Longcot and Fernham Church of England Primary School

SENDCo: Mr Charlie Berry

Contact Details: bberry@laf.cambrianlt.org 

All mainstream schools have a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo).

At Longcot and Fernham Primary School, our SENDCo is Mr Charlie Berry.

Please note Charlie Berry (SENDCo) only works on Mondays at this school. If you have urgent questions or concerns then please contact Sally Robins, the Headteacher.

The SENDCo

He works with pupils, staff and parents to support pupils who need extra help to achieve their full potential at school. This may include making adaptations in the classroom, instigating interventions and catch-up programmes, making referrals to outside agencies for support and, if appropriate making applications for additional funding.

We are a mainstream, academy school. Our SEND children are fully integrated into our five classes. We believe every interaction is an intervention and that all children learn best when in the classroom so that they are exposed to the full extent of learning on offer. If interventions are needed outside the classroom then these should be kept short and targeted, and any learning should then be referred to and applied when back in the classroom.

Pupils may be identified as having a range of learning needs, communication needs, behaviour needs or physical / sensory disabilities which could impact upon their learning. These are summarised below.

Areas of Need

There a four main areas of SEND that are used to classify needs and help identify a child's needs and provisions.

These are:

Cognition and Learning

This includes children who need extra support with their learning and adaptations to tasks in the class or have specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia and dyspraxia and dyscalculia.

Communication and Interaction

This includes children who have speech, language and communication difficulties. It may involve difficulties with pronunciation or difficulties understanding social interactions including autistic spectrum condition.

Social, Emotional and Mental Health

This includes any pupils who have an emotional, social or mental health need that is impacting on their ability to focus in lesson time and may present as challenging behaviours.

Sensory and/or Physical Difficulties

This includes children who have visual or hearing needs, or a physical disability that affects their movement such as cerebral palsy, dyspraxia or other physical conditions.

Mr Berry will work with everybody concerned (the pupil, teachers, parents, SLT, Governors and outside agencies) to create the best learning environment for each child and ensure their needs are being met to make sure they feel happy and safe at school and aim to help them achieve their potential in all aspects of school life.

Pupil Profiles and Outcome Plans

Every child identified with a SEND need will be given a pupil profile and an outcomes plan. This is a plan tailored to each child and is created with the SENDCo, the class teacher, and is shared with the parents/carers and the child (if appropriate). They will be set targets that will also be officially reflected upon three times a year and these updates will be shared with parents.

We follow a graduated response approach, building up evidence over time and trying a range of strategies to help each child. This involves cycles of Assess, Plan, Do, Review. If it is deemed that additional support, over and above school strategies, is needed then relevant outside agencies may be referred to. It may be beneficial for a Strengths and Needs Assessment to help the family too. The final stage in the Graduated Response may involve the application for an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) if deemed necessary. Children with an EHCP have their targets reviewed three times a year and have an Annual Review meeting, but an early annual review can be called by parents or school staff if needs, provision or placement has changed or should change.

At each and every stage of the SEND processes and graduated response, parents will be involved, discussions held and consents gained.

The SENDCo operates an open door policy and is very happy to discuss the Graduated Response, specific aspects of SEND and the strengths / difficulties of their child with parents at any point throughout the year.

The Oxfordshire Local Offer

Below, you will find information regarding our SEND policy, the Oxfordshire Local Offer and local authority support and support that is provided for families from our school, voluntary organisations and health and social services bodies.

The Oxfordshire Local Offer.

The Oxfordshire Local Offer provides information for children and young people with special educations needs (SEND) and their parents or carers. It includes support systems that the county offer including education, health and social care.

Due to our location being on a county border, some of the school support links are in Wiltshire and some are with Oxfordshire. If you would like further information on either support links, please contact Charlie Berry (SENDCo) on the above contact information.

Useful Links for Families

SEND Information and Reports