Inclusion and Nurture

As an inclusive school, St Margaret Mary Catholic Primary is committed to support all children to make progress and fulfil their individual potential, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

We believe each child is made in the image of Christ and, as a special and unique child of God, deserves to be supported to develop and fulfill their God-given talents. 

The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo) is Mrs Paula Fontana - she can be contacted via the School Office on 01228 401800, or via schools@stmmary.cumbria.sch.uk.

Nurture Intervention

As part of our holistic offer at St Margaret Mary, we offer a range of nurture support and therapeutic interventions, delivered by a team of trained practitioners on a daily basis, to support our children in dealing with emotional issues which are barriers to them engaging in learning. 

Our nurture programme is designed to support children who may have difficulties trusting adults, making friendships, and/or and forming healthy attachments. The first few years of a child’s life shapes their future and some children may have missed out on experiences early on which contribute to their feelings of safety and well-being. This is no-one’s fault and may be due to factors such as illness, post-natal depression, domestic abuse, bereavement, family trauma and so on. 

We have a specialist Pastoral Lead, Miss Natalie Hansbury, who works closely with the Headteacher and the SENDCo to deliver and oversee our nurture and therapeutic intervention programme. Miss Hansbury works alongside Miss Logan to deliver interventions to both small groups and on a one to one basis. 

We have two dedicated spaces available for nurture depending on type of need - The Snug and The Den. Our Snug is where a lot of our therapeutic interventions take place in small group or one-to-one sessions, working directly with Miss Hansbury and Miss Logan. The Den is used to meet wider SEND needs, which may include physical regulation activities, and is used by the SENDCo, Pastoral Lead and a variety of TAs to deliver appropriate support programmes for our children. This space is led by Miss Haughey who leads on intervention in The Den.

Parents will always be consulted, and consent received, before any intervention takes place. 

Some of the therapeutic interventions we may use include:

• Draw and Talk Therapy
• Lego Therapy
• Emotional Literacy
• Zones of Regulation
• ELS (Emotional Literacy Support) groups
• Meetings with Pastoral Lead as required
• Worry Monsters
• Circle Time
• Socially Speaking
• Time to Talk
• The Listening Program

Academic Intervention

As well as therapeutic interventions, our school have invested in a series of research driven academic interventions. We are currently working alongside the EEF and FFT in delivering Reciprocal Reading in KS2.

Academic interventions are additional instruction and support that supplements the general curriculum - these are necessary to improve academic performance for some children. Mrs Broome leads on literacy with Mrs Fairney leading on Maths. Speech & Language intervention is delivered by trained practitioners.

A successful academic intervention process includes providing quality instruction with interventions matched to children's need, and monitoring progress frequently to help close gaps and ensure progress for all.

Some of our support programmes are listed below:

• Lexplore
• SpeechLink
• LanguageLink
• Letter-Join
• Third Space Maths tuition
• Lightning Squad
• Sound Linkage