Special Educational Needs

Welcome to the St. Anne's School SEND page

If you have any concerns about your child, their progress or additional needs, please speak to your child’s class teacher in the first instance. If your child’s needs are greater they may be referred to one of the SEN team in school.

The SEN Team in school

We have a team of staff who support additional needs in school.

Ms Smith - Special Educational Needs Coordinator and Inclusion Lead: email Kim.Smith@alderney.sch.gg
Miss Allison– Complex Needs Teacher (The Den)
Mrs Gillingham - Language and Literacy Support Intervention Teacher (LALSIT)
Mrs Gentle – The Den Learning Support Assistant

There are other LSAs in school who are allocated to year groups to provide in class support as well as out of class groups or 1:1 support to pupils with a range of additional learning, physical or medical needs.

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

In Guernsey Education Law (1970) pupils have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for them.

Pupils have a learning difficulty if they:

have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age
have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in similar schools

Pupils must not be said to have a learning difficulty only because they speak a language other than English at home. These are considered EAL (English as an Additional Language) pupils.

Areas of need

The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (Guernsey) states: ‘The main areas of learning difficulty are :

Cognition and Learning; (C&L)
Behaviour, Emotional and Social Development; (now known as Social, Emotional and Mental Health - SEMH)
Communication and Interaction; (C&I)
Sensory and/or Physical Impairment.’

More information can be found here: https://www.gov.gg/SEN

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities at St Anne’s School Primary School

At St Anne’s School our school motto is ‘Inspired to Learn … Supported to Succeed’. We support and encourage all pupils including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to reach their potential.

In order to provide a positive, meaningful educational experience for all our pupils we will help them by:

removing barriers to learning,
having high expectations and aiming for high levels of achievement
working in partnership with parents and other agencies
early identification of need and timely intervention

All pupils are valued as individuals and encouraged to work with their peers. We are committed to the academic and personal development of all pupils regardless of ability. We recognise the diverse and individual needs of all of our pupils and consider the additional support required by those children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). We strive to provide the opportunity for all pupils, regardless of their specific needs, to make the best possible progress.

Supporting SEND pupils at St Anne’s School:

We support our pupils with SEND and their parents/carers in an inclusive and caring environment matched to their age and stage of development. We have pupils with a range of SEND across the 4 - 16 age range who we support by working closely with parents/carers, outside agencies and Educational Psychologists to personalise their learning and maximise their learning opportunities.
Teachers use the SEND information that we collect from feeder nursery or other primary schools and parents/carers as well as our own information and assessments to plan lessons and differentiate provision for pupils with SEND.

Individual Education Plans (IEPs) are in place for pupils with SEND who require specific adjustments to be made for them in school.
The provision may be, but not limited to targeted interventions for: speech and language development, memory difficulties, literacy and dyslexia, numeracy, social skills development, handwriting development, emotional development, support with organisation and planning. We aim to quickly identify under-achievement and address it at individual or group level.

Many pupils may have in-class support from our team of highly dedicated Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) who work to support pupil learning and independence and some may have additional support in smaller groups outside of the classroom.
The Snug is a nurture space, based in the infant building and where specialist staff work with pupils requiring interventions and support with social and emotional as well as speech development.

The Den is our Complex Needs Base, providing bespoke learning for a number of SEND pupils.

Support Agencies we work with:

We work in partnership with parents/carers and a range of outside support agencies from both Education and Health including: