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Driving SEND Excellence: A Partnership with Swallow Dell Primary and Nursery School 

Swallow Dell Primary and Nursery School is a Local Authority two-form entry school in the suburbs of Welwyn Garden City. The new leadership team, which took over in January 2024, have successfully turned around a Requires Improvement Ofsted rating to one with Good with Outstanding features. SEND provision has been singled out as a particular strength.

Lorna McAllister, Assistant Headteacher (Inclusion), says investing in apprenticeships is key to their ongoing strategy for SEND support and underpins future plans to provide outreach services to schools in their local borough.

Snapshot of apprenticeship programmes at Swallow Dell Primary:

  • Level 3 Teaching Assistant with PE, Health and Wellbeing Focus
  • Level 4 Sports Coach
  • Assistant SENCO programme
  • Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant (Social and Emotional Wellbeing specialism)

SEND for us is a core strength of the school. We would not be able to have the expectations and the outcomes that we’ve had without investing time into ensuring all staff have the CPD that they need. The apprenticeship training has been absolutley pivotal to developing the skills and confidence of our TAs.

Lorna McAllister, Assistant Headteacher – Inclusion
Swallow Dell Primary School

Impact of Level 5 Specialist TA Apprenticeship

Ryan Trist, a teaching assistant at the school is currently undertaking the Level 5 Specialist TA apprenticeship, on the Social and Emotional Wellbeing strand. 

Lorna says it has already enabled him to deliver impact in the following ways:

An additional member of staff with ELSA status 
ELSAs are well established across the school but with waiting lists of five children at any one time, Swallow Dell has welcomed having another trained ELSA.

Stronger peer relationships amongst targeted cohort of girls
Ryan has started an ELSA intervention group for girls who are struggling with friendships and conflict resolution. Since the programme started, they can now confidently identify friends they have made at school.

Improved behaviour and self-esteem in Key Stage 2 boys
Ryan has also been running breakfast club workshops for Key Stage 2 boys with EBSA (emotional base school avoidance) and low self-esteem. By using his ELSA training, he has turned more general check-ins into high-impact interventions. Lorna says the impact has been profound and that the interventions have positively impacted the confidence and self-esteem of all the children involved.

Improved attendance
Ryan’s breakfast club provision for the boys has improved attendance and eased the morning transition for both children and parents.

Reduced pressure on teachers
Ryan has opted to gain his HLTA status as part of his apprenticeship, allowing him to do more whole-class work as well as PPA cover

“If you are struggling with capacity, as we pretty much all are, you would be mad not to consider SEND and SEMH-focused apprenticeships like the Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant and the Assistant SENCO training. They bring the theory to life behind the practice and put the child at the center of everything.”

Lorna McAllister, Assistant Headteacher – Inclusion
Swallow Dell Primary School

The Assistant SENCO apprenticeship

Swallow Dell appointed assistant SENCO, Kirsty, in September 2024. She is only a few months into her Assistant SENCO apprenticeship, but Lorna’s first impressions are positive, noting it has already encouraged Kirsty to become more “solutions-focused.” 

“The assistant SENCO apprenticeship programme has been going really well so far – it’s practical, structured, and gives our assistant SENCO the confidence and skills she needs. We signed up because we could see it would be a fantastic way to grow expertise internally and strengthen inclusive practice across the school. It’s already enabling her to become more solutions-focused.”

Lorna McAllister, Assistant Headteacher – Inclusion
Swallow Dell Primary School

Lorna hopes that the training will enable Kirsty to take on more responsibility across many aspects of SEND provision to release pressure on their SENCO.

Specifically, Lorna highlights the following developmental aspirations for Kirsty, which she hopes will be supported by the course:

Assisting with data capture and providing advice around interventions
Kirsty already runs her own interventions but is the course is helping to deepen her knowlede and give her the confidence to pass advice onto others. She is starting to look at processes around data capture and how it can feed back into the APDR process.

Supporting with EHCP annual reviews
Teachers don’t always have the capacity to do this in-person, and Lorna hopes Kirsty will be confident to gather their feedback and lead some face-to-face meetings with parents.

Deepening her knowledge of SEND to meet individual needs
Lorna and Kirsty have already identified areas of the training they think can be used to improve support for certain pupils with particular needs..

Supporting with outreach
Lorna wants Kirsty to play a key role, as she outlines below.

“Our next step is looking at outreach, either within the county or to other schools who have needs similar to ours. We’d absolutely like our assistant SENCO to be part of that programme, because she can interact with both TAs and teachers when it comes to day-to-day implementation of the advice and she’s already gaining some fantastic insight from her apprenticeship training.”

Lorna McAllister, Assistant Headteacher – Inclusion
Swallow Dell Primary School

Advice for other headteachers

For schools hesitant about apprenticeship programmes, the message from Lorna is clear; the benefits far outweigh the release time. Lorna also outlines the impact on staff confidence and says the programme has been a great investment in her staff.

“Apprenticeships have proven to be fantastic professional development tool for our staff. All of the team who are part of the programmes are even more invested in what’s happening in school and taking on more roles and responsibilities.

My advice would be to explore it. Apprenticeships are an investment in someone who is telling you that they are interested in developing their experience, skills and knowledge and giving that to the children in your school.

If you have a good relationship with a member of staff and can support by giving them that release time, (which is not extensive), the impact on the children outweighs the release time that needs to be given.”

Lorna McAllister, Assistant Headteacher – Inclusion
Swallow Dell Primary School

Find out more 

Explore our Teaching Assistant progression pathway apprenticeships at Level 3 and Level 5

Explore our apprenticeships for Teaching Assistants