SEND Information
(See below for latest news)
Inclusion for all is at the heart of everything we do at Coxhoe Primary School. We serve a vibrant and diverse community, rich with different cultures, languages and different pupils with a varying range of academic, social, emotional, physical and sensory needs. We embrace the fact that every child is different. Therefore, we make every effort to meet the needs of any child, regardless of aptitude, ability or special need.
Our SEND Report sets out how we meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs, as set out by our SEND Policy. In this document, you should find answers to any questions that you may have about SEND at Coxhoe Primary School.
Our SEND Team would love to hear from you with any queries or feedback you might have.
SEND Team: Mrs O'Sullivan, Mr Hopson and Mrs Elliott.
Click on the links below to find:
Coxhoe Primary School SEND Policy 2023
Coxhoe Primary School SEND Information Report 2023
Support for children with literacy difficulties/dyslexia
Durham’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Inclusion service along with MCT have produced a advice documents for families of children who may need additional support with literacy difficulties or dyslexia.
You can download the document here.
Making Changes Together (MCT) Parent Carer Forum
MCT are a group of experienced parent carer volunteers from County Durham and represent the interests of parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs and or disabilities in County Durham.
For more information, you can visit their website here.
CAMHS training in County Durham
The child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) service in County Durham and Darlington offers free online training for anyone who works with children and young people.
Please follow this link to see their full range of online training.
Who are SENDIASS?
SENDIASS provide confidential, impartial support and advice for parents, carers, children and young people up to the age of 25 years in relation to special educational needs and disability.
For more information, please download their support leaflet here.
Little Treasures Autism Charity North East
Little Treasures Autism Charity are for families of children with a diagnosis of Autism, children who are getting tested, children who have been tested, children diagnosed with GDD and fragile. Siblings are also welcome.
They are a registered charity, supporting north east families and have Autistic Adult Support Groups. Throughout the year they offer a range of workshops, social activities, activities in groups, Christmas parties, social activities and more!
Stay and Play Sessions
These sessions are all £5 per family.
They have specialist play equipment for the children to access at their stay and play sessions, and a sensory session with a bouncy castle and sensory equipment. They offer free courses, trips out, book libraries, information, support, pamper sessions for parents, bouncy castles and activities within the group for children.
Contact Littletreasures18@gmail.com for more information.
Hi. Please find some upcoming events below which you may find useful for your families.
SEND Coffee Morning
Autumn Term, 9:00am 23rd November
Please join us from 9:00 for this term's SEND Coffee Morning. It is a wonderful opportunity to families to join our SEND Team for an informal chat, a tea or coffee and also speak with other parents and families of children with SEND. This has been a fantastic opportunity to share ideas, places to go and support available in the past and we hope you can make it.
Question of the Month:
What are the Zones of Regulation?
Using a cognitive behaviour approach, all of our classes here at Coxhoe Primary try to help students identify when they are in a particular state called “zone,” and each of the four zones is represented by a distinct colour.
Feelings have different levels of energy, intensity and sizes. To simplify this concept, feelings into 4 easy, coloured categories named Zones of Regulation.
- Blue Zone: The Blue Zone portrays down feelings and low energy levels such as when someone feels bored, sick, or tired.
- Green Zone: The Green Zone depicts calmness and the feeling of being in control. A person in the green zone may be described as content, focused, happy or ready for learning. Green is considered as the zone with optimal learning.
- Yellow Zone: The Yellow Zone describes a person with additional levels of energy and elevated emotions, but remains in more control. An individual may be facing nervousness, wiggles, silliness, excitement, anxiety, frustration or stress within the Yellow sign.
- Red Zone: The Red Zone demonstrates strong emotions and extraordinarily high energy. A person is said to be in the red zone when they are feeling angry, elated, terrified, out of control, devastated or enraged.
By identifying which zone a child is experiencing, it develops their emotional awareness, vocabulary and in identify strategies for helping them.
Each classroom has their own Zones of Regulation chart, allowing children to access them every day.
Question of the Month: What is the role of a SENDCO?
SENDCOs work to ensure a child with special educational needs or disabilities has their needs met as fully as possible.
In English state schools a SENDCO should ensure that all staff follow the school’s SEND code of practice. This may involve identifying, assessing and planning for needs and developing support programmes to meet those needs and break down any barriers to learning. It may involve calling in outside professionals such as an educational psychologist, occupational therapists or other agencies.
A child does not need to have a plan or record of need to be supported by the SENDCO, who should be aware of any child needing extra help.
SENDCOs consult and liaise with staff, parents and carers, external agencies and appropriate professionals and voluntary bodies; they apply for extra funding. They try to ensure that support is co-ordinated and targeted appropriately, and that all are informed and updated about children on the SEND register and understand how best to help.
We rely on parents' help and support too: if you are aware that your child has any kind of difficulty, inform the team at the earliest opportunity and talk to us about any relevant documentation.
Please let us know if you have any questions or there is anything you are unsure of. We are here to help and look forward to speaking with you.
You can contact our SEND Team through the school email address or by calling our school office.
Latest News...
Making Changes Together - Who are MCT?
MCT are a group of volunteer parent carers with a child and or young person with SEND (special educational needs and or disabilities)
Their aim is to make sure the services in the area meet the needs of disabled children, young people and their families.
They do this by gathering the views and experiences of families. Then by working in partnership with the Local Authority, Health and Social Care and any other providers across County Durham to highlight where local services, processes and commissioners are working well, or challenge when changes or improvements need to be made.
