Speech, language and communication skills underpins everything that we do—interacting with others, building relationships, expressing our likes and dislikes and making our needs known. These skills are crucial for learning in school, for socialising and understanding and managing our emotions. We may take our ability to use these skills for granted, but for many pupils that struggle to interact with others or to communicate they require additional support. Speech, language and communication needs are often seen as a hidden difficulty, however is our highest area of need at Grendon, to support our children we use high-quality teaching, interventions and our specialists.

Additional support can include:

· Speech Therapy

· ELSA

· TalkBoost

· Communication and Autism Team involvement

Children with Cognition and Learning needs, typically make up the majority of the SEND register in mainstream primary schools. Cognition and Learning needs can include pupils who have difficulties with reading and writing, remembering information, sustaining their concentration, mathematics and understanding and applying vocabulary. There are specific-learning needs which include dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.

Additional support can include:

· Precision Teaching

· X-Code

· Pupil and School Support involvement

· Additional Read, Write, Inc. Phonics

The SEND Code of Practice highlights children with Physical and Sensory needs as “…a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. This open-ended definition encompasses many children, often more than many realise: ‘long-term’ is defined as ‘a year or more’ and ‘substantial’ is defined as ‘more than minor or trivial’. This definition includes sensory impairments such as those affecting sight or hearing, and long-term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and cancer…”

Additional support can include:

· Adaptation to the physical environment

· Physical Difficulty Team involvement

· School Nurse involvement

· Access to low-stimulatory environments and tactile resources

Children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs may experience a wide range of needs which may manifest in different ways. Children who have these needs will have a range of abilities, however they difficulties can often be a barrier to learning. Often their needs can make them frustrated, feel like they are unable to cope, misunderstood and/or they can find it difficult to make and sustain relationships. Children with SEMH needs may lead to or stem from: attachment disorders, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem or social isolation.

Additional support can include:

· ELSA

· Educational Psychologist involvement

· Circle of Friends

In our classes our teachers and teaching assistants have the highest expectations of all the children. The children are taught in lots of different ways, using different strategies and methods to support all types of learners. This is known as Quality First Teaching. At the start of the school year we get to know the children in our class to ensure we know how they learn and how we can facilitate their needs. Our teachers and teaching assistants reflect on every day practise and use relevant assessment information to inform teaching and learning and support early identification of underachievement. 

Some children need longer to learn new concepts, as well as time to repeat what they have learnt. In addition to quality first teaching, we offer additional support through the use of different interventions.

We offer:

We are extremely lucky in our school to work with some amazing outside agencies to ensure we are doing everything we can to support your child's learning. Below is a list of all the agencies who support us in school and the names of the staff members who may work with your child. Parental consent is needed for this type of support.

With advice and support of the specialists that come into school, after a period of monitoring, we may feel that your child requires a statutory assessment from the local authority. This assessment is for an Education and Health Care Plan, also known as a EHCP. With your consent, information will be gathered and shared with the local authority to determine if your child has a severe, complex or lifelong need. An EHCP identifies that a child needs specified extra support in school in order to make good progress.

The Local Authority have introduced a way of offering support to children before an application for an EHCP is requested. This is known as a SEND Support Provision Plan (SSPP). A SSPP enables school to identify and monitor a child’s needs over a period of time and have access to some additional funding to enable schools to put a provision in place that could not have been put in place without this funding. A SSPP is very similar to a EHCP but it is not a legal document and will not enable a child to access specialist provision.