SEND at St Joseph's

We are an inclusive school and welcome children of all backgrounds, and treat everyone with equal respect and value (see Pupil feedback at the bottom of this page).

All children at St Joseph’s have access to the full, broad and balanced curriculum and we tailor teaching, support and any required intervention to enable all children to have success and achieve excellence.

High quality teaching, differentiated for individual students, is the first step in responding to students who have SEND. “Quality first” teaching is a priority of the school. It is regularly monitored through internal and external observation processes, sampling and surveying and Pupil Progress meetings.

Parents are kept informed via termly reports, Parent’s evenings and ongoing communication.

Class teachers are the first ‘port of call’ for all children in their class as they will be best placed to offer day to day support as well as raise any concerns with parents, SENDCo or other agencies.

If you are concerned about your child’s progress or current academic performance, or believe there may be further needs to be assessed, please contact your child’s teacher who can meet to discuss further.

EEF - Guidance

When considering how our teaching and curriculum is matched to the needs of learners, we referenced the EEF for research findings and guidance. We have pulled together the sections that best describe our philosophy:

EEF_Special_Educational_Needs_in_Mainstream_Schools_Recommendations_Poster.jpg

Other Identified support

If the class teacher believes that further support is needed, they will then liaise with our SENDCo to design strategies, interventions or additional packages. This will be done in consultation with parents to ensure that needs are identified and planned for.

Our SENDCo is Miss Clare Ward, and she is available Friday. You can contact her at SENCO@stjosephs-birkenhead.wirral.sch.uk (however please note that her allocated SENCo time is Friday so you may not get an immediate response).

Miss Ward will then work with the class teacher to determine any additional support packages, including tuition, strategies, or external agencies, which may include class based approaches.

The above model demonstrates our graduated response.

Examples of additional support

Children with Special Needs are well supported through differentiated, targeted teaching as well as some additional programmes delivered by teaching assistants.

We buy in other agencies to further support and enhance our provision, such as Orretts Meadow Outreach, Beanstalk Readers and SALT, SENAAT etc

We consult with and buy in the services of Wirral Multi Ethnic Achievement Service to further support children with English as an additional language.

We have recently appointed an Emotional Literacy Support Assistant to offer support to children struggling with their emotions.

We review our school building in order to ensure it is as accessible as possible.

For more information about how we support children with Special needs, click on the links below. This includes a link to the Wirral SEND offer.

The Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator (SENDCO) is Miss Clare Ward. She is available to meet parents by appointment. She will endeavour to contact you as soon as possible, however her designated SENCO days are Monday and Tuesday only. Please contact her, preferably by email on the address below, or by contacting the school office.

Email address: Senco@stjosephs-birkenhead.wirral.sch.uk (Monday and Tuesday)

SEND at St Joseph’s…

We buy in additional support from Orrets Meadow Outreach team to help children with specific difficulties in Literacy. A specialist teacher comes in weekly, working in conjunction with one of our Teaching Assistants to provide a specially tailored programme of support for the children on the programme.

Mrs Langan is our ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant). She has been specially trained by a team of educational psychologists to support the emotional development of children in school. She has regular professional supervision from an educational psychologist to help her in her work and works with both individuals and small groups.

We have lots of cosy, quiet spaces for children who might need a short break from the classroom.

The Rainbow Room is a place of calm reflection where small groups and individuals can go to work and take part in interventions such as conversational skills, making friends and dealing with emotions

The Rainbow Garden is a quiet, peaceful space where children can got to sit and reflect. Children help work on planting and upkeep of the garden, providing a calm time where they can talk to staff.

Lunch Club takes place every lunchtime by invitation, for children who find the playground or Dining Room environments more challenging. Children play games, bake, do crafts, play on the trampoline and most of all, have fun in a safe, calmer environment.

We have a Diversity library with books on a range of themes such as bereavement, mental health, emotions and in a range of languages.

Our displays reflect our work on a range of inclusive topics such as Autism Acceptance and being part of a community

Meet Tim, one of our three Beanstalk reading volunteers. Our volunteers come in twice a week to read 1:1 with children and help develop their fluency and their passion for reading.

The Talking Time Postbox is centrally located by the school office and is a space where children can write down any of their worries or problems that they want to share. They post them confidentially and every note is then read and dealt with by Mrs Langan, the ELSA. She might go and have a chat with the child, talk to the class teacher or seek further support from the wider safeguarding team if needed.

MEET OUR ELSA

Mrs Langan is a fully-trained ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant). She works with children in school on areas such as friendship skills, bereavement, family break-ups, building resilience and using therapeutic stories. Mrs Langan has transformed one of the intervention rooms into a lovely calming space where she works with many children who benefit from her skills.

Parent workshops and useful resources

Throughout the year we host various parent workshops with field experts to offer guidance, tips and training for a range of additional needs. Following the sessions, we add any presentations, resources and links to this page so that parents can access and use the materials.

