Mrs Katie Butler (SENDCo)
KButler@arrowsmith.wigan.sch.uk
Tel: 01942 728651
If you feel that you would like any of the support detailed below, please contact Mrs Butler either by email or telephone using the details above.
The School's SEND Policy and SEND Report are stored on the school's website Policies | St Edmund Arrowsmith Catholic High School
Ofsted Report: 16 & 17 November 2021
.PNG)
Transition
For students with SEND, we understand that the transition process can be a stressful time and so we will often begin the process towards the end of year 5. We can discuss your child’s needs and how our provision can meet their needs, organise private visits to school and liaise with the primary school to support an application for an Education, Health and Care Plan if it would be in your child’s interest to have one.
Year 6 will begin with a visit to St Edmund Arrowsmith in September for our Open Evening, which will provide an opportunity to meet some of the Learning Support team and discuss any concerns face-to-face.
We will then meet with all of our primary feeder schools to determine which students will require additional support in their transition to high school. We will invite your son and/or daughter to an enhanced transition programme, giving them 5 extra sessions in school before the main 3 transition days.
Should your child’s school not be a primary feeder of ours, please contact Mrs Butler.
If your child already has an EHCP in place, a member of the Learning Support Team will attend the transition reviews in the spring term, detailing what support your child can expect upon their arrival at SEA. This process will culminate with an invite to our Transition Coffee Afternoon, when there will be the opportunity to both view the provision and also to ask last minute questions of the Learning Support team.
KS3
We believe that support for students with SEND starts in the classroom, with the classroom teacher. Quality First Teaching is embedded into every department, every classroom and every member of the teaching staff, supported by information sharing from the Learning Support department.
Key information regarding a student’s needs, their strengths in the classroom and ways in which ALL teachers can support them is recorded on a Pupil Passport, which is attached to the pupil’s name in our School Synergy system. This highlights the pupil in every lesson within the register, informing the teacher that there is more information that they need to know to support that pupil in class. This is known as Wave 1 support in our classrooms.
Wave 2 support is when we feel that a student needs support that is additional to or different from their contemporary peers within the classroom. This can involve interventions which are run during form or lunch time for Maths or English based skills, emotional support via our Inclusion team or external support from agencies such as the Targeted Educational Support Service or Peter Owen (PSTEC©). Your child will have been identified for this additional support through our internal data tracking systems or via the pastoral support systems, but should you feel that they may have been missed in anyway, then please email Mrs Butler.
On occasions, despite high quality Wave 1 and Wave 2 intervention, it may be necessary to look at additional support for your son or daughter. This will involve discussions with class teachers, yourselves, your child, our private Educational Psychologist and any other agencies that may be involved in the care of your child (eg Speech & Language). Strategies will be given that will be implemented within the classroom for a minimum of two terms, after which time their success will be reviewed (known as the assess, plan, do, review cycle).
After this time, hopefully the strategies have been a success and have impacted positively on your child’s academic progress but if they haven’t, then it may be agreed that we need to pursue an application for an Education, Health & Care Plan (Wave 3). This will be completed in conjunction with yourselves, ourselves and the Local Authority and may result in support from a Teaching Assistant in school, or more specialist interventions from educational specialists in their field.
All students with a recognised SEND will be placed on the school’s SEND register and have their needs reviewed internally every term. Should your child receive any additional intervention from school, then an Individual Education Plan will be undertaken in the first winter half term and will be reviewed at your child’s subsequent parent’s evening and their review day.
Students that have a diagnosis of a recognised diagnosis of a SEND (which must be from a consultant or an Educational Psychologist) will be given Access Arrangements for their exams moving into KS4, whilst those that have a recognised SEND that is not from the sources listed, but from a different source (e.g. Dyslexia Action) will be tested for Access Arrangements using our own licenced assessor, and the results submitted to JCQ for qualification.
KS4
Having a child with SEND can present a unique set of concerns for parents and carers, and this can become extremely acute during the options process;
- what GCSEs can they take, can they cope with the demands,
- will they be able to sit the exams?
Please don’t worry because we share those concerns and have systems in place to attempt to allay those fears as best as we can. This begins with a careers interview as part of your child’s entitlement to additional support at transition time. This interview takes place with our Careers Advisor, Rosie Morris who is skilled at guiding students with SEND into recognising their personal strengths and providing pathways which they can follow during KS4 to optimize those strengths.
Should your child have complex needs, and a 1-2-1 interview may become overwhelming, we are happy to invite parents and guardians to be part of this process.
For students with EHCPs a meeting will be organised with the SENDCo at Y9 guidance evening to further discuss the options process, and thoughts and aspirations of your child. It is hoped that your child will study the full suite of qualifications available, but we also recognise that sometimes it is important to be a little creative with our offer to get the very best performance from your child.
We sometimes utilise outside providers to enhance our offer, such as Fir Tree Fisheries (Fir Tree CIC Learning Centre) and Bike Mech Training (bikemechtraining.co.uk), or may look to a more bespoke offer utilising our KS4 specialist provision.
Post-16
From the start of your child’s journey at KS4, we begin planning for them moving through into post-16 education or employment and this begins with their creation of their CV and personal statement. Just like their needs will be supported during a lesson, those same needs will be supported during this process and they will produce a document that they can proudly take to any prospective college or employer.
Our Careers Advisor will once again have discussions with your child about life beyond SEA, and this will involve conversations regarding apprenticeships and colleges, and details about the application process. In addition to this, our careers fairs and interview days will prepare your child for entering the competitive world of the employment marketplace, with support commensurate to their needs.
College open days will provide your child with the opportunity to sample what KS5 education looks and feels like, and time in the classroom sampling subjects that will be brand new to them away from high school.
Students that have EHCPs in place will have an early transition meeting to which the Local Authority, college and/or potential employers, yourselves and of course your child will be invited. This will help us to modify the plan to the new needs that your child will have in post-16 education, and to ensure that the transition is seamless from SEA to their life beyond. Data will be shared at the appropriate time and with your consent to aid the new provider of education / employer to meet your child’s needs.
Further Information
For those students who have SEN, please find a link to the Wigan Parent and Carer Forum Wigan Parent Carer Forum (wiganpcf.org.uk). This organisation works independently but in partnership with the Local Authority, Health and other partners to reflect the voice and the impact of changes on SEND services within the Borough.
The WP&CF is a great source of support and also produces a newsletter that has a wealth of information within it about the support available for those students living in Wigan. This publication is distributed termly via email to those registered and schools:- Wigan Parent and Carer Forum Newsletter
The Wigan Council Special Educational Needs and Disability - Local Offer can be found here:- SEND Local Offer (wigan.gov.uk) (or click on the image)
Wigan Local Offer provides information of services which could support children and young people with SEND.
The Autism Pathway and Service work with schools, teachers and parents to help support children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC), you will find further information here:- Autism Pathway and Service (wigan.gov.uk)
Or if you prefer to speak to someone, please call Wigan SENDS team on 01942 486136
