Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND)

Our Vision

We want the children who attend Bonner Primary school to leave us in Year 6 with the skills and positive thinking needed to achieve their ambitions and to lead happy, successful lives. We want all children to meet their potential and to exceed their own expectations. We hold this as true for every child who attends our school, regardless of background or special need.

Our SEND Coordinator is Mr Phillip Taylor and he can be contacted at ptaylor@bonner.towerhamlets.sch.uk

bps send policy march 2021 review.pdf

To download our Accessibility Plan please click here

School Details

We are a mainstream primary school which operates on two sites: Bonner Bethnal Green, which admits children from age 4 (Reception) until Year 6, and Bonner Mile End, which admits children from age 3 (Nursery) until Year 6.

Current Ofsted Rating

Our most recent OFSTED was in 2019. We achieved a GOOD rating. The full report is available here and also from the Ofsted website

Types of SEND, disability and medical needs

The SEN Code of Practice 2014 states that ‘a student has SEND where their learning difficulty or disability calls for special educational provision different from or additional to that normally available to students the same age’

The four broad areas identified within the SEN Code of Practice 2014 are:

• Communication and interaction (for example, speech and language delay, speech articulation, stammering, ASD)
• Cognition and learning (for example, global learning delays, dyslexia, dyscalculia)
• Social, emotional and mental health difficulties (for example, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder – OCD)
• Sensory and physical needs (for example visual impairment – VI, hearing impairment – HI, autistic spectrum disorder – ASD or physical disability)

Points of contact to discuss a child’s difficulties with SEND or medical issues

• First point of contact is always a class teacher
• Parents / carers can also contact SENCo (Phillip Taylor – Bonner Bethnal Green and Bonner Mile End – KS1 and KS2, Rosie Barr  – EYFS)
• Parents / carers can also speak to Louise Havard – Learning Mentor

Identification of children with Special Educational Needs

We aim to identify any difficulties a child is having as early as possible. This may be through observations in class or termly assessment. In many cases, addressing difficulties and putting targeted support in place helps children to overcome difficulties and ensure they make progress. The Code of Practice 2014 states that:

• SEND may be present if progress is significantly slower than that of their peers starting from the same baseline
• Fails to match or better the child’s previous rate of progress
• Fails to close the attainment gap between the child and their peers
• Widen the attainment gap

There may be other factors involved in a child’s lack of progress that are not related to SEND. Poor attendance and lateness, English as an additional language (EAL) or a sudden change in home life, for example.

If a child’s progress is causing concern, class teachers will adapt their practice, put in place differentiated lessons and other support in class. If, despite this, there is still a lack of progress, they will raise this with SENCo and implement individual termly targets. These follow the approach of Assess, Plan, Do and Review.

Assess – class teachers and SENCo will look at a range of assessments (reading, spelling, writing, numeracy, classroom observation and behaviour analysis – red slips) and agree next steps to support the child

Plan – appropriate strategies and interventions are agreed and put in place and parents are informed

Do – class teachers and teaching assistants provide appropriate differentiated teaching through group teaching, 1:1 support or interventions at different times of the day

Review – the impact of targets is monitored termly. Targets are adjusted, revised and updated. If necessary, external agencies may become involved and parents invited in to discuss further support

What do we do to help children with Special Educational Needs?

Classroom teaching – all children receive quality first teaching. Teachers will adapt lessons to meet the needs of the child. They will differentiate appropriately and use additional materials and resources to support children. Some children will be taught in smaller groups, with additional adult support. Some children might need 1:1 support to access learning. This is carefully considered. We want all children to be independent in their learning, so will ensure that children are left alone to learn when appropriate and spend times learning with their peers

Interventions – some children will receive additional teaching. This might involve additional support for key skills, programmes to support speech and language, 1:1 reading support, time with a learning mentor or small group interventions to support numeracy skills

