SEND at St. Paul's

At St. Paul's School we pride ourselves on our ability to support children with a variety of special needs and we have taken steps to ensure that all children are treated equally. This includes having an exciting curriculum that is inclusive to all children, irrespective of need. As a result, the school is suitably equipped to deal with a wide range of individual requirements.

Our teaching team are skilled in teaching children with a wide range of academic, physical, and social emotional needs. This may be in the form of classroom-based support and scaffolding, or sometimes in small group or one-to-one sessions outside of the classroom. We use resources from within the school and from the support services within the local authority.

As a school we recognise the importance of building close working relationships between children, staff, parents, and other agencies. We believe that this is central to getting the very best outcomes for our pupils with additional needs. We offer our parents of SEN pupils the opportunity to meet with us 3 times a year, but we also have an open door policy that encourages open dialogue and collaborative working. 

The school and the governing body regularly review its provision for children with special needs and ensure that its staff are well prepared and trained.

We recognise that many special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) may not be visible and many children live with mental health challenges. For children who need additional support with these additional needs, we have trained THRIVE practitioners who support pupils across the across the school. In addition we have a Parent Support Advisor who supports both parents and children. 

If you would like to discuss any issue regarding your child or special educational needs, please ask to speak to our SENCO, who will be happy to provide both information and support. 

Welcome to Holland

By: Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this…

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.

But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things... about Holland.