If you have a concern that your child is presenting with additional needs in comparison to their peers, or have general concerns about their development and progress or suspect a specific learning difficulty, then you can raise a concern with the school.  This could be within any of the following areas of need:

• Cognition and Learning
• Communication and Interaction
• Social, Emotional and Mental Health
• Sensory and/or Physical

Please speak to your child’s class teacher initially to raise your concerns. However, the Inclusion Team are also available to support via the school office. Our contact details are above.

Once you have raised your concern, the process which follows is outlined below: 

What is an LSP?

A Learning Support Plan (LSP) is a document for children who are on the school SEND register. It outlines their current barriers and needs including their progress history. The aim is to keep the targets relevant and up to date hence why they are reviewed every term. Targets should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timebound (SMART) and teachers regularly receive training on this.

LSPs are for children who are on SEND support or who also have an EHCP. LSPs and EHCPs are two separate documents. This is because an EHCP is awarded by the Local Authority via a different process, whereas an LSP is completed internally within the school.

The Process of the LSP cycle

The review of LSPs, with parents and carers, takes place over a 4-week window which will always be the last 4 weeks of every term.

Week 1/2

• Teachers will review your child’s current LSP and create a new LSP (draft) for the new term. 

Week 2

• LSPs will be emailed to parents via the school office for them to check along with a pupil voice questionnaire which is to be completed with the child at home.
• Parents then have time to read the LSP before finalising it with the class teacher in week 3 during the meeting/telephone conversation. 
• The class teacher will speak with parents to arrange a time to discuss the reviewed LSP and the new draft LSP.

Week 3

• Parents will discuss and finalise the child’s LSP with the class teacher. 

Week 4

• The child’s class teacher will finalise the LSP document following the parents input, if there are any changes to be made.
• The final LSP will be emailed out to parents via the school office by the end of this week

Pupil Voice Questionnaire

Attached to the draft LSP there will be a pupil voice questionnaire to complete with your child at home. If you feel that anything from their answers should be shared with their class teacher you can do this during your LSP discussion. The purpose of the questionnaire is to feed into the new LSP to support your child’s needs accordingly. Please note, the questionnaire does not need to be returned to the school.

What is an EHCP?

An Education, Health and Care plan ('EHC plan') is a legal document. It sets out a child / young person's special educational needs, the support they need, and what they'd like to achieve. It covers birth to 25 years (if a young person stays in education).

EHC plans identify educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support to meet those needs.

If a child has a significant and long-term special educational need or disability that the setting or parent thinks cannot be supported by the ordinary provision already available in the setting, then an application for an education health and needs assessment can be made.

Requesting an EHC assessment

You can ask the Local Authority to carry out an assessment if you think your child needs an EHC plan.

A young person can request an assessment themselves if they’re aged 16 to 25.

A request can also be made by anyone else who thinks an assessment may be necessary, including doctors, health visitors, teachers, parents and family friends.

At Hazelwood, transition for our children is really important. Strategies and resources to support SEND children with transition include: 

• Pupil transition cards
• Pupil profiles
• Support staff transition meetings
• Discussions between current and new teacher
• Visits to the new classroom and new class teacher
• Photos of the new teacher and support staff included in the transition card
• Use circle time to discuss worries/anxieties of moving class
• Peer conversations: sharing all the good things about being in that year group

We hold termly coffee mornings for our Hazelwood parents with an SEND focus which varies each time, but occasionally we like to also offer an opportunity for parents to come and network with us and talk about special educational needs. It is also an opportunity to answer any questions parents may have on SEND and the provisions at Hazelwood Schools. On this occasion we invited EASA (Enfield Advisory Service for Autism) to come in and speak about the services they offer within the Enfield community which was very supportive and useful. They also showed parents how to access the services and talked about what they would expect from each service. Since then many of our Hazelwood parents have accessed the service to support their own children both at home and at school. 

Our most recent coffee morning here at Hazelwood focused on PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) which is a profile of Autism that is becoming more apparent in children with Autism in the last couple of years, particular post pandemic. We invited our school Educational Psychologist (EP) to join us to talk about the SEND need and to answer the many questions that parents had.  Parents and staff also had the opportunity to describe their own experiences and knowledge of PDA which was really supportive to all. 

The parent partnership meeting in June focused on communication. 

We discussed and explored the following:

• the importance of communication
• different ways to enhance communications for children with SEN
• how to use Widgit and navigate the programme that is used at Hazelwood
• how to make different types of resources
• Makaton signs that we use in the Orchard at Hazelwood
• how to use the visual timetables, core boards, now and next boards and the choice boards

We then wrapped it all by giving parents the opportunity to share personal examples of how they feel their children have progressed this last year, which was lovely to hear.

Please click here to access a suggested Book List 

National Autistic Society

National Autistic Society (autism.org.uk)

EASA – Enfield Advisory Service for Enfield (Please note you do not need a diagnosis to get support)

Enfield Advisory Service for Autism - Home (enfieldasa.org.uk)

PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) Society

PDA Society – Pathological Demand Avoidance – Part of the Autism Spectrum

PDA society diagnosing PDA link:

Diagnosing PDA – children – PDA Society

Witherslack Group – Provide FREE expert advice, support and resources to parents

Special Educational Needs Schools & SEND Support - Witherslack Group

If you’re looking for the best diet for autism, one thing to consider is that every child is different so there isn’t just one autism diet that works.  However, some studies have shown that children with autism tend to be deficient in certain nutrients, so focusing on foods that provide the most nutrition is key.

Some autistic children have a restricted diet, others may over eat and sensory needs often cause issues.

Click here for an information page on suggested diets.

PDA is a profile of autism which involves the avoidance of everyday demands and the use of social strategies as part of the avoidance.

Key features of PDA profile

• • Resisting and avoiding ordinary demands of life
  • Using social strategies as part of avoidance
  • Appearing sociable but lacking some understanding, which may mask underlying differences and difficulties in social interactions and communication
  • Experiencing intense emotions and mood swings, as well as struggling to regulate feelings and emotions
  • Appearing comfortable in role play, pretense and fantasy
  • Focus intently, often on other people, and repetitive or restrictive interests
  • Need for control driven by anxiety or automatic threat response in the face of demands
  • Tendency not to respond to conventional approaches in support, parenting or teaching

Click here for the PDA Society What is PDA? Booklet 

Click here for the Enfield Educational Psychology Service Parent PDA Handout 

Click here for the Positive PDA Strategies