SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND / OR DISABILITIES (SEND)

All children have a common entitlement to a broad balanced and enriched curriculum.

All pupils at Antony School have access to a variety of resources. The modification of programmes of study for both more and less able pupils is vital in ensuring all pupils make progress and all pupils have challenging targets. Our Special Educational Needs policy supports those children who may find certain aspects of their learning challenging, enabling them to overcome these hurdles and achieve the highest standards. We welcome all children to our school and will make every effort to adapt teaching and learning to support a child’s educational development. We have a skilled and dedicated staff who treat everyone as unique and precious, in line with our Christian vision underpinned by the Parable of the Talents. 

Support for children is determined by individual need and circumstances which is a strength in our small and very caring school where pupils are seen as individuals and valued as such. We have high expectations for all our children and we aim to fully extend their academic and social development. Pupils who have individual educational needs such as learning, speech and language or physical difficulties, will be monitored and supported on the Record of Need. Pupils together with their parents or carers, have termly meetings with the class teacher to review progress towards set targets; to discuss new targets and the strategies which need to be actioned to enable the pupil to achieve new targets.

ICT often plays a large part in students accessing and addressing learning targets set. A teaching assistant supports learning in every classroom throughout the school. This enables learners of all abilities to make maximum learning gains in every lesson.

Cornwall’s SEND Local Offer describes the provision that is available for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and their families. Cornwall’s SEND Local Offer website helps families by gathering in one place, the information that they need to know in order to make informed choices about the support they receive.

Cornwall’s SEND Local Offer can be found here.

Early Help Hub

What is Early Help? Early Help includes help provided in both early childhood and early in the development of a problem. Early Help is available to children and young people of all ages from pre-birth up to the age of 18, and up to the age of 25 where young people have special educational needs or disability. www.cornwall.gov.uk/earlyhelphub

01872322277

earlyhelphub@cornwall.gov.uk

Family Information Service (FIS)

The Family Information Service is service provided in Cornwall to bring together a wealth of information for parents and professionals alike, about what is available to support families in Cornwall. It is a great starting point for finding out extra information on the services we work with as a school, as well as services provided for families. It has many useful links and contacts on the website. They are a very supportive team who are always happy to answer your questions, if it can’t be found on the website.

Visit http://www.cornwallfisdirectory.org.uk/

Tel: 01872 323 535

Email: fis@cornwall.gov.uk

Multi Agency Referral Unit (MARU)

Here we can seek advice and make referrals in cases of child protection and safeguarding. http://www.safechildren-cios.co.uk/

Who to contact if you have concerns about a child:

Multi-agency Referral Unit – 0300 123 1116

Out of Hours Service – 01208 251300 MultiAgencyReferralUnit@cornwall.gcsx.gov.uk

The Speech and Language Team

The Speech and Language Therapy Team works with children, young people and their families in order to help children who have difficulties with communication or with eating, drinking and swallowing. They support us by carrying out assessments and 1:1 sessions, as well as providing us with resources to support our pupils Contact can be made through the Early Help Hub above.

The Autism team/Autistic Spectrum Disorder Assessment team (ASDAT)

The Autistic Spectrum team support us in providing for pupils with a diagnosis of Autism. We work closely with them to provide resources and support to pupils and their families. The ASDAT team is the more specialised assessment team, who work mainly in diagnoses of Autism. We contact the ASDAT team if we are seeking information on assessment. Contact can be made through ‘Children’s schools and families’

0300 1234 101

http://www.cornwallft.nhs.uk/services/childrens-services/asdat-team/

The Educational Psychologist (EP)

We work with Cornwall Council to provide an EP service for pupils with particular needs. This is a very specialised service, where referrals are made if pupils meet certain, specific criteria. They also provide us with a consultations service where we can seek advice and resources for anonymous pupils. The EP service also provides a phone line for parents and professionals. This is a confidential line for seeking advice. It is available Wednesdays from 2pm-5pm. This aims to provide quick and easy access to professional advice; a listening ear; working together to find solutions; and signposting to other services if appropriate For additional cases, we work with other local EPs e.g. for further assessment, support and activity sessions. We pay for these additional services.

Visit http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/

The Cornwall Dyslexia Team/Cognition and Learning

We work with a dyslexia advisor and the Cornwall Council dyslexia team. We work with them in different ways including consultations, advice, referrals, work with pupils, dyslexia screening tests, advice for parents and support in working towards the ‘dyslexia friendly schools’ award. We work closely with our advisor, who provides her services through the dyslexia/cognition and learning team.

www.dyslexiacornwall.org.uk

enquiries@dyslexiacornwall.org.uk

01872222911

01872274827

Hearing Support Team

The Hearing Support Team provides a specialist support service for the Local Authority, staffed and resourced to meet the needs of infants, children and young people who are affected temporarily or permanently by some degree of educationally significant hearing loss. Their support includes hearing tests in Year 1 and additional referrals for support if required.

Hearing Support Team

The Educational Audiology Centre

01726 61004

Information about referrals: http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/hearingsupport

School Nurse

School nurses provide confidential advice and health information. This advice is available to young people, their parents, carers and teachers. School nurses will help ensure children and young people stay fit and healthy. School Nursing Cornwall offers health assessments to all children when they start primary and secondary school. This information is used by the NHS to help plan and improve services for children. As well helping parents to bring up healthy children by providing information on healthy eating and hygiene, they also help teachers to meet any health needs children may have at school. We also work with the epilepsy nurse in our area for training and support for individual pupils. Contact and referrals can be made through through Early Help Hub above.

Vision Support

Team The team work with children and young people (0-25 years) with a diagnosed visual impairment in their homes, early years settings and schools to enable them to overcome barriers to their education caused by their vision loss. http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/visionsupport

Occupational Therapy Team

Our Occupational therapy team are based in Plymouth, at the Child development centre. Our colleagues at Occupational Therapy support us to provide support for pupils who have sensory or functional needs, so that they can become as independent as possible. They often work with us through referrals or on a consultation basis Information can be found by searching ‘occupational therapy children’ on the Cornwall Council website.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), support children and young people up to the age of 18. The service helps children and young people deal with emotional, behavioural or mental health issues. These include: Emotional problems e.g. anxiety, depression, anger, mood swings, low self-esteem Problems with behaviour e.g. violence, destructiveness, self-harm, hyper-activity, over-sexualisation and obsession Relationship problems, including difficulties in the family, with friends or colleagues, in school or the community, as well as difficulties associated with attachment and loss We can seek advice or make referrals for special cases. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Children and Young People Referrals can be made through the Early Help Hub.