Special Educational Needs & Inclusion

Ms Louise Collinge is our SENDCO. If you have any concerns about your child’s development or well-being please contact her to arrange a meeting by emailing admin@praewood.herts.sch.uk or phoning 01727 751930

What is our approach to inclusion and special educational needs at Prae Wood School?

At Prae Wood our ethos, ‘Everyone Valued, Everyone Learning’ is at the heart of everything we do and it underpins our approach to supporting children with SEND. We strive to promote equality at our school by ensuring that children are valued regardless of individual differences, personal circumstances and need. Our lessons are inclusive and resources and support are available for all, although these differ on an individual or group basis. We recognise that to achieve equality, it is essential to implement equity by recognising that all children have different starting points, individual learning and development needs and progress at different rates.

A child has Special Educational Needs (SEND) if they have a learning difficulty or disability, which calls for special educational provision to be made for them.

A child of school age has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she: 

• has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or
• has a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools.

We recognise that at different times during a child or young person’s school life, they may have a special need or disability that requires additional provision at that particular time. We also recognise that it is possible to require additional support without being on the school’s SEND list.

How is this implemented?

We deliver a broad and balanced curriculum - both academic and pastoral - through high quality teaching that is differentiated to meet the needs of our pupils. We aim to identify additional needs early by monitoring children’s academic progress as well as their social development so that we can respond to any initial concerns - which may involve a few small adaptations in the classroom to support a child’s learning or some extra pastoral help. We take a graduated response - working closely with parents/carers to discuss how best to support a child. We may implement the four-stage graduated response cycle (Assess-Plan-Do-Review) to meet the needs of individual pupils who require something in addition to what is offered to the majority of our pupils. Occasionally, children with greater identified needs may require an Educational Health Care Plan. Throughout this process, we may draw on the support of external agencies or seek specialist advice, we may  provide additional training to adults in school or sign-post parents/carers to resources that may be informative and helpful.

How do we measure the impact?

We constantly review the support we are providing to children with SEND. Where children have an Assess-Plan-Do-Review, teachers meet parents/carers termly to review targets, gain feedback and discuss next steps. We use pupil voice discussions to develop a better understanding of how children regard the support that is provided. Additionally, we also review other measures of success which may include improved overall progress, better attendance or more positive wellbeing and behaviour. 

You can find out more by about our school ethos and our approach to SEND by clicking the links below:

SEND Local Offer Information Report via our Statutory Requirements Page

SEND Policy for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) via our Policies Page

SEND Interventions via our Policies Page

Accessibility Plan via our Policies Page

Emotional Wellbeing and Positive Behaviour Policy & Appendices via our Policies Page

RHSE Policy via our Policies Page

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy via our Policies Page

STEPS and how this approach is implemented at Prae Wood