HEAPBRIDGEVILLAGEPRIMARY SCHOOL

Special Educational Needs and

Disability Policy

Headteacher

Mr M. Cockcroft

Last Revised: September 2016

Heap Bridge Village Primary School

Special Educational Needs Policy

Compliance:

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

  • Equality Act 2010: advice for schools Department for Education (DfE) (2013)
  • The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations (2014)
  • SEND Code of Practice 0 – 25 (2014)
  • Schools SEN Information Report Regulations (2014)
  • Statutory Guidance on Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions (April 2014)
  • The National Curriculum in England Key Stage 1 and 2 framework document (September 2013)
  • Safeguarding Policy
  • Accessibility Plan
  • Teachers Standards 2012
  • Managing the Medical Conditions of Pupils (September 2014)

This policy was created by the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo), in liaison with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), governorsand staff. The policy has taken into account the feedback the school has received from parents and students.

Special Educational Needs (p15 SEN Code of Practice 2014)

A definition:

  • A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls 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, or has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.

Disabled children and young people (p16 Code of Practice 2014)

A definition:

Many children and young people who have SEN may have a disability under the Equality Act 2010 – that is ‘…a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. This definition provides a relatively low threshold and includes more children than many realise: ‘long-term’ is defined as ‘a year or more’ and ‘substantial’ is defined as ‘more than minor or trivial’. This definition includes sensory impairments such as those affecting sight or hearing, and long-term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and cancer. Children and young people with such conditions do not necessarily have SEN, but there is a significant overlap between disabled children and young people and those with SEN. Where a disabled child or young person requires special educational provision they will also be covered by the SEN definition.

The Equality Act

The Equality Act 2010 sets out the legal obligations that schools, early years providers, post 16 institutions, local authorities and others have towards disabled children and young people:

  • They must not directly or indirectly discriminate against, harass or victimise disabled children and young people;
  • They must make ‘reasonable adjustments,’ including the provision of auxiliary aids and services, to ensure that disabled children and young people are not at a substantial disadvantage compared with their peers. This duty is anticipatory – it requires thought to be given in advance to what disabled children and young people might require and what adjustments might need to be made to prevent that disadvantage.

Contents

Section One: Person responsible for the coordination of SEND

Section Two: Mission statement of the school and our aims:

Section Three: Identifying Special Educational Needs

Section Four: A Graduated Approach to SEND Support / Managing Children’s Needs on the SEN Support Register

Section Five: Supporting Students and Families

Section Six: Supporting Students at School with Medical Conditions

Section Seven: Monitoring and Evaluation of SEND

Section Eight: Training and Resources

Section Nine: Roles and Responsibilities

Section Ten: Storing and Managing Information

Section Eleven: Complaints Procedure

Section Twelve: Working in partnership with Parents

Section Thirteen: Reviewing the Policy

Appendices

Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years - Broad area of need

SECTION ONE: Person responsible for the coordination of Special Educational Needs:

Mrs K. Collingwood is the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) and Deputy Head of the school. She is a member of the school’s Senior Leadership Team and completed the National Award for SEN (NASENCo) in March 2013.

Mrs K. Collingwood can be contacted via:

Heap Bridge Village Primary School

Heap Brow

Heap Bridge

Bury

BL9 7JP

Telephone: 0161 7645686

Email:

In the absence of the SENCo enquires should be directed to Mr M. Cockcroft, Headteacher.

Email:

SECTION TWO: Mission Statement / Aims and Objectives

“Working Together, Learning Together”

Introduction

At Heap Bridge Village Primary School we are proud to provide a safe, stimulating and inclusive learning environment where every member of our community is valued and respected. Our broad and balanced curriculum and enrichment activities provide opportunities for everyone to achieve and succeed. We are determined to meet the educational needs of all our pupils.

We recognise that all teachers are teachers of Special Educational Needs (SEN). We recognise that it is the teacher’s responsibility to meet the needs of all children in his/her class through their classroom organisation, teaching materials, teaching style and differentiation. However, if achild does not make adequate progress through the focuseddifferentiation and support he/she receives, then the child may be identified as having special educational needs.

