Cam Woodfield Infants

  • This is a smaller than average sized infant school. Most pupils are of White British heritage.
  • The school shares its site with a separate pre-school and junior school.
  • Children in Reception are all full time by the end of September each year.
  • The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is in line with the national average.
  • The proportion of pupils who are known to be eligible for the pupil premium is below the national average. This is additional government funding to support those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those who are looked after by the local authority.

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Policy

Vision

Our school seeks to promote a happy purposeful community, where responsibility, mutual trust and respect have high priority and everyone is encouraged and supported to fulfil their potential.

Aims

We aim to foster an inclusive climate through the provision of a well- planned and differentiated curriculum, effective in meeting the individual needs of all children including those with special educational needs or disabilities. We aim to provide a positive learning environment where all children make good progress, are praised for their efforts and are encouraged to meet challenges with determination and resilience.We aim to encourage our children to become independent learners who communicate effectively and show respect for their environment, their peers and the global community.

We aim to encourage each and every child in all aspects of learning by:

  • developing a strong partnership between children, parents, staff, governors and the community as a whole
  • developing social skills (communication, empathy, respect and a sense of responsibility)
  • involving parents or carers and children in decision making and encouraging and developing the pupil voice
  • developing a sense of self- worth where the child’s ideas and feelings are valued
  • encouraging the children to achieve their full potential through a broad varied and interesting learning environment and curriculum
  • celebrating diversity
  • promoting and encouraging an awareness and understanding of how to lead a healthy life
  • creating a safe environment in which we encourage children to make sensible choices
  • Identifying and overcoming any barriers to learning, including supporting children through transitions such as on school entry, through phases and key stages.

Consultation

This policy was written in consultation with parents, staff and the governing body. It takes into account the following:

  • Children and Families Act 2014 -
  • Equality Act 2010 -
  • Supporting Pupils at School with Medical Conditions (DFE Statutory GuidanceDec 2015) -
  • Working Together to Safeguard Children -
  • Code of Practice -

Along with the following school policies:

  • Anti-bullying
  • Behaviour
  • Child Protection
  • Equalities
  • Health and Safety
  • Complaints

More details about these policies along with additional information such as the School’scontribution to the Local Authority’s SEND Local Offer and our SEN Information Report can be found on the school website;

Our school SENCo is Mrs Sarah Powell and she can be contacted by ringing 01453 543535 or emailing

Our school SEND governor is Mrs Sam Friend and she can be contacted by ringing 01453 543535 or emailing

Our school DSL (designated safeguarding lead) is our head teacher Mrs Helen Harper. She can be contacted by ringing 01453 543535 or emailing

Definition of Special Educational Needs (Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years 2015)

A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability whichcalls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.

A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or

disability if he or she:

• has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of

the same age, orhas a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use offacilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age inmainstream schools.

Objectives

  1. To ensure that all children have access to a broad, balanced, relevant and differentiated curriculum, well matched to their individual needs.
  2. To ensure that all children have equality of opportunity, regardless of gender, ability, ethnic origins or social circumstances.
  3. To work collaboratively with parents, children and appropriate agencies.
  4. To remove barriers to learning and raise expectations and achievement for all children.
  5. To ensure that the requirements of children with special educational needs or disabilities are addressed through reasonable adjustment, within the planning, organisation and management of the school.
  6. To carry out on-going assessment and monitoring within every day classroom procedures, to ensure continuity and progression from class to class and phase to phase, supported by appropriate record keeping and reporting.
  7. To be aware of children’s social, emotional, spiritual and cultural development as well as academic progress.
  8. To have a regard to the principles and guidelines as outlined in both the SEND Code of Practice (2014)and Local Education Authority SEND policy to inform procedure and practice.

