What should I do before my child starts at St David’s School?

Firstly please make contact with the school either by email or phone or come and visit if you are in the locality. The SAENCo will talk to you about your child’s needs and how best they can be met. 

Gather together all the information you have about your child eg IEPs/ILPs, school reports, Speech and Language reports, medical information (if relevant).

We know that children’s needs vary from one child to another. Most needs can be dealt with by the school, and parents will always be fully involved. We believe that it is much better, where possible, to help any child with difficulties within the context of the classroom. Educational and specialist support services are located a considerable distance away and it may not always be possible to meet the needs of those with complex special educational needs here at St David’s.  In this instance there may be an assessment process undertaken, as outlined below.  

SEND Inquiry (now known as MASO- MOD Assessment of Supportability Overseas)

Pupils with disabilities and needs will only be admitted, if it is deemed by MOD Schools & the school that their needs can be fully met and we have granted a Certificate of Educational Clearance. Existing access arrangements and any adaptations required will be part of an assessment, known as MASO, which is carried out by the MOD Schools multi agency team. The MASO is to clarify if your child’s needs can be met by the school.  The decision on whether we can meet your child’s needs is determined by a panel outside of the school, normally including representation from Command.  YOU SHOULD NOT PROCEED WITH YOUR POSTING UNTIL THERE IS AN OUTCOME.

MASO Leaflet

Accessibility:

Currently all parts of the school can be readily accessed by those with mobility issues (e.g. wheelchairs), other than directly in/out of the building to the playground. This can currently be overcome by taking a less direct/slightly longer route in and out of the playground via the path around the front of the building, using additional adult support.

Accessibility Plan 2019-2021

Accessibility Strategy

At St David’s School we aim to provide an inclusive education in which all children and young people flourish and achieve.

Quality first teaching is an essential element in this, along with the recognition that some children will require additional or adapted provision to minimise barriers to learning and maximise progress.

We work in partnership with parents, pupils and outside professionals.

OFSTED (2016) stated: ‘Staff are particularly successful at identifying gaps in pupils’ knowledge and designing activities to enable them to catch up quickly.’

We endeavour to meet all our children’s needs. However due to our location we do not have access to regular support from specialist agencies. Therefore it is very important to consider carefully your child’s needs before considering a move to Ramstein.

The school’s Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Policy can be found below.

The progress of all children in school is the primary responsibility of the class teacher in partnership with the parents; with the support of the SAENCo and Senior Leadership Team.

SEND leaflet

SEND Procedures

Accessing Child and Adolescent Mental Healthcare.

There is no CAHMS available in Ramstein.  It may be possible to access remote services via the Central European Practice.  If this is desired please call the CEP on 0032 6544 2280.

Please click here to view how we support Mental Health at the school.

SAEN Policy

Inclusion Policy

Who should I talk to at St David’s School about my child’s difficulties with learning/ Special and Additional Educational Needs (SAEN)?

1. Class teacher

St David’s School operates an ‘open-door’ policy- if you have any concerns about your child’s learning, we recommend that you discuss them with the class teacher in the first instance. Either speak to your child’s teacher at the end of the school day or contact the office to make an appointment.

The class teacher is responsible for:

• 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 AHT Inclusion know as necessary.
• Writing Individual Learning Plans and sharing and reviewing these with parents at least once each term and planning for the next term.
• Ensuring that all staff working with your child in school are helped to deliver the planned work/intervention programme for your child, so 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 SAEN Policy is followed in their classroom and for all the pupils they teach with any SAEN.

2. SAENCo

If your child has identified learning needs or requires additional support then the best person to talk to is the Assistant Headteacher who is the designated SAENCo (Special Needs Coordinator) at our school. They are responsible for:

• coordinating and reviewing support across the school to make sure all children get a consistent, high quality response to meeting their needs in school.
• Ensuring that you are:
• involved in supporting your child’s learning
• kept informed about the support your child is getting
• involved in reviewing how they 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 SAEN register (a system for ensuring all the SAEN 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 in the school so they can help children with SAEN in the school achieve the best progress possible.

3. Headteacher

The Headteacher is responsible for:

• The management of all aspects of the school, this includes the support for children with SAEN.
• They will give responsibility for the day to day management of SAEN to the SAENCo and class teachers but has overall responsibility for ensuring that your child’s needs are met.

