Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities
For more information about Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities please read the following documents. If you require any additional information or guidance please contact the school office by phone, email or in person. You can also speak to our Special Educational Needs and Disability Co-ordinator (SENCO) Mrs Liane Batham who is in school Wednesday-Friday.
Statement of intent for SEND
Brightside Nursery Infant School aims to provide every child with access to a broad and balanced education relevant to their needs. The school ethos is based around the principal of inclusion and children achieving their full potential by removing barriers to learning. We strive to ensure that all pupils with SEND have their needs identified in order to support academic progression, continued good physical and mental health and to ensure that every child is protected from harm and neglect and that every effort is made to enable them to learn and grow independently. We aim to ensure all children can access a balanced, broad curriculum. To ensure this we recognise areas of strength, provide extra support or additional resources where appropriate and remove barriers to learning. We work within the guidance provided in the SEND Code of Practice 2014 to improve outcomes for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and begin to prepare them for adult life in modern Britain by becoming lifelong learners.
We strive to identify the needs of pupils with SEND as early as possible. This is most effectively done by gathering information from parents, education, health and care services and early years’ settings prior to the child’s entry into the school. During their time in school these strong links aim to be maintained and a close working relationship with parents/carers fostered. Monitoring the progress of all pupils in order to aid the identification of pupils with SEND is crucial and continuous monitoring of these pupils will also assist in ensuring that they reach their full potential. Appropriate provision will be made to overcome barriers to learning and to ensure pupils with SEND have access to the National Curriculum.
Concerns or complaints
If there are any concerns we encourage parents/carers to approach the class teacher in the first instance. The SENCO (Mrs Liane Batham), the head teacher (Mrs Lindsey Mercer) or the SEND Governor (Mrs Pat Tomlinson) can also be contacted and a response will be made as soon as possible.
Formal complaints regarding SEND provision can be made via the school's Complaints Policy which is in the policy section of this website.
Parents/carers are informed about the Sheffield SEND and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service (previously called Parent Partnership Service) so that they can obtain support, advice and information if they wish.
SEND Sheffield Local Offer
Please click the link to the local directory to find out about the Sheffield local offer
Sheffield SEN Disability Information, Advice & Support SENDIAS (formally known as parent partnership) Email disabilityinformationservices@sheffield.gov.uk
Policies and School Information regarding SEND
SEND Policy 2023-24 (to be updated by the end of October 2024)
2024/25 SEND Information Report
SEND Assessments
Interventions we use in school to support children with SEND
Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs
Provision plan of inventions throughout school (updated October 2024)
Autism Champion
Miss Sam Batty, our speech and language TA, is our Autism Champion in school. Miss Batty has completed the AET (Autism Education Trust) Train the Trainer programme and is able to deliver the 'Making Sense of Autism' module within school. She has also successfully completed the module on Anxiety and Children with ASD and the Schools Good Autism Practice module.
Support for parents and carers of children with SEND
New support is available to parents and carers of children with SEND, through free parenting seminars and group programmes. These provide people with tips and strategies, and are based on international research carried out over the past 30 years.
This includes three programmes for parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), for younger children, 2-8 year olds and teenagers. There are also new programmes led by parents themselves.
More than 70 people attended SEND parenting programmes last term, with 97% rating them as good or excellent.
Visit www.sheffield.gov.uk/parenting or contact the Parenting Team on 0114 205 7243 or sheffieldparenting@sheffield.gov.uk to book a place and find out more. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Please click on the link to see our parent guide/leaflet explaining about provision for children with autism and other social and communication difficulties.
The NHS integrated care board includes resources & support for parents & neuro-diverse families. Click on the link for more information.
SLEEP SUPPORT
Short videos from the Sheffield Parent Hub to help your children get a good nights sleep:
SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY PHONE LINE 0114 3053956
Speech and Language Therapy are now running a phone line for parents and professionals. The phone line is for people to call if they have any questions about their child's speech and language development; to get advice regarding strategies to help their child's talking and help as to whether to refer into speech therapy or not and how to do this.
On the FIRST FRIDAY of each month a therapist (Dana Welch) will be manning the phone line between 1.30pm and 4.30pm