SEND
Our Vision for SEND at Oatlands Junior School
At Oatlands Junior School, we aim to offer excellence and choice to all of our children, whatever their ability or needs. We strive to ensure all children experience a fulfilment in learning every single day, delivered through our broad curriculum. At OJS, we have high expectations of all our children. We aim to achieve this through the removal of barriers to learning and participation. We want all our children to feel that they are a valued part of our school community. We understand and acknowledge that some of our learners require additional support and/ or provision for them be able to embrace learning and to experience success and enjoyment within school. Through appropriate curricular provision, we respect the fact that children:
- Have different educational and behavioural needs and aspirations;
- Require different strategies for learning;
- Acquire, assimilate and communicate information at different rates;
- Need a range of different teaching approaches and experiences.
Where we (school staff, parents or pupils) recognise that extra support is needed, we work together to assess a child’s additional needs and to put in place timely and appropriate support to address the Special Educational Need (SEN). The school SENDCo co-ordinates and monitors this additional and differentiated support, liaising closely with parents and carers, school staff, pupils and external agencies to ensure that all children’s needs are being met and all children enjoy and embrace learning at Oatlands Junior School.
WHAT IS A SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEED OR DISABILITY?
A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.
A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she:
- has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or
- has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools
The SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years; Department for Education; January 2015 SEND needs fall into four broad categories:
Communication and Interaction
Children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) have difficulty in communicating with others. This may be because they have difficulty saying what they want to, understanding what is being said to them or they do not understand or use social rules of communication.
Cognition and Learning
Some children and young people learn at a slower pace than their peers, even with appropriate differentiation. Cognition & Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs, including difficulty in accessing and understanding parts of the curriculum; difficulty with organisation and memory skills; or having a difficulty which affects one particular part of their learning, such as displaying dyslexic, dyscalculic or dyspraxic traits.
Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties
Children and young people may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which manifest themselves in many ways. These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour.
Sensory and/or Physical Needs
Some children and young people have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of the educational facilities generally provided, for example visual and / or hearing impairments, or a physical disability which requires additional ongoing support and equipment to access all the opportunities available to their peers.
The profile for every child with a Special Educational Need is different and their needs may change over time. They may have difficulty with one, some or all of the different categories of SEND at different times of their lives.