SEND
Meet the Team
SENCO: Mrs L Musson
Aspiring SENCO – Miss B Burns
TextHelp Champion – Mrs A Winter
Inclusion Manager: Mrs A Cadman (Designated Safeguarding Lead and SLT)
Y7 Learning Manager: Mrs S Tweed
Y8 Learning Manager: Miss R Sharpe
Y9 Learning Manager: Mrs F Fellows
Y10 Learning Manager: Mrs Z Bown
Y11 Learning Manager: Ms R Denniff
If you have any initial concerns about your child’s progress and feel that they may have an undiagnosed SEND, please contact any of the above who will be happy to help.
SEND at Serlby Park Academy
At Serlby Park, we welcome pupils with Special Educational Needs where they are fully included within our academy. Furthermore, we ensure that any student who requires additional support, for whatever reason, will be recorded according to the Code of Practice so that every student in the academy is fully supported to achieve their potential.
Serlby Park Academy is fortunate enough to have a full time, experienced and passionate SENCO, Mrs L Musson. You can email her directly on inclusion@serlbyparkacademy.org.uk
My passion for SEN stems from my own daughter who was unable to read until she was in Year 4 and found learning really challenging. I wasn’t a teacher at the time and I just couldn’t understand why she was finding learning so difficult. She was on the SEN register and I wanted to know more, hence my career in education commenced!
As well as being a qualified SENCO, I have a foundation degree in supported learning and a post graduate in vulnerable learners, so I am always looking at new ways to remove barriers to learning and ensure all our staff, who work with our pupils, have high aspirations. Thus, it is my aim to constantly improve outcomes and promote independence, ensuring there is a smooth transition to adulthood.
As a parent with a child (now adult!) with SEN, I can understand some of the challenges you face and recognise when additional support is required, therefore I would like to assure you that with a strong focus on pupil and parent participation we can make a difference and improve your child’s outcomes.
Your child deserves the best possible education and I look forward to working with you, in the future, to ensure this happens.
Quality First Teaching
Many of our teaching and learning principles actively support students with SEND:
Communication & interaction: Pupils have difficulty in communicating which can include expressing themselves or understanding verbal speech and etiquette. Every profile is unique as pupils may have difficulty with one, some or all aspects of communication to varying degrees at different stages of their lives.
- Collaborative learning structures like active listen and four times better, allow pupils to gather, listen to and record information before sharing and communicating.
- The random name generator involves all pupils in questioning and allows pupils to plan their answers – it is also a good way to challenge more able pupils with SEND by weighting the random name generator.
- Scaffolding questions and answers in lessons using the talk toolkit improves confidence when speaking out loud. Watching pupils model good communication and interaction in lessons, then trying it for themselves helps to improve communication & interaction.
- The DINT can be a good way to assess pupils who have difficulty verbally communicating their understanding. Past DINTs can be used as a scaffold to help pupils verbalise responses.
- Teacher feedback from Demonstrate tasks allow pupils who struggle to communicate their understanding to visualise next steps. We must make sure positive feedback is included.
Cognition & learning: This refers to the thinking skills and thought processes that a pupil has acquired through their prior experience. Difficulties can be general or specific, related to one or more areas of the curriculum and can be short term or long term.
- Strategies such as learning journeys map out content so pupils can visualise and understand how topics link together.
- Small steps are important when teaching pupils of all abilities with cognition and learning needs. Breaking down large pieces of information that can be challenging for pupils to process, helps improve working memory over time.
- Scaffolds equip pupils to become more independent.
- Planning for errors helps pupils recognise that making mistakes can provide an opportunity for deeper learning and understanding. Questioning pupils about the processes in which they arrive at an answer, whether it is right or wrong, challenges pupils to reflect on their own learning using metacognitive practices.
- Pupils often struggle to retain information unless it is repeated and assessed regularly. Connect activities, The DINT, Demonstrate and formal assessments allow pupils to show what they know and can do with independence.
Social, emotional & mental health: Pupils find it challenging to manage emotions and behaviour, often resulting in inappropriate responses to situations and difficulty in building and maintaining relationships, meaning they can struggle to learn and cope emotionally without interventions.
- Using strategies such as The DINT, Demonstrate, small steps, scaffolds empower pupils of all abilities to be more independent and reduce anxiety in the classroom.
- Pre-loading vocabulary and sentence stems allow pupils to develop their oracy skills and confidently participate in class discussion.
- Modelling questioning and answers helps pupils confidently respond.
- RAG rating of Demonstrate tasks means that pupils can confidently reflect and build on prior knowledge without feeling anxious.
- Connect provides adequate time for pupils to reflect on their learning, to build confidence and self-esteem. More able pupils use the RAG rating to plan for improvement and extend their learning.
- Using the Academy’s reward system recognises and rewards positive behaviours.
Physical health & development: This encompasses needs relating to physical growth, motor development, nutritional choices, self-care, and health and safety practices. These needs must be met as healthy children learn more effectively.
- The curriculum offer supports the progress of pupils. For example, EPC, RSE and PE.
- Seating plans consider the position of pupils who have visual or hearing impairments.
- Pupils who need physical adaptations, such as learners with visual impairments, have access to differentiated resources.
APTCOO
APTCOO in Bassetlaw provides a range of high, quality support services to empower families pre and post diagnosis, who have children and young people with behaviours that challenge including Autism, ADHD and SEND. Click the logo above for more information.