SEND & Local Offer
Who should you contact if your child has Special Educational Needs and/or a Disability (SEND)?
Miss Jessica Croxford is the SENCo (Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator) and oversees Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) provision within the Academy. Miss Croxford can be contacted via the Academy number: 01207 292180 or through the school email address info@ndacademy.co.uk directly J.Croxford@ndacademy.co.uk
The Governor who oversees SEND provision within the Academy is Barry Clark.
It is the SENCO’s job to:
- Oversee the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEN policy
- Liaise with the relevant Designated Teacher where a looked after pupil has SEN
- Advise teachers on using a graduated approach to providing SEN support
- Advise on the deployment of the school’s delegated budget and other resources to meet the pupil’s needs effectively
- Liaise with parents/carers of pupils with SEN
- Liaise with and be a key point of contact for external agencies
- Ensure that the school keeps the records of all SEN pupils up to date
- Work with the head teacher and school governors to ensure that the school meets its responsibilities with regard to reasonable adjustments and access arrangements.
For more detailed information on our SEND provision please refer to our SEND Policy and Information Report that can be found on our policies page.
SEND
From September 2014 Local Authorities (LA) and schools are required to publish and keep under review information about services they expect to be available for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) aged 0-25. This is called the ‘Local Offer’.
The intention of the Local Offer is to improve choice for families and will also be an important resource for parents in understanding the range of services and provision in the local area.
Further information about the Local Offer can be found on the County Durham Families Information Service website.
Please follow this link to NDA information within the DCC Local Offer website. Ofsted Report on Durham Local Authority SEND Provision
https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50148361
Graduated Approach
All professionals, along with yourself, should be in agreement about the level of SEN support required to meet the needs of your child and a robust 'Assess, Plan, Do and Review' cycle should be put in place. This is also known as the graduated approach.
The graduated approach means that nurseries, schools and colleges should:
- Assess your child's special educational needs
- Plan provision to meet the aspirations and agreed outcomes for your child
- Do - put the provision in place
- Review the support and progress, including more specialist expertise in successive cycles in order to match support to the needs of your child
To ensure a robust cycle of asses, plan do and review the Graduated Approach is made up of a cyclical WAVE process.
A summary of the Graduated Approach can be seen to the left.
Your child's SEN support should be reviewed at least three times a year with you and your child (where possible), with input from the specialists who are actively supporting your child at that time. Where possible, these reviews should be a face-to-face meeting but this is not always appropriate, so sometimes this could be completed through telephone calls/emails. You should always sign the new SEN support plan to show your agreement.
In the process of reviewing SEN support, it may become apparent that your child needs additional support/provision. In exceptional cases, the school and you may decide to request:
- a place in an enhanced mainstream provision, if relevant to your child's needs
- an Education, Health & Care (EHC) assessment