6. What specialist services and expertise are available at or accessed by the school?

Margaret Wix is an inclusive school and may access a range of provision (detailed below) for children with SEND. Each case is considered and treated on an individual basis. It would only be through discussion with parents, and or, external services, that individual provision will be set. The class teacher and TAs are responsible for providing support for your children in class.

The school employs a SENCO for 4 days per week and works in partnership with a wide range of services and professionals. Mrs Campbell-Pugh holds the National Award for SEN Co-ordination (achieved in October 2016). Margaret Wix has a link Educational Psychologist, Speech Therapist, Specific Learning Difficulties Base teacher, Advisory teacher for Communication Disorders (including autism) and a School Nurse to whom they can directly refer to. The School Nurse is able to support referrals to different health services. The school has access to an NHS Educational Mental Health Practitioner and a private Play Therapist/Counsellor. The school can also access outreach services such as LINKS and advice from local Specialist SEN Schools such as The Collett School.

For children with complex SEND, the frequency of such provision may result in the school applying for additional funding to support a child, known as Exceptional Needs Funding.

Where a number of services are supporting school, children and their families it may be appropriate to instigate Team Around a Family (TAF) meetings. In this instance, meetings are held regularly with parents and all professionals involved. Specific, timed targets are agreed together to ensure services have as much impact as possible in supporting individual's and family's needs.

As a school we use the ‘Graduated Approach’ to supporting children. Most children access the universal support which is open to every child at Margaret Wix via learning through quality first teaching, differentiated learning and resources as well as extra-curricular activities. Some children require additional support with their learning or personal develop through the support of outside agencies and targeted advice for school and parents to implement.

There are a wide range of outside professionals who offer a range of support directly to children and schools. These can be found on our school website via this link.