Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
At Fairfield Primary School, we strive to meet the needs of all pupils within our school. All staff are aware of SEND within the school and receive high quality, up-to-date information and training. We aim to quickly identify pupils, who require additional support and provide targeted interventions to meet their needs. We ensure that parents are fully aware of the SEND process and informed of their child’s learning regularly throughout the year. We are a fully inclusive school and have strong links with the Local Authority, Health Professionals and organisations within our community. Our environment at Fairfield Primary School, is developing regularly and consciously to meet the needs of our pupils. We aim to continue to learn, develop and grow our understanding of SEND across the school to meet the needs of all pupils within our care. If you have any concerns or wish to discuss SEND at our school, please do not hesitate to contact me:
Mrs. Hannah Birkett, SENDCo
Tel: 01900 821133
Email: hbirkett@fairfieldprimary.co.uk
Meet the Team
All Staff at Fairfield Primary School have responsibility to provide quality first teaching to pupils with SEND. If your child has an EHCP, their class teacher will inform and introduce you to the key members of staff, who work within your child’s class. If your child is receiving some group or one-to-one support these staff may be involved:
Mrs H Birkett
SENDCo
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Mrs T Barrientos
Phonics, Structured Reading & Spelling & Reading Intervention Facilitator
Mrs L Fisher
Counselling & Pastoral Support
Mrs K Galea
ELSA & Pastoral Support
Governor Link: Mrs. Sally Sapsford oversees the SEND provision within our school.
The Four Main Areas of SEND
If your child has been identified as SEND, it will be determined which of the four areas, will be their main area of need. We promote the ethos of Quality First Teaching within school, to adapt and meet learning needs. We will then follow the process of Assess-plan-do-review alongside parents/carers, to determine the next steps for your child.
Communication & Interaction
- ASC
- Speech, learning and communication (SLCN)
Cognition & Learning
- Specific learning difficulty (SpLD)
- Mild to moderate learning difficulty (MLD)
- Severe learning difficulty (SLD)
- Profound multiple learning difficulty (PMLD)
Social, Emotional & Mental Health
- Children and young people with SEMH may have the following mental health difficulties: anxiety, withdrawn or feeling isolated, having challenging and disturbing behaviour, self-harming, depression, eating disorder, and substance misuse.
Sensory and/or Physical
- Visual impairment (VI)
- Hearing impairment (HI)
- Multi-sensory impairment (MSI)
- Physical disability (PD)
If you have any concerns or would like to discuss anything further, please contact Mrs. H. Birkett.
SEND Policies
SEND Documents
Cumberland SEND Information Hub
Autism & ADD/ADHD
Below are some useful websites and organisations that may provide support and further understanding of your child’s needs. Please speak to Mrs. Birkett, if you require further support and/or information.
- Cumberland Autism Information and Support Hub
- National Autistic Society (autism.org.uk)
- Independent Community Autism Activity Network (I CAAN) West Cumbria
- Owl Blue Children's Charity | Cumbria's Family Information Directory
- West House | Care and Support Provider for Adults and Children with Disabilities
- ADHD Foundation | Information Booklets
- Challenging Behaviour Foundation | What is challenging behaviour?
- PDA Society | Pathological Demand Avoidance | Part of the Autism Spectrum
PIVATS
Interventions
At Fairfield Primary School we use a range of interventions in school to support pupils with their learning. The intervention and delivery, will depend on the needs of the child. These include:
- Targeted interventions and/or adaptations to support pupils with dyslexia
- Targeted Intervention and pre-teaching to support gaps in learning
- Little Wandle SEND Programme of Phonics
- Reciprocal Reading
- ELSA
- Pastoral/Counsellor/Nurture Support
- Well-being Workshops
- Use of the Sensory Space
- Sensory Circuits
- Interoception Support
- Blacksheep
- Speech and Language Therapy interventions (based on need)
Dyslexia
We currently use a dyslexia screener in school to identify pupils, who may have traits of dyslexia. Please note that this is not a diagnostic tool however, it supports staff and parents/carers in making further decisions in how best to support their child with their learning. For further information about this, please contact Mrs. Birkett or your child’s class teacher.
