SENCO and SEN Staff
Our SENCO is Mrs J Cartwright.
More details of the SENCO’s role can be found in the SEN Policy which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.
External Specialists and Other Bodies
The school enjoys good working relationships with a wide range of people who provide services to children with SEND and their families.
The external specialists may:
- Act in an advisory capacity
- Extend expertise of school staff
- Provide additional assessment
- Support a child directly
- Suggest statutory assessment is advisable
- Consult with all parties involved with the child
These include:
- Durham County Council Local Offer
- Durham SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
- Educational Psychology
- Speech and Language
- Cognition and Learning
- Movement Difficulties Team
- CAMHS
How We Secure Specialist Expertise
Our Additional Needs Budget is used to support children and young people with SEN.
Each school in Durham receives its school budget in April, and as part of this budget there is an amount allocated for SEN. As such, schools are responsible for funding the first £6k of support for children with SEN – after which they can request additional ‘Top Up Funds’ from the Local Authority; generally, this is for children with very high needs and often in receipt of a Statement or EHCP.
In order to access these funds, the school produces a ‘Costed Provision Map’ – detailing the provision the child is receiving and at what cost to the school. Parents are involved in this process and are invited to review the plans and support timetables with our SENCO. Children in receipt of an EHCP may be allocated additional funds as part of the plan. The use of these funds is discussed at the initiation of the plan, and during the review meetings to ensure best value is achieved. More information about SEND finances is available within the Local Authority Local Offer Website, a link to which is on our school website, under ‘Local Offer
This is used to support children and young people with SEND by:
The resources we use to support children with SEN depend upon their needs and they are allocated on an individual basis. Once your child has been identified as SEN, their needs will be assessed and targets and outcomes will be identified. It is the responsibility of the SENCo to ensure that the resources that are required are made available and that the staff are aware of their individual needs. We are very flexible in our approach and we constantly monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our interventions and the provision that we provide.
As part of our staff professional development, all members of staff receive training to support children with SEND. Staff Training: Will vary each year depending on the needs of the children and is provided through specialist providers. If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.
