Special Educational Needs and Inclusion

At Victoria Park Primary School, we are proud to be an inclusive school providing high quality, creative and challenging education within a secure, caring and happy environment, where every child experiences a sense of enjoyment and achieves their full potential. We recognise that at some stage many pupils may require additional support to develop their learning and reach their potential.  We recognise that these needs have to be met to the best of our ability and resources.

We promote an ethos of whole school approach to SEN through raised awareness towards understanding and commitment of shared responsibility by all members of staff. Pupils with special educational needs should access learning opportunities in a way that meets their individual needs. Our Special Educational Needs Policy is designed to recognise pupils learning needs and make provision for meeting them, either within school or through the use of specialist support and advisory services.

Specialist Support and Advisory Services

Harberton Learning Outreach: Mrs Lynn Neil

Peripatetic Literacy Outreach Support Service:Mrs Paula Bowers         
Harberton Behaviour Outreach Support: Mr Michael O'Kane

Clarawood Behaviour Outreach Supporter: Mr Gerry Kelly

Family Worker: Mrs Rachel Howe

‘Imagine If’ School Counsellor: Ms Victoria Izat

RISE Team  

SEN Early Years Inclusion Service 

Literacy Service

At Victoria Park Primary School we follow these key SEN principles:

• Provision matches child’s requirements in the educational setting
• There is careful recording of needs, actions taken and outcomes
• We endeavour to include the pupil voice 
• We endeavour to work in collaboration with parents to support the needs of pupils in the school environment 
• Outside specialists are involved where appropriate

Partnership with parents

We believe that parents have an important and vital role to play in their child’s development and education. We recognise the important role of parents as partners and will involve them in discussions about the needs of their child, inform them of the provisions made for their child and the progress their child is making. 

School based SEN Stages

At Victoria Park we follow the new three stage approach set out in the Code of Practice as shown below.

It is our aim that children with SEN are identified and assessed as early as possible. A child will be considered to have special educational needs if:

• Has significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children at the same age.
• Has a disability which either prevents or hinders the child from making use of education facilities of a kind provided for children of the same age in a main stream setting.
• He or she has a medical or physical difficulty/diagnosis which may disrupt their learning e.g. Hearing impairment.

Three Stages of The New Code of Practice

We are currently awaiting an interim policy from EANI to reflect the new three stage Code of Practice.

Victoria Park Primary School's SEN and Inclusion Policy will be updated in due course to reflect these changes.

Support Resources for Parents 

Please follow the links below to find useful videos, visual aids and resources to help support your child at home.