SEND Information Report

At Chiswick we believe strongly in the importance of quality-first teaching and that meeting the needs of SEN students is the responsibility of all staff. Therefore, we aim to ensure that all lessons are of the highest standard, catering for students’ individual needs and ensuring that they have access to a broad and balanced curriculum.

Where students require more targeted intervention, our Personalised Learning programmes have a focus on learners developing their skills through oracy, reading and developing cultural capital resulting in D.R.I.V.E.N individuals who are prepared for adulthood.

SEND students are supported in a range of different ways, some of which include:

• In-class support and out of class monitoring for students with EHCPs and students on the SEND register provided by an experienced and dedicated team of SEND staff.
• The provision of additional resources in the classroom, including laptops where appropriate.
• Targeted, personalised interventions led and delivered by the SEND team aimed at supporting learners with Literacy, Numeracy, Communication & Interaction or Social, Emotional & Mental Health needs. All interventions are carefully monitored and their impact measured.
• A qualified counsellor to support students in a one-to-one environment (to whom students may be referred).
• A commissioned speech and language therapist.
• A commissioned occupational therapist.
• Referral to outside agencies such as Educational Psychology, CAMHS, GROW Therapeutic, the Mental Health Support Team and mentoring.
• Key Stage 3 personalised vertical tutor group led by SEN teacher.

All classroom-based staff also receive in-house SEN training through INSET days and regular CPD sessions from the Personalised Learning team to support them to meet the needs of students with additional needs.

Please contact either the SENDco, Deputy SENDco or our SEN administrator (all of whose details can be found at the bottom of the page) if you would like to discuss your concerns or have queries about your child’s specific learning needs.

We will then arrange to meet with you to discuss in more detail and agree on the next steps.

If it is decided that your child needs SEN support we will add them to our SEND register and notify you formally in writing.

All our class teachers are aware of SEN and are on the lookout for any pupils who aren’t making the expected level of progress in their schoolwork or socially. Teachers will first assess whether there are gaps in learning that are contributing to a lack of progress and will adapt their teaching and offer additional help to overcome this. Pupils who don’t have SEN usually make progress quickly once the gap in their learning has been filled.

If the pupil is still struggling to make the expected progress, the teacher will talk to the SENCO, and the Personalised Learning team will contact you to discuss the possibility that your child has SEN. The SENCO will observe the pupil in the classroom and in the playground to see what their strengths and difficulties are. They will have discussions with your child’s teacher/s, to see if there have been any issues with, or changes in, their progress, attainment or behaviour. They will also compare your child’s progress and development with their peers and available national data.

The SENCO will ask for your opinion and speak to your child to get their input as well. They may also, where appropriate, ask for the opinion of external experts such as a speech and language therapist, an educational psychologist, or a paediatrician.

Based on all this information, the SENCO will decide whether your child needs SEN support. You will be told the outcome of the decision in writing. If your child does need SEN support, their name will be added to the school’s SEN register, and the SENCO will work with you to create a SEN support plan for them.

At Chiswick School, students progress is measured both formative and summative assessments. Students are tested each lesson using formative methods such as questioning, discussions and Do Now retrieval tasks. Each half-term they will also complete at least one longer summative assessment in each subject (GEM tasks). Students are also tested through mid-year and end of year formal assessments. Students in Key Stage Three are also tested on their reading comprehension at least twice a year. Where specific speech and where personalised interventions have taken place – such as phonics training – there will also be regular assessments of such provision including a baseline test to assess their starting point before any intervention takes place.

The combination of formative and summative assessment allows us to regularly review the progress students are making and the effectiveness of any provision that we have put in place for them. Following this, if your child is not making the expected level of progress, we will conduct further assessment of their strengths and difficulties in conjunction with you, your child and their teachers to plan for our desired outcomes for your child and how we will support them to achieve this. We will track your child’s progress towards these outcomes over time and develop our plan to ensure that it best meets the needs of your child.

This process will be continual. If the review shows a pupil has made progress, they may no longer need the additional provision made through SEN support. For others, the cycle will continue and the school’s targets, strategies and provisions will be revisited and refined.

Your child’s teacher will meet you twice a year during parents’ evenings to:

• Set clear outcomes for your child’s progress
• Review progress towards those outcomes
• Discuss the support we will put in place to help your child make that progress
• Identify what we will do, what we will ask you to do, and what we will ask your child to do

The Personalised Learning team will also be available to discuss the needs of your child outside of these scheduled times. We welcome regular feedback on how your child is progressing so that we can best tailor our support to their needs. Please see the contact details at the bottom of the page and to ensure the promptest response, please copy in at least two members of staff.

Where a student has an EHCP, parents will be invited into school to review on an annual basis as per the statutory requirements.

The level of involvement will depend on your child’s age, and level of competence. We recognise that no two children are the same, so we will decide on a case-by-case basis, with your input.

To ensure that students joining us from Primary School find the move as comfortable as possible we offer a Year 6 transition day for all students in the summer term before students join us. To assist students with SEN, we meet with the Primary School SENDco during the summer term to discuss the needs of incoming students. We then provide a number of additional days prior to the Year 6 transition day for students to visit and acclimatise themselves to the school and Personalised Learning Team. Meetings with the SENDco and Assistant SENDco are also available by appointment and invites will be distributed to relevant parents.

As students reach the end of their school careers, we work to provide all our pupils with appropriate advice on paths into work or further education. We work with the pupil to help them achieve their ambitions, which can include goals in higher education, employment, independent living and participation in society.

Please refer to the school’s Admission Policy for information on the process. For more detailed information on the admission process for students with SEN - please see the relevant section of the SEND Policy.

Please refer to our Accessibility Policy for information on how the school currently supports students with disabilities and our commitment to developing this.

If a parent / carer is unhappy about the arrangements made to meet the SEND of their child they should in the first instance discuss the matter with the SENDCo. The Deputy Headteacher will address secondary complaints. The school will look into the matter in a reasonable period of time, in line with the Governors’ arrangements for consideration of complaints.

Please contact the following SEND colleagues if you have any questions:

• Mr Robert Orr (Assistant Headteacher SENDCo) - ror@chiswickschool.org
• Ms Alexandra Pedroso (Deputy SENDCo) - apd@chiswickschoo.org
• Ms Amardeep Cooner (SEND Administrator) - acn@chiswickschool.org

The link governor for SEND is Councillor John Todd.

To see what support is available to you locally, have a look at the relevant borough local offer pages:

Hounslow Local Offer

Ealing Local OfferH&F Local Offer Richmond Local Offer