GRAVEL HILL PRIMARY SCHOOL

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Policy

2013-2014

We recognise that all children have skills, talents and abilities and as a school we have a responsibility to develop these to the full. We believe that all children are entitled to a relevant and worthwhile education designed to enable individual pupils to achieve their full potential and participate fully in society and to contribute to and benefit from it.

Pupils who have special educational needs should be supported wherever necessary to achieve full access to the whole-school curriculum. The key objective of the S.E.N.D policy is to identify pupils with special educational needs and disabilities and ensure that their needs are met.

Admission arrangements

The school adheres to the L.A admission policy and, therefore, has no special provision for limiting or promoting access for pupils with special needs who are without statements. It does, however, endeavour to provide appropriate support for pupils with a range of special educational needs.

Partnership with parents and pupils This plays a key role in enabling children and young people with Special Needs to achieve their potential. The school recognises that parents hold key information and have knowledge and experience to contribute to the shared view of a child’s needs and the best ways of supporting them. All parents of children with special educational needs will be treated as partners and supported to play an active and valued role in their children’s education. Children with special educational needs often have a unique knowledge of their own needs and their views about what sort of help they would like to assist them make the most of their education will be ascertained and taken into consideration.

The Management of S.E.N.

Mrs. Bearfoot is the Inclusion Leader, who aims to ensure the best use of physical and human resources to support pupils across the school. The Head Teacher and class

SEN Policy 2014 Page 1 teachers, along with the INCo, may also be involved in meetings with parents and external agencies as specific issues arise.

The INCo role includes:  Following up concerns from teachers or parents/carers as swiftly as possible.  Diagnostic testing/screening of individual pupils.  Monitoring the progress of pupils and identifying those who may need extra support by attending Pupil Progress meetings termly.  Making referrals to and liaising with external agencies, including the school’s LA- funded Early Intervention Team (Social Worker, SEN Advisory teacher and Educational Psychologist) as well as Speech and Language specialists, Advisory Services for ASD, ADHD, VI etc. as appropriate.  Coordinating and monitoring provision for children with Special Needs.  Liaising with and supporting teachers and support staff.  Arranging, chairing and reporting on Annual Reviews for Statemented pupils.  Monitoring intervention programmes  Reviewing and updating the SEND register at least termly  Supervising teaching assistants with specific S.E.N responsibilities.  Providing training /professional development opportunities for staff.

Provision for children with special educational needs or disabilities is a matter for the school as a whole. All teachers are teachers of children with special educational needs. At Gravel Hill we believe that Quality First Teaching is a right for all pupils.

Where interventions are deemed necessary, provision mapping is used to document the range of support available to pupils with S.E.N within each class and across the school. Class teachers keep a SEND folder containing provision maps, Intervention planning, tracking sheets and a record of strategies employed to support individual pupils at Class Action (see below).

Identification. Assessment, Record Keeping and Review

In the first instance, the school staff complete a Record of Concern, where matters which may affect a pupil’s progress are recorded. Parents /carers may also provide information in this regard, which may include details of personal or medical issues. Concerns may be of a temporary nature, may require monitoring, or the pupils issues may progress to the level requiring ‘School Action’.

The school’s system for assessing the progress of individual children will provide information about areas where a child is not progressing satisfactorily. Under these circumstances, teachers may need to consult the INCo to consider what other support strategies may be appropriate. The electronic toolkit should be used by the class teacher to identify strategies which can be tried and monitored at Class Action level. The key test of the need for action is evidence that current rates of progress are inadequate. Adequate progress will be defined as that which:

 closes the attainment gap between the child and their peers  is similar to that of peers starting from the same attainment baseline, but less than that of the majority of peers

SEN Policy 2014 Page 2  matches or betters the child’s previous rate of progress  ensures access to the full curriculum  demonstrates an improvement in self-help, social or personal skills  demonstrates improvements in the child’s behaviour.

School Action

Identification

Identification takes into account criteria outlined in the Code of Practice:

The triggers for intervention through School Action could be the teacher's or others' concerns, underpinned by evidence about a child who, despite receiving differentiated learning opportunities:

 Makes little or no progress even when teaching approaches are targeted particularly in a child's identified areas of weakness

 Shows signs of difficulty in developing literacy or mathematical skills which result in poor attainment in some curriculum areas

 Presents persistent emotional or behavioural difficulties which are not ameliorated by the behaviour management techniques usually employed in the school

 Has sensory or physical problems and continues to make little or no progress despite the provision of specialist equipment

 Has interaction difficulties, and continues to make little or no progress despite a differentiated curriculum

The gathering of information in respect of identifying the pupil's special educational needs may be via:

1. Liaison with teachers. 2. Liaison with pre-school provision. 3. Liaison with parents. 4. Liaison with external agencies where pupils may have been known to their service.