They deliver workshops, biannual parent carer conferences and various events within County Durham to co-produce “Changes Together”
Their conferences are held during May and November every year for County Durham Parent carers to attend. This is where they have the Local Authority, Health and social care partners under one roof to work together with parent carers. This can range from an update on the SEND strategy, to gathering feedback on a service that health provides. These are then shared via their You tube account.
OUR SENSORY SHED AND GARDEN - WOW!
Thank you so much to the staff who have worked over school holidays to make this happen.
North East Autism Society Virtual Events
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the North East Autism Society has created a series of online events that can be accessed from home. Visit the NEAS website here to see the 6 different activities and challenges that all help raise awareness of the society and help promote a greater understanding of autism.
Little Treasures Support Group
The children's charity Little Treasures sent out the following message via Durham County Council's Families First Service:
"Covid-19 is a very worrying time for our families and children. Our private support page is available 24/7 for parents/carers to seek advice, support or information from thousand of other parents in similar positions. We have been sharing some amazing tips and advice regarding our autistic children during this pandemic, support with school work, routines and visual aids. If someone is really struggling and feels they need to chat online, they can contact one of our admin or if they need to speak directly they can ring the mobile on our Facebook page and someone will get back to them."
For more information visit Little Treasures face book page Contact Laura or Michelle 07749 681130
Autism Eye Newsletter
Autism Eye is an free online newsletter that often has useful links, information and dates of events. While we have not read too much from the site, if you follow this link, you may find something helpful. They keep up to date on advice for parents during the school lock down.
Autism Acceptance Week Colouring Competition!
In celebration of Autism Acceptance Week, Mr Hopson and Mrs O'Sullivan are challenging the children of Coxhoe Primary School to decorate and colour in Snowdrop, the NEAS mascot hedgehog.
By clicking here, you can download a template of Snowdrop for you to decorate any way you choose. There will be extra points for creativity and ways that we can raise awareness for Autism Acceptance Week.
Please email your entries for the attention of Mr Hopson at eyfsks1homelearning.coxhoe@durhamlearning.net or via the school's twitter page (@CoxhoePrimary). The winner will be announced on Wednesday 8th March.
Autism Acceptance Week at Coxhoe
Last year, Coxhoe Primary School worked alongside the North East Autism Society in celebrating Autism Acceptance Week. The children produced some fantastic work that helped raise the profile of ASD with their classmates and also the parents.
This year, the NEAS has created a fantastic pack of home resources that can be downloaded here. There are lots of fun activities that the children will really enjoy taking part in. Please do share any of your amazing efforts with your class teacher or on our twitter page (@CoxhoePrimary).
World Autism Awareness Week 2020
Starting Monday 30th of March, we celebrate World Autism Awareness Week. The National Autistic Society has some fantastic resources and information about how we can join in and raise awareness.
They also provide some helpful information and strategies for supporting children with ASD during the current school closures and social distancing requirements. Click here for a link to this section of their website.
Downloadable Resources
We know that our children with SEND are going to find not being in their usual school routine particularly difficult. To support many of our pupils in school we use visual timetables so that a child can see what their morning, afternoon or full day looks like. Please find a list of visual timetable resources which can be downloaded and printed at home to support pupils with SEND in structuring your day.
Explaining the school closure.
It can be very difficult explaining to our young people why schools are closing, especially as adults are often unable to give them definite answers. For children with additional needs, it can be even more challenging. Here at Coxhoe Primary School, we often use "Social Stories" with our children to help them understand things that are happening and also things that are ahead. Below is a social story from Elsa Support that helps explain the reasons behind the closures and can be read with children to help them understand what is happening.
A Glossary of SEND Acronyms.
During today's SEND Coffee Morning, parents and the SEND team talked about how it can be often confusing and overwhelming to understand the high number of acronyms used when discussing special education needs and disabilities. While the below list does not cover the entire wide ranging number of terms use, we hope this list will help others understand some of the terminology that is often used. Thank you to our wonderful parents who attended today and offered fantastic feedback and support. If there are any additional terms not listed below that you would like to know more about, please contact a member of the SEND Team.
International Day Of Persons With Disabilities
International Day of Persons with Disabilities falls on the 3rd of December each year, with the aim of promoting empowerment, and helping to create real opportunities for people with disabilities. This enhances their own capacities and supports them in setting their own priorities. Empowerment involves investing in people – in jobs, health, nutrition, education, and social protection. When people are empowered they are better prepared to take advantage of opportunities, they become agents of change and can more readily embrace their civic responsibilities.
-
overseeing the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEND policy, co-ordinating provision for children with SEND
-
advising on the deployment of the school’s delegated budget and other resources to meet pupils’ needs effectively
-
liaising with parents of pupils with SEND
-
liaising with early years providers, other schools, educational psychologists, health and social care professionals, and independent or voluntary bodies
-
being a key point of contact with external agencies, especially the local authority and its support services
-
liaising with potential next providers of education to ensure a pupil and their parents are informed about options and a smooth transition is planned
October is ADHD Awareness Month
ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a very common disorder which affects children and adults. It has for many years been recognised as a childhood issue that affects focus, self-control and many other important skills. However, it has only recently been recognised as an adult problem too. The cause is an imbalance in the brains anatomy and its wiring.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Awareness
We recently came across this helpful picture which we wanted to share here with you. While it only goes a small way in helping us understand the complex and varied nature of autism, it does give us things to consider as we continue to support and promote those with ASD.
Contact Information:
SENDCO Team: Mrs A O'Sullivan, Mr G Hopson
Contact Number: 0191 3770294
Other useful links:
County Durham Families Information Service - The Local Offer
The Local Offer has information for families of children and young people with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities(SEND), from birth to the age of 25.