S.E.N.D Support

Support for Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities - S.E.N.D Support

Your child may already be on the Special Educational Needs register at their current Primary School. If this is the case, meetings will take place between your child’s current SENDCo and the DCHS team this term so that detailed information on their particular area of need is shared. This information will be transferred to our school records and you will receive a letter in September confirming that we have placed them on our SEND register.

All students on our SEND register are allocated a keyworker. This is usually a member of our Learning Support team and they will meet at least termly with your child to check that all is well and to help with any concerns. They will also draw up a Pupil Passport with your child that is shared with teaching staff. The Pupil Passport highlights your child’s area of need, strengths and aspirations  and looks at ways that staff can support them with their learning. The Passport helps to give teachers a better understanding of individual need and it is reviewed regularly throughout the year.

If your child requires further intervention, they may be included in additional intervention session such as literacy or numeracy. These intervention usually take place in half termly blocks on a rolling system to try and minimise disruption to their main timetable. If this is felt necessary for your child, we will write to you to offer this intervention. 

We also work with external agencies who can offer specialist teacher support for areas such as Visual Impairment, Hearing Impairment, Behaviour, ASD and Speech and Language. We will complete referrals to these services with your consent if your child requires more intensive support than we are able to offer in school.

As a department, we are always happy to discuss any concerns you may have so that your child is fully supported to achieve their full potential and feel safe and secure in school. We are also planning to hold regular parent Drop In sessions throughout the school year where a team of support staff will be available to chat through any concerns. 

Our student support SEND branch is coordinated by Dr Laslett along with Ms Clerkin who will be your SEND initial contact following discussion with your child's form tutor. Ms Clerkin, the form tutors and Mrs Coxford are all able to respond to initial questions and will then relay your concerns to the wider SEND team.

The whole student support team is overseen by our designated SENDCo, Mrs Hutchinson but she is hugely supported by a team of SEND specialist staff including Dr Laslett, Ms Clerkin and specialist LSAs who lead our intervention programmes.