Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
SENCo
Our Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) is Miss Rebecca Beach.
If you would like to meet with Miss Beach, an appointment can be made with her through our school office or alternatively please email rbeach@cha.srscmat.co.uk. Her designated SEND time is Friday morning.
SEND Lead – Miss Beach
SEND Link Governor – Mrs Brammer
The St Charles’ way is for every child to: ‘Belong, Believe and Blossom’
The following information is taken from St Charles’ SEND Information Report
At Saint Charles’ Catholic Voluntary Academy, we value the abilities and achievements of all our pupils, and we are committed to providing, for each pupil, the best possible environment for learning. All teachers in our school are teachers of all children, including those with SEND. As inclusion is at the heart of our school ethos, the needs of children with Special Educational Needs are reflected in our School Improvement Plan.
Statement of Intent
At our school, we are dedicated to giving every child the best possible education in an inclusive and supportive environment. We believe that all pupils, should have equal access to a broad and balanced curriculum that helps them achieve their full potential.
We want every member of our school community to share and uphold our commitment to inclusion, ensuring that all pupils benefit fully from the learning and opportunities we provide.
We support children who may experience difficulties in:
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Communication and Interaction
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Cognition and learning
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Social, emotional and mental health
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Sensory, physical and/or medical needs
Aims and Objectives 2025-2026
- Identify pupils with special educational needs as early as possible and ensure their needs are accurately assessed and effectively met.
- Equip teachers with the knowledge and systems needed to recognise pupils’ individual needs and adapt teaching accordingly.
- Adapt our learning environment to support pupils with a wide range of needs, including sensory sensitivities, ensuring it is inclusive and accessible to all.
- Provide every child with a broad and balanced curriculum that is appropriately differentiated to meet their needs and abilities.
- Foster a strong partnership between pupils, parents, governors, the local authority, and external agencies to ensure a supportive and multi-agency approach.
- Ensure that all pupils make effective progress and are supported to reach their full potential.
- Promote full participation of all pupils in every aspect of school life, valuing their contributions to our community.
- Collaborate with other schools to share good practice and continually improve our SEND provision and policy.
Our St Charles’ SEND Information Report is complicit with the statutory requirement laid out in the SEND Code of Practice 0-25 September 2014.
SEND Policies
SEND Information Report
Useful Links
Derbyshire Information, Advice and Support
SEN Local Offer
The Local Offer is a description of all the services available to support disabled children and children with SEN and their families. This information should set out what is normally available in schools to help children with SEN as well as highlighting what support is available for families who need additional help to support children with more complex needs.
Information and Resources
What is a graduated response?
The Graduated Response is Derbyshire’s structured approach for identifying, supporting and reviewing children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). It begins with a “whole‐school” inclusive ethos, where quality first teaching and reasonable adjustments meet the needs of most pupils. When further support is required, the cycle of Assess – Plan – Do – Review is used to provide increasingly targeted and specialist support.
Through this model, schools work together with parents/carers and the young person to tailor interventions, monitor progress and make adjustments as needed. The aim is to ensure that provision is personalised, responsive and leads to the best possible outcomes, including preparation for adulthood.
What is the assess, plan, do and review cycle?
Where a child/young person is identified as having SEND, schools should take action to remove barriers to learning and put effective special
educational provision in place. This SEN support should take the form of a four-part cycle through which earlier decisions and actions are revisited, refined and revised with a growing understanding of the child/young person’s needs and of what supports the child/young person in making good progress and securing good outcomes.
Assess
This is the first stage, where the school gathers information about the child’s needs, strengths, and challenges. Teachers, parents, and specialists work together to identify what is affecting the child’s learning or development, using observations, assessments, and reports.
Plan
Once the child’s needs are understood, the school creates a plan of support. This sets clear, achievable targets and outlines the strategies, resources, and interventions that will be used to help the child make progress. Parents and the child are involved in shaping the plan.
Do
This stage involves putting the plan into action. Teachers and support staff deliver the agreed interventions and strategies in class or through additional support. It’s important that staff monitor how the child responds to the support during this stage.
Review
Finally, the school evaluates the effectiveness of the plan. Progress is measured against the targets set, and the plan is adjusted as needed. This ensures that support continues to meet the child’s evolving needs and helps inform the next cycle of assessment and planning.
Helpful Documents and Links
At St Charles’ we believe that all children benefit from high-quality inclusive teaching combined with targeted support when needed. Our ordinarily available provision means the teaching and resources we provide for all pupils, as well as the additional interventions we use for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). This ensures that children receive the right support at the right time.
Ordinarily Available Provision (for all pupils):
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High-quality teaching: lessons are planned to take into account different learning styles and needs, using clear explanations, scaffolding, modelling and effective questioning.
