Our Vision 

Kates Hill Primary School aims to provide a happy, stimulating and secure environment which will enhance its children’s desire to learn and help them to achieve in all areas through the development of skills, concepts and knowledge. 

We aim to be aware of factors which may indicate a child has special or additional educational needs, as soon as possible in order to avoid periods of limited progress and feelings of frustration.  We aim to make sure all our pupils are given appropriate support in order to achieve and access the curriculum being fully integrated into all school activities.  Parental involvement is important in developing a partnership of support, enabling them to have full confidence in the strategies adopted by the school.  

June 2025 Information 

Kates Hill currently has 456 children on role (June 25). 
There are currently 104 children on SEND register with a range of needs form universal to specialist.  

The SENCO for Kates Hill is Mr Waterfield.

If you would like to contact Mr Waterfield you can call the school on 01384900670 or email [email protected]

At Kates Hill we believe that inclusion of all children within everyday school life is important and where every child is given the opportunity to access the curriculum and achieve their full potential. Our curriculum is broad and balanced where teachers respond to pupils’ diverse learning needs by employing a range of teaching strategies to support the needs of all. Parents/carers are also encouraged to play an active part in helping their child. 

The SENCo in collaboration with the staff at Kates Hill and the governing body, plays a key role in determining the strategic development of the provision in the school in order to raise the achievement of children with SEND. The SENCo with the support of school staff, will off advice and support in developing effective ways of overcoming barriers to learning and sustaining effective teaching through the analysis and assessment of children’s needs, monitoring the quality of teaching and standards of pupils’ achievements, and supporting colleagues professional development so they are well equipped to meet their children’s needs.

SEND is categorised into the following four areas:

Kates Hill recognises that pupils at school with medical conditions should be properly supported so that they have full access to education, including school trips and physical education. Where children have a medical need, the school will work with health professionals to make sure their needs are met, which can involve the creation of a care plan by the health professionals which the school can follow.

At Kates Hill Primary School all teachers are expected to deliver high quality teaching that is differentiated and personalised to meet the individual needs of children. 

Pupils who are falling significantly outside the range of expected academic achievement in line with predicted performance indicators will be monitored.

If a teacher has a concern regarding a child, they will speak with the SENCO and parents and the child will be monitored for an agreed period.

If the concern is still present after initial monitoring, then the teacher would create a cause for concern with the support of the parent’s views, which is then passed to the SENCO to action.

The SENCO will analyse the cause for concern and decide the outcomes that would be needed. Internal support is always looked at first and offered through a meeting with the class teacher.

Staff can access the Ordinarily Available Guidance which will give strategies and resource ideas depending on the concern that has arisen.

A plan is created in the form of an Edukey plan (which is a set of personalised targets for the child to work on) and this is shared with parents identifying the support that would be given within school.

After an agreed period, the targets on the Edukey plan are monitored and assessed and progress shared with parents. If further support is required, the SENCO will liaise with the class teacher and parents, which may be in the form of external agency involvement. This could involve agencies visiting the child within school and assessing their needs to create a more formal report with targets for school and parents to work on. These targets will form part of their Edukey plans.

This process is known as Assess, Plan, Do and Review (APDR).

If a child has lifelong, significant or complex difficulties which have been monitored overtime by the school, they may undergo a Statutory Assessment Process which is usually requested by the school but can be requested by a parent.

This will occur where the complexity of need or a lack of clarity around the needs of the child are such that a multi-agency approach to assessing that need, to planning provision and identifying resources, is required. 

The decision to make a referral for an Education, Health and Care Plan will be taken at a progress review. 

An application for an ECHP will combine information from a variety of sources such as:

• Parents
• Teachers
• SENCO
• Social Care (if applicable)
• Health professionals
• Other outside agency involvement

A decision will be made by the Local Authority about whether the child is eligible for an EHC Plan. Parents have the right to appeal against a decision not to initiate a statutory assessment leading to an EHC Plan. Further information about EHC Plans can be found via the SEND Local Offer https://www.dudley.gov.uk/residents/dudley-local-offer/ or by contacting Dudley.

Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service

(SENDIASS) on: 07900 161363

External support services play an important part in helping the school identify, assess and make provision for pupils with SEND. Services which may draw upon include: 
 

• Learning Support Services
• Educational Psychologist
• Autism Outreach
• CIPS – support with autism, physical, visual and sensory needs
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Early Years Integration Service (IEYS)
• School Nurse
• School Counselling Service
• Inclusive Pathways
• Phase Trust
• Sycamore Outreach
• Reflexions Team
• Occupational Therapy

We will only refer once we have spoke to parents and have their support to meet their best interests.

Staff at Kates Hill are continuously learning and developing their own skills in line with the present needs the children at Kates Hill have.

Over the last few years, our staff have been trained to support children with complex needs. Some of the training staff have received include the following:

Staff within Kates Hill are also trained in delivering Hamish and Milo interventions which support the children’s emotional wellbeing if needed.

At Kates Hill we want all children to be inclusive within the mainstream curriculum and some children need adaptations so they can access the curriculum within school.

Kates Hill has worked with the ECHO Speech and Language team, so the school can become a more communication friendly environment for all children to learn in.

We see that not all children learn through verbal communication and visual aids are important. Within class, you will see visual aids supporting children’s learning in the environment, i.e. on working walls within classroom.

Visual aids are also used within children’s learning to create the following:

As well as visual aids, we have other adaptations to support children’s learning:

• Ear defenders
• Chew toys
• Timers
• Assistive technology to support with writing and understanding