ManorfieldSEND and Inclusion At Manorfield
Our SEND Leader is Matt Knowles. He can be contacted via the school's main reception or use the link below to email him.
Manorfield is committed to inclusion. Part of the school’s strategic planning for improvement is to develop cultures, policies and practices that include all learners and provide Quality First Teaching. We aim to engender a sense of community and belonging and to offer new opportunities to learners who may have experienced previous difficulties. As with all of our children, in the teaching of pupils with SEND, we aim for academic excellence through creative learning.
We recognise that pupils learn at different rates and that there are many factors affecting achievement, including ability, emotional state, age and maturity. We are particularly aware of the needs of our EYFS and KS1 pupils, for whom maturity is a crucial factor in terms of readiness to learn. We believe that many pupils, at some time in their school career, may experience difficulties which affect their learning, and we recognise that these may be long or short term.
At Manorfield, we aim to identify these needs as they arise and provide teaching and learning contexts which enable every child to achieve to his or her full potential; we have high expectations for everyone.
The school’s full policies and procedures can be found in our SEND Information report and SEND and Inclusion Policy. (Links can be found at the bottom of this page)
Definition of special educational needs (SEND)
A child or young person has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.
Special educational needs can be categorised under four broad areas:
- Communication and interaction
- Cognition and learning
- Social, emotional and mental health difficulties
- Sensory and/or physical needs
We recognise that, in practice, individual children often have needs that cut across more than one of these areas and that their needs may change over time. Our purpose is not to ‘label’ a child, but to work out what action the school needs to take. We consider the needs of the whole child and ensure that support is focused on individual need and personal outcomes rather than classification/label. When the school, in collaboration with parents, feel that a there is the possibility of an additional need that we require support to identify, then the process is outlined here.
Quality First Teaching
The first response to inadequate progress is high quality teaching targeted at the child’s areas of weakness. Most pupils will have their needs met through Quality First Teaching. This may include appropriate differentiation of learning tasks, adaptations to the curriculum and learning environment, the provision of additional practical or visual resources, and time-limited interventions. We focus on early intervention to ensure ‘gaps’ are targeted and intervention is put in place at the earliest opportunity.
Early Identification
When a pupil is identified as having SEND, we take action to remove barriers to learning and put effective special educational needs provision in place – SEND Support. Quality First Teaching remains our first response in relation to the identification of SEND, but we also ensure that the child receives high quality additional support and interventions carefully matched to their needs. The range of interventions we offer can be found here.
Education, Health and Care Plans
A small number of children with the most complex needs may need the support of an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) to enable them to achieve the best possible outcomes. If we believe that a child’s needs require provision and resourcing over and above that which we make available to our SEND pupils from delegated funding, we will request that the Local Authority conduct an assessment of the child’s education, health and care needs. We will involve the child and their parents/carers at every stage of the assessment process. A more detailed account of the process for applying for an EHCP can be found here.
The local offer, that every council must publish, telling you what support is available for children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities, and their families is available here.