Assessment of Needs

1. To include statutory and optional S.A.T's, termly teacher assessments of progress towards N.C. targets. 2. Individual diagnostic assessment/observation. 3. Progress towards class and individual targets. 4. Ongoing assessment, review and record keeping.

Process for Action, Record-Keeping and Review

1. Assessment of needs by class teacher. 2. Register concerns with INCo. 3. Notification and discussion with parents/carers. SEN Policy 2014 Page 3 4. Drawing up of individual targets and I.E.P’s 5. Review of progress 6. Revert to monitoring, continue at school action, or move to School Action Plus.

School Action Plus

Identification

As for School Action, the trigger for School Action Plus has regard to the Code of Practice:

The triggers for School Action Plus could be that, despite receiving an individualised programme and/or concentrated support under School Action, the child: •Continues to, make little or no progress in specific areas over a long period •Continues working at National Curriculum levels substantially below that expected of children of a similar age •Continues to have difficulty in developing literacy or mathematics skills •Has emotional or behavioural difficulties which substantially and regularly interfere with the child's own learning and or that of the group •Has sensory or physical needs, and requires additional specialist equipment or regular advice or visits by a specialist service •Has ongoing communication or interaction difficulties that impede the development of social relationships and cause substantial barriers to learning

The gathering of information in respect of identifying the pupil's special educational needs may be via:

1. Information from School Action Reviews. 2. Liaison with teachers. 3. Liaison with parents. 4. Liaison with external agencies

As per School Action, in consultation with outside agencies, staff and parents the pupil may return to School Action at review of their targets or may need to move forward towards a statutory assessment of their special educational needs.

Statutory Assessment / Statement of Special Educational Need

As outlined in the Code of Practice:

Where a request for statutory assessment is made by a school to the L.A. the child will have demonstrated significant cause for concern.

The school will provide evidence in the form of:  The school's action through School Action and School Action Plus  Individualised education plans for the child  Health/medical records if appropriate  National Curriculum levels and progress, especially attainment in literacy and

SEN Policy 2014 Page 4 mathematics  Outside agency reports, such as SLT or EP reports.  Records of any involvement by Social Services or Educational Welfare service  Additional assessments, such as Aston, reading/spelling/number ages  Views of the parent and of the child

On receipt of a Statement for Special Educational Needs from the L.A. the INCo will formulate an action plan of support/provision.

This plan will be subject to interim review. For the Annual Review the INCo will collate information from staff, the pupil, and the parents/carers and distribute a report to all concerned parties. At the Annual Review Meeting, progress is discussed and the statement may be maintained; an amendment requested; or the statement may cease.

In addition, pupils who require continued high levels of support despite interventions at School Action and School Action Plus are given additional in- class individual support, similar to that previously funded as part of a Statement of Educational Need. This decision follows assessment and consultation with the school’s Educational Psychologist.

Strategies employed to enable the child to progress in these instances will be recorded within an Individual Education Plan ( I.E.P). The I.E.P will include information about:

 the short-term targets set for the child  the teaching strategies to be used  the provision to be put in place  when the plan is to be reviewed  outcomes (to be recorded when I.E.P is reviewed).

The I.E.P will only record that which is additional to, or different from, the differentiated curriculum and will focus upon two or three individual targets that match the child’s needs and have been discussed with the child and the parents

Access to the Curriculum

Provision of additional school based support is subject to the resources that are available in the budget. The school places a high priority on the allocation of resources to special needs provision. It is recognised that the level of provision may vary from year to year or term to term. Finance will provide for teaching staff and appropriate resources. Some support services are funded centrally at the present time.

Liaison between the INCo, class teachers, teaching assistants and parents/carers is essential. Parents will be kept informed of their child's progress through informal and formal reviews and meetings.

Evaluating Success

The school S.E.N records will include the school's responses at all stages, and information collected at review meetings will be included. An appropriate combination of the following information regarding individual pupils will be available in school:

SEN Policy 2014 Page 5  Special Needs Register  Description and nature of the pupil's difficulty  Strategies to be adopted  Individual Education Plans  Individual targets  Provision Maps, intervention plans with entry and exit data  Reviews  Reports from outside agencies

Attaining individual targets, school-based assessment data, national test data, and monitoring of the effectiveness of provision will all be used to evaluate the school's S.E.N provision. This information will inform the priority development areas for S.E.N in school and form the basis of in-service training needs.

Christine Bearfoot INCo Review date : September 2014

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