Blueberry Park Primary School
Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)
Welcome to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) section of our school website. This page is updated regularly with information relating to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
At Blueberry Park Primary School we strive to support all pupils to enable them to achieve their full potential, we are proud to be an inclusive and diverse school. In order to support all pupils, regardless of diagnosis, many steps are taken to support them through their learning journey. Quality first teaching is vital; however, for some children there are occasions when further additional support may be needed to help them achieve their targets. Please try not to worry if you or your child's teacher believe that your child may have Special Educational Needs. There are lots of people in school that are able to help and we will do all we can to make sure your child receives the support and guidance that they need.
Our Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) is responsible for managing the SEN provision across the school, from Nursery provision to year 6.
is our SENCo, Assistant Headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
She can be contacted at school on 0151 233 2480. Alternatively you can send an email, for her attention, to:
blueberrypark-sbm@blueberrypark.liverpool.sch.uk
You can also follow on Class DoJo or X (formerly known as Twitter) where she shares SEND related information and resources that parents/carers may find helpful @
Assistant SENCO: Miss Albiston (her/she)
Attend every day! Regardless of need, attendance at school every day is vital, teachers can't teach an empty chair. If your child has additional needs, reasonable adjustments will be made to ensure that they are able to access all of the fantastic provision that we have to offer at Blueberry Park.
Miss Glover adopts an 'open door' policy to meet with parents and carers but sometimes an appointment may be necessary. If you telephone school or send Miss Glover an email, she will aim to respond within 48-hours.
Our SEND Governor is Karen Burke, she meets at least half-termly with Miss Glover to plan and review SEND provision across the school. Karen Burke is an EYFS specialist with an in-depth knowledge of education and special educational needs.
Mental Health
At Blueberry Park, we realise the importance of mental health. We have a mental health team in place to support all aspects of mental health provision across the school. Our Mental Health Lead is Miss Smith, she is available to support and signpost pupils, parents and carers to the relevant mental health support. Miss Smith is supported by Miss Kerwin and Miss Garson, as part of our in-house Mental Health team.
For our pupils, Alder Hey CAMHS now have a Crisis Care team operating 7 days a week from 8.00am until 8.00pm. The Crisis Care team will be offering advice, consultation and direct intervention to children and young people aged between 0-18. Families, children/young people and carers can contact the team on 0151 293 3577.
Our weekly school newsletter often contains information about helpful websites to support with mental health strategies. You can find out more about these on our Safeguarding page.
Seedlings Support via YPAS
We are supported by Lucy Giddings, an experienced therapist from Seedlings. She attends school on a weekly basis to work with some of our children on lots of different art therapy activities. We have a waiting list for Seedlings, if this is something that you feel would be beneficial for your child, please get in touch with Miss Smith, Miss Garson, Miss Kerwin or Miss Glover. All Seedlings referrals are initially triaged by Miss Smith and the Mental Health Support Team.
Educational Psychology
If you would like to find out more about the Educational Psychology Service and the sessions that we can access via Consortia please have a look at this information leaflet:
Autism
Are you interested in learning more about ASD or the diagnostic process?
Ambitious About Autism (https://www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk)
The National Autistic Society
(https://www.autism.org.uk)
Spectrum Gaming (https://www.autismunderstood.co.uk)
Parental Engagement
At Blueberry Park we welcome and encourage parental input to support our pupils. Throughout the year we offer a variety of parental engagement activities with an SEND focus. We hold half-termly 'Inclusion coffee mornings' and parent workshops. Our most recent event, a collaboration with Purple Circle, had an ASD and Sensory Processing focus.
Information around these activities will be shared via the school newsletter and Class DoJo.
Parent voice
We really value feedback from our parents and carers, not only do their thoughts and opinions celebrate the SEND provision at Blueberry Park but feedback also helps us to make improvements and changes to suit the needs of our pupils.
Some recent feedback from our parents/carers:
"The support offered to both myself and my child has been amazing. The school has engaged well with external teams to get as much support as possible to try to give my child the best opportunity to thrive. I am grateful for the help and advice I've received myself, good correspondence and open door policy when I've needed to speak to staff."
