At Our Lady and St Rose Catholic Primary School we are committed to providing an inclusive education for all children, regardless of their age, gender, ability, disability, social, cultural and linguistic background.

Each child at this school is valued as an individual and will be offered all the opportunities that we are available both academically and socially and where necessary enhanced provision including additional support will be provided.

Our commitment to inclusion is at the heart of equal opportunities. We pay particular attention to the provision made for, and the achievement of different groups of learners. We aim to offer new opportunities to pupils who have experienced previous difficulties.

We actively seek to remove barriers to learning and participation which hinders or excludes individual pupils, or groups of pupils.

What is important to us at St Rose when it comes to

Special Educational Needs? 

We think it is essential that we ACKNOWLEDGE that some children in our charge will have Special Educational Needs. We aim to ensure that these children and their needs are CELEBRATED, remembering that God has created them in His own image. We want our children to know that we UNDERSTAND them and will take time to support them in whatever ways necessary. 

We know that INCLUSION is essential for all pupils, regardless of their need and we know that inclusion is not about tolerance; it is about acceptance and about feeling valued. We have HIGH EXPECTATIONS for children with Special Educational Needs; we do not put ceilings on their achievements. We recognise that children may need APPROPRIATE SCAFFOLDING. This means that they may need support to reach their goals, but just like scaffolding which is used to build architecture, it can be removed when it is no longer necessary. 

If you or your child's class teacher begin to have concerns about your child and think they need additional support then an Initial Concern Evaluation (ICE) meeting can be held. In this meeting, a form will be completed which parents/carers and teachers can record their concerns and agree actions that might support the child. A 6 week trial of these actions will follow. If, at the end of the 6 weeks, the child shows that they are going to need continued support then a referral might be made to the SENCO - Mrs Edgington. 

At this stage, we may discuss the need to refer to outside agencies who can help support the child, the school and families. 

These agencies might include:

• Pupil School Support (PSS)
• Communication and Autism Team (CAT)
• Speech and Language Team (SALT)
• Educational Psychology
• Occupational Therapy
• Visual/Hearing Impairment Team

Parental involvement is essential for all pupils, and we believe that it is especially important when we are considering our children with Special Educational Needs.

We always seen CONSENT from parents/carers when we are considering the needs of the child and the actions that we are considering putting in to place to meet them.

Parents have access to a DIRECT EMAIL address so that they can contact the SENCO (Mrs Edgington) should they need to share information or have any queries.

Parents/Carers are invited to attend IEP MEETINGS three times a year; these Individual Education Plan meetings allow us to discuss the child, the progress they have made and then the new IEP targets they have been set for the following term. 

Parents/Carers are also invited to PARENTS' CONSULTATION meetings twice a year. These will give another opportunity to discuss how things are going. 

We are also looking to develop more AGENCY WORKSHOPS. We held a Speech, Language and Communication Coffee morning in the Spring Term 2024 and it was an excellent opportunity for families to meet Katy (our SALT therapist) who gave a presentation about her role, gave ideas on how to best support their children at home and parents/carers were able to ask questions to learn more. In 2024-25, we hope to arrange some from the other agencies too!

Children with Special Educational needs are given ADAPTIVE TASKS in lessons such as Science, History, Geography and Religious Education. These tasks enable our children with additional needs to display the same KNOWLEDGE GOALS as their peers, but in an alternative task format. This is because we have the same AMBITIOUS expectations for all our pupils, regardless of their need, but we recognise that they might be more able to do this if the task was presented differently. This ensures that we are meeting our target of INCLUSION so that all learners, regardless of their level of need are involved in all lessons. 

It is important to us that children have a voice and that we listen to their views. Above are the results from our Summer 2024 'Pupil Voice' where we asked the children with Special Educational Needs their opinion about the ADAPTIVE TASKS we have brought in to place this year. As you can see from the results, the change has been well received. Where children responded with 'no' or 'sometimes', we spoke with them about how best they might adapt their tasks to improve their experiences.