The following report should be read in conjunction with the SEND policy.

Poole High School is an inclusive school and we believe that all students should have access to an appropriate education that affords them the opportunity to achieve their personal potential.

General information

  • Poole High School is a mainstream 4-19 school.
  • The SEND policy is available on the school website.
  • The accessibility plan can be viewed on the school website, within the Single Equality/Inclusion Scheme.
  • The ground floors are all wheelchair accessible, and the first floors via lifts. There are three toilets adapted for use by people with physical disabilities.
  • We meet the needs of students with a wide range of special educational needs including autism (ASC); specific learning difficulties (SpLD) -dyslexia, developmental coordination disorder dyspraxia, and dyscalculia; speech and language difficulties; physical difficulties such as hearing impairment, visual impairment; social, emotional and mental health difficulties such as ADHD, anxiety, depression, attachment disorder, etc.
  • We have strong pastoral care systems and an experienced Learning Support and Inclusion Department.

 

Contact Points

Assistant Head for Vulnerable Learners/Senior SENDco:

Mrs Kerry Dewsnap k.dewsnap@poolehigh.poole.sch.uk

Tel: 01202 666988

Assistant SENDco

Ms Laura Brunt l.brunt@poolehigh.poole.sch.uk

Tel: 01202 666988

School Governor with responsibility for SEND: Hannah Parry (please contact via school office)

How do we identify children and young people with SEND and assess their needs?

Our feeder schools are visited during the Summer term to meet with both staff and students. Any SEND issues are identified at this point and the SENDco will plan an appropriate transition programme for students that need additional support. Information on the SEND needs of individual students is circulated to their teachers as they start Year 7. This is disseminated through the Learning Support Register and Pupil Passports. All Year 7 students have their literacy skills assessed in the Autumn term, using standardised tests of reading comprehension and spelling. Year 7 students who are identified with significant literacy difficulties will have timetabled support with a specialist teacher. This continues, as required, through key stage 3.

  • The academic progress of pupils with SEND is tracked and monitored in the same way as their peers without SEND. In addition, the SENDco/Assistant SENDco and their team of teaching assistants are constantly monitoring the performance and pastoral needs of the target students. Close liaison between the pastoral team and subject teachers means that any problems are usually recognised at an early stage and appropriate intervention planned and provided.
  • The SEND Officer will contact parents with any concerns, and welcome parental contact by email or telephone on a regular basis. The SENDco/Assistant SENDco are available for meetings with parents when necessary.
  • The Learning Support department welcomes referrals by members of staff and/or parents when there are concerns about the progress of an individual student, and will try to identify whether it is a SEND issue or not. Appropriate advice and guidance will then be provided.
  • At the start of GCSE and A Level courses, the Assistant SENDco assesses the capability of students to access their exams, and the SEND officer will make applications to the exam boards for Access Arrangements for the small number of students who need them.
  • Should the needs of the pupil be greater than the school can provide for, the SEND Team may make a referral to an outside agency, such as the Specialist Teacher Service or Educational Psychology service.

Consultations with Parents

  • The SENDco and Assistant SENDco are available at each of the parents’ evenings throughout the year.
  • An informal ‘Drop in’ session for the parents of children with SEND will be held in the first term, and a meeting for the parents of all the students with SEND is organised once a year. This is an opportunity to meet the teaching assistants, Assistant SENDco and the SENDco.
  • Each student with an Education, Health and Care Plan will have a formal review at least once a year. The student, parents, staff and any outside agencies involved with the student attend this meeting. These may be conducted via Zoom (an online meeting tool) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • The SENDco and Assistant SENDco welcome informal contact with parents, by email or telephone, and are happy to arrange meetings at a mutually convenient time.

Consultations with students

  • Students are central to the decision-making about their provision and the targets on their Pupil Passports. 
  • All students with a statutory Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) attend their Annual Review meeting and contribute their views through a questionnaire completed in advance.
  • At points in the year, the SEND department will send out a questionnaire for students on the SEND register to complete, in relation to the support they receive in school.

Arrangements for assessing and reviewing the progress of students with SEND

  • Students with SEND are tracked and monitored by the same data system as their peers. 
  • All members of Senior Leadership meet biweekly to discuss the progress of all students across all the curriculum areas. This data is further analysed by the Assistant SENDco who actions any resources if required. 
  • The Learning Support Assistants work closely with the class teachers and provide useful feedback on the progress of the students that they support.
  • The SEND register is regularly reviewed throughout the year.

Arrangements for supporting students with SEND through times of transition

  • Year 6-7 transition planning begins early, usually when the parents of the student attend the open evening in September. The Assistant SENDco and the Year 7 Transition LSA will liaise with primary school SENDco’s and will attend reviews during Year 6 if possible. For students with the highest level of need, and particularly for those with ASC, a number of additional visits will be planned. The Year 7 SEND team will visit the pupil at their primary school and then the pupil will visit Poole High School during the Summer term, as many times as necessary to achieve the confidence required for transition in September. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these visits may be conducted virtually.
  • All Year 6 students attend the Induction Day in the Summer term.
  • In-year transition: sometimes students with SEND join us part way through the year, via the ‘In Year Fair Access Policy’. Efforts are made to obtain as much information as possible from the parents, outside agencies and feeder school so that the student has a successful start to their Poole High School career.
  • KS3 to KS4: The SENDco and the Assistant SENDco attend the Year 9 Options Evening and are available to talk to the parents of students with SEND. They are also happy to arrange additional meetings and liaise with other staff to ensure that the students are placed on courses best suited to their needs (within the constraints of the curriculum on offer). SEND students are spoken to individually about their choices and then with parents if necessary.
  • To FE: The students who leave us for FE colleges at the end of Year 11 may also need support. We arrange for them to visit the college, with an LSA to support them, to meet the new support team and familiarise themselves with the college. The college will contact the SENDco if the student declares a SEND on their application form. We share our information on the student’s SEND and access arrangements for exams where applicable.
  • Careers advice: We work closely with the careers advisor in school to ensure that they know which students have SEND and may need additional support, with applications for example. The careers advisor attends the Year 9, 10, 11 and Sixth Form Annual Reviews for the students with an ECHP.