We will give these children individual consideration and make special provision for them, working in partnership with others as necessary. The governors’ intention is that the needs of all children are identified and met as soon as possible. All childrenwhether they have special educational needs or not, must have an equal opportunity toparticipate in the full curriculum and all activities of the school. Children with special educational needs will be encouraged to becomeindependent and take responsibility within the school.

This policy ensures that our curriculum planning and assessment of children with special educational needs takes into account the varying nature and extent of the difficulty. It also sets out the graduated nature of our response and support in accordance with the SEN Code of Practice, 2014.

Aims

The aims of this policy are to:

  • Create an environment that meets the special educational needs of each child;
  • Ensure that the special educational needs of pupils are identified, assessed and provided for;
  • Make clear the expectations of all individuals and agencies involved in the process;
  • Identify the roles and responsibilities of staff in providing for our children’s special educational needs;
  • Enable all of our pupils to have full access to all elements of the school curriculum;
  • Ensure that parents are actively involved in the partnership to support their child’s education;
  • Ensure that our children have a voice in this process and are involved in the planning of their SEN education.

Objectives

  • Staff members seek to identity the needs of children with special educational needs as early as possible. This is most effectively done by gathering information from parents, education, health and care services and early years settings prior to a child’s entry into the school;
  • Monitor the progress of all children in order to aid the identification of children with special educational needs. Continuous monitoring of thesechildren by their teachers will help to ensure that they are able to reach their full potential;
  • Make appropriate provision to overcome all barriers to learning and ensure children with special educational needs have full access to the National Curriculum. This provision will be co-ordinated by the SENCoand headteacher and will be carefully monitored and regularly reviewed in order to ensure that individual targets are being met and children’s needs are catered for;
  • Work with parents to gain a better understanding of their child and involve them in all stages of their child’s education. This includes supporting them in terms of understanding SEND procedures and practices and providing regular feedback on their child’s progress;
  • Work with and in support of outsideagencies when a child’s needs cannot be met by the school alone. Some of these services include: Educational Psychology Service, Speech and Language Therapy, Healthy Young Minds, Occupational Therapy, Rochdale Additional Needs Service (RANS) and the Community Paediatric Service;
  • Create a school environment where children can contribute to their own learning. This means encouraging relationships with adults in school wherebychildren feel safe to voice their opinions of their own needs, and carefully monitoring the progress of all children at regular intervals. The school encourages pupil participation in additional social development and skills based activities such as school council, residential visits, school productions, sports teams and playground pals at break times.

SECTION THREE: Identifying Special Educational Needs

The SEND Code of Practice, 2014, describes the four broad categories of need as:

  • Communication and interaction
  • Cognition and learning
  • Social, emotional and mental health
  • Sensory and/or physical needs

Full descriptions (as outlined by the SEN Code of Practice, 2014) of each of the categories are included at the end of this policy.

The school, in accordance with the SEN Code of Practice, 2014 believes the following are not SEN, but may impact on progress and attainment:

  • Disability
  • Behaviour
  • Attendance and Punctuality
  • Health and Welfare
  • English as an additional language (EAL)
  • Being in receipt of Pupil Premium Grant
  • Being a Looked After Child (LAC)
  • Being a child of a serviceman/woman

SECTION FOUR: A Graduated Approach to SEN Support

Quality First Teaching: ‘The baseline of learning for all pupils’.

Differentiation of the National Curriculum and the wider curriculum (emotional and social development, as well as communication and interaction) means teaching children using appropriate methods and ability levels. Not all children learn in the same way and need to be taught in different ways, for example through kinaesthetic, auditory or visual approaches. All children will receive help through differentiation but if achild does not make adequate progress within any of the four areas of difficulty outlined above, the school will do more to help. All staff are responsible for identifying children with special educational needs. The SENCo will work with staff to ensure that those children who may need additional or different support are identified at an early stage. The progress made by all children is monitored and reviewed. Children are only identified as having special educational needs if additional or different action is being taken.

