Alvaston Infant and Nursery School

Special Education Needs and Disability (SEN&D) Policy

November 2016

Signature of Chair of Governors:

Signature of Headteacher

Alvaston Infant and Nursery School

Special Education Needs and Disability (SEN&D) Policy

This policy is in collaboration with the Revised Code of Practice (2014)

Alvaston Infant and Nursery School seeks to provide a high quality of education for pupils, according to their needs, with the ultimate aim of developing attitudes of mutual respect and responsibility.

The revised Code of Practice (2014) now states that,

“High quality teaching, differentiated for individual pupils, is the first step in responding to pupils who have or may have SEN. Additional intervention and support cannot compensate for a lack of good quality teaching.”

The SEND Aims of the School

The policy and practice of providing for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities within the school is underpinned by the overall principles applying throughout the school as a whole:

  • Our commitment to equal opportunities for all
  • Our recognising and valuing the contributions of individuals to the schoolcommunity
  • The entitlement of all children to a broad, balanced, relevant and differentiated curriculum, including the National Curriculum and the Foundation StageCurriculum.
  • Our commitment to valuing each stage of life in school as worthwhile initself
  • The recognition of our responsibility to develop the whole child
  • The recognition of our responsibility to prepare children for a fulfilled, happy and successful adulthood

For those children experiencing a form of Special Educational Need at any point in their school careers the following objectives are set:

  • To value each child for him/herself, regardless of their emotional or academicabilities.
  • To create an atmosphere of mutual respect within the class and the school, modelled at all times by the adults in school.
  • To ensure good initial planning and staff training to ensure inclusivity
  • To establish good relationships at formal and informal levels between home, school and outside agencies
  • To provide an appropriate level of support for those children with a learningneed

Rules and Responsibilities

All staff have a duty towards providing support for children with special educational needs within school. The level of responsibility is determined by the role of the staff member as follows:

Class teachers are responsible for:

  • early identification of any concerns
  • recording early concerns on a SEND Monitoring Concernsform
  • making initial contact with parents
  • informing the SENCO of theconcern
  • liaising with the SENCO
  • monitoring and reviewing the child's progress
  • Writing and reviewing of SEND Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs) and filling out any additional forms that might be needed by other professionals. E.g. Boxall Profile.
  • Ensuring that pupils’ different learning styles are catered for within the learning environment
  • Designing appropriate differentiated learning tasks to ensure pupils access a broad and balanced curriculum with support if needed from theSENCO.
  • Meeting with the parents on a termly basis to set goals and discuss the progress that their child has made.

All teaching and non-teaching staff:

  • Should be involved in the development of the school’s SEND policy and be fully aware of the school’s procedures for identifying, assessing and making provision for pupils with SEND.

Subject Leaders:

  • Are responsible for giving consideration to SEND when reviewingpolicies.

Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo):

The Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) is responsible for the day-­‐to-­‐day provision of education for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

Responsibilities include:

  • Ensuring that systems are in place for early identification of pupils who may haveSEND
  • Tracking the progress of the children who have SEND, within reading, writing andmaths.
  • Plan and timetable Teaching Assistant provision for children who haveSEND.
  • Monitoring the writing of and reviewing of SEND Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs) by facilitating termly meetings with parents.
  • Providing advice on methods of curriculumdifferentiation.
  • Providing information for colleagues about recent developments locally and nationally in the field ofSEND.
  • Suggesting the use of appropriate resources, including ICT, to meet individual needs
  • Ensuring that all staff are aware of their responsibilities related to the Revised SEND Code of Practice(2014).
  • Maintaining dialogue with the Governing Body regarding SENDprovision.
  • Ensuring close liaison between all relevant teachers and support staff in order to meet individual needs for children withSEND.

  • Ensuring that all staff are aware of, and understand the contents of, pupils'EHCPs.
  • Maintaining close links with external agencies including the educational psychology service and other support agencies, medical and social services and voluntarybodies.
  • Maintaining partnership with parents of children with SEND beyond SchoolAction.
  • Facilitate Annual Reviews for children with EHCPs.
  • Maintaining close links with partner schools and the LA, particularly with reference to transfer of records.
  • Apply for additional funding and training support from the various avenues available at Derby City Council, and take responsibility for keeping up to date as to the new procedures for doing this.

