SENCO and SEN Staff
Our SENCO at ST Joseph’s is Mrs D. Curtis and it is Mrs G. Yates at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. Both hold the National Award for Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (NASENCO). If you would like to contact her or arrange an appointment, please call the school on 0191 3730355 / 3734343 or use the following email address: ushawmoorstjosephs@durhamlearning.net ourladyqueenofmartyrs@durhamlearning.net
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 SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
- Durham County Council Local Offer
- Local Authority Special Educational Needs Inclusion Team
- Educational Psychology Service
- Communication and Interaction Team
- Emotional Well Being Team (EWEL)
- Cognition and Learning and Sensory Motor Team
- Health Agencies, particularly School Nurse Service and Health Visitors
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
- Speech and Language Therapists
- Social Care and Health Team
- Specialist therapists – Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy
- Other specialist health services as required, e.g. hearing, speech, vision
- Medical Practitioners – GPs, Paediatricians, Clinical Psychologists
- Family workers and One Point Children Centre staff
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 therapists etc.
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:
- Buying in the services of external specialists
- Buying resources to support children
- Buying in school training to ensure staff are skilled in delivering high-quality provision to meet the specific needs of children with SEN e.g. peg feeding/colourful semantics
If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.
