At St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, we have a clear approach to identifying and responding to special educational needs.

All children are assessed throughout their school career.  Data from these assessments is thoroughly analysed by the Senior Leadership Team.  The Head teacher routinely meets with class teachers during progress meetings to identify children who are causing concern or failing to make adequate progress.

If our school assessments show that your child may have a learning difficulty, we use a range of strategies that make full use of all available classroom and school resources.  At. St Patrick’s, we refer to this as our period of initial support.  The child’s class teacher will offer a differentiated curriculum, keep you, as parents, informed and draw upon your knowledge for additional information.  The initial support meeting is an ideal opportunity for you to talk with the class teacher about any concerns that you may have relating to your child’s progress.  The provision for this level of support is made in class and may involve the setting of specific targets.

The SENCO, if not already involved, will become involved if the teacher and/or parents feel that the child would benefit from further support or interventions different from or additional to those provided as part of the school’s usual working practices.  The SENCO will then take the lead in further assessments of the child’s needs.

In consultation with you, and with your consent, the support of external agencies will be sought at this stage, e.g. TESS (Targeted Educational Support Service), Speech and Language Therapy Service, Educational Psychology Service Consultation. This may lead to additional or different strategies to those provided for all children.  This is referred to as School Support. 

In most cases, children will be seen in school by external support services. External support agencies will provide additional information to support the class teacher in writing a Pupil Support Plan with specific targets to support your child.  The provision may be made in a small group, in class support or in individual withdrawal support, e.g. memory training, reading skills development.

If your child continues to demonstrate significant cause for concern, then on the advice of the Educational Psychologist, a request for assessment for an Education, Health & Care Plan (EHC) will be made to the LA. A range of written evidence about the child, taken from all previous interventions, will support the request.  The class teacher continues to be responsible for writing and maintaining the Pupil Support Plan with the support of the SENCO.