We value the contribution that all children make and aim to support and inspire them all to learn and develop socially to the very best of their abilities. We encourage our children to develop as caring and responsible citizens, with a sense of belonging to our school community.
We make excellent provision for pupils’ individual needs and recognise their talents and abilities. The Speech & Language Centre which provides for children from across Brighton and Hove is a key part of our school. Skills and resources are shared between Centre and mainstream staff to support SEND pupils throughout the school and improve staff development and training at all levels.
Additional and/or different provision is currently being made in school for children with a range of needs, including:
Cognition and learning – mild and moderate learning difficulties; specific learning difficulties for example dyslexia and difficulties with maths; global developmental delay.
Communication and interaction – speech and language difficulties, including social communication difficulties and processing difficulties.
Social, emotional and mental health – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, attachment and social interaction difficulties.
Sensory, medical and physical – visual and hearing impairment, physical needs e.g. cerebral palsy, specific medical and genetic conditions.
Responsibility for the support of a child with SEND lies with the class teacher, supported by the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO). Some class teachers or year groups may work alongside a teaching assistant (TA) who supports all children in lessons, including, but not exclusively, those with identified SEND.
In some classes a TA may be allocated to a specific pupil and will support this pupil and other pupils in the class. The class teacher will implement strategies to support the needs of the children in their class through high quality teaching.
A small number of children may need additional support in order to help them to access their learning and the strategies will be tailor-made for each child’s needs. For example a child who has difficulties with reading may get daily reading with the TA, opportunities to practise their phonics and written instructions for tasks with added pictures (communicate in print).
A number of children will also be given withdrawal interventions and the school run a range of these through highly trained TAs. These interventions include School Start and Talk Boost speech and language programmes, Fisher Family Trust reading programme and First class at Number 1 and 2 maths programmes.
We also have four full time equivalent Learning Mentors who support children with social, emotional and mental health needs in order to help them to be emotionally and behaviourally ready to access their learning. These learning mentors support the school’s breakfast club.
The school also work with external professionals / agencies in order to gain support and strategies from professional colleagues. Many of these professionals now work as part of the Brighton and Hove Inclusion Support Service. These include specialist teachers in Speech and Language, Literacy, Sensory Needs and Autism Spectrum Condition as well as Educational Psychologists, Behaviour specialists and Primary Mental Health Workers.
The school also work with health professionals such as Health visitors, School Nurses, Speech and Language Therapists, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists and many more.
Decisions over what provision a child may need will be made in the termly pupil progress reviews, half termly Achievement Teams as well as through discussion with the SENCO.
A link to our school’s local offer can be found here.