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.
This project has been created due to the success of the national Autism in Schools project. The approach of Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) has been developed around the key principles of the Autism in Schools:
- Whole School Approach
- Good quality training for staff
- Parents Supporting Parents groups
- Understanding students experience of schools
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 Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools 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).
The aim of the programme is to bring health and educational specialists along with 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 and strengthen partnerships between schools and parent carers
In Redcar and Cleveland the programme will delivered into 20 of our local primary schools. The 20 schools have been identified through an expression of interest.
The PINS project will:
•Provide support at a whole school level, with more effective working between education, health and parent carers, through partnerships with local parent carer forums.
•To support mainstream schools to be inclusive places that are able to meet the needs of neurodiverse pupils.
•To be needs led rather than diagnosis led support and cover the full range of neurodiversity which also covers children without a formal diagnosis.
•Strengthen partnerships between parents and schools.
•Develop schools' confidence and expertise in supporting neurodiversity within their classrooms.
•Improve the school environment to address low level needs and allow neurodiverse children to successfully engage in learning.
•Develop an inclusive culture that improves the efficacy of other interventions.
The delivery of support will be in schools in September 2024 until March 25.