Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

At Hook Junior School we are committed to offering an inclusive curriculum to ensure the best possible progress for all our pupils, whatever their needs and abilities. We value the contribution that every child can make, and welcome the diversity of culture, religion, and ability. The school seeks to raise achievement and remove barriers to learning.

The needs of pupils requiring special education are primarily met through the provision of an inclusive, differentiated, and appropriately planned curriculum within the classroom. Assessment forms an integral part of the planning, teaching, and learning process at Hook Junior School. It provides information for teachers to identify children with Special Education Needs, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and so plan the next steps in their learning. This ensures that the needs of children with Special Education Needs are met intellectually, socially, emotionally, and physically through effective, quality learning.

What are Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)?

A child or young person has special educational needs and disabilities if they have a learning difficulty and/or a disability that means they need special health and education support, we shorten this to SEND.

There are four broad areas of need that are outlined in the SEND Code of Practice (2014). In practice, individual children often have needs that fall into more than one of these areas and their needs may change over time.

Communication and Interaction: Children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) have difficulty communicating with others. This may be because they have difficulty saying what they want to, understanding what has been said to them or they do not understand or use social rules of communication. Children and young people with ASD, including Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism, are likely to have particular difficulties with social interaction.
Cognition and Learning: Support for learning difficulties may be required when children and young people learn at a slower pace than their peers, even with appropriate differentiation. Specific learning difficulties (SpLD), affect one or more specific aspects of learning. This encompasses a range of conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.
Social, Emotional and Mental Health: Children and young people may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which manifest themselves in many ways. These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour. These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties. Other children and young people may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder or attachment disorder.
Sensory and/or Physical needs: Some children and young people require special educational provision because they have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of the educational facilities generally provided. Many children and young people with vision impairment (VI), hearing impairment (HI) or a multi-sensory impairment will require specialist support and/or equipment to access their learning, or habilitation support. Some children and young people with a physical disability (PD) require additional ongoing support and equipment to access all the opportunities available to their peers.

The Children and Families Bill (2013) outlines the Government’s plans to require Local Authorities to publish information on services and provision across education, health and social care for children and young people aged 0 – 25 with Special Educational Needs (SEN).

The purpose of the local offer is to enable parents and carers to see more clearly what services are available for children with SEN in their area and how to access them. The information in our Special Needs Report details how we provide for children with SEN.

Our Special Educational Needs Report is available for download in Adobe PDF format. You may need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view this document.

Our Special Educational Needs Policy is also available for download in Adobe PDF format.

Key school contacts:

SENDCo: Emily Smith (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 01256 762 468)
SEND Governor: Bruce Anderson (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 01256 762 468)

Further useful contacts:

Hampshire SEN Service: www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth/childrenandfamilies/specialneeds/contacts
SENDIASS: Impartial Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support; 0808 164 5504; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; www.hampshiresendiass.co.uk