The Senior Leadership Team is responsible for:

  • Co-­‐ordinating provision for children with special educational needs
  • Convening meetings and working groups asappropriate
  • Identifying staff development needs for the SENCO, teaching andnon-­‐teachingstaff
  • Promoting a positive ethos about our inclusive practices to all stakeholders
  • Ensuring that the SEND in-­‐service training policy is part of the school development plan
  • Contributing to the in-­‐service training of staff
  • Ensuring the smooth day-­‐to-­‐day operation of the school's SEND policy
  • Being involved in the development of the school's SENDpolicy

The Head Teacher is responsible for:

  • Ensuring this policy is implemented throughout theschool.
  • Ensuring resources are available to support implementation of the policy within overall budget constraints.
  • Ensuring that the policy is reviewed annually through incorporation in the School DevelopmentPlan.
  • Keeping Governors informed of how many children in school have been identified as having special educational needs.
  • Ensuring that evaluation of SEND provision is carried out annually by the Senior Leadership Team.

The Governing Body is responsible for:

  • Determining the school’s general policy and approach to provision for children withSEND
  • Establishing the appropriate staffing and fundingarrangements.
  • Appointing a governor to take a particular interest in, and monitor, the school’s work on behalf of children withSEND.

Admission Criteria

The Governing Body believes that the admissions criteria should not discriminate against pupils with SEND and has due regard for the practice advocated in the Code of Practice (2001):

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

Inclusion

This school recognises the entitlement of all pupils to a balanced, broadly based curriculum. Our SEND policy reinforces the need for teaching that is fully inclusive. The Governing Body will ensure that appropriate provision will be made for all children with SEND.

SEND Resources

The financial resources delegated to the school specifically for Special Educational Needs are used to support provision of a SENCO, support staff and material resources.

Current interventions that are used in school are as follows:

•Sounds Factory

•First class at number

•Targeted Maths and English interventions

Identification of SEND

Taken from the Education Act 1996

A child is said to have Special Education needs when he/she has: -­‐

-­‐ significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age

-­‐ a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in schools in the area

The degree of difficulty may be mild, moderate or severe and may be permanent or temporary. The need for early identification is important, the earlier action is taken the more responsive the child is likely to be, and therefore more progress will be made as the child is receiving a provision that is directly linked to their educational needs.

A child with Special Educational Needs may be identified by:

•Teacher

•Parent

•Health professional

•Therapist e.g. physiotherapist, speech therapist

•Social worker

•Other professionals who have had close and regular contact with the child.

The SEND code of Practice (2014) outlines four areas in which special educational needs can fall into:

•Communication and interaction

•Cognition and learning

•Social, mental and emotional health

•Sensory and/or physical

Behavioural difficulties have been removed from the code of practice as the government feel that if a child has behavioural issues this does not necessarily mean that they have SEND. Behavioural difficulties are very likely to be linked to and a result of another primary area of need.

The class teacher is aware of children having difficulties as he/she assesses the pupils within the day-­‐to day framework of the classroom. He/she will identify pupils who are:

•Not progressing well or those who are stuck and therefore making no progress

•Finding the work stressful

•Showing signs of a physical or sensory disability

•Demonstrating mental, social or emotional difficulties.

•Struggling to interact effectively with their peers.

The class teacher will then voice their initial concerns to the SENCO.

If the concern voiced is regarding a physical or sensory disability the parents are consulted and outside agencies involved if deemed necessary.

The class teacher and the SENCO will then discuss the child and decide if continued observation and the monitoring of progress would meet the needs of the child and onto which stage of the graduated response they should be placed.

The views of the parents and pupil will be sought in order to gain a wider understanding of the pupils needs.

Assessment of SEND

The school uses a range of additional indicators of special educational needs; these depend on the needs of the individual pupil. These indicators may be used to measure progress over periods of time and to support interventions.

THE GRADUATED RESPONSE (SEND Support)

Once a potential Special Need is identified the following process must be followed:

-­‐Assess

-­‐Plan

-­‐Do

-­‐Review

Alvaston Infant and Nursery School’s Graduated Response

The following paper work procedures will represent the Graduated Response:

1.SEND Initial Concerns Form – shared with parents and SENCO

2.SEND Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs) – reviewed termly with parents

3.Evidence gathered in order to seek further support from other agencies or the Local Authority.

4.Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) assessment request

5.Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) issued

SEND Support

All children who are on the SEND Register are considered to be at SEND Support level. All children on the Register, regardless of their level with be provided with a SEND Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs)which will highlight specific and smart targets for them to achieve in order to move their learning forward.

