1. Purpose

1.1 This policy sets out the framework for the continued raising of aspirations of and expectations of all students with Additional needs, our School provides a focus on outcomes for children and young people and not just hours of provision/support by:

  • helping students develop their personalities, skills and abilities;
  • providing appropriate teaching which makes learning challenging, enjoyable and successful;
  • providing equality of educational opportunity;
  • fostering a culture of tolerance and acceptance of all, mutual respect where all are valued.
  • recognising, valuing and celebrating students' achievements, however small;
  • working in partnership with parents / carers in supporting their student's education;
  • offering a broad and balanced curriculum and having high expectations for all students.
  1. Application and compliance

2.1 This policy applies to All students including those with Additional Needs and or disabilities. The policy was originally developed using Special Educational Needs Code of Practice, DfES Guidance 581/2001 and other related policies. The revised policy reflects the statutory changes in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice 2014 – SEN CoP - DFE-00205-2013 which came into force on 1st September 2014 and is available to download at www.gov.uk/government/consultations .

This policy complies with the statutory requirement laid out in the SEND Code of Practice 0 – 25 (September 2014) 3.65 and has been written with reference and compliance to the following guidance and documents:

  • Equality Act 2010: advice for schools DfE (February 2013)
  • SEND Code of Practice 0 – 25 (September 2014)
  • Schools SEN Information Report Regulations (2014)
  • Every Chid Matters (2003)
  • Children and Families Act (2014)
  • Data Protection Act (1998) and Confidentiality Act (1998)
  • Removing Barriers to Inclusion (2004)

Other guidance and policies used to develop this policy:

The Education Act 1996, The Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice: Protecting the vulnerable (2005), Inclusive Schooling - Student’s with Special Educational Needs DfES guidance: 0774/2001 and 0788/2001- Lancashire LEA's policy for inclusion - "The Inclusive Continuum: a policy for Special Educational Needs" and Supporting students at school with medical conditions (2014): statutory guidance from the Department for Education - Statutory Guidance on Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions April 2014.

The policy was originally prepared after focus group discussion including Governors, teaching and support staff and students and parents on 30/03/09. The policy is reviewed annually by the SENCO. Any amendments made will be presented to the Headteacher and the governing body. The responsible person for the implementation of the policy is the Headteacher.

  1. Objectives

3.1

 To identify and provide for pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities

  • To work within the guidance provide in the SEND Code of Practice, 2014
  • To operate a “whole student, whole school” approach to the management and provision of support for special educational needs
  • To provide support and advice for all staff working with special educational needs students

Carr Hill High School and Sixth Form Centre are committed to whole school inclusion of our students, including those with special educational needs and behavioural difficulties. Our school believes that every student has an entitlement to develop to their full potential. This means that equality of opportunity must be a reality for our students.

3.2 Inclusion for Special Educational Needs applies to those students who:

  • have learning, physical, communication, sensory and/or medical needs;
  • have behavioural needs that affect the learning threshold for being placed on the Additional Needs register, (please see our SEN information report for more information), emotional and social needs; or a mental capacity.

Inclusion also applies to those students who:

  • reflect social and cultural diversity;
  • have attendance and punctuality difficulties;
  • experience significant ill health; (our Medical Conditions policy can be found under ‘Key information – Policies’ on our website: where you will find our Administration of Medicines policy alongside the Long Term Medical Absence policy.
  • have relatives to care for;
  • have students of their own or are expecting students;
  • use English as an additional language;
  • have residency in this country or may be refugees or asylum seekers;
  • have a mobile life style as travellers;
  • are students and young people in care (CYPC);
  • live in poverty or who may be homeless;
  • re gifted and talented;
  • bully or who are victims of bullying;
  • are bereaved;
  • are traumatised.
  • Disability ( the Code of Practice outlines the “reasonable adjustment “ duty for all settings and schools provided under current Disability Equality legislation – these alone do not constitute SEN)
  • Being in receipt of Pupil Premium Grant
  • Being a child of Serviceman/woman

At Carr Hill High School and Sixth Form Centre, we recognise Special educational needs (SEN) that affect a child’s ability to learn and develop can include their:

  • behaviour affecting expected progress or an ability to socialise, eg not being able to make friends
  • reading and writing, eg they have dyslexia or dyslexic traits – this is supported at Cluster level in the English department via a specialist literacy computer programme designed for dyslexic difficulties.
  • ability to understand things
  • concentration levels, eg they have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  • physical needs or impairments that require additional support other than exam access arrangements.

4. Inclusion through the curriculum and how we define Additional Needs

4.1 Inclusion is an on-going process that celebrates diversity and involves the identification and minimising of barriers to learning and participation that may be experienced by any students irrespective of age, ability, gender, ethnicity, language and social background, and the maximising of resources to reduce these barriers.

In Lancashire, we have defined inclusion as

"A process which recognises and values diversity, promotes a shared vision for community cohesion and supports the participation of individuals in the life of the community."

Our School welcomes its general responsibilities under the Disability Equality Duty.

