We will assess each pupil’s current skills and levels of attainment on entry, which will take into account information from previous settings and key stages, where appropriate. Also:

• During visits to pre-schools we find out if a child has had any involvement with outside agencies or if the parents/carers have any concerns.
• Classroom staff keep careful track of the child and identify any barriers to learning.
• Regular and focused observations of the child will be made
• Professional judgements will be used to identify and assess whether a child has special educational needs
• Assessment within each lesson, termly assessments, including standardised assessment scores and national assessments such as SATs and the year 1 phonic screening will be used to inform our judgement
• Observations of children in class, at lunchtimes, breaktimes etc
• Regular meetings with the Head teacher and SENDCo where performance and progress of each child is tracked – both against national targets and personal targets.

To decide whether special educational provision is required, progress of the child will:

o Be significantly slower than that of their peers starting from the same baseline

o Fail to match or better the child’s previous rate of progress

o Fail to close the attainment gap between the child and their peers

o Widen the attainment gap

o Be negatively impacted due to significant social, emotional and mental health needs

Slow progress and low attainment will not automatically mean a pupil is recorded as having SEN.

Teachers do not diagnose conditions.

If progress is not being made, then either other provisions or interventions are implemented or a referral is made to an outside agency such as an LSAT from Severndale Outreach, SALT, Educational Psychologist, Occupational Therapist, Sensory Inclusion, CAMHs.  Parents can also request an assessment by visiting their GP.

Shropshire Community Health organise various health checks from Reception to Year 6. These include: height and weight; sight and hearing. The outcome of this is reported to parents/carers and school. Action is taken as appropriate.