SENCO and SEN Staff
Our SENCO is Miss Amanda Barrass. She can be contacted at: castleside@durhamlearning.net
Miss A Barrass has been awarded the National Award for SENDCo accreditation. More details of the SENCO’s role can be found in the SEN Policy which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.
Our Early Years teacher, Mrs A Cassidy, is trained in early identification of speech and language difficulties (ELKLAN) and strategies to implement at the earliest opportunity.
External Specialists and Other Bodies
The school enjoys good working relationships with a wide range of people who provide services to children with SEND and their families.
The external specialists may:
- Act in an advisory capacity
- Extend expertise of school staff
- Provide additional assessment
- Support a child directly
- Suggest statutory assessment is advisable
- Consult with all parties involved with the child
These include:
- Durham County Council Local Offer
- Durham SEND Information, Advice and Support Service
- One Point Consett
- The Educational Psychology Service
- CAMHS
- ASC team
- Occupational Therapy / Physiotherapists
How We Secure Specialist Expertise
Our Additional Needs Budget is used to support children and young people with SEN. At Castleside Primary School, our notional SEN budget amounts to £36,799.54.
This is used to support children and young people with SEND by:
- Providing teaching assistants to support children within class or to carry out interventions when necessary.
- The purchase of specialist computer packages to help support specific needs e.g. Lexia, Clicker 8
- Allowing staff to access training specific to individual needs, for example ADHD, Autism.
- Providing one to one support or small group support from a teaching assistant where necessary.
- The purchase of specialist equipment and resources
If a child has complex special educational needs, we could also receive additional funding from the Local Authority to meet the agreed outcomes.
