Welcome to the Student Support Centre and SEND Department at Torpoint Community College
At Torpoint Community College we aspire to be a fully inclusive college where every child who attends receives the support and guidance they need to achieve their potential.
To help every student achieve success we aim to provide effective learning opportunities for all our students by providing pupils with relevant and appropriately challenging work at all times, responding to children’s diverse learning needs and helping students overcome potential barriers to learning. The support that students receive at Torpoint Community College is one of its many strengths and an area that we are particularly proud of.
Our Student Support Centre support students with a range of needs and over a range of timescales. We support students in their Emotional Health and Well-being, medical issues and students with Special Educational Needs.
Contact Information:
Student Support Centre: Mrs Helen Wetton
Wetton.H@torpoint.cornwall.sch.uk
SENDCo: Chloe Turner
Turner.C@torpoint.cornwall.sch.uk
SEN Linked Documents and Further Information
The SEDIASS service provides impartial advice, support and guidance for:
- Parents /carers of a child or young person (aged 0-25) with a special educational need or disability.
- Children and young people aged 25 or under who have a special educational need or disability.
- People working with children or young people with a special educational need or disability.
Their service is confidential, independent and free.
You can contact them via https://www.cornwallsendiass.org.uk
SEN Information Reports and FAQ:
Torpoint Community College Annual SEN report 2020-21:
https://www.torpoint.cornwall.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/TCC-SChool-SEN-Annual-Information-Report-2020-2021.pdf
Torpoint Community College Local Offer:
https://www.torpoint.cornwall.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/School-Offer-19-07-17.pdf
Torpoint Community College SEN FAQs:
https://www.torpoint.cornwall.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/TCC-SEN-FAQs.pdf
Ethos and Values
National data shows that SEN students do less well in school than their peers. We also recognise that many SEN students experience other factors that contribute to disadvantage. However, we believe that all children are capable of exceeding our expectations if we can create the right conditions. SEN children need to make faster progress than their peers because they are already disadvantaged.
It is natural for children – particularly those who may find school challenging – to protect their self image at all costs and some may take extreme measures to prevent failure being exposed, it is therefore essential that we make children feel safe to make mistakes.
Some students will have become highly proficient at work avoidance strategies so a high challenge, low threat classroom creates the perfect conditions for learning. Teachers have primary control over the learning environment, but TAs play a significant role in removing threat. When our students are experiencing challenge, the last thing we want to do is take that away from them. Instead, we reassure students that what they are doing is hard and it is fine if they don’t get it first time because they will get there with practice. Telling students that this is tricky, and it will probably take a little while for you to get your head around it all, but that’s a good thing helps them to see that we believe in them.
Some of our children may have internalised the idea that they are not smart. We need to constantly remind them that “smart is something you become – not something you are”.
What Empowers Students To Succeed?
- They have the resilience to persevere when they encounter obstacles.
- They have self-discipline and opportunity to carry out regular practice.
- They see challenges such as extended writing as opportunities rather than threats.
- They have the confidence to make good attempts at tasks which lack clarity/have not been modelled/have high a cognitive load.
- They want to succeed to achieve their own goals rather than to please others.
- They have a strong schema of cultural capital.
Focus Areas For T&L For SEND Students
- To ensure that we are research-informed and use up to date evidence from experts to inform our approaches – we must be flexible to change if evidence suggests there are more effective ways of working
- To understand the reasons some students struggle to read and apply consistent approaches in every subject that improve their reading
- To understand the constraints of working memory and consistently apply approaches that enhance learning despite these difficulties
- To ask effective questions when working with students
- To have consistent approaches to supporting students/ having high expectations of them when they are required to write
- To ensure the work students produce is always a reflection of their own understanding and knowledge – we never over support so that the teacher makes inaccurate inferences about progress
The SEND Code of Practice groups needs into four broad areas to support schools to plan the provision that they offer:
- cognition and learning;
- communication and interaction;
- social, emotional, and mental health; and
- sensory and physical needs.
Creating an inclusive environment is the most important thing a school can do. An inclusive culture is a prerequisite for an effective school: it brings happiness, a feeling of safety and being part of the community, and, of course, it impacts positively on learning, both in the classroom and beyond. It is our job to prepare pupils to flourish and feel truly included in society.
Positive environmental factors for students with SEN:
- Calm and quiet
- Can easily see the teacher when they are talking
- Can easily see the board
- Have adult-supervised spaces during unstructured time
- Be proactive and positive in managing behaviour: reward good behaviour; use positive reinforcement to deliver verbal corrections; normalize compliance
- Find ways to support maximum participation…
Scaffolding
‘Scaffolding’ is a metaphor for temporary support that is removed when it is no longer required.
Initially, a teacher would provide enough support so that pupils can successfully complete tasks that they could not do independently.
This requires effective assessment to gain a precise understanding of the pupil’s current capabilities.
Support could be visual, verbal, or written.
The teacher will gradually remove the support (the scaffold) as the pupil becomes able to complete the task independently.
If the teacher is supporting a pupil with SEND, that scaffold may be in place for longer to promote confidence and competence that can be sustained once the scaffold is removed.