Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
Thank you to those parents / carers who attended our Behaviour Policy drop-in session on Friday (or spoke to use during the week if they could not attend the drop-in session). It is really useful for us to have feedback on how the revised policy is working for parents / carers.
We were really pleased with the feedback that we received and it reflects the improved behaviour that we have seen from the vast majority of children this year. And we were not inundated, which suggests that most parents / carers are happy and have no burning issues.
There are three things which we would like to follow up:
We plan to have another Behaviour Policy drop-in session at the start of next term but, of course, please speak to the school in the meantime if you have a question about the policy.
You may have heard about Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) but what are they, who are they for and how do those children who need one apply for one?
Mrs Woods, our SEND Leader, has helpfully put together a short guide 👇
An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is a document issued by the local authority outlining a child's special educational, health, and social care needs and the provision to meet each of the needs.
They are designed for children with significant special educational needs, who require support beyond that which a school can provide at SEN support. Not all children with a special educational need will qualify for an EHCP. SENAT (Special Educational Needs Team) Luton believe about 1 in 50 children may be eligible for more intensive and specialist support.
The process of applying for an EHCP involves the school, a medical professional, a social worker or a parent / carer making a written request to the Local Authority to initiate this process. The application process has to be supported by reports from outside agencies, evidence that the school has implemented strategies and advice from outside professionals and proof (behaviour incident logs or assessment levels) that the child has a significant and severe learning need that can’t be supported using the schools dedicated SEN budget.
After an assessment, the Local Authority must decide whether to issue the EHCP or not.
The local authority may decide not to give additional support to children for various reasons, of which the most common are:
A referral may also be declined if relevant social care support has not been put in place. For example, the Family Partnership service have not been involved to support parents and carers.
As a school, we try to ensure that we have all of the required evidence before applying so that that is not a reason for them being turned down!
Here are a couple of useful links that may be of use to parents / carers:
https://sendiasluton.co.uk/support/support-for-parents-and-carers/ehcp/
The school has a very clear Behaviour Policy, which is summarised in our Parent Guide and parents/carers agree to support when they sign the Home / School Agreement.
We prefer to reward children for good behaviour.
However, sometimes children do fail to meet our high expectations. Where this happens, it is always investigated fully by staff before any sanction is given.
This is sometimes tricky because, where an incident does occur, there will usually be different perspectives on what happened (often every child involved or witnessing it has a slightly different view of what happened). However, a great deal of time is spent trying to get to the "truth", although clearly the "truth" might not fit exactly with a child's own perspective. This does not necessarily mean a child is lying - just seeing it from their point of view. Unfortunately, we are seeing an extreme example of this in the current situation in Ukraine - two sides with very different perspectives and even onlooking other countries with slightly different perspectives and versions of events too.
And, in line with the policy, where a child does something at a "Level 4" or above, we always speak to the parent / carer. It is really important that parents / carers support the school at this point.
It is worth remembering that all children occasionally make the wrong choices or misbehave. This is natural and part of growing up. When a child does do something wrong, it is essential that they reflect on it and learn from it. If they don't, or if a parent / carer simply takes their child's perspective of the incident as the "truth", the child is much more likely to think that their misdemeanour is acceptable and do it again... or push the boundaries further.
Unfortunately, this is something we see repeated year-on-year with a small number of children - where parents / carers insist their child's perspective is always the truth and that their child does not ever make the wrong choices or misbehave. Unfortunately, the behaviours then escalate, sometimes with serious outcomes in the secondary school years.
Please support your child by supporting the school.
Behaviour in the Community
A small number of parents / carers have also mentioned the behaviour of a minority of our children in the community - after-school and at the weekends.
Our school rules include "being kind and polite to others" and "treating school and community property with respect" and we spend time in school teaching and embedding these rules. Almost all of the children adhere to these rules in school 😃
A huge THANK YOU to those parents / carers who support and enforce these rules out-of-school too. You are making a real difference to your child.
However, from what has been said, there are a small number of children who are not "being kind" or "respecting community property outside of school". Again, experience shows that these children - if they "get away with it" - tend to go on to do worse 😞
Whilst we try to support, it is not possible or practical for school to investigate every incident in the community. If you are worried about an incident that you see in the community we encourage you to report it to the police (111). They are able to deal with it immediately and follow it up with other agencies; however, please also let us know so that we can follow it up too.