You can find more amazing feedback about the provision at Blueberry Park if you follow this link to our guestbook. Guestbook feedback
SEND Information notice board and Inclusion Zone website page
Miss Glover has an 'SEND Information' notice board in the waiting area, next to the main school office. This is regularly updated with useful information for parents and carers regarding all aspects of SEN provision both in school and the local community. On this board you can find details about the SEND graduated approach, the SEND Code of Practice, Seedlings art therapy, Autism advice drop in sessions at Alder Hey and other useful information. You can also find useful information on the Inclusion Zone page of our website. Here you will find information and resources to support with some SEND needs. Click here to find out more Inclusion Zone
Local Offer
When the Children and Families Bill became enacted in 2014, local authorities were required to publish and keep under review information about services they expect to be available for children and young people with special educational needs. This is called the Local Offer. The intention of the local offer is to improve choice and transparency for our families. It is also an important resource for professionals in understanding the range of services and provision in the local area.
A further key role for the local offer is to inform the joint commissioning for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities by setting out in a single place what is available locally. The Local Authority must work together with children and young people, parents and carers and with local services, including the voluntary and community sector, to develop their offer and keep it under review. This is called co-production.
Click on the link below to find the details of Liverpool Authority's Local Offer:
Please click below to access our SEND Information Report. Here you will find out more about the graduated approach and the strategies and services that we can engage with in order to meet any additional needs that your child may have.
The engagement model
You can click on the link below to read more about 'The engagement model.' The engagement model is a teacher assessment tool, used to assess pupils who are working below the level of the national curriculum and not engaged in subject-specific study. Children may be assessed using the engagement model if they have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Parent's Information - The engagement model
SEND Policies and additional information
We work hard to ensure that parents have access to all of the information regarding our provision for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Please click on the links below for further information and our policies. Alternatively, paper copies can be obtained from the school office. Miss Glover will be more than happy to talk you through any of our documentation privately. Upon request, we are also able to provide copies of documentation in any language, please contact Miss Glover so that she can arrange this.
Equality Information and Objectives
External agencies we work with
We are lucky enough to work with a wide variety of external agencies in order to support our pupils:
- Liverpool Educational Psychology Service
- SENISS – Special Educational Needs Inclusion Support Service
- Section 19
- RISE
- Liverpool Virtual School
- Liverpool SEN team
- Addvanced Solutions
- Deaf Active
- NHS Speech and Language Therapy Service
- YPAS – Young Persons Advisory Service
- CAMHS – Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service
- Seedlings (under the CAMHS umbrella)
- Mental Health Support Team (MHST)
- School Health Service, including the School Nurse
- Liverpool Community Physiotherapy
- Springwood Heath outreach
- Occupational Therapy
- Early Help Hubs
- EHAT Team
- Purple Circle Autism Consultancy
- The Yew Tree Children’s Centre
- Everton Football Club
- The ADHD Foundation
- Broadgreen International School, Holly Lodge and other local secondary schools
- Holy Spirit church and other local churches
- Education Welfare Officer
- School Improvement Liverpool
- NSPCC
- Barnardo’s
- Dovecot MAC
- Rock Kidz
- Beth Tweddle Gymnastics
- Merseyside Police – Mini Police Project and other relevant events throughout the year
- Merseytravel
- Priority Youth Community Bus
Useful SEND information
Please find below, a selection of Local Education Authority (LEA), government SEND guidance and general information which Miss Glover believes that you may find helpful.
Meet our Educational Psychology (EP) team
What happens during an EP consultation?
Useful organisations - Contact details
Mayoral Hardship Fund: Help for Citizens information
EHAT Guidance for Parents & Carers
SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years
SEND Graduated Approach windscreen
If you require any further explanation in relation to any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact Miss Glover.
EAL - English as an Additional Language
At Blueberry Park we welcome children from all over the world into our learning community. We provide a welcoming and accepting ethos which acknowledges and celebrates children's diversity. We strive to meet the needs of all our children for whom English is not their first language, whilst at the same time encouraging confidence in developing English to support and enable learning. Our curriculum reflects all the cultures and religions of the community that we are part of. At Blueberry Park we want to have continuity, dialogue and partnership between home and school as we build positive relationships between parents and carers.
We often use translation services to support our EAL families. If you require translations of polices/documentation, or a translator to support you as part of a meeting, please let us know.
