Limes Farm Junior School

Dear Parents, Please find attached the SEND Privacy Notice which details how we share children's information to support their needs. If you require any further information, then please do not hesitate to contact me. Kind regards, Miss Symes

Dear Parents, Please see attached this weeks newsletter and our Christmas dinner menu. Kind regards, Miss Bishop

Dear Parents, Please see attached this weeks newsletter. Kind regards, Miss Bishop

Dear Parents, Attached is a parents guide to internet controls to safeguard your child's online use. Please contact the school if you require any further information. We will be holding a parent e-safety workshop in the new year. Kind regards, Miss Bishop

Dear Parents, Please see attached this weeks newsletter. Kind regards, LFJS

Dear Parents, Please see attached this weeks newsletter. Kind regards, LFJS

Dear Parents, Please see attached this weeks newsletter. Kind regards, Miss Bishop

Dear Parents, Attached is our end of half term curriculum newsletter sharing the learning experiences of our children. Wishing you a wonderful half term, please remember Monday 30th October is inset day, pupils return on Tuesday 31st October. Kind regards, LFJS

Dear Parents, Following on from the message send from Miss Bishop, I have detailed the reasons below. We have recently have had an influx of anxiety/fiddle toys into the school, without prior discussion with the class teacher or SENDCo, so I would like to explain our school stance on these toys. We are proud to be a Neurodiverse friendly school. We believe that what works for pupils with ADHD/ASD/ODD/PDA etc works for all pupils and these strategies are embedded in everything we do. However, we do not use fiddle toys. The name implies they are something to play with. The purpose of this resource is to aid children to concentrate and focus in the classroom. If they are too stimulating, they have the opposite effect and are not being used for the purpose intended. We have a huge variation of need in each classroom and many children, with ADHD and ASD in particular, who are easily distracted. We have to balance the needs of one pupil to move around, with another child who is easily distracted by clicking toys, or toys being swung around their heads. For example, the toy that helps your child may send another autistic child into sensory overload that will be detrimental to your child.. This is why we prefer to use strategies as a whole class, at the same time (see below) and some individualised strategies based on our assessments of children in class and reflected in their One Plans. The teacher knows whether a child is struggling to concentrate and we will decided together which strategies will have the most impact. One of these strategies may be to use small sensory objects as concentration or calming aids. In contrast to fiddle toys, these concentration aids are discreet – either under the table or in their pocket. As teachers, we are now equally distracted by the rather extreme amount appearing in our classrooms, making lessons a struggle and finding no positive impact from the toys brought in. This is especially true when the children themselves do not understand the purpose and start sharing them with children, or pinging them across the classroom or loses the toy and becomes very upset. We will always provide concentration aids for children that need them and have a wide variety of choices that are evidence backed and recommended by Education Psychologists and Specialist Teachers. These are sensory, quiet and we know they support concentration rather than detract from them. In addition to this, we provide children with other far more successful and long term strategies to aid focus that we choose from sound scientific research and help children to create new neural pathways in the brain. Our aim is for children to be able to select from a range of strategies. Wherever possible we aim to use these strategies as whole class, so that children with SEND are supported appropriately but not singled out. The examples below are used every day, if not multiple times a day. • Brain breaks • Mindful movement • Yoga • Meditation • Exercise • Music • Planners/timetables • Active Maths/English lessons • Regulation techniques • Quiet areas with little stimuli to aid regulation • Zones of Regulation and personalised tool boxes • Visual timetable Our children need to be able to go into the real world as adults and manage the huge array of stimuli they are faced with. Our job as educators is to support them in finding strategies that are effective for them as individuals. For all these reasons we not allow children to bring fiddle toys into school and we ask that you support us with this. If you have any concerns, then please feel free to talk with your class teacher, or arrange a meeting with me. Kind regards, Miss Symes Deputy Headteacher/Inclusions Lead

Dear Parents, Please see attached this weeks newsletter. Kind regards, Miss Bishop