School's SEND Policy Information Report

BenendenCEPSchool

SEN & Disability Policy/SEN Information Report

Original Issue:November 2014

Reviewed and agreed May 2016:

Signed; Martin Goodwin, Chair of Governors

Date: May 2016

Our school SENCo is Mrs Alison Brook who can be contacted via the school office 01580 240565 or by email at:

Contents

1. Rationale
2. Background
3. Links with other School Policies
4. Review and accessibility
5. Definition of SEN
6. Definition of Disability
7. What kinds of SEN are provided for?
8. How does the school identify and assess pupils with SEND?
9. Deployment of Teaching Assistants to support all children, including those with SEND
10. How does the school make provision for pupils with SEND?
11. What are the school’s arrangements for assessing and reviewing the provision of pupils with SEND?
12. What is the school’s approach to teaching pupils with SEND?
13. How does the school adapt the curriculum/ learning environment for pupils with SEND?
14. What additional support is available to pupils with SEND?
15. How does the school enable children with SEND to engage in activities together with children who do not have SEND?
16. What support is available for improving the emotional and social development of pupils with SEND?
17. Who is the SEN Co-ordinator?
18. What are the expertise and training of staff in relation to children with SEND and how does the school secure this specialist expertise?
19. How are equipment and facilities used to support children with SEND secured?
20. What are the arrangements for consulting parents of children with SEND and involving them in their education?
21. What are the arrangements for consulting with children with SEND and involving them in their education?
22. What are the arrangements made by the governing body relating to the treatment of complaints from parents of pupils with SEND concerning provision made by the school?
23. How does the governing body involve other bodies, including health and social services bodies, local authority support services and voluntary organisations, in meeting the needs of pupils with SEND and in supporting the families of such pupils?
24. What are the contact details of support services for the parents of pupils with SEND, including those for arrangements made in accordance with Clause 32 (Parent Partnership Services)?
25. What are the school’s arrangements for supporting pupils with SEND in transferring between phases of education or in preparing for adulthood and independent living?
26. Where is the local authority’s local offer published?

1. Rationale

Benenden CEP School is committed to providing high quality education for all children in the school. We strongly believe that all children, including those identified as having special educational needs have an entitlement to a broad, balanced and creative curriculum which is accessible to them. As part of this curriculum, we also believe that all our children have a right to be fully included in all aspects of school life, both socially and academically. Our school values reflect this view.

We value the abilities and achievements of all our pupils. We are committed to providing, for each pupil, the best possible environment for learning that we can provide,striving to eliminate prejudice and discrimination, creating a learning base where all children can flourish and feel safe.

We are committed to inclusion. We endeavour to make every effort to achieve maximum inclusion for all pupils whilst meeting their individual needs. We aim to engender a sense of community and belonging, and to offer new opportunities for learners who may have experiencedpreviousdifficulties. This does not mean that we will treat all learners in the same way, but that we will respond to learners in ways which take account of their varied life experiences and needs.

Finally, we continually strive to stay ‘ahead of the game’ and use National and Local evidence based research to inform our practice (e.g. Sutton Trust Toolkit, Lego Therapy). Thisensures that assessments, interventions and strategies used are current, efficient and effective. Work with Schools in our Local District enables us to share knowledge and resources schools adds to this thinking and enabling us to support all children, including those with special educational needs, to the best of our ability.

2. Background

This policy complies with:

• Children and Families Act 2014
• SEN Code of Practice 2014
• SI 2014 1530 Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014
• Part 3 Duties on Schools – Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators
• Schedule 1 regulation 51– Information to be included in the SEN information report
• Schedule 2 regulation 53 – Information to be published by a local authority in its local offer
• Equality Act 2010
• Schools Admissions Code, DfE 1 Feb 2012
• SI 2012 1124 The School Information (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2012
• SI 2013 758 The School Information (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013

3.Links with other School Policies

This policy should be read in conjunction with the following school policies:

• Behaviour and Anti-Bullying
• Teaching and Learning
• Equalities
• Safeguarding
• Homework
• Complaints

4. Review and accessibility

The policy will be reviewed annually, and published on the website. Hard copies of this policy are available upon request from the School Office and this policy can be translated into different languages if necessary.

