At Allenbourn Middle school we use the following definition taken from the SEND COP 2014 to guide our processes of identification of pupils with SEND; A child or young person has a Special Educational needs or disability (SEND) if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they: · have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age; or · have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools.

• At Allenbourn Middle School, the children are assessed in core subjects every half term and results are recorded on the school’s database. Students’ progress is tracked by subject teachers, Heads of Department and the Senior Leadership Team.
• Pupil progress meetings involving the Heads of English and Maths, the Senior Leadership Team, SENDCo and Heads of Year are held half termly to discuss pupils who are causing concern.
• Year meetings to discuss pastoral issues are held weekly and Inclusion meetings to discuss whole school concerns are held fortnightly. Should the subject teacher, tutor, or Head of Year identify that your child is not making expected progress either in their academic learning or social learning, this will be discussed and you will be contacted by the most appropriate person to explore the barriers to learning.
• Parent consultations are held termly to discuss progress.
• Information from professionals, diagnostic assessments performed by external agencies and previous settings are used to assess and support.
• Should a parent/carer identify a concern with their child’s learning, social learning or special educational needs you are invited to discuss these concerns with the relevant tutor/Head of year. During the meeting, all parties will have the opportunity to discuss and agree a way forward to best meet the child’s needs appropriately.

In the first instance please approach your child’s Tutor with any SEN concerns. During conversation with the Tutor either your concerns will be addressed fully or the Tutor will speak with the relevant members of staff and update you about your concern within an agreed time frame. If the school has concerns about your child’s individual needs, the Tutor will arrange a meeting with you to discuss these concerns at the earliest available opportunity. If necessary a further meeting will be arranged which may include the SENDCo, and other relevant staff members.

• Pippa Wheeler is the SENDCo
• The SEND admin for our school is Mrs Natasha Bramley

Pupils at Allenbourn Middle School are assessed each half term in core subjects to monitor their progress against Age Related Expectations. Each term there is an opportunity to discuss your child’s progress at parent consultations. However, should parents/carers or school identify a special educational need at any time, a meeting can be held with Tutor, subject teacher or Head of year to discuss the need of the pupil and agree steps to be put in place to support them at home and at school. The school’s SENCo may also be present at this meeting. Strategies of how to support the pupil and termly outcomes will be discussed and shared and these will be reviewed at another set meeting.

There are many different ways in which Allenbourn Middle School aims to meet the needs of all learners. These include:

• High quality differentiated teaching within all classes.
• Smaller groups with a higher adult: pupil ratio for pupils with very low numeracy or literacy levels.
• Specialist teaching for students with specific literacy difficulties.
• Speech and language support from Teaching Assistants.
• Support for physiotherapy and occupational therapy programmes.
• Supported at Homework club.
• Booster groups, overlearning and preteaching support delivered by Teaching assistants.
• Intervention groups including support for developing fine and gross motor skills, support for language development and support for developing social skills as well as sensory difficulties.
• 1:1 intervention to deliver specific programmes or provide individualised support.
• A school emotional well-being support service including ELSA and counselling.
• Allocated staff trained to meet medical needs.
• Specialist resources such as: Writing slopes, wobble cushions, pencil grips and fiddly fingers resources
• Positive behaviour management and reward schemes
• Safe spaces or individual work stations 
• Close links with professionals from external agencies including an Educational Psychologist, Behaviour Support Service, Special School outreach, Speech and Language Therapists, Children’s Therapy Service, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, the Community Paediatrician, Hearing and Vision Support Service, Locality and Family Support teams.

The school prioritises the use of its resources including; staffing hours, equipment and finances, wholly due to pupil need. Those pupils whose learning and well-being needs are a significant barrier to their ability to learn will receive appropriate resources to enable them to achieve their full potential. The school regularly reviews its allocation of resources through its monitoring processes which take into account academic achievement, pupil well-being, engagement and participation. The levels of support offered to pupils may well change over time as a result of this monitoring and the child’s individual achievements or struggles.
Types of support will be allocated based on advice from external agencies and in consultation with parents, Class Teacher and the SENDCo. If a child is identified as requiring SEND support they will be placed on the SEND register, where their needs will be fully identified and strategies and advice to aid learning displayed for all staff. If a child requires a higher level of support than can be offered by school alone, then a request will be made for an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP). These are issued by the Local Authority to children whose difficulties are felt to be severe, long term and complex. If it is felt that your child requires one of these plans then it will be discussed with yourself and professionals in a formal meeting.

