Auckland Prep School

Auckland College Independent School

SEN Policy

2013 – 2014

Introduction of Policy

Auckland College has responsibility to promote high standards for all pupils, including those who have special educational needs (SEN). The aim of this policy is to describe the provision of support for children/pupils with SEN within the school. A key feature of this provision is a commitment to the principles of inclusive education. Underpinning these principles is a national framework, which provides guidance as to the way in which the school, the LEA and local partners will implement the policy.

This policy includes:

  • The UNESCO Salamanca Statement (1994) which reinforces the notion that all pupils should attend their local community mainstream school “unless there are compelling reasons for doing otherwise.”
  • The Disability Discrimination Act 1995, which aimed to end discriminatory practices faced by many disabled people.
  • The 1996 Education Act, which made provision for the publication of the SEN Code of Practice, designed to give education providers guidance on the identification and assessment of children and young people with special educational needs.
  • The 1997 Government publication “Excellence for All Children – Meeting Special Educational Needs” which sets out a strategy for improving the standards for pupils with SEN
  • The 1998 publication “Meeting Special Educational Needs – A Programme of Action” which, in conjunction with the 1999 Disability Rights Task Force Report “From Exclusion to Inclusion”, reinforces the rights of all pupils to be educated in mainstream schools
  • The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001), which amended the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) to make it unlawful for education providers to discriminate against disabled pupils, students and adult learners. As a result, education providers must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people in education do not suffer a substantial disadvantage in comparison to their peers who are not disabled. Part 1 of the Act strengthens the rights of children and young people with special educational needs to be educated in mainstream settings. The Act also requires schools and LAs to plan strategically to increase access to education.
  • The revised SEN Code of Practice (effective from January 2002), which takes account of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001) and “provides practical advice to Local Authorities, maintained schools, early education settings and others on carrying out their statutory duties to identify, assess and make provision for pupil’s special educational needs
  • The Government Green Paper “Every Child Matters” (2003), which describes a commitment to partnership and a multi-agency framework within the Children’s Services proposals

“Removing Barriers to Achievement – The Government’s Strategy for SEN” (2004), which focuses on

Early Intervention

  • Removing Barriers to Learning
  • Raising Expectations and Achievement
  • Delivering Improvements in Partnership
  • The Disability Discrimination Act (2005), which places a duty on all public bodies to promote disability equality. This is a positive duty, which builds on disability equality from the outset, as opposed to the practice of making adjustments at the end of any given process.

Aims

In order to deliver a high standard of educational provision for pupils with SEN, the school will:

  • The SEN supportwill devise all IEP’s,in collaboration with each subject teacher, developing a much more personalised pathway for each individual child.
  • Provide a wide range of choice of provision and service.
  • Prioritise resources accordingly to ensure support to children/young people and their families through collaborative early identification and intervention.
  • Adopt a structured approach to assessment, as described in the SEN Code of Practice, and ensure consistence of practice across all sectors in support of children and young people with SEN.
  • Take into account the viewpoints of parents/carers, children/young people and professionals involved.
  • Respect pupil and parental choice, notwithstanding the need to meet the statutory duty of maximising pupil potential by appropriate interventions.
  • Support all partners to facilitate children’s/young person’s involvement in decision making processes where appropriate.
  • Maximise pupil participation in their own education and their role as citizens within their learning, family and social communities.
  • Match pupil need with relevant support interventions and school placement is necessary.
  • Provide a broad, balanced and suitably differentiated curriculum in support of children and young people with SEN and disabilities.
  • Ensure that pupil progress is reviewed regularly against clearly defined learning outcomes suited to the child or young person’s abilities, aptitudes and potential.
  • Provide a comprehensive programme of continuing professional staff development for teaching and support staff commensurate with their defined areas of responsibilities.
  • Ensure that there are comprehensive and effective support services, staffed by appropriately qualified professionals, to support children/young people with SEN, their parents/carers and other appropriate schools.
  • Facilitate inter-agency collaboration in support of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
  • Implement consistent procedures in respect of placement decisions and the allocation of resources and ensure that additional SEN resources provided to schools are used effectively and in line with the principles of Best Value through a clear monitoring process.
  • Develop the effectiveness of support services through quality assurance mechanisms, recognising the principles of Best Value.