5. Definition of SEN

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. In other words, if they require a curriculum/ support that is significantly different or additional to their peers.

A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty if he or she:

(a)Has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age; or

(b)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.SEN Code of Practice (2014, p 4)

The SEN Code of Practice 2014 identifies two categories of SEN; SEN Support and SEN with an EHCP/Statement.

The school uses the Local Authority’s definition of SEN Support to identify pupils with SEN who should be recorded as such on the school census.

SEN support is intensive and personalised intervention which is required to enable the child/young person (CYP) to be engaged in learning. It will usually involve significant amounts of resource from the educational setting (approaching or exceeding the nationally prescribed threshold for schools and colleges, and SCARF funding for EYFS). Each CYP identified as SEN Support will have Outcomes which have been agreed through a process of collaboration and discussion. A personalised programme of support will be devised and be reviewed and adjusted frequently (at least three times per year) with close CYP and/or parental involvement.

Those children who have had their needs assessed through the statutory assessment process and for whom an Education, Health and Care Plan has been agreed, will be clearly identified and their needs reviewed through the Annual review process.

6. Definition of disability

Some children and young people who have SEN may also 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’SEN Code of Practice (2014, p5)

7. What kinds of Special Educational Needs are provided for?

At Benenden CEP,we can make provision for every kind of frequently occurring special educational need without a statement of special educational needs / Education, Health and Care Plan, for instance dyslexia, dyspraxia, speech and language needs, auditory processing disorder, ADHD, ADD, autism, Asperger’s syndrome, learning difficulties and behaviour difficulties. There are other kinds of special educational need which do not occur as frequently and with which the school is less familiar, but we can access training and advice so that these kinds of needs can also be met.

The admission arrangements for pupils without a statement of special educational needs / Education, Health and Care Plan do not discriminate against or disadvantage disabled children or those with special educational needs.

8. How does the school identify and assess pupils with SEN?

We aim to keep the time between identifying where support is needed and responding with the right provision to a minimum. Home and pre-school visits (where requested) help with early identification and enable us to plan for future provision. As well as this we liaise with parents, health professionals and early years settings (nurseries) to build a sound evidence base.

Once in school, your child will be assessed in a number of different ways, including class observation. From these assessments your child’s teacher will be able to see what they are good at, where they need help and how best you can help at home.

At Benenden CEP we monitor the progress of all pupils fivetimes a year through Pupil Progress Meetings. Through this regular review of attainment and progress, teachers are able to swiftly identify any pupil who is not making the progress expected of them and immediate action to address this is agreed with the SMT and the SENCO. In addition to this, we use a range of standardised and other assessments with pupils to support more specific identification of need:

We also have access to external advisors who are able to use their own specialised assessment tools:

• We are able to access Educational Psychology support. An EP, through observation and assessment, can provide us with detailed information about a child’s needs and strategies and interventions that would bring about improvement.

• We are able to access Speech and Language Therapists who can support us in delivering programmes in school. They can:

oassess and treat children and young people with speech, language, communication and feeding difficulties.

oprovide assessment, diagnosis and treatment for children and young people with, language delay, specific language impairment, specific difficulties in producing sounds, hearing impairment, cleft palate, stammering (dysfluency), autism/social interaction difficulties, voice disorders and selective mutism.

• We can access specialist teacher support though LIFT meetings. They are able to:

oOffer educational support to ensure full access to the learning environment, curriculum and information, and to promote the independence and resilience for children and young people. Specialist Teachers for Visual Impairment, Hearing Impairment, Cognition and Interaction, and Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs are deployed on the basis of ongoing proactive needs analysis to provide high quality, highly specialist information, intervention and support for children and young people both in the home and school.

• We are also able to access physiotherapists and occupational therapists.