Supporting children with processing difficulties

Click here to download the presentation used at the Parent Workshop

ADHD booklet for children

Click here to download a booklet for children with ADHD

Support with reading and spelling

Please click here to download the presentation used at a recent Parents Workshop delivered by Sue Calveley about how to support your child with reading and spelling

Dyslexia workshop

We held a Dyslexia Coffee Afternoon for parents to find out more about Dyslexia and for some tips and advice about how to support their children. The session was led by Dawn Brockett, specialist teacher from the SENAAT team, supported by Clare Ward, SENCO.

Please find below the PowerPoint presentation shared with parents. There are many links which parents and carers may find useful.

Dyslexia Powerpoint

Supporting F2 and KS1 Maths

We offered a Maths Workshop with Sue Calveley, Wirral SEND lead, to share advice and information with supporting young struggling learners with maths.

The feedback we received was extremely positive, with parents commenting that they found it very useful and will be trying many of the strategies discussed at home. The workshop emphasised the importance of incorporating Maths into everyday life, for example by playing board games like Snakes and Ladders, letting children pay for items in shops, playing card games like '21' and letting children help with weighing and measuring for cooking.

For parents who were unable to attend, please have a look at the links below to find further useful games and activities to support your children.

http://www.ictgames.com/

http://snappymaths.com/

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks1numeracy.htm

Supporting with Stress and Anxiety

A workshop took place with advice and materials to support children and young people who are struggling with stress and anxiety. The workshop was well attended and proved very useful. See below for some of the materials shared.

Click here to view the Powerpoint Presentation used

Click here to download a parent leaflet

Spelling support

Sue Calveley, SEND Advisory teacher for Edsential, has prepared some online multi-sensory spelling lessons suitable for KS1 children or older children with SpLD such as Dyslexia

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLjuuZvefDPVWuY7jhzBnVJNLIejNxABK1&v=ldZxfvv6Zlo

Resources to support different areas of SEND

Below are some resources to support with the four main areas of SEND. Click on the red links to open

Communication and Interaction Resources.

Autism support

Lots of resources for children with ASC

https://education.gov.scot/media/0hxebcg2/school-work-at-home-social-story-2.pdf

http://www.beaucroft.dorset.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/when-will-coronavirus-be-finished.pdf

https://ican.org.uk/a-message-to-our-supporters-on-coronavirus/activities-to-develop-speaking-and-listening-skills/home-based-activities-for-primary-school-aged-children/

Sensory and Physical Resources.

A fantastic range of programmes to support motor skills development

Twinkl has many free reources to improve motor skills and listening to sounds

https://theimaginationtree.com/40-fine-motor-skills-activities-for-kids/

https://www.abdn.ac.uk/it/documents/Quick_Start_to_SSOverlay.pdf This is a link to instructions for how to download a coloured overlay for your computer screen for children with Irlens or sensitivity to bright screens.

Cognition and Learning Resources.

Sue Calveley Multi- sensory spelling

Clicker can currently be accessed for FREE at home to support children with reading and writing

FREE Phonics for children with SEND

Games to Encourage Thinking Skills

http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/tools/fun-games-for-dyslexics

https://www.teachwire.net/news/6-games-for-pupils-with-dyscalculia

http://www.ronitbird.com/games/ This website has lots of excellent games for children with Dyscalculia/ Maths difficulties.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting This site has lots of games to practise basic Maths skills.
https://www.spellzone.com/word_lists/index.cfm This site has lots of free spelling activities among the subscription ones. You can choose your own child's year group level.
http://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/literacy.html Lots of games here to practise basic spelling and literacy skills.

Social, Emotional and Mental Health Resources.

My Mind

Talking to children about the Coronavirus

https://youngminds.org.uk/

https://www.place2be.org.uk/our-services/parents-and-carers/supporting-your-child-s-mental-health/

https://youngminds.org.uk/starting-a-conversation-with-your-child/activities-and-conversation-starters-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/

Other general resources

Witherslack Webinars

Home Learning Toolkit for a range of needs

These activities were designed for children with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties but there are some great sensory activities parents might like to try

When someone dies from Covid

Editable Social Story about school

Pupil Feedback

We put the children at the heart of everything we do, and regularly seek their views on our school. A recent Pupil Voice activity for SEND children showed that:

100% of the children said they like school
100% of the children said they like the teacher
100% felt they can join in all of the activities in class.
100% said they feel happy in school.
100% said their teacher listens to them if they need help
100% have someone to play with at school

(average score out of 10).

I like my teacher 9.1
I get the help I need every day 8.1
I learn a lot in lessons 8.3
I can join in all the activities 8.9
I feel safe at school 8.9
My teacher listens to me if I need help 9.2
I have someone to play with at school 8.8
I enjoy break time and lunch time. 9.4