Special Educational Needs and Disabilities at Thorpe Lea

A big, warm welcome to the 'Special Educational Needs and Disabilities' section of our website. This section contains contact information, details of the forthcoming SEND events, useful contacts and details of activities, strategies and meetings which may be of interest.

Who can support?

For most enquiries and/or to discuss any concerns or questions you may have, please contact your child's class teacher in the first instance. Usually, this is the best way to find out about your child on a day-to-day basis. Following this, Mr Collin, our SENCO can be contacted by arranging a meeting at the office, by leaving a voicemail message on the school answerphone using Ext 4, or sending an email to SENCO@thorpe-lea.surrey.sch.uk.

SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator)

If your child needs additional support outside of Quality First Teaching, they will be referred to the school SENCO, Mr Collin.

Mr Collin started at Thorpe Lea Primary School in September 2019 and has worked in Year 6, Year 2 and as Standards Leader.   Alongside his SENCO role, Mr Collin is the Deputy Headteacher, Designated Safeguarding Lead and PSHE co-ordinator.

SEND Admin Support

At Thorpe Lea Primary School and Nursery we are really lucky in having Mrs Green supporting with our SEND admin and paperwork. Mrs Green is a fantastic asset in supporting with a variety of assessments, communication and paperwork regarding SEN Support.

Surrey Local Offer

The Surrey Local Offer is an extremely useful resource which can be used by children, parents and professionals in supporting children with SEND and can be accessed here.

Collaborative Working

We work closely with a number of different agencies within both the Local Authority and also the NHS. Some are outlined in more detail below.

Parent Partnership - Surrey

A free service available to all parents aiming to promote partnership between parents and any service that supports their children. Please contact them through their website or by giving them a call on 01737 737 300.

STIPS- Specialist Teachers for Inclusive Practice

The specialist teachers for inclusive practice work with schools, families and other agencies to support the inclusion and achievement of children and young people, particularly the most vulnerable. The SENCo can refer a child for support from STIPS.

They offer advice and training on whole school approaches to inclusive practice. They also provide assessments and provision planning for individual children and young people with learning, communication, social, emotional and behavioural needs.

Their aim is to identify need early and support schools to put in place proactive interventions to enable progress and positive outcomes.

CAMHS-Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

The CAMHS Community Teams are multi-disciplinary teams that provide assessment and treatment for children and young people up to the age of 18 who are presenting with a mental health disorder. The SENCo or your GP can refer a child to CAMHS for additional mental health support.

They focus on assessing and treating children and young people presenting with moderate to severe and complex concerns and where these are having a significant impact on the child’s development and cause distress to the child and/or their carers.

CAMHS service users must be under the age of 18 and registered with a GP based in Surrey. The service focuses on behaviours indicative of moderate to severe mental health and development needs which are causing functioning to deteriorate and problems to escalate. These may be having a significant impact on the child or young person’s development quality of life, and / or is causing distress to the child and / or carers. Presenting conditions may include the following:

• Anxiety disorders
• Attachment disorders
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Autistic Spectrum Disorders
• Depressive disorders
• Conduct disorders (diagnostic assessment, identification & treatment of co-morbid disorders as appropriate)
• Deliberate self harm
• Developmental disorders
• Eating disorders
• Hyperkinetic disorders
• Obsessive Compulsive disorder
• Post traumatic syndromes
• Psychotic disorders
• Severe behavioural problems
• Somatic syndromes

Speech and Language Service

Surrey provides a school based speech and language therapy service.

The school's link therapist liaises and discusses the needs of the school and its pupils with the school SENCO on a regular basis. Support for children and young people is provided using the universal, targeted and specialist delivery model. The SENCo can refer your child to the speech and language service should they require additional support.

EHCPs

An education, health and care (EHC) plan is for children and young people aged up to 25 who need more support than is available through special educational needs support.

EHC plans identify educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support to meet those needs.

A request to the local authority for an EHCP needs assessment can be made by parents or the SENCo. Please contact the SENCo if you would like to discuss an EHCP needs assessment.

The local authority will tell you within 16 weeks whether an EHC plan is going to be made for your child.

Below are some links to various support agencies, apps, teaching resources etc, which we hope you will find useful.