Further information regarding Coloured Overlay Assessments for Visual Stress can be found in the documents below.
Social, Emotional & Mental Health Needs
We have a range of services in school to support pupils with their SEMH needs. These include: Nurture Group, Pastoral Support, ELSA and Mrs. L. Fisher our school counsellor. We can also contact our area’s Behaviour and Emotional Well Being Officer (BEWO), who works alongside the county’s Educational Psychologists for further advice and support for pupils within school. This service is accessed through the Early Help Process.
Transition
We aim to support and prepare pupils as much as possible for their transition to secondary school. We have strong links with local secondary schools and transitions are planned for carefully with secondary school staff. If you would like to discuss transition for your child, please contact Mrs. H. Birkett.
Further Services
At Fairfield Primary School, we promote very strong links with our specialist teachers and Educational Psychologist for our local area, who regularly visit school to work with pupils and provide staff with further advice and training. We also access a wide range of services from the NHS such as speech and language therapists, community paediatrics, occupational therapists etc., who provide parents/carers and staff in school with the right information to meet pupils’ needs.
If you have concerns regarding speech and language therapy, physical/medical needs, autistic spectrum conditions, ADD/ADHD, cognition and learning or anything, please contact Mrs. Birkett for further advice and/or consult the pages below:
Education Psychologist Services
The County Psychological Service works within Children's Services and makes its distinctive contribution through applying psychology to help people solve problems and improve learning. This may be at an individual level where young people are having difficulty at school. It may also be at an institutional level, working on wider issues with schools or other settings to help all children be as successful as possible.
County Psychological Services | School Information and Resources
Early Intervention Programme
The Early Intervention Programme has been designed to make links between Special Schools and Mainstream Schools. It has been designed to support primary students across Cumbria, who experience comparable barriers to learning. It involves a mainstream team, who require additional support or strategies to enable a student to make progress to refer to the relevant Special School. Our catchment school is Mayfield School, Whitehaven. For further information about this process, please speak to Mrs. Birkett (SENDCo).
NHS
The North Cumbria Community Children and Young People’s Services are formed of several services aimed at supporting children and their families with their mental health and emotional wellbeing:
North Cumbria Integrated Care also offers the following services:
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News & Events
We are developing a sensory space within school to support those pupils, who require further support in meeting their communication and interaction needs. We have adapted a small teaching room and have begun to collect resources to use within this space. This is an ongoing project and would welcome any suggestions/donations of equipment to support this room.
Panathlon Success!
Our panathlon team had a fantastic time yesterday representing the school at Tenpin bowling at Carlisle. It was a great day for the children, well-organised and everyone got a medal and certificate for their fabulous effort. Well done to our wonderful team!
The Calvert Trust Swimming Pool and Sensory Room
Some of our fabulous pupils enjoy lovely days at The Calvert Trust Swimming Pool and Sensory Room. We are looking forward to making further use of their facilities in the near future.
Clip and Climb Adventure
Some of our lovely pupils enjoy active mornings at Clip and Climb in The Wave Centre, Maryport. We are looking forward to visiting The Wave Centre for further enrichment opportunities in the near future.
Autism Awareness Week
As part of Autism Acceptance Week, our Year 5 and 6 pupils were visited by two students from Cockermouth School, to talk about their experiences of being Autistic. It was lovely to hear about the students’ experiences and our pupils had the opportunity to ask lots of great questions. As well as this, our SENDCo, Mrs. Birkett, delivered a whole-school assembly to celebrate Autism Acceptance Week.
Horse Riding
Some of our lovely pupils participate in horse riding lessons at The Calvert Trust Riding Centre. They learn lots about caring for the horses as well as learning how to ride them in the arena.
Watchtree
A lovely day is always enjoyed at Watchtree for some of our pupils; they have a thoroughly lovely time.