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Differentiated tasks and resources: adapting work so that pupils can access the curriculum, including additional visual aids, checklists, prompts and breaking down tasks into manageable steps.
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A positive learning environment: routines, classroom organisation, seating arrangements and expectations that support focus, resilience and independence.
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Ongoing assessment and feedback: staff monitor pupil progress through daily interaction, marking and use of assessment data; learning is adjusted in response when pupils are not making expected progress.
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Support for social, emotional and mental health: strong relationships between staff and pupils, PSHE/RSHE curriculum, circle time, peer / mixed-age buddies and clear behaviour expectations.
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Readily accessible resources: for example, writing frames, word banks, visual timetables, numicon, coloured overlays, access to ICT where helpful.
Targeted Interventions
What is an EHCP?
An EHC plan is a legal document that describes a child or young person’s special educational, health and social care needs. It explains the extra help that will be given to meet those needs and how that help will support the child or young person to achieve what they want to in their life.
Who can apply for an EHCP?
An EHCP can be applied for by the child’s school, their parents, or the young person him or herself if he/she is aged between 16 and 25.
How long does it take to get an EHCP?
The local authority guidelines are to complete the assessment within 16 weeks and, if it decides to issue an EHCP, do so within 20 weeks of the original request.
Helpful Documents and Links
What is ADHD?
ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is a condition where the brain works differently to most people. Children and young people with ADHD may have trouble with things like concentrating and sitting still. There are ways to help manage the symptoms of ADHD.
Signs of ADHD:
Symptoms of ADHD usually start before the age of 12. They involve a person’s ability to pay attention to things (being inattentive), having high energy levels (being hyperactive) and their ability to control their impulses (being impulsive).
A child or young person may show signs of being inattentive, such as:
- being easily distracted
- finding it hard to listen to what people are saying or to follow instructions
- forgetting everyday tasks, like brushing their teeth or putting on socks
They may show signs of being hyperactive and impulsive, including:
- having high energy levels
- fidgeting or tapping their hands and feet
- talking noisily
- feeling restless, or getting up and moving around when they’re supposed to sit still
- finding it hard to wait their turn, or interrupting conversations
Most children and young people with ADHD have symptoms of both the inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive type. Some only show signs of one type.
ADHD is thought to be recognised less often in girls than boys. This may be because girls with ADHD more commonly have inattentive symptoms and these can be harder to recognise.
Many children are easily distracted, impulsive and have high energy levels, particularly if they’re under the age of 5. This does not mean they have ADHD. It could be a sign of something else, like being tired, anxious or stressed.
Referrals
NHS Referral – Local
Your child’s GP or school can make an NHS referral for your child to have a developmental assessment. Depending on their age and your local borough the referral may be to the local Developmental Paediatric team or to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). Your child should be referred to the appropriate service within the borough you live in. If your GP is making the referral, it is often useful for your child’s school to also send in information to support the referral.
NHS Referral – Right to Choose
If you are based in England under the NHS you now have a legal right to choose your mental healthcare provider and your choice of mental healthcare team. This important legal right also includes your choices for your child as well. This means that, for instance, should you decide the waiting time for your ADHD assessment is too long, then you can choose alternative providers.
You can learn more about right to choose on the Right To Choose page.
What is Attachment Disorder?
Attachment disorder (AD) arises when a child under the age of three suffers an early life trauma like abuse, separation from a parent, or illness. They miss out on the love, comfort and nurturing that they need, and fail to form normal loving relationships with their primary carers. This is turn can delay their cognitive and social development, affecting their behaviours and their ability to form relationships later in life.
AD is just one strand of Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD), which covers all issues and developmental problems resulting from early life trauma, including attachment disorder.
There can be an assumption that AD is only associated with adopted children or children in care. While there is a strong correlation, many other children without this background are affected.
Children with attachment disorders are often misdiagnosed as many of the characteristics are also seen in conditions like autism, ODD and ADHD.
The long-term impact is hard to predict as children have different levels of resilience to trauma in the womb or neglect after birth. However, the overall prognosis is good; children can fully recover from AD with the correct care and attention.
Causes of Attachment Disorder
If, during the first three years of their life, any of the following occur, children are at risk of attachment disorders:
- Mother smoked, drank alcohol or took drugs during pregnancy.
- They are the result of an unwanted pregnancy.
- They suffer physical, emotional or sexual abuse.
- They have been neglected. This can be anything from not having a nappy changed when it is dirty to not being fed when hungry.
- Their primary carer suffers from depression.
- They were separated from their primary carer through the illness or death of a parent, or through being taken into care.
- They suffer from persistent and chronic pain.
- Their primary carers split up or divorce.
- Inconsistent parenting.
