SENCO and SEN Staff
We have a highly experienced team of staff who may be involved in supporting your child at Newton Hall Infants’. These include:
- Your child’s teacher, who will always make sure that tasks set are appropriate and accessible for your child. They are available to you at the start and end of each day.
- Teaching Assistants, who support all pupils in class. Our TAs also help support groups and individual children with their learning.
- The SENCO (Lynne Frazer) co-ordinates the provision of SEN in school
- The Headteacher and one of the School Governors who works with the SENCO in leading SEN in school.
- The Headteacher is also the Designated Teacher for Looked after Children who works closely with the SENCO to ensure all teachers in school understand the implications for those children who are looked after and have SEN.
Sometimes school may commission Specialist Support to work with identified children with a particular focus e.g. Speech and language therapists or Occupational therapists.
More details of the SENCO’s role can be found in the SEN Policy which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.
External Specialists and Other Bodies
The school enjoys good working relationships with a wide range of people who provide services to children with SEND and their families.
The external specialists may:
- Act in an advisory capacity
- Extend expertise of school staff
- Provide additional assessment
- Support a child directly
- Suggest statutory assessment is advisable
- Consult with all parties involved with the child
These include:
- Durham SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
- County Durham Local Offer
- Educational Psychology Service
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Advisory Teachers for support and advice
- Occupational Therapy
- Parent Support Advisor
- Clinical Psychology
- CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service)
- School Nurse
How We Secure Specialist Expertise
We allocate funds from our budget to secure this specialist advice.
Each school in Durham receives its school budget in April, and as part of this budget there is a ‘notional’ SEN amount. As such, schools are responsible for funding the first £6,000 of support for children with SEN – after which they can request addition ‘Top Up Funds’ from the Local Authority; generally this is for children with very high needs and often in receipt of a Statement or EHCP. In order to access these funds, the school produces a ‘Costed Provision Map’ – detailing the provision the child is receiving and at what cost to the school. Parents are involved in this process and are invited to review the plans and support timetables with school leaders.
Children in receipt of an EHCP may be allocated additional funds as part of the plan. The use of these funds is discussed at the initiation of the plan, and during the review meetings to ensure best value is achieved.
At Newton Hall Infants’ School, our notional SEN budget is used to support children and young people with SEND by:
- Recruitment of Teaching Assistant Support Staff
- Purchase of support programmes and materials
- Purchase of individual and small group resources and equipment
- Purchase of teaching aids
- Appropriate staff training, matched to the outcomes of our children
- Purchase of support from other professionals such as The Cognition and Learning Team, Down to Earth SEN Training and The Autism Communication Team,
More information about SEND finances is available within the Local Authority Local Offer Website, a link to which is on our school website, under ‘Local Offer’.
