Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

 Our school Special Education Needs and Disabilities Co-ordinator (SENDCo) is Mrs Elizabeth Humphries

At Avonmouth Cof E School & Nursery, we aim to be fully inclusive to all children's needs. We strive to ensure that all children leave our school as inspired, happy children who have a zest for learning, and can prosper in all they do, despite any barriers they may experience.

We believe all children to be individual and those who have additional needs work towards their own targets from their Personal Provision Plan (or PPP). As part of the PPP children also have a 'One Page Profile' (OPP) that gives a brief overview of their strengths, likes, what others like about them and how others can help them. Children contribute to both of these and parents are consulted regularly.

At Avonmouth C of E School & Nursery children are identified as having Special Educational Needs or Disability (SEND) in a variety of ways including the following:

• Concerns raised by a parent
• Liaison with the child’s nursery school/ previous school
• Concerns raised by the child’s class teacher e.g. the child is performing below age expected level consistently and despite strategies used
• Liaison with outside agencies e.g. a speech and language therapist (S&LT)
• Health diagnosis from a paediatrician

If you have any questions, queries or wish to discuss any concerns with your child, please speak to their teacher in the first instance. Any other questions or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at kate.tector@bristol-schools.uk or call the school office to arrange a meeting.

The school will involve parents at any opportunity and will always gain parental consent before involving outside agencies. The child’s class teacher will oversee, plan and work with each child with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) in their class to ensure they are making progress in every area of the curriculum. Our SENDCo oversees all the support and provision that are offered to children requiring additional support across the school. 

You will be offered to meet with your child’s class teacher at least three times a year (this could be as part of a Parent’s Evening) to discuss your child’s needs, support and progress.

The support your child will be given and how often it will happen during the school week will be explained to parents by the class teacher at these meetings. You can also meet with the SENDCo if you’d like to (this could also be during Parent’s Evening).

Learning in class is differentiated so that all children can access a lesson and learn at their level. Typically, this might mean that in a lesson there might be different levels of work set for the class. However, if a child’s needs mean that it is required, then work can be individually differentiated. Children will sometimes receive differentiated support as well. The benefit of this type of differentiation is that all children can access a lesson and learn at their own level. In a very small minority of cases children may follow individual programmes of work for parts of the school day.  

Our teaching staff and support staff are highly skilled and trained in meeting the needs of children with SEND. The training they receive is ongoing.

We welcome parent/carer views on how we support learning for any child who has Special Needs.  forum please contact the school office.

To view the SEND report, please click here.

To view our SEND policy, please click here

Useful Websites:

• Padlet of help and support for parents
• Bristol's SEND Local-Offer
• www.sendandyou.org.uk
• www.autism.org.uk
• www.specialneedsjungle.com