Head of department Mrs Ruddy
Email: Helen.Ruddy@cncs.school
The 4 categories of SEND are:
1) Communication and Interaction (C&I)
2) Cognitive and learning (C&L)
3) Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties (SEMHD)
4) Physical and /or Sensory Needs (P&SN)
We are a mainstream school and the majority of our students are expected to reach the educational standards for their age. A small number of our students do have special educational needs. Students are identified as having SEND when their progress has slowed or stopped and the interventions and resources, we normally put in place do not enable improvement. We have specific IEP’s and student profiles which help support their development and speed up progress.
If your son/daughter is not making the expected progress following interventions by the teaching staff and SENCo, you will be invited into the school. In collaboration with the student, there will be an agreed package of support put in place and an IEP which will be written, if necessary, to support the student in lessons.
Your child’s teacher will have the highest possible expectations for your son/daughter. All teaching at Cardinal Newman is based on quality first teaching which builds on what your child already knows, can do and can understand. Teachers will adopt different methods so that all students are fully involved in their learning. This may involve differentiated resources, support put in place or different methods of teaching so that your child is fully involved in learning in every class. Teachers will also put in place any strategies which may be suggested by the SENCo and specialists from outside agencies, to enable your child to access the learning tasks. Your son/daughter’s teachers will have carefully checked on their progress to monitor any gaps in their understanding or learning and need some additional support in order to close the gap. These additional sessions could be led by a teaching assistant in the Student support centre.
As soon as your son/daughter’s SEND has been identified we will contact you and invite you to come to school to discuss strategies to help him/her to make better progress.
For Students With Specific social, mental and emotional health difficulties, we work with the relevant services that are required to support them. We have access to a School counsellor who is available to offer support to our students when necessary. For students with a diagnosis of ASD, we have Complex Communication support which comprises 1-1 support sessions, group sessions and staff training. We also have a HLTA who is trained to be an Autism champion who provides support for teachers in lessons and provides small group sessions in the SSC for students with ASD. We can also support the family with CAF meetings and a number of our staff are trained to lead CAF meetings.
In line with the Disability Act, reasonable adjustments can be made to support SEN students to access a full mainstream curriculum. There is also a Munch Bunch lunchtime club in SSC to support SEND students who need additional support during unstructured times.
Please find additional information by using the following links: