Beckstone Primary School

• The school has a full time Education Support Manager.
• The school has a dedicated Pastoral/Counselling room, the ‘Rainbow Room’.
• There is a strong focus on support programmes for children with emotional, social and behavioural needs.
• The school has well established SEN procedures and provision (see below).
• The school has a gifted and talented register, a named co-coordinator and Governor, is a member of the National Association for Gifted Children.
• There is extensive teaching assistant support across the school.
• The school has disabled access at all levels including a wheelchair lift. As the building has been remodelled and extended it was designed to fully comply with the Disability Discrimination Act.

We aim to identify and remove barriers to disabled pupils in every area of school life. We do this by:

• Promoting equality of opportunity between disabled and non-disabled persons;
• Ensuring that there is no discrimination or harassment against disabled persons;
• Promoting positive attitudes towards disabled people;
• Encouraging participation by disabled people in the life of the school &
• Taking steps to meet disabled people’s needs which on occasion may mean more favourable treatment

The school is compliant with the Equality Act 2010 and further details relating to this are available for downloading from our web site in the ‘Policies’ section.

Beckstone Primary School recognises that many children at some point, or throughout their education have Special Educational Needs and Disability. (SEND). Accordingly the school’s SEND policy ensures that curriculum planning, delivery and assessment take account of the type and extent of the difficulties faced by the children. The effective deployment of Senior Teaching Assistants has contributed well to teaching and learning throughout the school with many skills to offer as well as supporting Literacy, Reading Partnership, Progression in Phonics , PE lessons and After School Clubs.

The responsibility for the provision of education to children with SEND is the responsibility of all staff although the day to day management and operation of the policy lies with Mrs Needham, the school Senco (SEN Co-ordinator). Mrs Needham liaises very closely with staff across the school to ensure that all children with identified needs are being supported and helped access a full curriculum at school.

The school operates the Government’s code of practice with regard to special educational needs. Children may be identified as having needs that the school can cater for within its own resources (school action) or some external advice/support is needed (school action plus) or the school needs enhanced support to help the child (at this point the child will have been issued with a ‘statement’). All children identified with SEND will have an ‘Individual Education Plan’ which is reviewed on a Termly basis. You will know if your child has been identified as having SEND as the Individual Education Plan will be shared with you and you will be asked to sign it.

The school liaises closely with external agencies including the LA’s Specialist Teaching Service, Educational Psychologists, Speech and Language Therapists, Health and Social Services. Again it cannot be overstated how parents help at home to support their children’s learning, particularly when they have difficulties for one reason or another, is a great help to the differentiated programme of work school may send home.

The Education Support Manager at Beckstone Primary is Debbie Cook, her role is to help children access their learning to the best of their ability by supporting their social/ emotional skills. Debbie is always available to support our families, this is either via face to face, home visit or over the phone. Debbie works very closely with the staff to ensure that any concerns are managed effectively and monitors attendance on a daily basis. Debbie liaises with our secondary schools and external agencies such as Police, Children’s Services, Impact housing etc.

Debbie is based in the Rainbow Room which is designed to support children in a nurturing way, she covers a multitude of issues including self-esteem, bereavement, domestic abuse and many others which can lead to a barriers to the children’s learning.

Debbie also manages Breakfast Club which is very well attended and enjoyed by the children. The Rainbow Room is a venue for drop in sessions, multi-agency meetings and an informal place where parents/carers can discuss their concerns confidentially.