Special Educational Needs and Disability - SEND

This page aims to help parents understand how they can help their child if they have Special Educational Needs and/or a disability.

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordinator (SENDCo) is Mrs Patricia Thomas - whitehallp@bristol-schools.uk.

What are Special Educational Needs?

Often called SEN, it means that a child has additional needs to the majority of children of their age and that they need extra help at school to achieve their full potential.  This could be for a number of reasons and we support these needs in a variety of ways.

What is a Disability?

Under the ‘Equality Act 2010’ you are disabled if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.

At Whitehall Primary, we aim to consider the individual needs of each child and work together to try to support every child.  This could be for a short period or for much of their time at the school. Not all children with SEN are disabled, and not all disabled children have SEN. In school, we follow the guidance in the SEND Code of Practice, to help us make sure we do all that we can to meet the needs of our pupils.

How do we support our pupils with Special Educational Needs?

More information about the way we identify and support our pupils can be found in the SEND Policy.  This document sets out to help parents and carers to understand what we do and how we do it, as well as the kind of support that we are able to provide. To see more information about what help and support we can offer for children with special educational needs or a disability (SEND), please see our SEND Information Report. To learn more about how we improve the physical environment of the school for pupils with disabilities and SEN; improve access to the curriculum; and improve access to information for pupils and parents/carers with disabilities and SEN please see our Accessibility Plan.

For more useful SEND resources from the Local Authority and to find out more about Bristol City Council's SEND LOCAL OFFER click here. To download a digital copy click here.