Welcome to North East Lincolnshire Special Educational Needs Support Service (S.E.N.S.S.)
Contents:
The Special Educational Needs Support Service ( S.E.N.S.S.) is a specialist teaching service for children with special educational needs, working in partnership with schools, pupils, parents and other agencies.
The AIM of the Service is:
'to raise the level of expectations and quality of teaching and learning for pupils with special educational needs.'
The Service is provided for school age pupils in mainstream schools, in consultation with school staff, during term time only.
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The specialist teachers provide a combination of advisory and teaching support at the level of the individual pupil and advice to the whole school, on the development of teaching and learning opportunities for pupils with cognitive and specific learning difficulties.
The primary concern is with those pupils who have:
- General learning difficulties where progress in the National Curriculum is substantially affected
- Specific learning difficulties ( dyslexia)
The range of support strategies used includes:
- Detailed diagnostic assessment of pupils' needs
- Curriculum target setting
- Highly structured individualised programmes of work
- Direct teaching
- Advice on effective provision
- Involvement in reviews
- Source of staff training
- School assessment of SEN
A major focus of the Service is to promote early identification and intervention so that the support provided will minimise the need for formal assessment.
Within the framework of the SEN Code of Practice, individually named pupils are entitled to support at ' School Action Plus' in accordance with SENSS criteria. Referrals are made by the school to the Head of Service.
The team comprises of Head of SENSS, Senior teacher, peripatetic teachers, teaching assisstants and administration staff. The team has a wide range of specialist knowledge and a variety of additional post graduate qualifications in SEN. These qualifications are continuously being updated.
The Service is part funded from the central budget, and as such works on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council. The teachers and teaching staff within the Learning Support Team support pupils in every mainstream primary and secondary school throughout North East Lincolnshire. The cost of part of the Service is also met from funds delegated to schools for pupils who have statements. Schools are able to purchase appropriate specialist support for these named pupils or other negotiated activities through Service Level Agreements (S.L.A.s).
Contact details:
Mrs J. Barney
Head of S.E.N.S.S.
Directorate of Children's Services
Springfield Development Centre
Springwood Crescent
Grimsby
DN33 3HG
Tel. 01472 323171/2
Fax. 01472 323176
e-mail: jean.barney@nelincs.gov.uk
Dyslexia Policy and Guidelines (pdf) (637 KB)
(In order to read pdf files you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. This is a free download from the internet and can be accessed from our Downloads page.)
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The Portage Service is a home - teaching service for pre-school children with special needs. These needs may be:
- Cognitive and learning difficulties
- Behaviour, emotional and social development difficulties
- Communication and interaction difficulties
- Sensory and/or physical impairment
The support provided is based on the principle that parent/carers are responsible for the care and development of their own child and that they bring considerable experience to the partnership with professionals.
The AIM is to work in partnership with parent/carers to support the development of young children's play, using the Portage Checklist, which encompasses the following skill areas:
- Infant stimulation
- Socialisation
- Self-help
- Cognitive
- Motor
- language
The Service operates part-time, term time only and comprises of a Portage Supervisor, Home visitors and administrative support. All the staff have additional training in Portage methods and have a wealth of experience working with families and children. All the children are supported in their own homes. The home visitors work alongside parents/carers and offer a carefully structured but flexible system to help parents/carers become effective teachers of their own children. A Portage checklist, together with written activity charts and photographic evidence provides ongoing assessment of a child's progress. The staff also work in close liaison with parent and other professionals from multi -disciplinary teams.
Portage operates an open referral system. Anyone, who has a concern about a child's development, can with parental permission refer to the Portage Service. On receipt of the referral the Portage supervisor will arrange to make an initial home visit to discuss the service and determine if it would be appropriate for the child. If found to be appropriate subsequent visits are arranged with the parent/carer. These are usually weekly or fortnightly.
The Service is funded from the central budget and as such works on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council. Further additional funding has been made available through local Sure Start initiatives to provide additional support in designated areas.
A referral form and an information leaflet for the Portage Service is available by clicking here: Portage Referral Form (pdf) (49 KB) and Portage Information Leaflet (pdf) (137 KB)
(In order to read pdf files you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. This is a free download from the internet and can be accessed from our Downloads page)
Contact Details
Mrs Maggie Smith
Portage Supervisor
Directorate of Children's Services
Springfield Development Centre
Springwood Crescent
Grimsby
DN33 3HG
Tel. 01472 323177/8
Fax. 01472 323190
E-mail Portage
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