SEN

For Special Educational Needs enquiries please contact
Mr Jan Van Wyk (SEN Lead) on 020 8521 1066. Alternatively you can contact Jan by email via the school email.

The changes in the Children and Families Bill affect the way children with special educational needs (SEN) are supported in schools. This new code comes into force in September 2014 and places pupils at the centre of planning. The key principles of the new legislation are:-

Young people and their families should be involved in discussions about the support they need, so they can share their knowledge and feed back to the school on the young person’s progress.
Education Health Care Plans (EHC) will replace Statements of Special Educational Need. New assessments for additional educational needs will follow the EHC guidelines from September 2014.
Existing Statements will remain in force until all children and young people have completed the transition from Statements of Special Educational Need to Education Health Care Plans. This is the responsibility of the L.E.A and will take approximately 3 years to complete.
School Action and School Action Plus will cease and be replaced by a single school based category (School Support) for children who need extra specialised support.

At St. Mary´s we are fully committed to adopting these changes and look forward to continuing working with our pupils and their parents/carers to ensure all children have fully inclusive access to education.

ST MARY’S SEN DEFINITION

At St. Mary’s School we firmly believe that all children have the right to education and recognise the diverse educational needs within our community. We acknowledge those needs may change and require a range of provision. We believe that we have a duty to offer that provision where we can, to foster inclusion and provide full educational access. Some children need increased support to access learning because:-

They have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age;
They have a disability as defined under the Equality Act 2010, which affects their ability to access and benefit from the educational opportunities generally enjoyed by children of the same age.
They have an emotional/behavioural need which impedes their development or progress
Attainment gap between child and their peers fails to close
Attainment gap widens

We will try to ensure that all barriers to equal access in our school are removed or overcome. We monitor and track progress of all our children so that the support provided is as effective as possible. We welcome the full engagement of parents and carers and where necessary seek support and advice from outside agencies to ensure we meet the needs of all individuals. At St. Mary’s we look at the educational needs of a pupil in consultation with parents/carers, pupils, class teachers, SENCo and if appropriate, with outside agencies to plan a learning programme to address the identified needs.

When a pupil is identified as having SEN the support takes the form of a four part cycle:-

Assess – needs are analysed
Plan – support and intervention is decided
Do – interventions are carried out
Review – interventions are evaluated and next steps planned

Waltham Forest Local Offer

To view the Waltham Forest Local Offer please click HERE.