How will the school let me know if they have any concerns about my child’s learning in school?

We will assess each pupil’s current skills and levels of attainment on entry, which will build on previous settings and Key Stages, where appropriate. Class teachers will make regular assessments of progress for all pupils and identify those whose progress:

• Is significantly slower than that of their peers starting from the same baseline
• Fails to match or better the child’s previous rate of progress
• Fails to close the attainment gap between the child and their peers
• Widens the attainment gap

This may include progress in areas other than attainment, for example, social needs.

Slow progress and low attainment will not automatically mean a pupil is recorded as having SEND. 

When deciding whether special educational provision is required, we will start with the desired outcomes, including the expected progress and attainment, and the views and the wishes of the pupil and their parents. We will use this to determine the support that is needed and whether we can provide it by adapting our universal support, or whether something different or additional is needed. Where appropriate we will also

• discuss with you and gain your permission for any referrals to outside professionals to support your child’s learning
• work with you to identify next steps and possibly draw up an Individual Learning Plan

Identifying outcomes and targets:

We follow the graduated approach and the four-part cycle of assess, plan, do, review. 

The class or subject teacher will work with the SAENCO to carry out a clear analysis of the pupil’s needs. This will draw on:

• The teacher’s assessment and experience of the pupil
• Their previous progress and attainment and behaviour
• Other teachers’ assessments, where relevant
• The individual’s development in comparison to their peers and national data
• The views and experience of parents
• The pupil’s own views
• Advice from external support services, if relevant

These targets will be reviewed regularly.

All teachers and support staff who work with the pupil will be made aware of their needs, the outcomes sought, the support provided, and any teaching strategies or approaches that are required. We will regularly review the effectiveness of the support and interventions and their impact on the pupil’s progress.

What types of provision and support is available for children at St David’s School?

Our school currently provides additional and/or different provision for a range of needs, including:

• Communication and interaction, for example, supporting speech and language difficulties
• Cognition and learning, for example, dyslexia friendly approaches
• Social, emotional and mental health difficulties, for example, PSHE lessons and attention difficulties support strategies
• Sensory and/or physical needs, for example, visual impairments, hearing impairments

In addition our school also ensures

• Access arrangements for exams (when a specialist report identifies a need)
• For children with additional medical needs, a care plan is drawn up in consultation with parents/carers, the child and appropriate medical professionals

Universal: Quality first teaching

Children’s learning needs can be met in the classroom through carefully planned lessons and activities where teaching and learning is clearly differentiated and supported.

For your child this means:

• The teacher has the highest possible expectations for your child and all pupils in their class.
• All teaching is based on building on what your child already knows, can do and can understand.
• 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 or recommended aids, such as laptops, coloured overlays, visual timetables, larger font, etc. and differentiating our teaching, for example, giving longer processing times, pre-teaching of key vocabulary, reading instructions aloud, etc
• Specific strategies (which may be suggested by the SAENCo or outside staff) are in place to support your child to learn.
• Your child’s teacher carefully checks on your child’s progress and from this evidence identify that your child has gap in their understanding/learning which requires some extra support to help them make the best possible progress.
• All children in school access Quality First Teaching as part of excellent classroom practice.

2. Targeted (intervention either individually or in groups)

Children learning needs are met through regular targeted activities. These can be:

• run in the classroom or outside it.
• run by a teacher or, most often, a Learning Support Assistant who is supported by the SAENCo.
• For your child this would mean:
• they will engage in regular group sessions with specific targets to help them make more progress.
• the class teacher or Learning Support Assistant will run these small group sessions which are planned by the class teacher/SAENCo.

This type of support is available for any child who has specific gaps in their understanding of a subject/area of learning. Evidence from regular assessments helps us to quickly identify and support children who are not making expected progress. This type of support is usually short term planned over a few weeks and progress is carefully monitored.

3. Specialist support for your child.

Often this support is planned by outside agencies but delivered in school by the class teacher or Learning Support Assistant eg Speech and Language Therapy and takes place over a longer period of time.  Please be aware that there are limited support options available in Ramstein and that support from external experts has historically been difficult to obtain consistently.  

