Supporting SEN at Barnehurst
Inclusion Lead and SENCo – Louise Neaves
SEN Governor – Cindy Yu
At Barnehurst, we know that each child is unique and learns in different ways. It is our vision that every child is provided with an education which will meet their needs in a learning environment where all children can achieve their full potential. We are proud to be an inclusive school and strive to meet the individual needs of our children. We are proud to have been awarded the Inclusion Quality Mark Centre of Excellence Award.
All teachers are Barnehurst use a variety of strategies as part of their everyday teaching to meet the needs of all of the children in their class. We call this Quality First Teaching. Over the last couple of years, we have been working on developing a graduated approach for children who need additional support on top of Quality First Teaching to support. This graduated support for children aims to provide different levels of support depending on the needs of individual. As part of this approach, children may receive class based support, targeted interventions and specific SEN interventions.
We do a great deal to support the children here at Barnehurst, and I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you some of our practice.
The Graduated Approach of Support
Quality First Teaching
All children receive Quality First Teaching, where teachers adapt their teaching to meet the needs of the children in their classroom. This may include
- The classroom environment – working walls and examples
- Resources – books, appropriate writing tools, concentration aids, writing prompts, key vocabulary
- Visuals – such as timetables and knowledge organisers to calm and support organisation
- Modelling – showing good examples of the work that needs to be completed
- Check-ins – making sure the task is understood and if any help is needed
- Our feedback policy – marking in the moment to address misconceptions and identify next steps.
- Breaking work into chunks
- Seating to support peer learning
Class Based Support
Individual Children are supported within the classroom, in a variety of ways, which may include but is not limited to:
- Pre-teaching vocabulary
- Specific resources for individuals such as overlays and coloured paper
- Additional Teaching Assistant support during the learning time
- Now and Next boards and individual timetables
- Positive behaviour charts
- Word banks and sentence stems
- Use of specific apps on the iPads
Targeted Interventions
We use our constant monitoring and teacher assessments to identify support that a child needs. If a more targeted approach is needed, your child may take part in a targeted intervention with a trained member of staff. These include but are not limited to:
- Focus group work with adult support
- Small group intervention to address gaps and build confidence, such as Daily Supported Reading and Mastering Number.
- Resilience groups to build self-esteem and strategies to support learning
- PE or sensory sessions
- Memory building interventions using ‘Memory Magic’
- Speech and language supporting interventions such as ‘BLAST’ or ‘Chatty Champions’
SEN Specific Interventions
If a child has been identified as having a specific area of need that needs more focussed support, we are able to offer a more bespoke intervention, often on a 1-1 basis. These include but are not limited to:
- Reading interventions such as Toe by Toe’ or ‘Yes WE Can Read’
- Maths interventions such as ‘Plus 1’ or ‘Power of 2’
- Speech and language sessions for those with a careplan.
- Emotional Literacy Support or Draw and Talk session to support mental health.
We review the support children are given on a termly basis and children may move in and out of interventions as the need arises. All of these interventions are carried out during the school day, and you may hear your child telling you about any groups they work with. We know that parents and carers are keen to know the interventions their children take part in and going forward, we will notify parents through an email If your child is taking part in a SEN specific intervention.
External Support
At Barnehurst, we work in close partnership with a range of external agencies when a more specialist intervention is needed. The agencies include:
- Early Intervention Team – Bexley
- Educational Psychologists
- Auditory Support Team
- Visual Support Team
- ASD Advisory Service
- Family wellbeing
- Joint Communication Team (speech and language) – Bexley
- CAMHSS
- Occupational Health
All staff at Barnehurst are committed to giving every child the best learning experience. Barnehurst is an inclusive school which values the contribution everyone makes within our community.
Outlined below is the key information regarding SEND information at the Barnehurst Federation of Schools. This includes the schools policy, our offer available for pupils with SEND and the Bexley Local Offer.
