‘Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities made similar progress to other pupils with the same starting points in reading, writing and mathematics.’

OFSTED 2016

Contact details and Information

SEND Coordinators: Mrs S Hothersall and Mrs S Cookson
Contact email: senco1@hoole.lancs.sch.uk or deputy@hoole.lancs.sch.uk
Telephone: 01772 613219

SEND Governor: Mrs L Boland

Special Educational Needs

Hoole St Michael is an inclusive school, which offers a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum for all its pupils. Some children have a special educational need, which means special provision is made to accommodate their needs. This may be because of a learning difficulty, a health issue, a disability or emotional and behavioural difficulties.

At Hoole St Michael we:

• use our best endeavours to make sure that a child with SEND gets the support they need.
• ensure that children with SEND engage in the activities of the school alongside pupils who do not have SEND
• designate a teacher to be responsible for co-ordinating SEND provision – the SEND co-ordinator, or SENDCO. Our SENDCO is currently Mrs s Cookson and Mrs S Hothersall.  The member of our governing body with specific oversight of the school’s arrangements for SEND and disability is currently Mrs Bowland
• inform parents when they are making special educational provision for a child.

The SEND Code of Practice reflects the changes introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014. This approach joins up the system across education, health and care, from birth to 25. Our school, like all others, is required to provide help at the earliest possible point, with children and young people with SEND; their parents are fully involved in decisions about their support and what they want to achieve. It is anticipated that this will lead to better outcomes, and more efficient ways of working.

The government have listened to what parents say their experience of services is like and have put in place a number of things to bring about improvements. One of these is the Local Offer.

The local offer provides information on what services children, young people and their families can expect from a range of local agencies, including education, health and social care. Knowing what is out there gives you more choice and therefore more control over what support is right for your child.

The local offer provides information on a number of things, including:

• special educational provision;
• health provision;
• social care provision;
• other educational provision;
• training provision;
• travel arrangements for children and young people to schools, colleges and early years education; and
• preparing for adulthood, including housing, employment and leisure opportunities.

Hoole St Michael’s policy, local offer and information report can be downloaded by clicking on the below links:

Lancashire SEND Partnership

EHC Plans

For children with more complex needs, a co-ordinated assessment process and the new 0-25 Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan) will replace statements. We have worked alongside families of children with statements in our school to draw up ‘All about me’ documents. These pupils have now had their statements replaced by EHC plans.

SEND support

Children on the SEND register who do not qualify for a statement/EHC plan are now deemed to be requiring ‘SEND support’; the terms ‘School Action’ and ‘School Action Plus’ are no longer required.

Parental Support Through Lockdown

Latest FIND Newsletter from Lancashire Spring 2021

Arrangements for handling complaints from parents of children with special educational needs (SEND) about the support the school provides

In the first instance, please contact the SENCO to outline your complaint. If you feel that your complaint has not been resolved satisfactorily please follow the guidance in the SEND Policy (see policy section).

Parents can be signposted to the Lancashire SEND team for support.

The SEND Code of Practice outlines additional measures the Local Authority must set up for preventing and resolving disagreements. Parents/carers will be given the necessary information upon request.

SEND characterises at Hoole St Michael

SEND: 2024-25

• 6% of pupils supported on SEND support.
• 1 % of pupils supported with EHC plans.

Implementation of the Special Educational Needs Policy 2019/20

Actions taken as part of the school development plan, specific to SEND priorities:

• Regular and focused intervention put into place in order to improve standards and progress in mathematics throughout the school; this also  includes 1:1 teacher support;
• Regular and focused intervention put into place in order to improve standards in KS1;
• Additional TA/teaching hours put into place/timetables re-organised to ensure that all children with SEND are meeting their targets;
• All teachers are tracking the progress of SEND children as a focus group, through the use of termly pupil progress meetings;
• Additional release time is provided for the SENDCo to ensure that he is able to carry out his role efficiently.
• Children with statements have been moved onto EHC plans.
• One child in Year 5 is on an EHC plan.
• Strengthened links with specialist teachers; their strategies and advice continue to be implemented regularly as part of our specialist provision.

Priorities for 2024/25 in respect of provision for SEND pupils

• Increase the progress made by our pupils on the SEND register, ensuring that the majority of our SEND pupils make good to outstanding progress each term through the provision of focused intervention and carefully planned support. Focus on writing and mathematics
• Track SEND pupils more rigorously through the use of the updated PIVATS which will more clearly demonstrate progress.
• Continue to work closely with the local authority to ensure that children who require a new ‘Education, Health and Care Plan’ are rigorously assessed in order to receive the appropriate support.
• Establish nurture groups to meet the needs of pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Train teaching assistants in the setting up, organising and running of such groups (Lego Therapy.)
• Regular and focused intervention put into place to improve spelling, including extending our phonics lessons to accelerate the learning of children in Year 3 who are still working within Phase 5 or 6.
• Regular and focused intervention put into place to improve progress in mathematics in Key Stage 2.

Disability Access

Hoole St Michael has had many developments over the years including a newly built hall. It is a small school with four classes; intake number 15. It benefits from a small Reception class with two full-time adults (teacher and teaching assistant).

• It has one entrance for wheelchair users leading to the front office and main entrance.
• All doorways and entrances to the school are on a single level and wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair if necessary to ensure full access for pupils and parents with disabilities. There is an upstairs staffroom which pupils do not access. Parent meetings do not usually take place in this upstairs room. The stairs to the staffroom are wide enough to facilitate the use of a stair lift should this ever be deemed necessary.
• A before (from 7.45am) and after-school club (to 6pm) is available for all pupils. Parents pay for the sessions attended.
• The school offers a phased entry into school each morning. Doors are opened at 8.45am (school starting time being 8.55am). This avoids congestion in the morning.
• Cars are parked directly on the road in front of the school except for the yellow lines.
• The school has one disabled toilet for wheelchair users and disabled people to use if required.
• The school’s website front page is kept up-to-date with information in the “what’s on” section.
• Electronic copies of the weekly newsletters are emailed to parents weekly and uploaded onto the school website.
• Detailed termly class newsletters are emailed to parents and uploaded to the website.
• Where and when required, paper copies of all letters are sent home with pupils.
• All parents are invited to sign up to the free service “Parentpay” in order to receive texts from school; Parentpay can also be used to pay for clubs and visits.
• All relevant policies are uploaded to the school‟s website (curriculum policies are in the process of review due to the impending New National Curriculum).
• Furniture is modern and of a suitable height appropriate to the age group of children being taught in each classroom.
• The school has a range of ICT programmes for pupils with SEN in addition to interactive whiteboards installed in every classroom. There is a class set of laptops and a small group of iPads which are used by all children.
• Classrooms are “child friendly” with resources labelled clearly.
• Visual timetables are used in most classrooms.