SEN Specialist Expertise
SENCO and SEND Staff
Our SENCO is Mrs Katharine Simpson (Deputy Headteacher). You can contact her by phoning the school office on 0191 378 0552.
More details of the SENCO’s role can be found in the SEND Policy which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.
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 County Council Local Offer
- Durham SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
- Educational Psychologists
- Emotional Wellbeing Team
- Cognition and Learning
- Movement Difficulties Service
- SEND Advisory Team
- CAMHS
- One Point
How We Secure Specialist Expertise
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:
- Paying for training of staff to ensure they know up-to-date strategies to support specific needs.
- Having additional Teaching Assistants, to enable children with additional needs to get the support that they need in the classroom.
- Buying resources appropriate to the child’s need.
If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.