Special Educational Needs and Disability
Rodmersham's Special Needs Co-ordinator
Mrs Nicky McMullon
headteacher@rodmersham.Kent.sch.uk
Rodmersham's Speech and Language Co-ordinator/Family Liaison Officer
Mrs Justine Williams
Justine.Williams@Rodmersham.Kent.sch.uk
Rodmersham's Special Needs Co-ordinator Administrator Assistant
Mrs Nicola Ikuesan
Nicola.Ikuesan@Rodmersham.Kent.sch.uk
At Rodmersham School, we recognise that every child is an individual, and their learning journeys differ. During their school life, some children may need additional support for their learning needs or disability. This may involve the class teacher planning targeted tasks, providing additional resources and equipment, and supporting focus groups. They may undertake some interventions to help them make greater progress with their learning. Some children are identified as having SEN Support Needs, which may require additional interventions and assessments or referrals to outside agencies for further assessment.
Parents and carers are given opportunities to discuss their child’s support and provide ideas to support their child at home. Children at the SEN Support Level or with an EHC Plan have targets written and reviewed three times a year. Class teachers meet with the Head and FLO during the year to discuss progress and plan additional support as needed.
Sometimes, in liaison with parents and carers, school staff may request a ‘Statutory Assessment’ by the LA, which may result in an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Additional Support may include:
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Individual or small group phonics sessions
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Individual daily reading or frequent reading
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Precision teaching of spellings and High Frequency Words
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Fine motor skills practice
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Handwriting/ letter formation practice
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Maths small group support
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Maths individual support
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Precision Teaching of Maths e.g. number bonds, tables
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Social skills, attention and listening, turn taking
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Gross Motor skills support
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Speech support programmes
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Language Support programmes
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In class focus group
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Sensory Circuits
Specialist Teaching and Learning Service (STLS) Swale District
At Rodmersham, we are very proud to work with and under the support and guidance of the STLS team; we value their expertise and their advice in helping us to support our children for the best possible outcomes. Additionally, they provide a range of courses for parents, and you can find out more about them by clicking on the link below.
The Specialist Teaching and Learning Service (STLS) were devolved to Meadowfield School in September 2012. Following a TUPE process, the STLS staff are all now Meadowfield employees.
Rebecca Kenny, Inclusion and Outreach Manager leads the team of specialist teachers and manages the Midas Training and Development Centre. Outreach support and training delivery are coordinated to ensure continuous provision.
The Specialist Teaching and Learning Team for the Swale District aims to advise and support Early Years settings and schools in building capacity and confidence to deliver high-quality provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and improve pupil progress and outcomes.
A collaborative problem-solving approach, using the skills and experience of specialist teachers and the expertise of schools and other professionals, lies at the heart of the service delivery.
STLS are part of a more comprehensive network of services from Education, Health and Social Care, bringing children’s services together to ensure seamless provision for children and young people with SEND.
Referral to the Service
Full details of the Local Inclusion Forum Team Request (LIFT) process can be found on the Kelsi website: www.kelsi.org.uk
In the first instance, settings should refer to the Early Years Best Practice Guidance and schools should refer to the Mainstream Core Standards to identify what can be done to support the pupils access to the curriculum and ability to make progress from within the school’s own resources.
If additional advice, training, or support is needed, the LIFT referral form should be completed, and the issues should be requested to be discussed at the next LIFT meeting.
Referral requests are made via the weekly LIFT meetings. SENCOs, STLS team, KEPs and Early Help attend LIFT meetings.
There are four main outcomes from a LIFT discussion:
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Advice, support and ideas from the discussion at the meeting to take back and try
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Access to training programmes or the opportunity for bespoke training
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Support from another school
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Specialist Intervention from a specialist teacher, Educational Psychologist (through the core discretionary offer or commissioning), Early Help involvement, or other district-based SEND provider.
There are two further possible outcomes:
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A recommendation that the school should consider a referral to Early Help.
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A recommendation that the school consider seeking advice from appropriate health professionals.
Support is provided across all phases, including pre-school, primary, and secondary. The team provides specialist advice and support for Cognition and Learning (C and L), Communication and Interaction (C and I) and Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH). The Swale team also has a speech and language therapist who provides advice and support in speech, language, and communication. Teachers are broadly dimension-specific (C and L, C and I, SEMH); however, the current focus is on ensuring that, where possible, teachers support across more than one dimension so that cases do not have to be passed from one specialist teacher to another when needs are fully identified. This is possible and effective in a team where specialist teachers have a varied background and a range of expertise.
What can we do?
The STLS team offers a high degree of shared knowledge, skills, expertise and information through:
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Establishing a clear mutual understanding of the support needs and agreeing realistic goals within a given timescale
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Sharing a range of resources and flexible intervention
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Helping with the assessment process to establish a clearer understanding of need (observations and assessment where appropriate)
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Working directly with CYP, families, school and setting staff to support the inclusion process
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Providing records of visits and, where appropriate, reports
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Delivering a range of SEND training workshops for parents, carers and professionals at The Midas Centre
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Delivering bespoke training for settings and schools as appropriate when requested through the LIFT process
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Increasing settings and school’s capacity to successfully include and manage the needs of CYP after the STLS intervention is completed
