Special Educational Needs (SEN)

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the Inclusion Team for Potters Gate School.

First and foremost, your child’s class teacher is responsible for ensuring that your child’s needs are met and for keeping you up to date with their progress. All parents are invited to attend parents’ evening and at these meetings the class teacher will share with you a termly provision map outlining any additional support your child may be getting. Paper copies are available for you to take, please just ask the teacher. You are of course welcome to discuss your child’s progress at any time in the year. Please email or call the office to arrange a time.

For SEND children, the SENDCo, Alexis Carpenter, will carry out regular observations of your child and attend meetings with you and with the class teacher. We will be arranging monthly coffee mornings with key speakers, hot topics, and providing you with the opportunity to meet other parents. These coffee mornings / drop-ins can also provide you with the opportunity to meet members of the Inclusion Team, to discuss your child and get advice. The dates will be sent out via email and text to all parents.

We are fortunate to be able to provide high quality emotional support for all children. Carly Harries is our Specialist Mental Health Lead and provides Play Therapy sessions and 1:1 support for children. We are also lucky to have a highly skilled ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant), Annie Canton. Her role is to support the children in school to understand and regulate their own emotions, learn to respect others around them and develop their self-esteem and resilience. Children can be referred for ELSA sessions by you, as a parent, or by a member of staff. We will always ask for your permission before starting any work with them and get your parental consent.

We have been looking at how we support our children with their social, emotional and mental health needs and aim to provide outstanding provision that is child-centred, and needs based. As part of this we have developed a wave three Nurture Group provision called The Den, run by two qualified nurture practitioners, Carolyn Wickham and Annie Canton. This is an early-intervention group for a small number of KS1 or KS2 children which was opened in September 2018, offering unique, specialist provision for children. The aims of The Den are:

• Ø to give children the support they need at the earliest possible age,
• Ø to prevent learning problems later at school,
• Ø to help children to behave appropriately,
• Ø to use their curiosity constructively, improve their self-esteem and develop confidence through close and trusting relationships with adults
• Ø to provide on-going assessment and support for children showing signs of emotional stress and/or behavioural difficulties in order to enable them to access the curriculum and participate fully in school life
• Ø to work in partnership with class teachers and parents to enable consistency of approach, both at home and at school.

The DEN (Develop, Educate and Nurture) provides stable and predictable structure. There are three sessions a week, where the same routine is followed to ensure children know what they should be doing and what is coming next. The majority of the session is learning through play, with a strong social focus. The children undertake activities that provide a broad and balanced curriculum that will meet their individual needs. Children will stay in the group for between two and four terms. If you would like to know more about our Nurture Group Provision, please contact Alexis Carpenter or Carly Harries.

As well as emotional support, our children will continue to access additional learning support through interventions which are being delivered in and out of class with our experienced Teaching Assistants. We have a KS1 Intervention Teaching Assistant who works with children who have been identified as needing additional support in areas such as reading, phonics, writing and maths. These interventions are frequently set programmes of support delivered in a small group setting out of class two or three times a week.

We have a range of resources to the school website linked to specific areas of special educational needs and children’s mental health and wellbeing. We hope that you will have a look and find the information helpful. 

If you have questions about SEND or would like to meet, then please do not hesitate to contact the Inclusion Team on 01252 715619 (ext 2)

Alexis Carpenter – senco@potters-gate.surrey.sch.uk

Carly Harries – hslw@potters-gate.surrey.sch.uk

Carolyn Wickham – assistsenco@potters-gate.surrey.sch.uk

Annie Canton – acanton@potters-gate.surrey.sch.uk

Potters Gate Interventions

SEND Information Report  2021

This will give you information on how we work with children with Special Educational Needs at Potters Gate School.

Click here for information on the new Special Educational Needs Code of Practice

Parents may find the information on the following website useful. The website provides information on all the organisations that are available for adults and children with SEND.  If you would like help with navigating the website please do not hesitate in contacting Mrs Carpenter, our Senco on 01252 715619 or senco@potters-gate.surrey.sch.uk

Universal Provision (Wave 1) at Potters Gate School

Wave 2 Provision at Potters Gate School

Wave 3 Provision at Potters Gate School