Roles and responsibilities

The role played by children with SEND

The school will seek to engage with children who have both additional and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in order to establish their views in relation to their learning, needs, outcomes and aspirations for the future. This will be carried out:

  • During reviews of One Page Profile, My Plan, My Assessment, My Plan+, EHC Plan
  • Parent Evenings
  • School Questionnaires
  • Assemblies
  • Pupil conferencing during interventions
  • Through observations by the adults who know and work with the child regularly
  • Through the use of visual resources for example where communication is a barrier to the child expressing their views

The role played by parents of children with SEND

In accordance with the SEND Code of Practice, the school believes that all parents of children with SEND should be treated as equal partners. The school has positive attitudes to parents, provides user-friendly information and strives to ensure that they understand the procedures and are aware of how to access advice.

Parents will be supported to:

  • Recognise and fulfil their responsibilities as parents and play an active and valued role in their child’s education.
  • Have knowledge of their child’s entitlement in accordance with statutory guidance.
  • Make their views known about how their child is educated.
  • Have access to information, advice and support during assessment and any related decision making processes about SEND provision.

Information and advice for parents can be found on Gloucestershire’s SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service) website - or by ringing Freephone 0800 1583603.

In addition the Glosfamilies directory can also provide useful information about Gloucestershire’s local offer along with contact details for a variety of services

The role of the SENCO (In accordance to The Education Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (England) Regulations 2008)

The SENCo is responsible for:

Identifying a child’s special educational needs and co-ordinating the provision to meet those needs

Monitoring the effectiveness of any special educational provision made for the child

Ensuring that records of the child’s special educational needs and the provision made to meet those needs are maintained, kept up to date and shared where appropriate with the child, parents, staff and outside agencies

  • Liaising with and providing information to the parents or guardians of the child about that pupil’s special educational needs and the special educational provision being made to meet those needs
  • Liaising with outside agencies including multi-agency and multi -professional working (in consultation with parents and teachers) making referrals where appropriate and securing relevant services for the child
  • Supporting transitions by ensuring that all relevant information about the child’s special educational needs and the special educational provision made to meet those needs is shared
  • Promoting the child’s inclusion in the school community and access to the school’s curriculum, facilities and extra-curricular activities including those in the wider community or specialist providers
  • The implementation and periodic review and updating of policy and procedures in the light of new initiatives and requirements, including the School Offer
  • Talking to children about their learning in terms of progress, barriers and aspirations for the future
  • Liaising with and supporting staff in their teaching. Seeking relevant opportunities for training and contributing to the on - going professional development of staff working with children who have SEND
  • Supporting planning to identify the needs and outcomes of individuals, including the writing and monitoring of planssuch as risk assessments, care plans and personal emergency evacuation plans
  • Liaising with the SEND governor. Reporting to the governing body and supporting the publishing of the annual SEND Information report

The Head Teacher and SLT is responsible for:

  • Organising and managing the provision of SEND.
  • Liaising with external agencies.
  • Liaising with the SENco

The role of classroom teachers

Class teachers are responsible for:

  • Providing Quality First Teaching for all children they teach
  • Identifying children who are not making good progress, including those children with special educational needs or disabilities and planning differentiated work or making reasonable adjustments to the learning environment in order to meet needs and outcomes
  • Initiating and maintaining record keeping as appropriate
  • Reviewingprogress towards outcomes with the child, parents and senco and identify on-going needs
  • Deploying teaching assistants to support children’s learning
  • Writing and implementing plans in consultation with the child, parents, SENCo and appropriate teaching staff
  • Liaising with outside agencies.

Teaching assistants

Teaching assistants are often responsible for:

  • Delivering and evaluating teaching and learning activities (including some planning where appropriate) as directed by the class teacher or senco
  • Supporting children to make progress in their learning
  • Observing children and reportingobservations back to the teacher
  • Raising concerns about children’s progress
  • Recording progress including adding comments to plans about progress towards outcomes
  • Liaising with parents if appropriate
  • Liaising with outside agencies if appropriate

Governors

The governors recognise that the statutory duty to make adequate provision for pupils with special educational needs rests with the governing body.

The governing body will:

  • Have regard to the Code of Practice (2014) when carrying out its duties
  • Ensure parents are notified of a decision by the school that SEND provision is being made for their child. They achieve this by delegating to the head teacher
  • Endeavour to provide for all pupils within available resources
  • Report to parents on the implementation of the SEND policy through publishing their annual SEND Information report

The governing body will appoint a governor to liaise with school staff to ensure that every effort is made to meet the identified needs of children and to monitor progress towards outcomes. They will support the school with the implementation of its SEND policy.

