The class teacher is responsible for the progress of all the children in the class but lots of children need some additional support to help them progress during their time at our school. This additional support may be provided by trained learning support staff; by specialist teachers or through assessment and advice from specialist services. There is a lot of expertise within the staff at St Luke’s: we employ 2 specialist Literacy teachers.  Two members of staff have post graduate qualifications in SpLD (dyslexia). Alongside the 2 SENDCo’s, we employ 2 Assistant SENDCo’s with ASC specialisms who offer hands-on support to staff.  We have been twice granted the Autism Aware Award for our provision for children with ASC. We are regularly supported by the Educational Psychology Service; Speech & Language Service; Sensory Needs Service; BHISS (Brighton & Hove Inclusion Service) and the Schools Mental Health Support Team.

For many children a period of additional support will help them catch up with other children but for some children with special educational needs or disabilities, extra support will be needed more regularly; for longer or for always. The class teachers are responsible for planning the additional support children will need with support from the SENDCo’s.

Most additional support is explained to parents/carers through meetings / information sheets. For children with higher levels of special educational need or disabilities (who have an EHCP, a diagnosis or significant need), parents/carers are invited to an individual child’s planning meeting with school staff to discuss and create targets for each child and a plan of support. The plan is recorded on a termly IEP (individual education plan) and this details who will provide the support and how often. These meetings take place termly and we are happy to meet at other times too if needed.