Education Health Care Plans

From September 2014, Statements of Special Educational Needs will be replaced with Education Health Care Plans. Any child who currently holds a Statement of Special Educational needs will need to be transferred onto an Education Health Care Plan within the next three years.

Educational Health Care Plans aim to create an integrated service in which education, health and social care work together to come to an agreed outcome regarding a child with SEND.

The statutory assessment process has been cut from 26 weeks to 20 weeks. An EHCP is available from the age of 0 years to 25 years and aims to been a more personal document in which the childand their family have a much greater input into the educational provision of the child. EHCPs will be triggered by an educational need.

a)Following statutory assessment, an EHC Plan may be provided by Derby City Council, if it is decided the child’s needs are not being met by the support that is ordinarily available. The school and the child’s parents will be involved developing and producing the plan. Parents have the right to appeal against a decision not to issue an ECH Plan.

b)Parents have the right to appeal against the content of the EHC Plan. They may also appeal against the school named in the plan if it differs from their preferred choice.

c)Once the EHC Plan has been completed and agreed, it will be kept as part of the pupil’s formal record and reviewed at least annually by staff, parents, professionals external to the school, representatives from the Local Authority and the pupil. The annual review enables provision for the pupil to be evaluated and, where appropriate, for changes to be put in place, for example, reducing or increasing the levels of support.

Funding changes due to the implication of EHCP are as follows:

•Personal budgets: parents will be entitled to receive direct payments which they can use to support their child’s SEND; this can be used to access service in other authorities. These direct payments will be allocated only after consultation with the Head Teacher to deem whether they are appropriate. All parties must agree in order for the personal budgets to go ahead.

•Notional budget: this is the amount of money that the school receives for the children within the school who are on the special needs list. Schools are expected to provide the first 10 hours of support for a child who has SEND using this money.

The Code of Practice, Sections 6.95 to 6.99 sheds some light on the notional SEND budget. It says:

It is for schools, as part of their normal budget planning, to determine their approach to using their resources to support the progress of pupils with SEND. The SENCo, headteacher and governing body or proprietor should establish a clear picture of the resources that are available to the school. They should consider their strategic approach to meeting SEND in the context of the total resources available. This will enable schools to provide a clear description of the type of special educational provision they normally provide and will help parents and others to understand what they can normally expect the school to provide for pupils with SEND.

Schools are not expected to meet the full costs of more expensive special educational provision from their core funding. They are expected to provide additional support, which costs up to a nationally prescribed threshold per pupil per year.

Extra funding will often only be available for those children who have an EHCP. However, Derby City Council is now preparing processes that allow schools to make applications for funding for specific children with high levels of need.

Requesting an assessment for an EHCP:

An assessment can be requested by a child’s parent, a young person over the age of 16 or a school/nursery. The local authority will then determine whether a statutory EHCP is necessary and communicate their decision with the child and child’s parents. This whole process must take no more than 20 weeks. The views of the parents and the child are extremely important during this process.

When an EHCP has been granted, the school is responsible for decided what external support to seek.

The Local Offer:

As part of the revised code of practice (2014), the government is focused on making the SEND provision in each school as explicit as possible. With the aim being that all parents are able to access the information for every school and make an informed decision about their child’s schooling.

On 1st September 2014, Derby City Council will have produced a database which includes all Derby

City schools; it will outline the SEND provision in all the schools across Derby City. The intention is that parents will then be able to select the most appropriate provision for their child.

The School Offer:

Part of the revised code of practice (2014) is the publication of a ‘school offer’ which details SEND provision within the school setting.

Teaching Support Arrangements

The intervention taken will depend upon each individual child's needs. Some strategies to improve access to the curriculum are:

  • Reduce the content of the material presented
  • Replace abstract illustrations or text with concrete examples
  • Give more background material to aid understanding
  • Use multi-­‐sensory approaches
  • Using the support of Teaching Assistants, students or classroomhelpers
  • Focused PSHE work for social, emotional or behaviouralproblems
  • Specialist equipment
  • Staff development and training
  • Pre-­‐teaching and pre-­‐emptive support for the child
  • Wave 3 interventions, (e.g. Sounds Factory, First Classat Number, Language Link, SpeechLink)

Appropriate Teaching Skills will be used to: