SENCO and SEN Staff
Our SENCO is Mrs A Bartoli BA (Hons), PGCE
National Award for SEND Coordination pending from Bath Spa University.
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.
We have a number of experienced staff who a have a wealth of knowledge around supporting children with SEND. Recent staff training has included:
- Supporting children with Autism
- Supporting spelling for children with SEND
- Supporting comprehension for children with SEND
- Managing challenging behaviour in EYFS
- Supporting Mental Health and Wellbeing
- Supporting writing for children with Autism
- Understanding ADHD
- Build to Express
- Relax Kids
- Specific speech and language training
- Specific medical needs training
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 SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
- County Durham CAMHS
- NHS Speech and Language
- Autism and Social Communication Team
- Sensory and Physical Team
- Cognition and Learning Team
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health Services
- Portage Service
- ONE Point
- Occupational Therapy
How We Secure Specialist Expertise
Our Additional Needs Budget is used to support children and young people with SEN.
This is used to support children and young people with SEND by:
- Providing adequate levels of adult support through the employment of Teaching Assistants
- Paying for assessments and advice from specialists e.g. Educational Psychologists
- Paying for additional speech and language Therapy from Emily Backes
- Buying specialist resources
- Buying specialist intervention schemes
- Subscribing to programmes like Lexia
- Subscribing to The Learning Library
If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.