4. How do we know what progress your child is making and how will we keep you informed?
We offer a high level of communication with all members of a school community. All the staff involved with your child’s learning are kept informed of changes and progress. This may be shared with you in a variety of ways including:
It is important to us at LDPS that you feel comfortable to come in and speak to any member of staff at any time throughout the school year. There is no need to wait for scheduled parents evenings to discuss your child’s needs, by contacting the school office, an appointment can be made with the relevant member of staff at any time in the term to discuss progress or concerns.
Monitoring progress is an integral part of teaching and leadership at Lower Darwen. Parents, children, staff and governors are involved in the reviewing the impact of interventions with learners. Progress data for all learners is collated by the whole school and monitored by staff, Headteacher and Governors.
5. How will our school support your child and how will the teaching be adapted to meet their needs?
The content of every lesson is differentiated (matched) to each of the children’s differing abilities and needs to enable them to access the curriculum more easily. This may take the form of: providing:
Classrooms are resourced to support learning and where appropriate tailored to the children’s individual needs and there is varied use of ICT to support learning throughout the school. Regular training for all staff is given on how to make learning more accessible to those with additional needs.
Where appropriate, support and advice will be sought from specialist and experts. Consistent approaches to learning throughout the school including use of visual timetables and specific intervention programmes being delivered in addition to classroom learning to support your child. Your child’s progress will be measured closely and any relevant assessments carried out to provide additional information.
Where appropriate, teaching styles will be modified to support your child to ensure he/she makes at least progress. This may involve working 1 to 1, use of visual and aural aids, modifying behaviour management strategies and curriculum to meet the needs of the child. The school’s Hearing Impaired resource offers specialised teaching for pupils with a hearing impairment.
6. How will our school support your child and how will the teaching be adapted to meet their needs?
Quality first teaching is crucial for every child, here at LDPs the content of every lesson is differentiated (matched) to each of the children’s differing abilities and needs to enable them to access the curriculum more easily. This can be as basic as minor alterations to the colour of paper of size of font or fully bespoke work station approaches and complete differentiated curriculum. Regular training for all staff is given on how to make learning more accessible to those with additional needs.
Where appropriate, support and advice will be sought from specialist and experts. Consistent approaches to learning throughout the school including use of visual timetables and specific intervention programmes being delivered in addition to classroom learning to support your child. Your child’s progress will be measured closely and any relevant assessments carried out to provide additional information.
Our Hearing Impaired pupils have access to the resourced unit, again this is different for each pupil and will be negotiated based upon observations, assessment and discussion with child, parents and external professionals. Please see our SEND policy and HI plan for more details.
7. How are decisions made about the type and how much support my child will receive?
As part of our general budget, we receive funding to support children with Special Educational Needs. We review this annually and the school frequently spends additional money on top of this to support our children. Needs are mapped out using meetings, reviews and provision maps and the funding is matched appropriately. In a case where a child has very significant and/or complex needs we may make an application to the local authority for and additional or emergency funding and even an Educational Health and Care Plan. If this successful additional funding through the high needs funding block can accessed, money will then be used exclusively to provide the help and support your child needs. Blackburn with Darwen local authority and various NHS health care trusts provide additional specialist equipment for our hearing impaired or disabled pupils.
As all children's needs are different we have to be flexible in the way in which we assess and meet their needs. There is no one set way we decide on the provision and support we can offer a child as they are all different. The school’s leadership team, SENCO and specialist hearing impaired teachers have meetings with class teachers, teaching assistant and parents to review the needs of each child. Child and parental voice are central to our decision making and the voice is sought at least annually.
We are flexible and will change the support needed for your child according to his or her changing needs. It is very much a three-way process between parents, school and outside agencies and we all work together to make sure your child is being supported in the best possible way. It is important that you tell us if you think things are changing so we can keep this is mind. Support is reviewed regularly in order to ensure your child is making progress.