SEND Support in Schools

A child may have an identified SEND need before starting at the nursery school or a child may emerge as having SEND whilst attending the setting. If your child is identified as not making progress, we will adopt Wave 1 intervention:

• Discuss with you as part of our ongoing communications between key person and parent and listen to any concerns you may have
• Plan any additional support with you, monitor and evaluate the progress made in line with our regular assessments
• Your child’s key person will aim to meet your child’s needs through differentiating tasks whilst maintaining high expectations, adapting teaching methods and learning styles or using some alternative approaches to learning such as visuals or small groups. This may be under the guidance of the inclusion manager but is part of quality first teaching.
• A child will be placed on the SEND register if high quality Wave 1 teaching and reasonable adjustments (as set out in the SEND code of practice 2014) fail to meet the child’s needs. We follow an ‘assess, plan, do, review’ cycle which means we are constantly reviewing the impact of provision so a child may come off the SEN register during their time with us.

If Wave 1 methods are not enough to meet your child’s needs they may need additional interventions. We will then move your child onto Wave 2 and this will include:

• Meeting with the Inclusion Manager to discuss ongoing concerns where a child is not making sufficient progress despite wave 1 intervention
• Agreeing a SEND individual support plan (ISP) with outcomes to work towards with targeted provision for the child over a specified length of time.
• Seeking parental permission to obtain further advice and support from external services
• Continuing to work with parents to ensure both are able to put strategies in place to support the child in making progress and signpost parents for further support if needed
• Review the plan of support regularly to monitor progress

If your child continues to demonstrate significant cause for concern, despite interventions of support, a request for an Educational Health and Care Needs Assessment/Plan (EHCP) may be made to the Local Authority.

• A range of written evidence about your child will support the request and is usually written by the Inclusion Manager.
• If the Local Authority decides to assess and then grant an EHCP for your child, it will give outcomes similar to the ISP on how everyone involved can support your child and will be reviewed within a statutory timescale.
• It will give guidance on using any extra resources that may have been allocated during the Statutory Assessment.
• This process normally takes no more than 20 weeks to complete if an EHCP is to be granted.
• It is usual for Nursery to apply for an EHCP in the year that a child goes to school so that support is in place.