SEN School Report

Robert Blair Primary School, an inclusive learning community where expectations are high, individuals are nurtured, creativity is valued. Robert Blair Primary School, like all schools in Islington, is committed to meet the needs of all pupils including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Our expectations is that all pupils have the opportunity to achieve and make good progress, to develop and become independent individuals, to become a valued and important member of our community, to prepare for and make successful transitions through their time in school and into the future.

Robert Blair also offers children’s centre services providing child care provision for babies from 6 months and for toddlers from 2-3 years old. .

Robert Blair Primary School also offers a specialist Language and Communication Resource (LCR) for pupils with diagnosis of a Specific Speech and language impairment/ delay and Language and Communication difficulties.

As a school community we will ensure that pupils with SEN get the right support to succeed.

In this schools report we aim to answer some of the key questions parents and carers may have.

For further information please contact Marcus Read, Inclusion Manager at Robert Blair Primary School on 0207 607 4115 - inclusion@robertblair.islington.sch.uk

Robert Blair Primary School is a mainstream school which strives to ensure that all pupils are included and offered a broad and accessible curriculum. The school aims to meet the needs of pupils from the local community with SEND in the following areas in accordance with ‘Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice July 2014’. In one or more of the following areas: Communication and interaction, Cognition and learning, Social, mental and emotional health, Sensory and/ or physical, Medical needs. For more information, please look at the SEN school report document above.

At Robert Blair Primary School teaching staff are aware and work closely to teach and meet the needs of pupils with SEND in their classrooms. The school staff team recognise the importance of identifying SEN early and making effective provision quickly. Where pupils already have an identified or diagnosed SEND the school will work with the family to ensure that provision is in place to support.

All pupils are assessed and progress monitored throughout the school year. The senior leadership team support teaching staff to meet the needs of individuals and hold an ethos of high expectations. Identification of pupils with SEN may follow the procedures detailed in the SEN school report available on the link above.

Most pupils with SEN needs will have their needs met as part of high quality teaching. Quality first teaching is the most effective way to ensure all pupils make progress in relation to their starting point.

All Class teachers plan effectively, ensure they differentiate the work appropriately and assessment for learning is core to their teaching to ensure they know how to move a child forward in their learning. For more information, please look at the SEN school report document above.

One of the assistant head teacher at Robert Blair Primary School is the Inclusion Manager. Part of the Inclusion Manager’s role is to be the Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCo). The Inclusion Manager is a qualified teacher with a specialism and training in SEN. The Inclusion Manager works closely with the Head teacher and other members of the Senior Leadership team and schools governing body. If you have concerns about your child it is important that you discuss this first with the class teacher.

The Inclusion Manager is responsible for overseeing the school policy for SEN (Nursery – Year 6, including LCR), coordinating provision for children with SEND, supporting teachers, supporting and advising around over coming barriers to learning for pupils, managing SEN Key worker TA’s, liaising with Parents of children with SEND, planning transitions to new class groups or schools, providing specialist advise and facilitate training to ensure that staff are skilled and confident to meet the range of needs in the school, liaising with external agencies where appropriate, managing the LCR and relevant funding, some teaching responsibilities. The Inclusion Manager is also the designated officer for Child protection and safe guarding (Reception – Year 6), and the Attendance lead for the whole school. Contact: Marcus Read, inclusion@robertblair.islington.sch.uk, 0207 607 4115 (dial 2 for inclusion). Alternatively delivered letters to the school office will be forwarded to the relevant Governor. For more information, please look at the SEN school report document above.

School staff have access to a range of different training and support in relation to supporting and including pupils with SEN. We support the staff to access a wide range of information on appropriate interventions for pupils with different needs.

The tables available in the report (link above) show the current level of training and expertise in the school.

Our staff also receive support and advice from the appropriate outreach services offered to mainstream schools by each of the Islington special schools. SEN training and expertise will be sought when the needs of individual children require it.

Robert Blair School is a large Victorian style school. The school is split over three floors. The ground floor is accessible from street level, although the upper floors currently don’t have disabled access. Reception class, Nursery and children’s centre are situated on the ground floor and all the school offices are situated on the ground floor. Years 1-6 are on the upper floors where the children attend assemblies. There is an accessible toilet situated on the ground floor close to the reception. The school has two playgrounds, a ground floor playground and a roof top playground. The Roof top is safe and secure and has a high anti-climb fence. For more information on the equipment available to support pupils in school, please read our SEN school report that can be accessed through the link above.

