SENCO and SEN Staff
Our SENCO is Mrs Helen Davenport.
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:
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. If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.
Westlea Primary school work closely with any external agencies that we feel are relevant to individual children’s needs within our school including 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
How we secure specialist expertise
At Westlea Primary school, we liaise with the following agencies depending upon the individual child’s needs:
- Durham County Council Local Offer
- Autism Spectrum Communications Team
- CAMHS
- Crisis Response
- Education Psychology Service
- Learning Difficulties and Disability Support Service
- Movement Difficulties Service
- Occupational Therapy
- School Nurse Team
- Social Care and Health Team
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Teachers for the Visually impaired
We encourage these professionals to visit school as often as possible to work with our staff and share their expertise. Wherever possible, staff implement programmes of work linked to these professionals e.g. speech and language programmes, exercises recommended by physical therapies etc.
If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.
