"St John's holds a strong focus on inclusion and the children seem very respectful of other cultures, religions, race and ethnicity." OFSTED 2018

"The inclusive nature of your school means that you have a very high proportion of pupils with SEND.  This is, in part, due to the school's good reputation with parents and external agencies in the local area for effectively supporting pupils with SEND." OFSTED 2018

"The support for pupils with SEND is well managed." OFSTED 2018

At St John’s C.E Primary School, we have a teacher who is responsible for coordinating the SEN provision and that person is called the SENCO. At present this person is Miss Faye Steel. If you have any worries about your child and would like to have a chat, please feel free to contact school on 0161 921 2130. 

Please don’t worry if you or your child’s teacher thinks your child may have Special Educational Needs. There are lots of people in school who want to help and we will do all we can to make sure you and your child are happy here.

What are Special Educational Needs?

Many children at some time in their school career will have a special educational need of some kind. Most get over their difficulties quite quickly. For others, the effects may last longer. All children have the right to a broad and balanced education. The law says that a child has special educational needs if he or she has learning difficulties and needs special help. This help is known as special educational provision. A child has learning difficulties if he or she finds it much harder to learn than most children of the same age, or if he or she has a disability which makes it difficult to use the normal educational facilities in the area.

For example, a child may have learning difficulties caused by:

• A physical or sensory need.
• Difficulties with reading, writing, speaking or mathematics work. (Cognition and Learning
• Difficulties with Communication and interaction (Speech and Language, Social skills)
• A Social, Emotional and mental health difficulties
•  

These are only examples. Your child may have more general difficulties with school work. Most children’s needs will be met by their ordinary mainstream school, sometimes with the support of external agencies e.g. Speech and Language Therapists. In a few cases, the Local Education Authority (LEA) makes a statutory assessment based upon specialist advice. The LEA may then draw up an Educational Health Care Plan which describes the child’s needs and provision.

Early intervention is crucial. As soon as a teacher or parent has registered a concern about a child's progress we will intervene to try to help the child overcome their difficulties as soon as possible. This is because we want every child to reach their full potential. A child may need a little extra support in class or to work in a small group with other children. Children usually enjoy taking part in groups due to the caring nature of the school. Children will have an Individual Educational Plan where targets are clearly identified to support the child’s need. These are fully shared with the parent(s) and the child, to ensure that all parties are involved and have a voice. The child's progress will be monitored and it may be decided they no longer require extra support, or school may decide some support is needed from an outside agency such as Educational Psychology.

We use a range of assessments to help us determine exactly why a child is having difficulty. Children usually enjoy the assessments which may be a computer game or talking about some pictures. This helps us to provide the right support for your child.

We realise it can be a difficult time when you are told your child is having difficulty in school. However it is important that you know and that you are supported. We are available to support you as a family at all times. Our Local Offer document and information report fully document all the Special Needs provision that we have at St. John’s.

Please talk to our special educational needs co-ordinator about any complaints regarding SEND. If you do not feel your complaint has been resolved, you should follow our school’s complaints procedure, which is found on the policies page. If you want to complain about our school’s SEN support, you should do so whilst your child is registered with us. This includes complaints that school has not provided support required by your child’s Education Health and Care Plan.