The approach to teaching children and young people with SEND

  • Students with SEND (who require provision that is ‘additional to and different from’ that provided for all students) are entitled to a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum, that is adapted and/or may be personalised where necessary to ensure maximum progress for the individual.
  • Students with SEND are supported to access the curriculum by the provision of quality first teaching in the classroom and reasonable adjustments. These may take the form of adapted approaches, specialist equipment or IT, or adjustments to seating plans for example. All teaching staff have access to the Pupil Passports. The SEND team provides the teaching staff with detailed information about the special educational needs of individual students, together with advice and guidance to enable them to meet those needs effectively in their classroom. This is continuously accessible to all teaching staff.
  • The Learning Support Teaching Assistants are trained and experienced in supporting students with SEND in the classroom and CPD courses are available to them both externally and internally throughout the year.

Adaptations to the curriculum and learning environment

  • Learning environment: The school is accessible for wheelchairs.
  • Literacy intervention: Many of our students with SEND have literacy difficulties; some have a diagnosis of dyslexia. Where these difficulties are minor, the needs of the student will be met by the class teacher through appropriate differentiation. Where the student is failing to make progress, despite appropriate provision, they will be included in one of two withdrawal groups, for targeted teaching, by experienced LSAs within the SEND department. The teaching in these sessions is targeted to the needs of the individual student and often involves going back to basics to ensure a firm foundation for future development. Progress is measured by retesting the reading comprehension and spelling at the end of each year.
  • Intervention programmes: These are usually one hour a week for 6-8 weeks, and delivered by LSAs to meet particular needs. They include: SULP (Social Use of Language), friendship group support, handwriting support in a small group, EAL support, and 1:1 support in the form of informal mentoring is also provided where needed, for bereavement for example. We also have a Mental Health co-ordinator, with a team of Mental Health First Aiders.
  • Learning aids: The Learning Support Department is able to provide coloured overlays or rulers for reading and loan laptops to support students who have difficulties recording their ideas by hand.

The expertise and training of staff in relation to SEND

The SENDco is an experienced teacher who has worked at Poole High School for 15 years. She attends the termly BCP SENDco support meetings and is in contact with the SENDco’s in Poole feeder primary schools, and the other central area secondary schools. The SEND department ensures that staff can access the detailed information on pupils with SEND on the school’s secure computer network. A bank of information is held in the same place, providing advice on teaching strategies for students with each type of SEND. In addition, the department contributes to the whole school CPD programme each year, to provide regular updates to staff on meeting the needs of all students.  The SENDco and Assistant SENDco will refer pupils to external support services when they feel that greater expertise is needed to meet the needs of an individual pupil. These may include Integrated Disability Service (IDS); Specialist Teacher Service (STS); Educational Psychology Service (EPS); Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (RISE); Early Intervention Service (EIS). Some of these services are traded services and a cost-benefit analysis will be carried out before a referral is made.

How the school evaluates the effectiveness of its provision for pupils with SEND

  • Pupils with SEND are tracked and monitored in the same way as their peers, by the whole school tracking schedule.
  • The SEND department reviews the provision for targeted pupils. This may take the form of short questionnaires to the pupils, at the end of a 6-week programme for example. All students have their reading comprehension tests in the Summer term each year, and their progress is measured through the use of standard scores and reading and spelling ages. The progress of students with SEND is compared to their peers at this stage. The LSAs make notes on the progress of students towards their targets on their IEPs throughout the year.
  • Students with an Education, Health and Care Plan have an annual review meeting at which their progress towards the objectives of their plan is discussed in depth. Prior to this meeting, the SENDco Assistant requests information from all their teachers regarding progress toward their objectives.

Access to extra-curricular activities for students with SEND

  • The school publishes a schedule of extra-curricular activities each year and the SEND Department encourages pupils with SEND to attend these, according to their interests. This would include accompanying the student to the first session if this was needed.
  • Prep Club is offered daily, and we recommend this to the parents of students with SEND if they are having difficulty supporting their child at home.
  • LSAs accompany school trips, to support students with SEND, as required.

Arrangements for handling complaints from parents of children with SEND about the provision made at school

  • Concerns about general provision in lessons should be raised with the subject or form teacher in the first instance (by telephone through the school office).
  • Concerns relating to the provision for SEND should be raised with the SENDco/Assistant SENDco.
  • If the concern cannot be resolved through a telephone call, then the SENDco/Assistant SENDco will arrange to meet the parent at a mutually convenient time.
  • If this does not resolve the complaint, then the school’s complaints procedure should be used.

For further information on the new SEND Code of Practice 2015 go to:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25

For BCP's Local Offer of SEND provisions go to:

http://www.poolefamilyinformationdirectory.com/kb5/poole/fis/localoffer.page#:~:text=The%20BCP%20Council%20SEND%20Local%20Offer%20provides%20information,sections%20below%20to%20find%20the%20information%20you%20need.

This SEND Information Report should be read in conjunction with the school’s SEND Policy.

Kerry Dewsnap

Assistant Head for Vulnerable Learners/Senior SENDco

September 2021

Key Documents:

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