The purpose of these more detailed assessments is to better understand what additional resources and different approaches are required to enable the pupil to make better progress. These will be shared with parents, put into a SEN personalised plan, reviewed regularly (at least three times per year with parents), and refined / revised if necessary. At this point we will have identified that the pupil has a special educational need because the school is making special educational provision for the pupil which is significantly additional and different to what is normally available and parents will be notified in writing.

Where progress is not sufficient, even if a special educational need has not been identified, we put in place extra support to enable the pupil to catch up. In class these may include the following: safe space, pencil grips, fiddle toy, work station etc. Examples of interventions that could be in place are listed below. All these strategies and interventions will be recorded and monitored through the Class Provision Map.

If the pupil is able to make good progress using this additional and different resource (but would not be able to maintain this good progress without it) we will continue to identify the pupil as having a special educational need.

Once the pupil is able to maintain good progress without the additional and different resources he or she will no longer be identified as having special educational needs. When any change in identification of SEN is altered parents will be notified.

We will ensure that all teachers and support staff who work with the pupil are aware of the support to be provided and the teaching approaches to be used.

Parents will be kept informed about the progress their child is making through the regular parent consultation and reporting arrangements. Where a child is identified as having SEN the SENCo will inform the parents and will invite them into school to discuss this and the provision their child requires. Parents will be asked to share their long-term aspirations for their child and will then be asked for their priorities for their child over the current Key Stage of education. This information will help the school to compose Outcomes that will help the school and parents to determine whether the provision is helping the child to achieve the intended goals.

9. Deployment of Teaching Assistants to support all children, including those with SEND

We employ 8 teaching assistants (TA’s) across the school. Two of these are HLTA’s (Higher Level Teaching Assistants.) Most TA’s are based with a class in the morning and run intervention groups in the afternoons.

Using evidence based research including the Sutton Trust Toolkit findings and current thinking from groups including NASEN, training is regularly delivered to staff. This has included explaining the effective use of teaching assistants. Teaching assistants play a key part in supporting children’s learning in our school and we are aware that a key question to reflect on regarding this support is: What impact is the support having on children’s learning at every point in the session?

We have effective deployment strategies to use in class and around school and all teachers are aware of how to effectively deploy Teaching Assistants at different points in the lesson:

Support during whole class teaching

• Ensuring access (for example by simplifying or translating the teacher’s language, helping a child formulate answers to questions, helping a child to use resources, signing, or scribing);
• Givingfocused help (for example, reminding child of previously learned strategies, encouraging use of correct language);
• Working with children to prepare them to answer a question the teacher has given them time to think about;
• Providing images, pictures and tactile, practical resources to help children’s understanding;
• Providing appropriate praise and encouragement;
• Supporting children with behaviour difficulties, e.g. helping to settle and involve them, and keep attention directed to the task;
• Observing individual children for assessment purposes;
• Monitoring progress of class or individuals on behaviour targets.

Support during group work

• Ensuring access to the task (for example by scribing, signing, helping the child use ICT, providing adapted resources);
• Going over the teaching in an earlier part of the lesson, giving time for more explanation and examples, and for children to explain their thinking to others;
• Supporting work on teacher-planned differentiated tasks;
• Ensuring access to resources children may need in order to understand what is being taught;
• Guided and supported reading/writing/talk;
• Pre-tutoring for future whole class work or the plenary;
• Coaching behaviour/group work skills;
• Supervising the class while a teacher works with a particular group.

10. How does the school make provision for pupils with Special Educational Needs?

Each child who is identified as having a Special Educational Need will have their provision determined from the assessments carried out. In addition to this, the views of the pupil, parents and class/subject teachers about what works and what doesn’t work will also inform the provision.

Each child will have their Outcomes and the provision in place to meet these Outcomes recorded on a personalised plan. The school will use the LA version of this plan which enables review to be carried out on the same document. The document will be shared with parents and all staff working with the child. It will be updated at each review meeting.

Additional provision for pupils identified as SEN Support will usually be a mixture of strategies used in the classroom and/or playground and small group or individual intervention. Such interventions will usually be delivered away from the classroom. They will be closely targeted and may need to change regularly to meet the changing needs of the child.