Special Educational Needs
At St Edward's Primary School we are passionate about being an Inclusive School. Our school vision is that all children will achieve Life in all its Fullness and we know that this vision extends to children with Special Educational needs too.
We are passionate about building an effective working relationship with parents and carers to ensure that our children's needs are met in school and at home, forming a close partnership to achieve this together.
We are proud of our excellent SEN provision and facilities. Our 'Sunshine Room' (SEN Intervention Space) and 'Acorn Room' (Nurture Group Room) help children with an EHCP or SEMH needs to succeed in our school. Our ELSA trained staff, our Home School Support Worker and our school counselor support children with their wellbeing. Our specialist SEN Teaching Assistants and our trained Speech and Language staff ensure that children with individual needs are supported to access their classrooms.
Our Section 48 Church Schools Inspection (October 2019) stated:
There is an exemplary approach to inclusion, expressing the Christian vision well. This means, for example, that pupils who have struggled elsewhere or who have significant additional needs are welcomed. Pupils embrace their share of the responsibility for helping them to succeed. The school’s exemplary practice has resulted in it being selected to work in partnership with the local authority to develop innovative specialist provision for pupils with a high level of need.
We are a Inclusion Quality Mark 'Centre of Excellence'.
If you are considering St Edward's for your child, and you believe your child has additional learning needs, diagonsed or undiagnosed, we would encourage you to make contact with our SEN Team, and come and have a tour of our school, so that we can discuss how your child's needs could be met at St Edward's.
Our SEN Team is made up of a number of highly skilled and well trained staff. A few of these staff, who parents may come into contact with, are listed below.
Mrs Sharon Marsden (Assistant Head Teacher: Inclusion Manager)
Mrs Marsden oversees the day to day running of our school SEN provision. She has responsibility for the SEN staff and are the first port of call for parents and staff. They are responsible for implementing the SEN Code of Conduct in our school and ensuring children on our SEN register have the best start to their formal education whilst at St Edward's Primary School. Mrs Marsden holds the NASENCO accreditation.
Ms Kim Sukhram (Assistant SENCO: Wellbeing and SEMH)
Ms Sukhram is our Assistant SENCO and has a special responsibility overseeing our Wellbeing work, for Staff and Pupils, as well as our SEMH provision, including our Nurture Group. Ms Sukhram holds the NASENCO accreditaion.
Mrs Sarah Speller (The Treehouse Lead Teacher/Manager)
Mrs Speller is the lead teacher and oversees our SEND Unit for children with Autism, to ensure it is as effective as it can be. More about our SEND Unit, The Treehouse, can be found here.
Mrs Jones is our Higher Level Teaching Assistant who oversees Speech and Language Therapy. Mrs Jones works closely with our allocated NHS Speech and Language Therapist to manage our SaLT caseload. Mrs Jones oversees our Language Link assessments, where we assess all children for Speech and Language needs on entry to our school.
Mrs Dietz and Mrs Nolan-Day are our ELSA trained teaching assistants. They deliver ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistants) interventions to children who need support with bereavement, anxiety, self-esteem or other factors that may be affecting their wellbeing.
Mrs Hyde is our Teaching Assistant who oversees our EAL Provision. Mrs Hyde works with children, and families, who are are learning English as an additional language, providing work with them at school and supporting their learning at home.
Kerie Hammatt is our School Counselor. Kerie is employed through BCCS (Brentwood Catholic Children's Society) and work closely with our Inclusion Team to support those children who need specialist intervention to support their wellbeing.
Mrs Tracy MacDonald is our Home School Support Worker. Mrs MacDonald can support families by signposting them to support networks and professionals that can help families at home. She is a great listening ear to parents who may need to talk through their family situations.
School's have a statutory duty to publish an annual SEN Information Report. This includes further information about our duties as a school and how our SEN provision is worked out each day. Below is also a copy of the Havering Local Offer, showing our Local Authority's provision and offer for children with SEN.
The Speech & Language Link Parent Portal
Speech and language skills are fundamental to our wellbeing and success in life. We use these skills constantly to communicate our wants and needs to others, to collaborate and negotiate, and to build strong bonds with other people. We use our talking to learn new skills and acquire new knowledge. So, building good speech and language skills at home is really important. The parent portal contains a comprehensive range of easy-to-use home resources, information sheets and how-to videos to help support children, aged 4-14 years, with speech, language and communication needs.
You can access the parent portal via the link here
Complaints regarding our SEND provision will be handled through our School Complaints Policy, which can be found on our Policies page
