SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITY
"There's always someone there when I need help and that makes me feel better." - Pupil at Birchfield Primary
"My teacher has really helped me learn what choices I can make when I'm stuck - I make good choices now." - Pupil at Birchfield Primary
"WOW! I didn't realise he had all of this support, this is amazing!" - Parent feedback following an IEP review meeting
"I'm really happy with the support in place for them - the communication between school and home is brilliant." - Parent feedback following a review meeting
"I can't thank you enough for going above and beyond for pupils with additional needs." - Parent governor
At Birchfield Primary School, we believe every child matters and is entitled to high quality education, regardless of the challenges they may face, and endeavour to provide this in a way that meets their current needs. In order to do this, we adhere to the SEND Regulations of 2014, the SEND Code of Practice and the Equalities Act of 2010 in everything that we do. We closely monitor all children to ensure every child is challenged and makes progress at their level in a happy, safe and secure environment. All our staff plan a lively, broad and balanced curriculum where every child can be successful. We are very lucky to gain support through our cluster services - their role is to work within the Morley Primary Partnership to provide support to our children and families, this includes access to many services such as speech and language therapy, family support and child counselling.
The designated Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) at Birchfield is Hannah Wilkie.
Mrs Wilkie can be contacted via: telephone on 0113 2533009
e-mail at h.wilkie@birchfieldprimary.org.uk
Our School Offer
Click on the questions below to help understand our school offer for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Leeds Local Offer
As part of the new Code of Practice July 2014. Local authorities must publish a Local Offer, setting out in one place information about provision they expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people in their area who have SEN or are disabled.
The Local Offer has two key purposes:
- To provide clear, comprehensive, accessible and up-to-date information about the available provision and how to access it, and
- To make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving disabled children and those with SEN and their parents, and disabled young people and those with SEN, and service providers in its development and review
The Local Offer should cover:
- support available to all children and young people with SEN or disabilities from universal services such as schools and GPs
- targeted services for children and young people with SEN or disabilities who require additional short-term support over and above that provided routinely as part of universal services
- specialist services for children and young people with SEN or disabilities who require specialised, longer term support.
https://leedslocaloffer.org.uk/#!/directory/33514
In school, we also have the following leaflet available linked to the local offer. Please click here.
Please find some links below to useful services and websites to support pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and their families.
SEND: An NHS Guide for Parents and Carers.
CYPMHS (Children and Young People's Mental Health Services) Leeds (previously known as CAMHS).
(MindMate help you explore emotional wellbeing and mental health issues and offers information for parents, carers, young people and professionals)
Learning about the world of SEND...
As the needs of all of the pupils at Birchfield Primary School change, we adapt and we learn. As practitioners, all of the teachers are constantly furthering their professional development, knowledge and skills in this area so we can best support the pupils and families.
Below are articles, links, reports - anything we have found that we think is brilliant at understanding neurodiversity, disabilities or medical conditions.
We will regularly update this part of the SEND page so do come back and check what's new! Please email me if you find anything that you think we should add.
Thank you, Mrs Wilkie.
The world can be a very confusing place, particularly if you have additional needs. However, books can be a brilliant resource to either explain a specific additional need or disability or to encourage kindness and understanding of a diverse world.
Click on the link above to find an article from Twinkl that gives a list of seven books that feature children with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities.
Click on the link above to find an article from Love Reading 4 Kids that features books about autism. I really like that with each book, there's a short description and suitable age range provided so if you're thinking of purchasing one or borrowing one from your local library that you can choose the most appropriate book for your child.
Click here for the SEND policy
Click here for SEN Glossary of Terms
Click here for Dyscalculia Guidelines
Click here for Dyslexia Guidelines
Click here to access documentation for supporting pupils with medical needs
