SENCO and SEN Staff
Our SENCO is Susan Gibbins. Having completed the National Award for SEN Coordination and the designated Senior Mental Health Lead in school, she has extensive experience in the role.
More details of the SENCO’s role can be found in the SEN 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
- Speech & Language Therapists
- Education Psychology / Emotional Wellbeing and Effective Learning Team
- School Counsellor and Parent Support Advisor
- Peace of Mind Team
- Other Local Authority specialists through traded services (i.e. Cognition and Learning; Autism & Social Communication teams)
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 allocating our notional SEND budget towards a range of support strategies including 1 to 1 support, small group support and pastoral support. This support is provided by funding adults to work within school as well as by purchasing resources and accessing training.
If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.