SEND Specialist Expertise
South Hetton Primary School has a dedicated Special Needs Co-ordinator (SENDCo) – Mrs Tamsin Hill.
Mrs Hill was appointed as SEND Co-ordinator in 2014 and completed the National SENDCo Award at Sunderland University in 2015.
Telephone No: 0191 526 1662
Email: tamsin.hill@shprimary.co.uk
Further details of the SENDCo role can be found in the SEND policy.
South Hetton Primary School receives a notional SEND budget from the Local Authority and this is used to support children and young people with SEND. Some of our Teaching Assistants are partly funded by the SEND budget and this enables us to ensure delivery of high-quality intervention programmes and support tailored to the children’s needs.
All children, regardless of need, receive High Quality Teaching. We aim to keep children with SEND part of their whole class as much as possible, therefore support is generally given in the form of tailored curriculum activities, resources and a teaching assistant working alongside the children and the teacher. Interventions are carried out throughout the day at a range of times.
Securing staff expertise
Training opportunities are made available to all teachers and teaching assistants to ensure high quality interventions and support can be carried out. In addition to individual training, we also engage with our Trust partners to partake in in-house CPD.
Opportunities may include:
- Specialist training for all staff
- Specialist training for individuals
- Specialist training for SENDCo
- In-house training on SEND expectations and in response to monitoring
- In-house CPD alongside Trust partners on specific areas of SEND
- Accessing training from the Local Authority for individuals and through ‘bought in’ twilights on specific areas
What training do staff supporting children with SEND have?
Members of staff have Paediatric Fist Aid and Safeguarding Level 1 and 2 training. In addition, school staff have also benefited from training a range of training through Tudhoe Learning Trust: Autism, Anxiety, Understanding and Responding to Challenging Behaviours & Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences. Training opportunities were led by Dr. Pooky Knightsmith and Nerys Hughes across the 2021-2022 academic year. In the Autumn term of 2022, all staff took part in training on SEND Adaptations for Inclusion led by Elizabeth Mulholland from the Durham Advisory Team.
The SENDCo also attends the local authority SEND Network Meetings each term.
We have teaching and support staff trained in:
- Relax Kids
- Therapeutic Storywriting
- Talk About Me
- Listening Matters
- Lego Therapy
- Speech and Language Support
- Teacher trained to Level 2 BSL
External Specialists and Other Bodies
South Hetton Primary School works closely with any external agencies that we feel are relevant to individual children’s needs within our school, including people who provide services to children with SEND and their families, particularly when a child’s barriers for learning are more complex or persistent.
External specialists may:
- Act in an advisory capacity
- Extend expertise of staff
- Provide additional assessment
- Support a child or group of children directly
- Consult with all parties involved with the child
External specialists include, but will not be limited to:
- One Point
- CAMHs
- Neurodevelopmental Pathway
- Durham SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
- NHS Occupational Therapy
- School Nurse Team
- Speech and Language Therapy
Support from external specialists may be secured through direct funding from school, allocation of credits supplied to school by the Community of Learning and free-service referral processes. In some instances, support is sought through charitable organisations for specific circumstances, such as St. Cuthbert’s bereavement services.