Available at the school:

• Special Educational Needs and disability Co-ordinator.
• Specialist teacher for students with specific literacy difficulties.
• Pupil Premium advocate.
• Parent Support Adviser.
• ELSA workers.
• Counsellor.
• Higher level teaching assistants.
• Trained teaching assistants.
• Youth worker External agencies or outreach services delivered in school:
• Educational Psychologist.
• Advisory teachers and technical support from the Hearing and Vision support service.
• Mobility Officer.
• Behaviour Support Service
• Beaucroft outreach services Provided and paid for by Health Service but usually delivered in school:
• School Nurse.
• Support from Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service.
• Children’s Therapy Service.
• Speech and Language support.
• Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy support.

Allenbourn Middle School adheres to an Equality Plan. Each pupil’s needs will be individually assessed and catered for appropriately wherever possible. The school strives to ensure that all children, regardless of their additional needs, can achieve their best in all aspects of school life. The school accommodates pupils with hearing and sight impairments, pupils with physical disabilities and pupils with complex medical needs. These accommodations, where made for individuals, are made in conjunction with appropriate agency advice, parent and child to ensure needs are met and pupil are empowered to succeed. Further to this, wherever possible, we aim for all children to be included on our class and whole school trips. Therefore we carefully plan our provision to provide the necessary support to any children with SEND to access the trip. A comprehensive risk assessment is always undertaken prior to any offsite activity to ensure that everyone’s health and safety is not be compromised. The school building was designed to maximise accessibility for all users. An accessibility plan ensures that the school building continues to evolve to meet a diversity of needs.

Allenbourn Middle School is a Rights Respecting School and we uphold these values, keeping children at the heart of all that we do. We provide a learning environment based on British Values and SMSC education. We have many specialist teaching assistants across the school and also those who work 1:1 to support pupils with specific needs. This is to ensure that pupils are able to form positive relationships and to support them in their learning needs. Further to this, for children with significant emotional issues the school is equipped with both ELSA and counselling support. As a Rights Respecting school, the school recognises that every child has both a right to learn and responsibility to ensure that others can learn too. This philosophy underpins the school’s behaviour policy. Children with special educational needs are supported in every way, including with their behaviour and social interaction.

The school has close links with several services that support parents/carers:

• Locality Workers (offer family support and parenting advice).
• Dorset Family Information Service (offer information and guidance to help children, young people and their families).
• Dorset Parents Partnership Service (offers independent information and supports the parents/carers of children and young people with special educational needs).
• Dorset Parent Carer Council (run by parents of children with disabilities for other parents).           

We also have a Parent Support Adviser who is able to offer support and advice to parents. In the first instance, parents/carers should speak to their child’s Tutor to find out how they can support their own child’s learning. Parents can also discuss this with the SENDCo. Discussions regarding parents or carers wanting to support in class during school time will be warmly received and should be directed to the SENDCo.

Internal transition

• Transition meetings between Tutors are held during the summer term in preparation for pupils to move to their new classes and year groups.
• Advice regarding SEND register and needs are provided at the beginning of each year to ensure staff members know the specific needs and strategies to use for pupils with SEND.

External transition

• The SENDCo and Transition Co-ordinator at Allenbourn liaise closely with staff at feeder schools and at upper schools to ensure the smooth transition of pupils with SEND coming into and leaving the school.
• Additional visits and pastoral support sessions are offered to vulnerable pupils who are moving to upper school and joining us.
• Paperwork relating to SEN which is held in school by the SENDCo is passed to the SENDCo of the receiving school and all previous settings are asked to provide full information about previous intervention/support/understanding of the child to ensure that staff can meet the needs of all children as soon as they join the school.

Bespoke transition support packages are designed for pupils with complex needs and parent meetings had with the SENDCo and other relevant staff from Allenbourn and other settings/agencies.