Supporting all our learners at Balcombe CE Primary School
We are proud of our school and committed to providing a happy, caring and stimulating learning environment in which all children can achieve their best. Every child matters to us. We are an inclusive school and welcome and celebrate diversity.
There may be times during a child’s schooling, where they need some additional care and support to help them through a difficult time in their lives, or help them make progress in an area of learning that they find difficult. This may be for a short period of time, or on a long term basis.
At Balcombe CE Primary School we believe that;
- a child having high self-esteem is crucial to their well-being and learning. We have a well-trained, caring and understanding team looking after our children ensuring that all are happy, confident and willing learners. Our SENCO (Mrs Cleverton) co-ordinates and reviews the support that children receive together with all class teachers and teaching assistants. Our trained Learning Mentor (Mrs Kirby) is a key member of our team, supporting our pupils’ social and emotional development. When appropriate we liaise with other professionals outside of our school (such as a Speech and Language Therapist) to seek support and advice for our children.
- our pupils’ views matter. Whether through our School Council, through pupil questionnaires or through informal discussions, we listen carefully and use pupils’ ideas to help plan for the future. For example, using their ideas to inspire them to learn or buying new equipment to make their play experiences outside more fun.
- knowing our children well is essential to ensuring they make progress. We get to know our children really well, observing them continuously as they learn, listening to them and tracking their progress systematically. We can then identify who is experiencing difficulty and who needs additional support to aid their development. For any pupil who we feel needs additional support, we compose Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) to record the key areas of learning that children are working towards. All ILPs are composed by teachers and overseen by our SENCO who reviews them throughout the term to ensure that children are making progress. These are shared with children and their families.
- all children should access the curriculum at their own level. We use our best endeavours to meet the needs of all the pupils in our school. All curriculum work is adapted according to a pupil’s specific needs to enable all our children to access the curriculum - at their own level.
- working together in partnership with our families is essential. If you have any concerns please do not hesitate to talk to us: we will always listen. We invite parents into school at least twice a term to review a child’s progress and ILPs as well as to hear their views as we value them highly.
If you would like to find out more about how we support our pupils please click on the links below.
Our Local Offer document is a series of commonly asked questions about support that we offer, see below for the full document which is reviewed annually every Autumn Term.
West Sussex’s Local Offer is a website identifying services and support offered for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and their families in West Sussex. Click here to be directed to the West Sussex Local Offer website.
Our SEND Policy/School Information Report is a document that also outlines our practice. Again this document is reviewed annually every Autumn Term.
All of our policies can be found under policies on the main menu.
If you have any questions about any of the documents or any aspect of our SEND provision please do not hesitate to contact our SENCO – Mrs Cleverton on 01444 811403.