At Cathedral School, we offer:

• A team of highly skilled teachers and teaching assistants (TA) across our whole school.

• Trained staff to support children’s spiritual, moral. social and emotional needs.

• TAs support in class and can also work with small groups and on a 1:1 basis to prepare children who need extra support for learning (pre-teaching, vocabulary, reinforcing new concepts, providing additional practise, working through materials at their level)

• A variety of reading, writing and mathematics intervention programmes tailored to children’s needs to help reduce gaps in their learning.

• If additional funding is allocated to your child through an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), we may use the funding to employ an extra TA to work specifically with them.

• If we think your child requires additional support, we will seek to have an informal discussion with parents in the first instance to gain their views.

• Teachers personalise learning to meet all children’s needs through differentiation of work, visual aids, word banks, practical activities and using ICT.

• Children develop independent learning across all classes.

• Teachers plan lessons that all children can access and cater to their individual needs, using assessment information to understand where children are and plan in next steps.

• If progress is not made, teachers seek advice from leadership staff in school and the teacher will also discuss concerns with you.

• If further steps are needed to overcome a barrier, for example 1:1 work with a TA, discussions will then take place between the class teacher and SENCO. A plan of action will be put in place and you will be asked your opinions.

• If on review, further steps are needed, the SENCO will discuss concerns with the Headteacher and you. Advice from Speech & Language, Occupational Therapy, Doctors and Educational Psychologists will be sought. Progress will then be closely monitored by the SENCO and targets will be put in place and shared with all adults, pupils and parents concerned.

• We also offer particular pieces of equipment to help some children learn more effectively, including different types of pens, pencils and grips to aid handwriting; different methods of recording work for example using a laptop or talking tins; coloured overlays and different coloured paper.

• Classroom layouts are arranged to allow those with sight or hearing impairments to fully engage and access the learning environment, for example use of magnifiers, large print, radio transmitters.

• We also access services for the Visually Impaired, such as enlarged print books. We are also able to provide workstations for children whose Special Educational Needs (SEN) require this, for example Autism Spectrum Conditions.

• Children with English as an Additional Language (EAL) are provided with opportunities as appropriate to practise English orally. Where appropriate, these children are able to access picture and word dictionaries in their home language.

• Some of our staff are fluent in other languages.

• All of our teaching staff are trained to teach Quality First Teaching and undertake CPD opportunities deemed necessary to the needs of our children (including ELKLAN traning).

• Arrangements for SAT tests follow guidance set by the government, available athttps://www.gov.uk/key-stage-2-tests-how-to-use-access-arrangements