Inclusion and Special Educational Needs & Disablities (SEND)
Mandeville's Inclusion team
Fran Slot is the Deputy Head for Inclusion and SENDCo
Mary Straw in the Deputy SENDCo
Natalie Richards is the Deputy Inclusion Manager
Dallyn Bailey is our Learning Mentor
Dee Coughlan is a Teaching and Learning Associate
John D'Agostino is our School Counsellor
At Mandeville we want to make sure that all pupils are happy, secure and successful. Sometimes children or their families need extra help to make sure of this. The inclusion team organise and provide additional support for children, their parents and carers.
Fran Slot works closely with class teachers to track your child’s progress in school and organise extra support if your child is falling behind. This support may be provided by adults in school or specialists from outside of school such as Speech and Language Therapists or Educational Psychologists. If you think your child may need additional support or if you are worried about your child’s progress please talk to the class teacher or Fran Slot.
Our Learning Mentor works with children in and out of class who are having difficulties with behaviour, learning or need emotional support. He runs groups to help children in areas such as managing emotions and developing their social skills; as well as providing one to one sessions for those children who need extra support to cope with challenges at school.
Our Deputy Inclusion Manager, Natalie Richards, also monitors the children’s attendance at school and meets regularly with the Attendance Officer at the Learning Trust to discuss any concerns.
Dee Coughlan, our Teaching and Learning Associate, leads academic intervention groups to support children who are struggling with particular areas of their learning such as reading or maths.
Learning Mentors
As Learning Mentors, our key role is to champion the needs of children who may be facing barriers to effective learning, both inside and outside the school. Learning Mentors work with pupils, teachers, parents, carers, families, schools and other agencies, to help support and create a stable learning environment.
Areas within school that we particularly focus on include:
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Self-esteem and confidence building
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Social skills
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Study skills
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Motivation
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Attendance
Learning Mentors work with children on a one to one basis and in groups. We create and plan a support program with the pupil and go on to develop a one-to-one mentoring relationship aimed at supporting the child’s area of needs.
Some of our tasks include:
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Liaising with staff to identify learners who would benefit from mentoring;
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Helping learners who are underperforming in their subjects on a one-to-one basis outside the classroom;
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Implementing strategies and supporting learners in self-esteem and confidence-building activities;
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Listening to and helping learners resolve a range of issues that are creating barriers to learning;
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Drawing up agreed action plans with learners, outlining the aims of the mentoring, and monitoring their progress;
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Liaising with relevant professionals and individuals
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Providing group activities such as emotional management sessions;
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Helping with the transition of moving to secondary schools
If your child is referred for support we will contact you. The value of positive and active involvement by parents/carers is very important to us. We will then set targets together and create a six week plan. This enables you to talk to your child about their targets and general progress.
In most cases, the staff in school will identify pupils who need support, but, if you as a parent/carer have concerns please do not hesitate to contact us.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Our SEND Information Report for parents and carers can be found as a PDF at the bottom of the Statutory Information page in the About Us section of this website. The LEAP Federation's Special Educational Needs and Disability Policy can be found on the LEAP policies page.
You can find information about how we adapt the curriculum and learning environment for children with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities at the bottom of the Teaching and Learning page of this website.