Our SENCO is Mrs Embley-Peers

SENCO contact details: head@mellor.lancs.sch.uk     Tel: 01254 812581

‘I praise you, for I am fearfully and

wonderfully made.’ (Psalm 139:14)  

Through our Christian Faith, we acknowledge our responsibility to all, to enrich lives and show love and respect within our school family.

Curriculum Support

Mellor St Mary CE  Primary School prides itself in being very inclusive and will endeavour to support every child regardless of their level of need.  All pupils follow the National Curriculum at a level and a pace that is appropriate to their abilities. At times, when it is felt appropriate, modifications to the curriculum will be implemented in line with The Children’s and Families Act 2014 and the Equality Act 2010.

To successfully match pupils’ ability to the curriculum there are some actions we take to achieve this:

• Ensure that all pupils have access to the school curriculum and all school activities.
• Help all pupils achieve to the best of their abilities, despite any difficulty or disability they may have.
• Ensure that teaching staff are aware of and sensitive to the needs of all pupils, teaching pupils in a way that is appropriate to their needs.
• Strive to develop confidence and improve learners’ self-esteem.
• Work in partnership with parents/ carers, pupils and relevant external agencies in order to provide for children’s special educational needs and disabilities.
• Identify at the earliest opportunity, all children that need special consideration to support their needs (whether these are educational, social, physical or emotional)
• Make suitable provision for children with SEND to fully develop their abilities, interests and aptitudes and gain maximum access to the curriculum.
• Ensure that all children with SEND are fully included in all activities of the school in order to promote the highest levels of achievement.
• Promote self-worth and enthusiasm by encouraging independence at all age and ability levels.
• Give every child the entitlement to a sense of achievement.
• Regularly review our policy and practice in order to achieve best practice.

At Mellor St Mary CE  Primary School we believe in participation and progress for all. We aim to create an inclusive culture in our school and value high quality teaching for all learners.

We understand that children learn and develop in different ways. Teachers and teaching assistants recognise this and use different teaching styles, resources and adaptive teaching techniques in the classroom to cater for the various ways children learn. The majority of children in our school will receive support through high quality teaching in the classroom and Adaptive Teaching methods (AT).

However we are mindful that some children, at some time in their school life, may need extra help and support in a variety of different ways. If staff feel that a child’s needs cannot be met through high quality teaching alone, then AT adaptive teaching methods, additional support or catch up interventions may be put into place to compliment the curriculum and enhance access. This is monitored regularly and adjusted as necessary.

Each learner identified as having SEN is entitled to support through AT adaptive teaching methods that are ‘additional to or different from’ a typical learner or age appropriate curriculum. The type of support is dependent on the individual learners needs and is intended to enable them to independently access learning and overcome the identified barrier to learning.

The graduated response model describes how different levels of support can be used to facilitate learning using a plan, do and review cycle.

High Quality Teaching

High quality teaching is a constant and is on offer for all children which involves the effective inclusion of all pupils in high-quality everyday personalised teaching. This can include:

• Adaptive teaching methods to allow independent access to learning through time, space, resources, scaffolds and guided practice which includes differentiated and modified work to meet pupils’ needs
• High expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils
• Excellent pedagogical, subject and curriculum knowledge
• Well planned, organised and structured lessons which build on previous learning to develop new learning links and concepts.
• Formative assessments which respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils in the moment and includes live verbal feedback
• Positive, proactive and effective behaviour management which ensures the pupils feel safe and ready to learn in an inclusive environment
• Deploying additional support staff effectively to work alongside individuals, groups, and whole class groupings.

Keep Up / Catch Up Support 

When children need additional support they may be given some in class support to help them ‘Keep Up or Catch Up’ with their peers to prevent a gap from appearing or increasing. These programmes are research backed and are often targeted at a small group of pupils with similar needs. These are monitored by the class teacher and shared with the SENCO, as well as individually with families through termly meetings or for those with SEND using the Pupil Overview of Provision (POP) each term.

In class support programmes may include:

• Handwriting interventions as a small group
• Phonics keep up / catch up groups
• Social skills or nurture style groups
• Motor skills groups
• Speech & Language groups
• Maths intervention e.g pre-learning activities surrounding vocabulary or strategies to apply in lessons
• Reading comprehension small group interventions
• Targeted spelling interventions in a small group
• Narrative language which includes oracy, reading and writing in a structure targeted small group.

External Support strategies and interventions

If a pupil continues to make inadequate progress, despite high-quality teaching targeted at their areas of weakness, the class teacher, with support from the SENCO and families can assess whether a pupil has a significant learning difficulty, which may require more in depth investigations, support and bespoke / tailored interventions. This may include involving specialist teachers or an individualised provision which is called a POP - Pupil Overview of Provision.

If you have any concerns or questions regarding SEND provision in school, please contact:

Mrs Embley-Peers (Headteacher and SENCO)