Training and development

Training needs are identified in response to the needs of pupils currently on the SEN register.

School staff have specific training and expertise in speech and language, literacy and numeracy interventions and supporting children with ASD, de-escalation skills and physical development.

The SENCO attends network meetings to share good practice with colleagues in the Schools Partnership and keep up to date with SEND developments.

Admission arrangements

The Head teacher is responsible for the admission arrangements, which accord with those laid down by the LEA. The school acknowledges in full, its responsibility to admit pupils with already identified special educational needs as well as identifying and providing for those not previously identified as having special educational needs.

Access to the curriculum

The National Curriculum talks about inclusion stating that:

4.1 Teachers should set high expectations for every pupil. They should plan stretching work for pupils whose attainment is significantly above the expected standard. They have an even greater obligation to plan lessons for pupils who have low levels of prior attainment or come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Teachers should use appropriate assessment to set targets which are deliberately ambitious.

All pupils have the entitlement to a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum. All pupils with SEND are taught for most of the week with their peers in mainstream classes. All teaching and support staff are aware of the National Curriculum Inclusion Statement and in their planning and teaching, they strive to:

  • Provide suitable learning challenges
  • Meet the pupil’s diverse learning needs
  • Remove the barriers to learning and assessment

With advice from and support of the SENCO, teachers match the learning to the needs and abilities of the pupils. They use a range of strategies to develop the pupil’s knowledge, understanding and skills. Where appropriate, materials are modified or support is provided to enable pupils with SEND to access the learning or the assessment processes.

Identification, assessment, provision and review

The identification of SEND is built into the overall approach to monitoring the progress and development of all pupils. As a school we follow the Plan, Assess, Do and Review Cycle detailed in the Code of Practice.Teachers are central (with support from SENCO) in driving movement around the cycle with parents and pupils being involved at all stages.

Class teachers and subject leaders make regular assessments of progress for all pupils. Where additional needs are identified (taking into account age and starting point) the school will plan provision to meet the needs and close the gap.

Where pupils continue to make inadequate progress, despite high-quality teaching targeted to meet their needs, the class teacher, working with the SENCO and through structured conversation with the parents, will discuss whether the child may haveSpecial Educational needs.

Where this is the case, the support that is required for the child is agreed andthe parents will receive informationconfirmingthe provision being made.

The school will follow the graduated approach as detailed in Gloucestershire’s guidance book ‘Additional Needs including Special Educational Needs and Disabilities’(second edition) but will respond appropriately and within its resources, should a child have sudden or unexpected needs which require provision.

Where a child continues to make little or no progress, despite well-founded support that is matched to the child’s area of need, the school will consider involving outside agencies.

Where a child is receiving SEND support the school will meet parents at least termly to set clear goals, discuss the activities and support that will help achieve them, review progress and identify the responsibilities of the parent, the pupil and the school.

The school accurately records the provision made for pupils and measures impact of interventions having recorded an initial baselineand assessing at the end of an intervention or at least 3 times a year for on-going provision. Our School Offer has further information about the graduated approach including My Plans, My Assessment, My Plan + and EHC Plans.

The Single Graduated Pathway of Support

To give specific help to children who have special needs, Cam Woodfield Infant School follows the single graduated pathway approach to provision according to the Gloucestershire local authority model. The graduations on the new code correspond approximately to the stages from the previous Code of Practice.

SEN Support – My Plan

Triggers for SEN Support My Plan could be:

• Makes little or no progress even when teaching approaches are targeted, particularly in a child’s identified area of weakness

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

• Presents persistent emotional or behavioural difficulties which are not improved by the behaviour management techniques usually employed at this school

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

• Has communication and, or, interaction difficulties and continues to make little or not progress despite the provision of a differentiated curriculum

When the class teacher, parent or a professional from an outside agency, expresses a concern that a child is showing signs of having special educational needs, the teacher, along with support from the Head Teacher/SENCo collects any information about the child already available to the school.