St Mary’s is a fully inclusive school where children ‘thrive harmoniously together.’ We recognise the uniqueness of every individual and the contribution that each individual brings to our school community – we are God’s special children growing together in faith, love, knowledge and understanding. We work together with children and their parents to ensure that regardless of any difference or difficulty all children receive the best quality education.
Whole school ‘Universal Provision’, excellent teaching strategies, classroom organisation and differentiation are in place to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum. Many children will make significant progress with this provision in place.
Occasionally, it may be necessary for children to receive additional support to make sufficient progress in their learning. Children may receive additional support in a range of areas under the term ‘Universal Targeted Provision’. “Small steps targets” will be agreed by all involved in the child’s learning and regular monitoring of these targets will be conducted in a child centred way. The school works very closely with a variety of outside agencies such as the Speech and Language Service, Inclusion Service, Educational Psychologist Department, CAMHS and others to support and seek guidance where required.
If a child does not appear to be making progress, then Additional Learning Provision (ALP) may be required. These children will require an Individual Development Plan (IDP).
The IDP will be created through collaboration with all involved in the child’s learning and will detail what has been identified for the child’s needs to progress. A description of their needs, how they can best be supported and what is important to and for them will be detailed. It will describe how St Mary’s will aim to support the child’s Additional Learning Needs (ALN).
Support for children with Additional Learning Needs
At St Mary’s all of our staff are committed to ensuring that children make continual progress and achieve to the best of their ability. Any child who may need extra support is identified as early as possible and individual, achievable targets are set. Teachers make provision for children to work on and achieve set targets in curriculum time. If your child’s class teacher thinks that your child may require further support, they will be referred to our ALNCo for assessment and will continue to keep you informed throughout the process.
Mrs Williams, our ALNCo (Additional Learning Needs Coordinator) works very closely with teaching staff and teaching assistants to provide support for children with Additional Learning Needs within our school. This support takes many forms.
A child may need additional assessing from the ALNCo to examine their levels in reading, spelling, receptive language and non-verbal ability. This assessment takes place if a class teacher or parent raises specific concerns about the child’s abilities in class. From this assessment, we can see if any additional support is needed for your child.
As a school, we provide support in class through differentiating work, providing support materials and providing interventions in reading, writing, speaking and listening and maths to support and raise attainment.
We also run interventions to support our pupils’ social and emotional needs which are run by trained facilitators within the school. Interventions are a mixture of small group interventions and individual (one to one 1:1).
We also work closely with outside agencies to provide support for children with Additional Learning Needs. We continue to seek advice from the Speech and Language Service (SaLT), Educational Psychology Service, Sensory Service, Literacy Service, Together Achieving Change (TAC) and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
If you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the school to make an appointment. Mrs Williams works on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Mrs Williams’ ALN Virtual Classroom
Parent Network
Supporting the whole family is very important to us at St Mary’s. As part of this support, we run a Parent ALN Network to provide much needed support for our parents of children with ALN who may need further advice or may just wish to have a chat with others who are experiencing similar challenges to them. We meet once a term where parents/carers can share and gain useful information about upcoming ALN events. Everyone is welcome to join us at these meetings. If you would like further information, please contact Mrs Williams or come along to our next meeting.