The governing body has agreed with the Hertfordshire County Admissions Criteria, which does not discriminate against pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

The school will make every effort to accommodate a pupil's particular needs and will work with external agencies to improve facilities, if needed.

Where necessary, additional preparations will be made for appropriate transition into our school, e.g. by additional nursery visits, meetings with staff members involved in the pupil's care and education, including the SENCO.

The SEND Code of Practice (July 2014) recognises four broad areas of need.

These are:

• Communication and interaction
• Cognition and learning
• Social, emotional and mental health difficulties
• Sensory and/or physical needs

Adaptations to the curriculum and learning environment

Hertford St Andrew complies with the Equality Act 2010 and makes reasonable adjustments to ensure that all pupils’ needs are met, for example:

• Differentiating our curriculum to ensure that all pupils are able to access it, for example, by grouping, 1:1 work, teaching style, content of the lesson, etc.
• Adapting our resources and staffing.
• Using recommended aids, such as laptops, coloured overlays, visual timetables, larger font, etc.
• Differentiating our teaching, for example, giving longer processing times, pre-teaching of key vocabulary, reading instructions aloud, etc.

Additional support for learning

Teaching assistants may support pupils on a 1:1 basis within the classroom or in withdrawn sessions in accordance with the individual’s needs. Teaching assistants will also support pupils in small groups within the classroom or in separate rooms in accordance with the demands of the curriculum; the programmes they are leading are based upon needs of the pupils.

Within the school we encourage the sharing of good practise and expertise; this enables us to ensure our staff have as much knowledge as possible within the field of supporting children with SEND. The environment is designed to support children with individual needs e.g. visual timetables or individual workstations as required.

To further support SEND provision in school we work with a number of agencies to provide support for pupils with SEN including:

• Education Psychology 
• Health, including GPs, occupational health and paediatricians
• Physiotherapists
• Occupational therapists
• Communication and Autism Advisory Team 
• Speech and Language Services 
• Visual Impairment Advisor
• Hearing Impairment Advisor
• Specific Learning Difficulties Base 
• Families First

• Specialist for Sensory and Physical Needs
• Counselling in Schools
• Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
• Social Care
• SEND Officer

Parents will always be consulted if it is felt that a pupil would benefit from having additional support from another agency.

Ofsted January 2019

"Pupils with SEND make good progress as a result of well-targeted support, including from teaching assistants. Staff monitor their progress carefully and adjust provision to meet their needs. Several parents commented on the high-quality support their children receive. Consequently, pupils with SEND achieve well from their different starting points."

DSPL3

To find out about courses and support for parents of children with a special education need in East Herts, please access the following website.

http://dspl3.co.uk/

SEN Transition

How we support children/young people with SEN starting at our school 

The SENCO/teachers liaise with staff from feeder schools. Visits to the school are encouraged, so that children are familiar with our setting. If needed, meetings/extra visits can be arranged to support the transition of pupils from one setting to another.

How we support children/young people with SEN moving between classes in our school 

We have transition days to prepare pupils to meet their new teacher as they move through school. For pupils with SEND we draw up a transition passport in collaboration with the child: they can take the passport home over the summer and prepare for and remind themselves of the changes which they will face in September. We also prepare a one-page pupil profile, which details what their new teacher needs to know about them.

How we support children/young people with SEN transitioning to secondary  school 

The SENCO liaises with the SENCO from the receiving secondary schools. Meetings are held to discuss individual pupils’ needs and how the school can best support them in the next stage of their education. Mentors from the receiving secondary schools are encouraged to come into school to meet with students. Additional visits are arranged, so that children can visit their receiving school during a school day. Where possible, additional visits to the local secondary school to do some curriculum based learning, e.g. cooking, are arranged in the summer term.