Whole School Provision Mapping

Subject teachers must familiarise themselves with the pupil’s statement and create an IEP that caters for their needs. This IEP will be evaluated regularly to ensure the child’s needs are being met appropriately

Step 1– a referral form to be completed by class teacher- if a child is consistently failing to meet mainstream learning objectives and forwarded to SMT. This form is then reviewed and evaluated by the SMT, subject teachers and also the parents/guardians.

Step 2 – After liaising and agreement from SMT, teachers and parents, the child will be put on School Action and entered into Wave 1 on the provision map. This stage is high quality inclusive teaching for all.

Step 3 (Wave 1 provision) – Instead of an IEP this child will need a 6 weekly target sheet to be completed at the start of every half term. Some of these targets can be the same as the rest of the class, however it should include the extra steps needed to get the child there in the first place. E.g If the whole class target is mass word problems e.g A tin of fruit weighs 200g. What do 8 tins weigh in kilograms?

There are 3 skills they need to be able to do to solve this problem.

1.To be able to convert grams – kilograms ie. Multiply and divide by 1000

2.To be able to multiply a 3 digit number by a 1 digit number.

3.To be able to identify the key points in the question.

So the whole class target is to solve problems involving mass, but for some students their targets will firstly be to be capable of multiplying and dividing by 1000 and then to be able to multiply a 3 digit number by a 1 digit number and these should be their SMART targets on their 6 weekly target sheet.

SMART = Specific Measurable Appropriate Realistic Time

Evaluation of targets: These targets need to be assessed and evaluated every 6 weeks and a copy filed in the pupil’s SEN file. If a pupil hasn’t achieved a target then this needs to be revisited in the next term until it is achieved. These targets need to be discussed with each pupil at the beginning of term and get them to sign it and best practice is to give the pupil child friendly copies with the targets in child speak. At the end of the term the pupils should be actively involved in the review process, ask them how they feel and ask them what worked for them and what didn’t.

All wave 1 provision SEN should be reviewed 1 or 2 times a year. A School Action Review of Progress should be completed.If provision is suitable for the pupil then they can remain on school action, if they have made a lot of improvement they can be withdrawn from School Action or if they have made no progress then they move to School Action Plus.

Step 4 -Wave 2 Provision- Most pupils on this wave will be on School Action Plus, however some School Action pupils may also be on this stage as a short term intervention. At this stage IEP’s are required. There may also be involvement from outside agencies e.g Dyslexia Action or SENISS. The SENCO will liaise with teachers, parents and pupil to write the IEP and distribute to all involved in the process. Again, the pupil should be involved in the process and be fully aware of their IEP targets. Most pupils at this stage will have one to one or small group sessions.

Wave 2 provision should be reviewed termly. A School Action Plus Review of Progress should be completed (see attached) by the SEN support, class teachers, parents and child. If provision is suitable then the pupil should remain on School Action Plus, if the pupil is still not making adequate progress then the next progression stage is requesting statutory assessment with view to statementing and informing the LEA.

Step 5 – Wave 3 provision- most pupils on this stage will be statemented, however there may be some School Action Plus. All pupils at this stage will have one to one or small group sessions.

Definition of Special Educational Needs

Pupils have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty,which calls for special educational provisionto be made for them.

Pupils have a learning difficultyif they:

· have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of childrenof the same age,

· have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use ofeducational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same agein schools within the area of the local education authority

· are under compulsory school age and fall within the definition above or wouldso do if special educational provision was not made for them.

Pupils must not be regarded as having a learning difficulty solely becausethe language or form of language of their home is different from the languagein which they will be taught.

This SEN policy details how this school will do its best to ensure that the necessaryprovision is made for any pupil who has special educational needs andthose needs are made known to all who are likely to teach them. The school will aim to ensure that teachers in the school are able to identify andprovide for those pupils who have special educational needs to allow pupils withspecial educational needs to join in the activities together with pupils whodo not have special educational needs, so far as is reasonably practical andcompatible with the child receiving the special educational provision. Our teaching staff and SEN support will be in control of writing the IEPs for a student with SEN, so that they are aware of all the support required to enable pupils to move forward academically.

The school will refer to the SEN Code of Practicewhen carrying out its dutiestoward all pupils with special educational needs and ensure that parents are notifiedof a decision by the school that SEN provision is being made for their child.

Partnership with parents plays a key role in enabling children and young people withSEN to achieve their potential. The school recognises that parents hold keyinformation and have knowledge and experience to contribute to the shared view ofa child’s needs and the best ways of supporting them. All parents of children withspecial educational needs will be treated as partners and supported to play an activeand valued role in their children’s education.