The National Curriculum Inclusion Statement sets out three principles that are essential to developing a more inclusive curriculum:

  • setting suitable learning challenges
  • responding to students’ diverse learning needs
  • overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals/groups of students

To ensure access for students, parents, staff and community users with disabilities our Accessibility Plan has been drawn up by students, parents, teachers, support staff and governors. As part of the Accessibility Plan areas for development have been identified to improve access to all parts of the school for people with disabilities. A copy of the Accessibility Plan is available, free of charge, in a variety of formats, on request from the school office. It is also colour coded in Our School’s Local Offer under ‘Key information – Policies – Local Offer.

Educational provision which is additional to, or different from, the educational provision made generally for students of the same age in maintained schools/academies (other than special schools) in the area.

The term “Special Educational Needs and Disability” encompasses a wide range of types of need. The established categories are specific learning difficulty, Social and emotional or mental Health capacities, speech, language and communication needs, hearing impairment, physical disability and autistic spectrum condition.

Students must not be regarded as having learning difficulties solely because their language, or form of the home language, is different from that in which they are taught.

4.2 At Carr Hill High School and Sixth Form Centre we have adopted a whole School approach to our Additional Educational Needs policy and practice. Learners identified as having Additional Educational Needs are, as far as is practicable, fully integrated into mainstream classes and every effort is made to ensure that they have full access to the National Curriculum and are integrated into all aspects of School life. The SEN Code of Practice 2014 makes it clear that “All teachers are teachers of students with special educational needs”. The information we share with staff about your child in order to create an inclusive curriculum is confidential and staff are made aware of this.

The National Curriculum is our starting point for planning a curriculum that meets the specific needs of individuals and groups of student’s. We meet these needs through: A graduated response to meeting individual needs by applying ‘Waves of intervention’ from the SEN CoP 2014 which starts with Quality First Teaching.

4.3 At Carr Hill High School and Sixth form Centre, we identify the needs of students by considering the needs of the whole child which will include not just the special educational needs of the child or young person.
Pg 86 of the SEN CoP 2014 lists four broad areas of SEN which give an overview of the range of needs that should be planned for. The purpose of identification is to work out what action our school needs to take, not to fit a student into one or more of the four categories listed below:

Communication and interaction (CI)

Cognition and learning (CL)

Social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH)

Sensory and/or physical needs (SPN)

A student has special educational needs if he/she has learning difficulties that call for special educational provision to be made. The SEN CoP states that “A student has learning difficulties if he/she:

  • has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of students of the same age
  • has a disability which prevents or hinders the student from making use of educational facilities of a kind provided for students of the same age in other schools/academies within the LA
  • is achieving levels of attainment significantly below their peers, or would be if special educational provision was not made for the student.”

Students are placed on the Additional Needs Register if:

They have a statement or an Education Health Care Plan, (EHCP).

They make little or no progress (Two or more levels below National expectations) which are Maths or English: Y7 - W1 or below Y8 - W2 or below, Y9 - W3 or below after a time limited intervention has taken place within Maths or English.

Behaviour students will only go on SEN when a student is two levels below national average, (our progress criteria), in Maths or English for two consecutive recording points once a series of increased behaviour interventions from the Pastoral Team have been delivered.

Any student with a confirmed diagnosis falling into any of the four identified needs;

Communication and interaction (CI); Cognition and learning (CL); Social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH); Sensory and/or physical needs (SPN);

will go on the Additional Needs register if learning is affected as such that it fails to meet our progress criteria for Maths and English. However, students who have dyslexia or dyslexic traits will receive intervention at Wave 2 via the English Department working on a specialist literacy computer programme designed for dyslexic difficulties.

If a student has a comprehension reading age below 9.6 or a single word reading score below 85 the English department will implement interventions such as IDL. They will liaise with the Additional Needs Department and students may also receive interventions during p6 to support comprehension reading and single word reading. The information will be shared between English and the Additional Needs team so that students who require exam access arrangements receive them. Occasions may present themselves where the intervention/s delivered by the English department don’t show progress for a student, when this is the case, the student will be placed on the Additional needs register and specialist outside help will be sought.

Students may require Exam Access Arrangements even though their learning progress fails to meet the Additional Needs SEN register criteria. This could be for any number of reasons and at the start of the academic year identified students in y10 are tested by a specialist teacher and if they qualify for Exam Access arrangements, an application for such provision will be made. Students must demonstrate the provision is their ‘usual way of working’ in the classroom to retain the Exam Access Arrangement provision.

Functional Skills as an alternative pathway will run alongside the National Curriculum and will be delivered by the Maths and English departments.

The SENCO will liaise with All teachers to ensure appropriate resources are made available, such as coloured overlays and coloured exercise books. A specialist outside agency teacher may also work with students and suggest teaching and learning strategies.

The Teaching Assistants deliver specific interventions during period 6 to facilitate progress and support learning for targeted individual and small groups of students.

