech and language, social communication difficulties, elective mute
• Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) – ADD, ADHD, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, depression, self-harming, eating disorders, attachment disorder.
• Sensory and Physical Needs (SPN) – visual impairment, hearing impairment, medical needs including diabetes and epilepsy, cerebral palsy, physical disabilities.

The SEND profile for 21/22 is as follows:

How do we identify SEND?

If a student is identified as having SEND, then provision that is additional to their normal differentiated curriculum is put in place to overcome the barrier to learning. Learners fall behind for different reasons and the Academy is committed to ensuring that all learners have access to learning opportunities. Students at risk of not learning receive intervention packages however, this does not mean that all vulnerable students have SEND. Only students with a learning difficulty requiring special educational provision will be identified as having SEND. Students will be placed on the SEN register in accordance with the Multi Academy Trust protocol. 

Assessing SEND

Prior to arriving at Fakenham Academy information about students special educational needs are gained  from Primary Schools, KS2 results, baseline testing and progress data. A series of visits by the SENCO to feeder primary schools during Spring and Summer Terms including attendance at  EHCP reviews in Y6 helps to complete the picture.

During the year students are monitored through retesting of identified students, parent Consultation, feedback from teaching staff and observations, academic monitoring and reporting system based on formal subject testing and continuous assessment and student self referrals.

Provision

Provision for SEND students includes:

• quality teaching with appropriate differentiation in place
• additional adult support in classrooms where appropriate
• reduced class sizes where appropriate
• Literacy support. Students may be withdrawn from Language lessons in order to address identified literacy needs.  This occurs in consultation with the student and parents and targets students with a reading age below 8 years.
• Morning intervention. Reading sessions are targeted at those students with a reading and/or spelling age below 9 years. 
• Individual mentoring sessions are provided for identified students to support social / communication skills 
• Referral for advice and support from outside agencies.

SEND Funding

FAN receives direct funding to support the needs of learners with SEND. This is known as the SEN Notional funding and for 2021-22  is £284,878

Evaluating the effectiveness of the provision 

Monitoring progress is an integral part of teaching and leadership. The stages of intervention are:

• Assess
• Plan
• Do
• Review

Students, parents and carers, teaching staff and support staff are involved in reviewing progress. Appointments are available at Parents’ Evenings. Parents are encouraged to contact staff immediately should they have any concerns. If a student has an Educational Health and Care Plan then a formal review will be held annually.

The SENCO collates the impacts of interventions to ensure that effective interventions are used. Progress data for all students is collated by the Academy and is monitored by teaching staff, Senior Leaders and Academy Council members. FAN is monitored by Ofsted.

How Fakenham Academy enables students with SEND to engage in the activities of the school

• Use of Pupil Premium money to support students activities
• Bursary payments for post 16 learners
• Link to Educational Visits policy
• In line with the Equality Act 2010 and the DIsability Discrimination Act 2010  Fakenham Academy is committed to making reasonable adjustment to ensure participation for all students 

Support that is available for improving the emotional, mental and social development of students with SEND

Students are well supported by: Learning for Life lessons that provide a social, emotional and mental health programme, a pastoral system that provides targeted support for individual / groups of  students including programmes such as anger management and self esteem building, a student voice through the school council, an anti-bullying policy that is supported by a House system, a vertical tutoring system. Individual students may also be referred to the Welfare Officer and outside agencies such as MIND.

Preparing for the next step

At transfer from Primary to the Academy a series of visits by SEND Manager to feeder primary schools takes place during the Spring and Summer Terms in order to meet Year 6 students with special educational needs, discuss needs/previous provision with  primary SENDCOs and to collate information. There are a number of Transition  Arrangements in place including Open Evening, Make a Friend Day, Additional  morning for SEND students, Transition Weeks, Transition Evening.

Post 16 students with SEND are offered specialist careers advice and  collaborate  closely with  the institutions of further education that our students progress onto.

Useful contacts

Ms Romala Gill / Deputy Headteacher / SENco – romala.gill@fakenhamacademy.org

SEND staff

• Romala Gill, SENCO, BA (Hons) degree in English & Media Studies, PGCE and National Award for SEN Coordination
• Kerry Woodrow, Deputy SENCO
• SEND staff includes a further 9 Student Support Assistants with additional expertise and training. 
• Whole staff training – Differentiation, Dyslexia, ASD, Epipen, Safeguarding, Literacy, Quality first teaching

External agencies used

In addition, students may be offered support from Outside Agencies such as Welfare officer, Short Stay School, Children’s Services/Social Services, Early Support and Family Intervention, MASH, Police, MAPP, Victim Support, Matthew Project, Nelsons Journey, Nurse and the Attendance Officer.

Opinions matter

The views of parents are regularly collected at parents evenings and we carry out an annual survey where  students are asked for their views. In addition we welcome feedback at any time from parents, careers and students with SEND.

Norfolk County Council SEND Offer

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

Further support agencies 

• Norfolk SEND Partnership  http://www.norfolksendpartnershipiass.org.uk/
• Cambridge Family Mediation Service   http://www.cambridgefms.co.uk/ 
• Appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal      – https://www.gov.uk/special-educational-needs-disability-tribunal/overview

Other linked policies

Other policies related to SEND will be included on the Policies page of our website.

Covid-19 Addendum

During a regional or nation wide lockdown the services offered for SEND students will change. 

Students with a special educational need or disability will be supported through weekly phone calls, remote support via google classroom and email. Some students will be offered a place in school where they will continue to receive support with accessing the learning.