We encourage all parents to contribute to their child’s education this can occur through: discussions with class teacher, parents evenings, review meetings to agree goals and outcomes, discussions with SENCO and/ or other professionals. For pupils with a statement of SEN or EHCP they will have their plan reviewed annually and next steps agreed between the team. For other pupils with SEN they may have review meetings to discuss and agree next steps and set goals and outcomes.

All minutes from review meetings are shared with parents and agreed before they are sent to and shared with other professionals.

If we are concerned that your child needs a significant amount of additional support we will always discuss this with parents and carers and appropriate meetings will be arranged.

Where required we will arrange interpreters to enable parents to fully participate in formal meetings.

Pupil’s opinions are extremely important and where possible we gain their opinion on their education, through questionnaires, consultation meetings and informal conversations. We encourage an environment where pupils can safely express their feelings and be heard.

The school council has a representative from pupils from each class in Key stage 2 and 1 representative from the LCR class group they meet once a week with a member of the leadership team. They are trained to represent the thought of the pupil of Robert Blair by bringing concerns to these weekly meetings.

Where pupils have SEN, we will take extra care to involve them and make sure their voice is heard. Their involvement will be tailored to each child and take into account their preferred methods of communication. This may include: providing them with relevant information in accessible formats, using clear ordinary language and images rather than professional jargon, giving them time to prepare for discussions and meetings, dedicating time in discussions and meetings to hear their views, involving the pupil in all or part of the discussion itself, or gathering their views as part of the preparation, supporting their access to an adult who can help them express their views where necessary (this could be a family member or a professional), ensuring staff are skilled in working with children, parents and young people to help them make informed decisions and have access to training so they can do this effectively, completing a Pupil passport views which is part of their school plan. This is complete at the start of the year and reviewed at the end of the year.

We are committed to providing excellent services to all our children and their parents and we believe the best way to do this is to listen to your views. We encourage parents to contact us about their concerns and not to wait for the next formal opportunity to meet. It is important that you contact the class teacher or Inclusion Manager.

If you have a complaint about SEN provision, please tell us promptly by contacting the following people in this order: the class teacher, the Inclusion Manager (details below), the head teacher – using the main school number, the SEN governor (a letter can be submitted through school office). The SEN Governor will then refer to the complaints procedure to try and address the issue.

Further information about our complaints procedure please see complaints policy on our website.

We realise that parents can sometimes find schools a bit scary and may need someone to help them approach us if things aren’t going well. If you need support to raise a concern or make a complaint this you may want to contact Centre 404’s Parent Carer Support Service, an independent organisation that provides a disagreement resolution service. You can contact them on 020 7316 1930, or by email to Lydia Hodges at LydiaH@centre404.org.uk. As a matter of last resort parents can also make a formal complaint to Ofsted: guidance for parents can be found here http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/schools/for-parents-and-carers/how-complain, or by phone on 0300 123 4666. Further information on local support for families of pupils with SEN can be found in Islington’s Local Offer.

Where a pupil continues to make less than expected progress, despite evidence-based support and interventions that are matched to the pupil’s area of need, we seek advice and support from specialists from outside agencies to build a Team around the Child (TAC) such as: educational psychologists, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), specialist teachers, therapists (including speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists), social workers (including the disabled children’s team), specialist outreach teams (provided by the local specialist school), family support agencies, Education Welfare Officer (EWO), School nursing team and specialist nursing teams. We always involve parents in any decision to involve specialists. For more information, please look at the SEN school report document above.

The Family Information Service (020 7527 5959) gives free, impartial information, advice and guidance about services for children, young people and families. The Parent Carer Support Service, based at Centre 404 (020 3316 1930) offers a range of services to assist children with special educational needs and disabilities and their parents/carers. These include: help with resolving disagreements, information and advice, direct support, help with personal budgets and form filling, and access to social groups and other activities and local networks.
For details of their websites and email address, please look at the SEN school report document above.

We recognise that transitions are often very challenging for children with SEN. The key to all good transition plans for children is communication between staff either internally as children move between year groups or phases of education or externally to new settings.
All transition plans and arrangements include the parents to ensure and support a settled start into primary or out into secondary.
To find out more about what the school is doing for transition, please look at the SEN school report document above.

All Local authorities must publish a Local Offer, setting out in one place information about provision they expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people in their area who have SEN or are disabled.
For more information, please look at the SEN school report document above.