For your child this would mean:

• Your child will have been identified by the class teacher/SAENCo (or you will have raised your worries) as needing more specialist input instead of or in addition to quality first teaching and intervention groups.
• You will be asked to come to a meeting to discuss your child’s progress and help plan possible ways forward.
• You may be asked to give your permission for the school to refer your child to a specialist professional e.g a Speech and Language Therapist or Educational Psychologist. This will help the school and you understand your child’s particular needs better and be able to support them better in school and at home.
• 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 the setting of focused targets which will include their specific expertise.
• Group or individual work, run by school staff under the guidance of the outside professional e.g a social skills group.
• This type of support is available for children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through Quality First Teaching and intervention groups.

EPAS Leaflet (including Educational Psychology Service)

4. Support for improving emotional and social development. 

When staffing allows we can provide extra sessions, in addition to class teacher led provsion, to support pupils to improve their emotional and social development.  

•  We are an inclusive school that holds a child’s development as a rounded individual as a priority. Our school values and learning behaviours promote the welfare of all and underpin everything we say and do. 
• The class teacher promotes the pastoral, social, emotional and medical welfare of every child through careful planning and support.  The school uses the Jigsaw programme to provide modern and upto date materials.  
• The school aims to maintain at least one trained ELSA (Emotional and Social Support Assistant) who can plan and deliver a targeted programme of activities designed to meet needs.  Due to staffing and training challenges in our location this is not always possible.  
• Although not guaranteed, pupils may be able to access (through parental referral) the CAMHS service – with therapy and support usually delivered through Skype.
• Health Visitor support might be possible.  At the time of writing Ramstein does not have an assigned HV.  Contact the Central European Practice if you have an unmet need in this area.  If you keep us informed we can support through our channesl.  
• To promote positive behaviours in the playground, each class normally has nominated playground buddies.

ELSA Leaflet

Outside Agencies can my child access?

We work closely with MOD Schools specialist support services.  At the time of writing there are very limited services in this area for Ramstein.

You should contact the SAENCo at school in the first instance if you have any concerns and feel specialist support services involvement would be beneficial.  

Specialist support services currently include:

• Very occasional access to Speech and Language Therapy advice.  SALT is available locally but is not assured against UK standards and may not be approved by the Central European Practice.  Please contact them directly if needed 003265 44 2280.
• Occasional Access to Educational Psychologist Services

Health Visitor: There is no assigned HV for Ramstein.  There is HV support in EJSU and it might be possible to arrange a visit or call.  Please contact the British Medical Centre SHAPE (tel 0032 65445824).

Teenage Mental health and wellbeing support for your child – more information here: Kooth

Paediatrician – referral via SHAPE medical team to local providers.  Please contact Healix.

CAMHS (Child and Mental Health Services) – there are no services offered currently for this area.

How will St David’s keep me informed?

Parent Consultations are planned every term; this is an opportunity for all parents to meet class teachers, and parents of children receiving additional support also meet with the SAENCo to review progress and identify next steps through additional support and strategies.

Small group support and the strategies used are detailed on a Provision Map which sets out staffing, timings and timescales for intervention. Support is organised under 4 categories:

• Social, Emotional and Mental Health
• Cognition and Learning
• Sensory and Physical
• Communication and Interaction

Support for additional needs is recorded in an Individual Learning Plan (ILP). This plan is a working document. It is in place for up to one term and is then reviewed and developed (if appropriate) with a revised plan. Individual Learning Plans are clearly linked to progress and focus on small step targets (SMART targets) with measurable outcomes. You will be asked to contribute to the development of your child’s  ILP and to sign it showing you understand and support the school’s provision for your child.

Individual Learning Plans and Provision Maps are important documents on transfer to another school as they inform the new setting about your child’s needs and provision.

Parents in our parental satisfaction survey  (July 2018) stated about the strengths of the school:

‘My children love going to the school and that’s how it should be. We are thrilled to hear them talk about what they are learning and doing. Thank you!’

‘Individualised and personalised learning which is made possible through small class sizes and dedicated teachers and LSAs who really know the children.’

How will we measure the progress of your child in school?

Your child’s progress is continually monitored by their class teacher through ongoing observations and assessments. Progress is reviewed formally every term and a National Curriculum level given in reading, writing and mathematics.  Following this termly assessment week each child’s targets are reviewed and new ones set which identify next steps in learning. The individual targets for children with additional needs are closely linked to their Individual Learning Plan.  If your child is in Year 1 and above, but is not yet at National Curriculum levels, 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 Pre Key Stage Levels. The progress of children in the Foundation Stage is recorded on an individual profile linked to the Early Years’ Curriculum (EYFS).

