The Learning Support department is situated in a central position in the school.

It has a suite of computers, withdrawal rooms and facilities for group and whole class teaching. It has interactive whiteboard and internet facilities.

The suite is well resourced and houses a team of 12 Learning Support Practitioners, Assistants and 2 SEN teachers.

The Head of Learning Support is Mrs. B. Thomas.

The main areas of difficulty or special educational need for a child are set out in the SEN code of practice, Chapter 7.

They are:

• Cognition and Learning Needs
• Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD)
• Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD)
• Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD)
• Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD)
• Behaviour, Emotional and Social Development Needs
• Behaviour, Emotional and Social Difficulty (BESD)
• Communication and Interaction Needs
• Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)
• Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Sensory and/or Physical Needs
• Visual Impairment (VI)
• Hearing Impairment (HI)
• Multi-Sensory Impairment (MSI)
• Physical Disability (PD)

The guidance give suggested processes for supporting children in the categories of SpLD, MLD, BESD, SLCN, ASD, VI, HI and PD. It is likely that many children who are designated SLD, PMLD or MSI will have been the subject of a Statutory Assessment.

For each phase of the graduated approach, the action taken to meet a child’s needs falls into the following broad strands:

• Assessment, planning and review
• Grouping for teaching purposes
• Additional human resources
• Curriculum and teaching methods

The following are generic processes to all categories of need

• For a child to be at School Action, he/she will have more than one term of specific SEN and/or pastoral approaches.
• For a child to be at School Action Plus, there will be IEPs over at least two terms focussed on specific intervention and support.
• For a child to be considered by Pupil Allocation Panel, there will be evidence of individualised, planned programmes/curriculum needed for most of the day leading to significant resource implications for the school.
• For a child to be considered for Statutory Assessment, there will be a multi-discipline review following a period of joint work over at least 6 months, which identifies statutory assessment as a key component of the overall future for the child.

The are currently 118 pupils on the SEN record

20 statemented pupils

18 pupils with funding from the allocation panel

19 pupils at School Action Plus

61 pupils at School Action