Walsgrave is very proud of the curriculum it offers its pupils. It is designed around engaging and exciting themes which appeal to children whilst providing a broad and balanced approach to learning, which is differentiated to meet individual needs and abilities. In order to do this, many steps are taken to support them through their learning journey. We provide a quality first teaching approach. However, for some children there are occasions when further additional support may be needed to help them achieve and progress.

For children identified with a special educational need, the new ‘Code of Practice’ has created one category called “SEN Support”. Schools need to remove barriers to learning and put effective special educational provision in place.

The ‘Graduated Approach’ is a four-part cycle through which earlier decisions and actions are revisited. Over time, this leads to a greater understanding of the child’s needs and how best to support learning. The four stages of the cycles are: Plan • Do • Review.

The Graduated Approach at Walsgrave

Assess

Assessments of children’s needs are made through a whole child approach. In class, teachers are constantly assessing the children through verbal feedback, written work and termly testing. These assessments feed the academic profile along with seeking the views of children, parents and class teachers. The Head Teacher/ Inclusion Manager meets with teachers to talk about progress and discuss the provision and interventions required to close gaps where underachievement has occurred and where special educational needs are identified.

Plan

Inclusive Quality First Teaching is the first step to responding to a newly identified need. The focus of this is to ensure that high-quality teaching – differentiated to meet the ability of the child – is accessible for individual pupils. Sometimes there is additional support planned through interventions. These are delivered in small group or on a one to one basis outside of the classroom. Interventions are planned collaboratively and the impact of learning is tracked carefully by class teachers and teaching assistants.

Do

Every teacher is responsible and accountable for all pupils in their class even when they are working outside of the class as part of a small group. Teachers work closely with Teaching Assistants and other specialists to plan and assess the impact of targeted interventions. To facilitate this, Teachers and Teaching Assistants are provided with opportunities for joint planning. This is vital to ensure all learning opportunities are maximised.

Review

Teachers monitor the progress of all pupils in their class, including those with SEN. Each term they meet with a member of the senior leadership team to discuss progress. They also meet with the Inclusion Manager to review targets. At the heart of the review process, is the child. Teachers meet parents to discuss progress towards targets. As children mature they are encouraged to take a greater role in reviewing their own progress and setting new targets.

What we already ‘offer’ Walsgrave Academy

The SEN Code of Practice describes four broad categories of special educational need:

• Communication and interaction

• Cognition and learning

• Social, emotional and mental health (SEMH)

• Sensory and/or physical needs

We recognise you cannot easily label children and their needs might fit into more than one category. Parents have asked for an idea of the different things we do at school to help children with different levels of need in different areas. To meet the needs of the individual we need a flexible approach and we are constantly looking for new ways to support SEND. Below are some examples of the graduated approach we use to support all learning within our school