Mrs Gray is our Inclusion Leader, and she oversees provision across the school for pupils with special educational needs, disabilities, medical needs or pupils for whom English is an additional language.  She works closely with the class teachers to track our children’s progress in school and organise extra support if they fall behind. This support may be provided by adults in school or specialists from outside of school.  Mrs Gray ensures that the appropriate care plans are in place and that there is high quality SEND provision across the school.

Pupils may require support in many areas of learning and development: Mrs Gray co-leads a team of specially trained teaching assistants who deliver interventions to meet these needs, ranging from emotional and social challenges to difficulties with language development.  Interventions and activities are always made fun and engaging with well-being at the heart of every session – the camp fire, hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows are a particular favourite!

If you are concerned about your child’s progress or wellbeing, please discuss this initially with the class teacher, who will arrange for Mrs Gray to contact you as needed.

We are extremely fortunate to have Mr Nate, who is experienced in all fields of wellbeing and pastoral care.  Mr Nate is available to all of our families; part of his role is to monitor the children’s attendance and to ensure that those children who are having difficulties with behaviour, learning or emotional needs have the right support. Furthermore, Mr Nate works closely with Mrs Gray (Inclusion Lead and SENCo) and the Senior Leadership Team to promote high standards of behaviour and anti-bullying across the school.

Within his role, Mr Nate is a Designated Safeguarding Officer, and he also oversees the provision for our Looked After and Adopted Children, working closely with children’s social care and other agencies as well as our own PFSA, Mrs Fiona Evans.

Sometimes all families need a little extra help: this might be as a result of changing jobs, redundancy, ill health, bereavement or family breakdowns. Mrs Evans is available to all of our families to help them to identify how the school or other agencies can provide further assistance and guidance so that our children are happy, healthy and ready to learn both at home and in school. She can help with anything from form-filling to food parcels and is always happy to help in whatever way she can.

Attendance and punctuality at school are crucial to the success of our children and so Mrs Evans works closely with Mr Nate, liaising between home and school, providing a direct line of communication and a link with the school.

At Oaklands we have a dedicated team of staff who provide a variety of further support to our children and families. Our team includes highly trained Nurture Group Leaders, specialist Speech and Language teaching assistants as well as Emotional Literacy Support Assistants.