SENCO and SEN Staff
Our SENCO is Mrs L Cole (0191 3865715). Mrs Cole is also one of the schools Assistant Head teachers and is part of the Humanities’ teaching team. She is the schools Child Protection Lead and Designated Teacher for Looked after Children.
More details of the SENCO’s role can be found in the SEN Policy which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.
She is supported by an Assistant SENCO, Mrs M Brydon (0191 3865715). Mrs Brydon is qualified in Educational Testing and is able to carry out the assessments for the exam access arrangements.
The school also employs 4 further SEN staff:
- Miss R Barker – HLTA (withdrawal and intervention for specified students)
- Mrs L Clarkson – HLTA (withdrawal and intervention for specified students)
- Mrs J France – HLTA (Reading intervention for years 7 and 8)
- Miss S Salmon – LSA (Numeracy intervention and small group work)
External Specialists and Other Bodies
The school enjoys good working relationships with a wide range of people who provide services to children with SEND and their families.
The external specialists may:
- Act in an advisory capacity
- Extend expertise of school staff
- Provide additional assessment
- Support a child directly
- Suggest statutory assessment is advisable
- Consult with all parties involved with the child
These include:
- Durham SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
- The Education Support Services which caters for a variety of needs. For example, English as an Additional Language (EAL); Educational Health Needs; Behaviour Intervention; Gypsy, Roma and Traveller; SEND; Communication/Autistic Spectrum Disorder; Hearing and Visual Impairment and Specific Learning difficulties.
- Education Psychology Service and SEN Placement and Provision
- Autism and Social Communication Team
- The One Point Service who provides a team of professionals including school nurse, education welfare officers, personal advisors and youth workers
- Looked After Children’s Education Service
- Other services such as the School Counsellor and Parent Support Adviser also work closely with the school.
Our Additional Needs Budget is used to support children and young people with SEN.
This is used to support children and young people with SEND by:
- Providing recommended support aids, such as laptops, coloured overlays, exercise books with alternative coloured paper, etc.
- The use of in class support tailored to the specific needs of the students
- Targeted individual/ group interventions. For example, reading intervention. Learning Support Assistants/ HLTA’s will work with students on either a one to one basis or with small groups according to need.
- Exam access arrangement assessments to provide additional support in examinations to ensure that the student is not at an unfair disadvantage in comparison to their peers due to SEN.
- Use of external specialists, such as the Educational Psychologist.
If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.