Staff training – staff are trained to support children with specific needs, including ASD, speech and language difficulties. Staff have access to support from visual impairment teachers and teachers of the deaf

Behaviour support - children might need individual behaviour plans or behaviour charts to help them access learning in class. Sometimes they work towards individual rewards, which are different to their peers

Trip and visits – all teachers will complete risk assessments ahead of a school trip. Activities are planned and differentiated appropriately. Routes are checked and adapted to ensure that all children can access the trip. When needed, extra support is put in place and parents might be asked to accompany some children, if it is in the child’s best interest

Transitions – some children require support with transitions. This might be each time they move year group or key stage. They may also need support when they move to secondary school. Support might include social stories, additional visits to their new class or school and meetings with parents. New students joining will visit ahead of their starting date and meet with teachers and staff

External professionals and agencies – some children might be referred to outside agencies. These professionals can support the school with identifying barriers to learning that children might be experiencing. These might include Educational Psychologists (EP), Occupational Therapists (OT), Behaviour Support teams or specialists in dyslexia in the Support for Learning Service (SLS)

Education Health Care plans (EHC)

If a child has severe SEND, the school or parents might request a statutory assessment from Tower Hamlets SEN department. This will require the school to provide evidence of what has already been tried in school and SEND reports that have been complied by external agencies working with the school. Parents will also contribute their views to the assessment, and where appropriate, the child will contribute too.

When an EHC is issued, it will include specific objectives that a child should achieve and what needs to be put in place to help them meet them. It is the school’s responsibility to ensure that these are met. Each EHC is individually banded and this often comes with funding for the school to use appropriately. There will be an initial 8 week review meeting to set targets; this is then followed by an annual review which takes place during each academic year.

All adults who support the child are invited to attend and contribute. The meetings are child centred and children are encouraged to attend and contribute. This might be through a PowerPoint of poster. They can bring examples of their favourite work to share and also bring a friend for support. At the end of each meeting a report is written by the SENCo and sent to parents, Educational Psychology service and Tower Hamlets SEN department. This is completed within two weeks of the meeting.

SEND budget

This money, provided by the local authority, is used to meet the additional needs of children with SEND within the school. This provision includes allocation of staff, grouping of children or adaptions to the curriculum. It is also used to purchase support from external agencies, such as speech and language therapists and educational psychologists.

EHC funding

The school ensures that funding is used to meet the needs of the individual child. It is not based on the number of hours that a teaching assistant might work with a child, but to support a child in reaching their objectives.

Pupil premium

This funding is available to meet the needs of children entitled to free school meals or identified as Looked After (LAC). It is used in the allocation of staff, small group teaching and adaptions to the curriculum.

The Tower Hamlets Local Offer

If you would like to find out more information about the Local, Tower Hamlets offer, for SEND then please click on the link below:

 http://www.localoffertowerhamlets.co.uk/pages/local-offer/what-is-the-local-offer

 Partnership with Phoenix School

Bonner is working in partnership with the Phoenix School, a well renowned special school. Phoenix School are conducting a pilot project to help mainstream schools better support and include their autistic pupils. With support and training from Phoenix, and additional funding from the local authority, 22 schools have created specialist classrooms based on the Phoenix model. Bonner is one of these 22 schools.

As a result, Bonner has access to Phoenix curriculum resources and strategies which have allowed our children to access appropriate learning whilst building meaningful relationships within the mainstream settings, reducing anxiety and fostering greater engagement; students are also making progress and are more regulated within these environments. The students in these classrooms are students who have been working academically below their peers and would be suitable for a specialist setting. 

Members of the Bonner team attend half-termly resource evenings to build a community of SEND teachers, share good practice and overcome barriers. Staff have said they find these supportive and have valued the opportunity to meet with one another. Phoenix have helped build a culture of empathy and understanding by supporting mainstream staff with specialised training and mentorship, and by promoting collaboration with senior staff and teachers at Phoenix.