- They are raised in an emotionally empty or negative/abusive environment.
Signs of Attachment Disorder
Children who have experienced early trauma develop strategies or behaviours to help them to survive. These may include:
- Lack of expectation of care and comfort, known as the inhibited form of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)
- Inappropriately affectionate and familiar towards strangers, known as the disinhibited form of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)
- Become distressed when separated from carer but also resist contact when the carer returns. Known as anxious-ambivalent attachment.
- Poor eye contact.
- Difficulty showing affection. An aversion to touch and physical affection.
- Overly demanding or clingy.
- Lack of cause/effect thinking.
- Problems controlling and expressing anger, sometimes violent.
- A need to be in control.
- Erratic eating habits.
- Failure to show remorse or regret after behaving badly.
- Abnormally sociable or superficially charming.
- Tell lies or steal
- Ask persistent nonsense questions or incessant chatter
- Pseudo maturity
- Low self-esteem
What is Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC)?
ASCs are lifelong developmental disabilities that affect how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people. It also affects how they make sense of the world around them. ASCs, sometimes called Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome or ASDs, are spectrum conditions, meaning that, whilst all people with ASCs share certain difficulties, their condition will affect them in different ways.
Who are the MAAT?
The MAAT is a team of multi-disciplinary professionals specialising in the assessment of childhood ASCs. The team includes a Clinical Psychologist, Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, Neurodevelopmental Nurses, Assistant Psychologist, Specialist Teachers from Pupil Support Services (PSS) and a Medical Secretary. The MAAT conduct diagnostic assessments for young people with suspected ASCs throughout Tameside and Glossop.
How do I refer a child to the MAAT?
Referrals for an ASC assessment are made through the child’s school or college provision.
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In Tameside, parents and school can arrange an initial consultation with a member of the CLASS team (0161 320 5232). In Glossop, an initial consultation can be with a member of the MAAT (0161 716 3600).
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If parents and school wish to pursue a referral to MAAT, a 12-week pre-referral social communication programme is commenced, so that interventions for identified social communication difficulties can start immediately. This includes identifying social communication goals and developing an action plan of social communication strategies.
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After the 12-week period, a second consultation will take place to determine the need for a full Autism assessment.
What will happen on the MAAT pathway?
If the evidence is suggestive of possible ASC, the MAAT team accepts the referral. A full ASC assessment can currently take up to 24 months, although the Team are working on a new assessment format to reduce waiting times. Appointments will take place at Springleigh Clinic, Stalybridge.
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The assessment will begin with an initial comprehensive assessment of the child’s behavioural, emotional and mental health needs and risks, carried out by a mental health practitioner.
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Next, a member of the MAAT will have a detailed discussion over 1 to 2 hours with the parent(s)/carer(s) to understand the child’s developmental history.
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The final stage is a structured observation of interaction and play and/or the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), a semi-structured observational assessment of communication, social interaction, play and restricted and repetitive behaviours.
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All of the information gathered is then discussed by the MAAT team in a formulation meeting and an assessment outcome is agreed. Following this, a feedback appointment will be arranged with the parent(s)/carer(s)/young person if appropriate.
Helpful Documents and Links
What Is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling.
It’s a specific learning difficulty, which means it causes problems with certain abilities used for learning, such as reading and writing.
Unlike a learning disability, intelligence isn’t affected.
It’s estimated up to 1 in every 10 people in the UK has some degree of dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a lifelong problem that can present challenges on a daily basis, but support is available to improve reading and writing skills and help those with the problem be successful at school and work.
Helpful Documents and Links
SALT support children with difficulties in the following areas:
- Speech sounds (learning or pronouncing speech sounds).
- Language (understanding or using words, sentences or paragraphs).
- Social communication (understanding the unspoken ‘rules’ of interaction and conversation such as turn-taking, sticking to a topic etc).
- Stammering and dysfluency.
- Eating, drinking or swallowing.
Our Speech and Language Therapists will identify each child’s individual communication strengths and needs and support the development of skills in the child, alongside their carers and teachers. These needs may be associated with wider needs or a diagnosis (such as autism, hearing impairment, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy etc) or may exist on their own.SALT work in a variety of settings including family homes, schools and nurseries to support children and young people between the ages of 0-19 years. They work in close partnership with other Specialist Children’s Services and with our colleagues in local authority social and educational services at a local and regional level.
Referrals:
Anyone can make a referral to the Speech and Language Therapy Service, as long as parents have given their signed consent. Children are prioritised according to their needs and some children may be offered advice and signposting and may not need to see a speech and language therapist.
If you are a parent/carer and have concerns about your child’s speech, language, communication or feeding difficulties, speak to your health visitor or your child’s teacher. They will know what to do and who to contact and will follow professional guidelines.