The process we use in identifying and managing children with special educational needs is as follows:

a)Any children who are falling significantly outside of the range of expected academic achievement in line with predicted performance indicators and grade boundaries will be monitored;

b)Once a child has been identified as possibly having special educational needs they will be closely monitored by staff in order to gauge their level of learning and possible difficulties;

c)The child’s class teacher will take steps to provide differentiated learning opportunities that will aid the pupil’s academic progression and enable the teacher to better understand the provision and teaching style that needs to be applied;

d)The SENCo will be consulted, as needed, for support and advice and may wish to observe the pupil in class;

e)Through (b) and (d) it can be determined which level of provision the child will need going forward;

f)If a child has recently been removed from the SEN register they may also fall into this category as continued monitoring will be necessary;

g)Parents will be informed fully of every stage of their child’s development and the circumstances under which they are being monitored. They are encouraged to share information and knowledge with the school;

h)The child is recorded by the school as being under observation due to concern by parent or teacher but this does not automatically place the child on the school’s SEN register. Any concerns will be discussed with parents;

i)Parent’s evenings are used to monitor and assess the progress being made by children.

SEN Support

The changes within the new SEND Code of Practice identify a single category of SEN Support. Within this category there is a graduated response approach at Heap Bridge Village Primary School which is identified as:

  • 1st Response: Access to quality first teaching;
  • 2nd Response: ‘School Support’ (SS) which identifies concerns and the pupil is closely monitored;
  • 3rd Response: If little progress is made at ‘School Support’ then the class teacher or SENCo will discuss the concerns with the child’s parent and the child may be placed on ‘SEN Support’;
  • 4th Response: If external agency support is required and a range of Wave 3 interventions are needed then an Individual Provision Plan will be introduced at this stage;
  • 5th Response: If the child continues to demonstrate significant cause for concern, a request for an assessment for an Education, Health and Care Plan will be submitted to the local authority.

The aim of formally identifying a child with special educational needs is to help school ensure that effective provision is put in place and so remove barriers to learning. The support provided consists of a four – part process: Assess, Plan, Do, and Review. This is an on-going cycle to enable the provision to be refined and revised as the understanding of the needs of the child grows. This cycle enables the identification of those interventions which are the most effective in supporting the child to achieve good progress and outcomes.

Assess

This involves clearly analysing the child’s needs using the class teacher’s assessment and experience of working with the child, details of previous progress and attainment, comparisons with peers and national data, as well as the views and experience of parents. The child’s views and where relevant, advice from external support services will also be considered. Any parental concerns will be noted and compared with the school’s information and assessment data on how the child is progressing.

This analysis will require regular review to ensure that support and intervention is matched to need, that barriers to learning are clearly identified and being overcome and that the interventions being used are developing and evolving as required. Where external support staff are already involved their work will help inform the assessment of need. Where they are not involved they may be contacted, if this is felt to be appropriate, following discussion and agreement from parents.

Plan

Planning will involve consultation between the teacher, SENCo and parents to agree the adjustments, interventions and support that are required; the impact on progress, development and, or, behaviour that is expected and a clear date for review. Parental involvement may be sought, where appropriate, to reinforce or contribute to progress at home.

Do

The class teachers remain responsible for working with the child on a day-to-day basis. They will retain responsibility even where the interventions may involve group or one-to-one teaching away from the main class teacher. Class teachers will work closely with teaching assistants to plan and assess the impact of support and interventions and links with classroom teaching. The SENCo will provide support with further assessment of the child’s strengths and weaknesses, problem solving and advising of the implementation of effective support.

Review

Reviews of a child’s progress will be made regularly. The review process will evaluate the impact and quality of the support and interventions. It will also take account of the views of the child and where necessary their parents. The class teacher, in conjunction with the SENCo will revise the support and outcomes based on the child’s progress and development making any necessary amendments going forward, in consultation with parents and the child.

Referral for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan)

If a child has lifelong or significant difficulties they may undergo a statutory assessment process which is usually requested by the school but can be requested by a parent. This will occur where the complexity of need or a lack of clarity around the needs of the child are such that a multi-agency approach to assessing that need, planning provision and identifying resources, is required. The decision to make a referral for an Education, Health and Care Plan can be made at any time.