At the heart of the work of every primary school class is a continuous cycle of planning, teaching and assessment which takes account of the wide range of abilities, aptitudes and interests of the children. The majority of children will learn and progress within these arrangements. Those children whose overall attainments and achievement in specific subjects fall significantly outside the expected range may have Special Educational Needs (SEN).

At Instow Primary School and Pre-school, we provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all pupils based on three principles:

• setting suitable learning challenges;
• responding to pupils’ diverse learning needs;
• overcoming potential barriers to learning.

Children have a learning difficulty if they:

• have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age;
• have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age. This may relate to impairments in communication and interaction, cognition and learning, behavioural, emotional and social development, or sensory or physical needs.

For children who have a specific learning difficulty or a disability, our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) policy outlines the educational support we provide. This provision is alongside the Devon Local Offer:

https://www.devon.gov.uk/educationandfamilies/special-educational-needs-and-disability-send-local-offer

This website provides valuable information about different agencies, services and resources for children, young people with SEND and their families in addition to school resources and information.

Multi Agency Early Help Offer- more information can be found at Devon Children and Families Partnership:

https://www.dcfp.org.uk/early-help/

Early Help is the extra support your family can get if you need it. It may be that you want to prevent a problem, or change things for your family before the problem becomes more serious.

It is not a specific service or team, it’s an approach that brings together people from a range of services and teams who will work together with your whole family to help improve the situation for everyone. By identifying and building on your strengths as a family we can help and support you to find long term solutions to your issues, as well as developing your skills to help you manage any future challenges.

Devon Information Advice and Support (DIAS)

Further support and advice for parents can be accessed from DIAS. This organisation is able to provide impartial and independent advice, support and information on special educational needs and disabilities.

If you have any questions about SEND provision, please contact our school SENDCo -           

Lesley Turner in the first instance or make an appointment by ringing Maria Williams in the school office:

email – l.turner@instowcps.co.uk

Telephone – 01271 860 545

Supporting Children with SEND

At Instow Community Primary School we are committed to being a fully inclusive school and believe that all children have a right to be educated alongside their peers and have a great deal to offer others through their individuality. We welcome all children into our school and would not seek to exclude a child because of any perceived 'difficulties' they may have.

Some children and young people have Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) and these needs mean a child may require additional support at certain times during their time at Instow. We have several approaches that we use to cater for these needs, ranging from additional support in class to specific targeted interventions. We have a committed and dedicated team to ensure good quality teaching within our school for all our pupils.

Targeted Support and Intervention

We monitor each child’s learning carefully to ensure they are making progress at least in-line with national expectations. When a child is not making expected progress and this cannot be addressed by the methods routinely used by class teachers, we may assign them to a ”targeted support/ intervention” group. This is a group of children who benefit from working in a small group to get back on-track with their learning.  These groups focus on the particular areas children need to grasp to enable them to make progress to the next level and often last for a specified number of weeks, up to 16 weeks, depending on the programme.

Additional Support

Some children may need more long-term support or may have specific difficulties relating to particular medical, cognitive or behavioural conditions. In these cases, we devise an additional SEN Support Plan (currently called a My Plan), setting detailed short-term targets and we may assign additional adult support to help the child to achieve these.

Outside Agencies

Some children may also benefit from being supported by staff from outside agencies. We work closely with a range of services, including Speech and Language Therapists, the Communication and Interaction Team as well as the Social, Emotional and Mental Health advisory team. 

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo)


Our SENDCo is Lesley Turner and she liaises with class teachers, our teaching assistants, the Headteacher and the SEND Governor to ensure that all the children who need support are receiving the right level of help from the right professionals. The SENCo also liaises with the outside agencies to make sure that appropriate support is being put in place so that the needs of each child are being met. 

Would you like to talk to someone?


If you feel your child may need additional support with their learning, please discuss this in the first instance with your child’s teacher or contact Maria Williams in the school office to make an appointment to meet with the SENDCo, Lesley Turner.  

What is the “Local Offer”?

The Children and Families Bill came into force in March 2014.  From this date, Local Authorities and schools are required to publish and keep under review information about services they expect to be available for the 0-25’s.  This is called the “Local Offer”.

Devon County Council has taken a multi-agency approach in supporting young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).  This means new ways of working where schools, care workers and the National Health Service work together to provide for a SEND child.

Please click below to visit the Devon County Council’s dedicated web pages relating to the local offer as well as websites of support for a range of different needs.