Young people with special educational needs often have a unique knowledge of theirown needs and their views about what sort of help they would like to help themmake the most of their education will be ascertained. They will be encouraged toparticipate in all the decision-making processes and contribute to the assessment oftheir needs, the review and transition processes.

Identification, Assessment and Provision

Provision for pupils with special educational needs is a matter for the school as awhole. In addition to the governing body, the school’s head teacher, SENCO andlearning support team, all other members of staff have important responsibilities.

All teachers are teachers of pupils with special educational needs.

Teaching such pupils is a whole-school responsibility, requiring a whole-schoolresponse. Central to the work of every class and every subject is a continuous cycleof planning, teaching, assessment and evaluation that takes account of the widerange of abilities, aptitudes and interests of the pupils. The majority of pupils willlearn and progress within these arrangements. However, for pupils with specialeducational needs, there may be a need to provide an enhanced level of provisionthat supports and enhances their learning abilities.

Graduated response

Schools will adopt a graduated response to meeting special educational needs thatrequires the initial use of classroom and school resources before bringing specialistexpertise to assist with the difficulties that a pupil is experiencing. When a youngperson is identified as having special educational needs, the school will intervene asdescribed below at School Action and School Action Plus. Such interventions are a means of helping schools and parents match special educational provision toindividual pupil needs. School will record the steps taken to meet the needs ofindividual children.

If a pupil is known to have special educational needs when they arrive at the school, the Head teacher, SEN support, andpastoral colleagues will:

· use information from the primary school to provide an appropriate curriculumfor the pupil and focus attention on action to support the pupil within theclass

· ensure that on-going observation and assessment provides feedback about the pupil’s achievements to inform future planning of the pupil’s learning

· ensure opportunities for the pupil to show what they know, understand andcan do through the pastoral programme

· involve the pupil in planning and agreeing targets to meet their needs

· involve parents in developing a joint learning approach at home and inschool.

Early Identification

Assessment is a continuing process that can identify pupils who may have specialeducational needs. The school will measure children’s progress by referring to:

· Evidence from teacher observation and assessment

· Their performance against the level descriptions within the NationalCurriculum at the end of a key stage

·Their progress against the objectives specified in the National Literacy andNumeracy Strategy Frameworks

· standardised screening or assessment tools.

English as an additional language

The identification and assessment of the special educational needs of young peoplewhose first language is not English, requires particular care. Where there isuncertainty about an individual, the school will look carefully at all aspects of apupil’s performance in different subjects to establish whether the problems they havein the classroom are due to limitations in their command of the language that is usedthere or arise from special educational needs.

The role of the SEN support

The SEN support, in collaboration with the Head teacher and SMT, plays a key role in helping to determine the strategic development of the SENpolicy and provision in the school to raise the achievement of pupils with SEN. Thekey responsibilities of the SEN support may include:

· Overseeing the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEN policy

· Liaising with and advising fellow teachers

· Provision for pupils with special educational needs

· Overseeing the records on all pupils with special educational needs

· Liaising with parents of pupils with special educational needs with SMT

· Contributing to the in-service training of staff

· Liaising with external agencies including the LEA’s support and educationalpsychology services, the Connexions PA, health and social services andvoluntary bodies.

Monitoring pupil progress

Teachers may conclude that the strategies they are currently using with a pupil arenot resulting in the pupil learning as effectively as possible. In these circumstances, they will consult the SEN support to consider what else might be done. The starting pointwill always be a review of the strategies being used and the way in which thesemight be developed. Evaluation of the strategies in place may lead to the conclusionthat the pupil requires help over and above that which is normally available withinthe particular class or subject. Consideration should then be given to helping thepupil through School Action. The key test of the need for action is evidence thatcurrent rates of progress are inadequate. Adequate progress can be defined in anumber of ways. It might, for instance, be progress which:

· Closes the attainment gap between the pupil and the pupil’s peers

· Prevents the attainment gap growing wider

· Is similar to that of peers starting from the same attainment baseline, but lessthan that of the majority of peers

· Matches or betters the pupil’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 pupil’s behaviour

· Is likely to lead to appropriate accreditation

· Is likely to lead to participation in further education, training and/oremployment.

School Action

When a pupil is identified as having special educational needs, school will provideinterventions that are additional to or different from those provided as part of theschool’s usual differentiated curriculum. This intervention will be described asSchool Action.

The triggers for intervention through School Action could be: concern, underpinnedby evidence, about a pupil who, despite receiving differentiated learning opportunities: