St Thomas CE
Primary School
SEND
Miss Williams is our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-Ordinator
At St Thomas CE Academy, we take pride in taking on an inclusive approach, meeting the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). We ensure all children are made to feel welcome and part of our school family. We work with Birmingham Local Authority to ensure that all pupils, regardless of their specific needs, make the best possible progress in school.
There are four broad area of need:
Communication and Interaction
Children 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
- don't understand what is being said to them
- don't understand or use social rules of communication
Every child with SLCN is different, and their needs may change over time. They may have difficulty with one, some or all of the different aspects of speech, language or social communication at different times of their lives.
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are likely to have particular difficulties with social interaction. They may also experience difficulties with language, communication and imagination, which can impact on how they relate to others.
Cognition and Learning
Support for learning difficulties may be required when children and young people learn at a slower pace than their peers, even with appropriate scaffolding. Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs, including moderate learning difficulties (MLD), severe learning difficulties (SLD), where children are likely to need support in all areas of the curriculum and associated difficulties with mobility and communication, through a profound and multiple learning difficulties as well as a physical disability or sensory impairment.
Specific learning difficulties (SpLD), affect one or more specific aspects of learning. This encompasses a range of conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.
Social, Emotional and Mental Health
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 These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour. These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained.
Other children and young people may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder or attachment disorder.
Sensory and/or Physical
Some children require special educational provision because they have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of the educational facilities generally provided. These difficulties can be age related fluctuate over time. Many children and young people with vision impairment (VI), hearing impairment (HI) or a multi-sensory impairment (MSI) will require specialist support and/or equipment to access their learning. Children with MSI have a combination of vision and hearing difficulties.
You can contact me via: S.williams@allsaintsmat.school