At the end of each key stage (i.e. 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 the results are published nationally.

The SAENCo reviews the provision of intervention and support every term and the progress each child makes. This evidence is then used to plan future provision.

How is the staff at St David’s supported to work with children with a SAEN and what training do they have?

Expertise and training of staff:

• Our SAENCo and teachers all have experience of working with and supporting children with SAEN.
• Our LSAs are trained and supported to deliver specific support programmes and work under the guidance of the SAENCo and support services.
• Within the school we have a culture of sharing good practice and expertise; this enables us to ensure our staff have as much knowledge as possible within the field of supporting children with SAEN.

The SAENCo supports class teachers and learning support assistants in planning for children with SAEN.

 The school has a thorough induction programme for new staff. In addition we offer training for all staff aimed at improving the teaching and learning of children including those with SAEN. This includes coaching for individual members of staff as well as access to specific training including speech and language and behaviour management.

How will the teaching be adapted for my child with SEND?

We make the following adaptations to ensure all pupils’ needs are met:

• Differentiating our curriculum to ensure all pupils are able to access it, for example, by grouping, additional adult support, teaching style, content of the lesson, etc.
• Adapting our resources and staffing
• Using recommended aids, such as laptops, coloured overlays, visual timetables, larger font, etc.
• Differentiating our teaching, for example, giving longer processing times, pre-teaching of key vocabulary, reading instructions aloud, etc.

Support staff follow the teacher’s planning to support the needs of your child where necessary using specific resources and strategies identified in the planning.

Enabling pupils with SAEN to engage in activities:

• All of our extra-curricular activities and school visits are available to all our pupils, including our after-school clubs
• All pupils are encouraged to go on our residential trip(s)
• All pupils are encouraged to take part in sports day/school plays/special workshops, etc.
• No pupil is ever excluded from taking part in these activities because of their SAEN

How will we support your child when they are leaving this school? OR moving on to another class?

We recognise that transitions can be difficult for a child with SAEN and take steps to ensure that any transition is a smooth as possible.

If your child is moving to another school:

We are happy to contact the school SAENCo and ensure they know about any special arrangements or support needed for your child.

We will make sure that all records about your child are passed on as soon as possible.

On The Move Leaflet

Moving Schools Guide

When moving classes in school:

Information will be passed on to the new class teacher IN ADVANCE and in most cases, a planning meeting will take place with the new teacher. All Individual Learning Plans will be shared with the new teacher.

Your child will also spend some time in their new class; additional support/visits can be planned as required to make transition as smooth and reassuring as possible.

During Year 6:

We recommend that:

You and your child visit your child’s new secondary school early in year 6.

The Army & Navy magazine recently produced an article detailing the support available for service families with special educational needs and disabilities when returning to the UK.  The full article can be found here.

Monitoring arrangements

This information report will be reviewed by the SAENCo/SLT and SGC (School Governance Committee) every year. It will also be updated if any changes to the information are made during the year.

Links with other policies and documents

This policy links to many of our policies including:

• Special Educational Needs and Disability
• Accessibility plan
• Positive Behaviour
• Equality information and objectives
• Supporting pupils with medical conditions
• Complaints
• Safeguarding

2014 SEND Code of Practice

The SEND Code of Practice, incorporated in the Children’s and Family Bill, is now in operation. This Act does not change the definition of SEND

In the UK the school funding arrangements changed in April 2013. However support for your child with SEND should not change because of the funding changes.

School and local authority responsibilities for SEND have not changed

The current categories of SEND- School Action and School Action Plus will not be used- they will be identified as School Support

Statements of Educational Need will not be issued, but instead will be replaced by Education, Health and Care Plans (EHiC) for children with complex multiple needs. At St. David’s School children identified on ‘School Support’ will have a School Support Plan and Provision Map which highlights, monitors and tracks additional support and intervention.

MOD Schools receive additional funding for SAEN in their core budget and this is allocated by each school according to a range of resourcing needs.

On a day to day basis however, there will be no change in the range and quality of provision for all children, including those with SAEN.

For more information go to:

http://www.councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk/media/409191/cdc_funding_briefing_for_parents_-_final.pdf

Complaints to SEND provision at St David’s School should be made to the Class Teacher or SAENCo in the first instance. They will then be referred to the school’s Complaints Policy.