Assessing and meeting the needs of children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) in mainstream schools is the foundation for improving outcomes, parental confidence and delivering the financially sustainable SEND system, as envisaged in the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan.
Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) will bring health and education specialists and expert parent carers into mainstream primary settings to:
- help shape whole school SEND provision
- provide early interventions at a school level
- upskill school staff
- support strengthening of partnerships between schools and parent carers
The PINS project is testing a new model for supporting good outcomes in mainstream schools for Neurodiverse students and strength parent carer and school partnerships. The project will focus on strengthening knowledge, skills and improving environments to better meet the needs of neurodiverse children. Through a focus on supportive learning environments and well-equipped schools we can improve the outcomes for this group of children.
Each school in the programme will complete the nationally agreed self-assessment tool for schools to identify priority areas for support. Schools will collate the findings and use them to assess themselves against a number of high-level domains (including Leadership, Culture and Values; Mental Health; Readiness to Learn; Teaching and Learning; Environment and Communication).
To support the successful delivery of the PINS programme, your school has been asked to complete the self-assessment form to help identify the strengths and weaknesses of your whole school’s approach to inclusion.
Pupil Voice and Parent Carer Involvement are at the heart of the PINS project and all schools are required to complete these elements of the project. Please refer to the Pupil Voice and Parent Carer Involvement sections for more information.
The self-assessment seeks input from school leaders, the governing body, SENCO, and will be considered alongside the results of all feedback, to understand the areas in which your school would most benefit from.
The schools assessment looked at 6 key areas within school these are:
Leadership Culture and Values – School Ethos, Awareness, Co-production and Parental Engagement
Mental Health
Readiness to Learn
Teaching and Learning
The Environment
Communication
Children’s feedback is very important to the PINS Programme, and schools have been asked to seek the views of children in their school.
The pupil voice feedback will contribute to the school’s overall assessment. In Medway schools are just starting to gather this.
The Children’s Voice Self-Assessment questionnaire which is aligned with the six self-assessment domains, so that children’s feedback can feed into your school support priorities.
Example’s of questions
- I feel safe and cared for at school
- My teachers listen to my views and ideas to make school better.
- I feel happy at mealtimes and eat enough at school
- I can ask my teachers and they will help me with my work.
- I get help to sort out any problems with my friends
Collaboration with parents and carers is critical to the success of the PINS programme, in order to build or strengthen parental relationships with schools, and to build confidence in local ways of working and the support that parents can expect for their children. Parent carers are key partners in the delivery of PINS and there will be parent carer representation at all levels.
Parent carers have been asked for their views at the start and will be asked again at end of the project at all the schools involved in the project. This is a nationally designed survey which is facilitated by Medway Parents and Carers Forum
There are responsibilities for schools, and the PCF’s taking part in PINS. This includes:
- holding termly meetings (minimum of 3) with the school leadership team
- hold a minimum of 3 parent carer participation group meetings within the school during the project delivery period. These are open to all parent carers with children, in the school community
- Schools will support communication between the PCF and the parent carer community through the use of the school’s communication channels
- both the PCF and school will promote a person-centred approach to working with parent carers as outlined in the Children and Families Act and SEND Code of Practice.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed and agreed by schools and the Forum to clearly identify these roles and responsibilities.
If you have a child at one of the Primary Schools taking part and would like any further information or would be willing to support us by taking part please contact us at PINS@medwaypcf.org.uk
Schools currently taking part are :-
- All Faiths Children’s Academy
- All Saints Church of England Primary School Primary
- Bligh Primary
- Byron Primary
- Elaine Primary
- Featherby Infants & Juniors School
- Greenvale Primary
- Gordon Children’s Academy
- Hilltop Primary School
- Kingfisher Primary
- New Horizons Childrens Academy
- New Road Primary
- Phoenix Primary
- Riverside Primary School
- St Augustine of Canterbury Catholic Primary School
- St John’s Church of England Infant School
- St Margaret’s Church of England Junior School
- St Peters Infant School
- Thames View Primary School
- Twydall Primary School
- Warren Wood Primary School