Intervention can be triggered through concern, supplemented by evidence that, despite receiving differentiated teaching, students:

  • Demonstrate difficulty in developing literacy or numeracy skills over two consecutive progress attainment points that fall into the ‘below National expectations’ for that year group
  • Show persistent emotional/behavioural difficulties, (resulting in a barrier to learning), which are not affected by behaviour management strategies and require a behavioural specialist teachers input
  • Have sensory/physical problems, and make little progress despite the provision of specialist equipment
  • Experience communication and/or interaction problems and make little or no progress despite experiencing a differentiated curriculum
  • Any student with a confirmed medical diagnosis that falls into one of the four SEN categories for provision will be placed onto the Additional Needs register, however, as stated above, students who have dyslexia or dyslexic traits will receive intervention at Wave 2 via the English Department.
  1. Admissions

5.1 Students with Special Educational Needs and or Disabilities will be admitted to Carr Hill High School and Sixth Form Centre in line with the school’s admissions policy. The school is aware that the statutory requirements of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice 2014 and the Disability Act and the Equality Act 2010 and will meet the Acts’ requirements.

The school will use their induction meetings to work closely with primary schools and parents to ascertain whether a student has been identified as having an Additional Educational Need or a Disability. If the school is alerted to the fact that a student may have a difficulty in learning they will make their best endeavours to collect all relevant information and plan a differentiated curriculum. The Governing Body believes that the admissions criteria should not discriminate against students with SEN and has due regard for the guidance advocated in the SEN Code of Practice, in that:

‘All schools should admit students already identified as having special educational needs, as well as identifying and providing for students not previously identified as having SEN, Students with special educational needs but without statements must be treated as fairly as all other applicants for admission.’ (SEN CoP 1:33)

Upon Entry, Carr Hill High School and Sixth from Centre will assess each student’s attainment in order to ensure continuity of learning from their previous school. For each student identified with a SEN or a Disability, the SENCO, together with Additional Needs Team and College Leaders will:

  • use information from the Primary school to shape the student’s curriculum and support provision in the first few weeks and our internal English and Mathematics assessments;
  • identify, through observation and Assessment for Learning, areas of weakness where support is required;
  • ensure on-going observations/Assessment for Learning provide regular feedback on achievements/experiences, in order to plan next steps in learning;
  • ensure that teachers have the information they need to support Additional Educational Needs or Disabled learners in the classroom;
  • involve students in planning/agreeing their own targets, including curricular targets set by subject staff, and any additional targets set;
  • involve parents/carers in joint home-School partnership;
  • ensure all teaching staff are provided with necessary information on individual students
  1. Assessment Procedures within the school

6.1 We believe that all students and young people deserve to have their achievements and progression recognised and the school's curriculum reflects the different outcomes of attainment likely to be achieved.

The school embraces using a consistent nationally recognised assessment system, which relates to the foundation the National Curriculum levels of attainment and the Key Stage 3 Strategy and flexible curriculum arrangements permissible at Key Stage 4 and as the new changes to outcomes phases in, we use a predicted model of expected outcomes to monitor progress of students. Assessment for learning, as outlined in the national guidance from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), guides us in the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and our teachers to decide where the students are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there.

All teachers monitor, review and analyse student progress in accordance with the school's assessment policy. In order to ensure accurate assessments are made, teachers annually moderate and standardise samples of students' work and achievements across the curriculum.

Underachievement is identified as early as possible through subject monitoring and pastoral monitoring. Students are set individual challenging targets which address the area of underachievement. Study progress is monitored and reviewed termly by Class teachers, Curriculum Leaders, Pastoral Leaders, SENCO and Assessment Coordinators and SLT in order to:

  • check the progress individual students make against their targets;
  • verify that barrier-free learning is taking place across the curriculum, particularly where there have been changes in staff or syllabus / schemes of work or low attendance rates;
  • provide a cross-check with teachers and teaching assistants regarding the students who are underachieving in relation to their prior attainment;
  • monitor the progress of specific student cohorts, e.g. boys and girls, Gifted and talented, English as an Additional Language - EAL, Social, Emotinal and mental Health - SEMH, Speech Language and Communication Needs - SLCN, Autistic Spectrum Disorder - ASD, Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder- ADD/ADHD, Specific Learning Difficulties - SpLD, Physical Disability- PD, Visual Impairment - VI, Hearing Impairment - HI and looked after student’s.
  • identify particular strengths and weaknesses of particular year groups or teaching sets, in a key stage or subject area;
  • collect, monitor and analyse fixed-term and permanent exclusions and takes appropriate action to prevent re-occurrence;
  • check the progress of students on the Additional Need Register to inform and monitor ensuring that the students' needs are being met;
  • show 'value added' in view of the additional resources put in place to support inclusion; to compare the accuracy of teacher assessment with external test results at the end of a key stage (i.e. the difference between actual and expected student performance/outcomes);
  • compare the school's performance with other similar schools in the LEA via the School Information Profile, with their statistical neighbours and with national performance data.

In addition to the culture of support and praise which underpins the school ethos, the reward system of Merits, certificates of achievement, postcards home and letters of commendation for outstanding work and performance, effort and improved behaviour, contribute to raising student self-esteem and motivation.