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Mission Statement
The school intends that all children should reach their full potential, and understands the importance of providing support for children who have special educational needs. In order to achieve this, the school has adopted a policy to help any girl who needs special provision at any particular time. This policy has regard to the Code of Practice. The provision for children with special needs is a matter for the whole school: the governing body, the Headmistress, the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) and all members of staff in collaboration with the parents or guardians. Where appropriate, external professionals will also be involved.
Aims
The school aims to challenge and motivate all children to learn at their own best rate of progress within the context of high standards. (See the Teaching and Learning Policy for promotion of high standards and inclusion.) Staff are encouraged to differentiate approaches, and will be given guidance as to good practice in relation to special needs. The staff, in co-operation with the SENCO, will identify children who may be in need of special help. This may need to be viewed in conjunction with the Equal Opportunities Policy and the Child Protection Policy. Parents may also express concerns, which will be followed up.
Children designated as having special needs, learning difficulty and/or disability are:
• those with physical disability - see appendix 1
• those with specific learning difficulties (SpLD) - see appendix 2
• those with general learning difficulties
Identification and Assessment
The importance of early identification, assessment and provision for any child who may have special educational needs cannot be over-emphasised. Concerns may be raised from results of Foundation Stage Profile assessment, Key Stage 1 results, spelling or reading tests, observation during normal lessons (possibly with reference to ‘Signs of SpLD’ - see appendix 2). Any teacher may raise concerns about a child with form staff, other staff and in staff meetings and they may record their concerns on the ‘Cause for Concern’ form in the SEN file in the staffroom. The SENCO will check the SEN file once a week, and these concerns will then be followed up in consultation with the staff concerned (see appendix 3 - SEN procedure). As some impairments can be difficult to spot, it is important to check eyesight and hearing early on so that any problems may be addressed. To this end, checks with an audiometrist or behavioural optometrist may be suggested. A child may also be referred to relevant outside specialists for assessment. If necessary, the child will be added to the Special Needs Register kept on computer. A child may be admitted to the school with already recognised Special Needs, with reports from the parents and/or from previous schools, and she will automatically be added to the register. Staff are aware that they must safeguard the needs of individuals with regard to the Child Protection Policy.
Intervention - see appendix 3 for detailed action.
Intervention will initially be under a differentiated programme. Parents will be informed and they and their child will be consulted and a programme of action agreed. Action will depend on the particular needs identified. If further support is required for the child with SpLD or general learning difficulties, then we will move either to Early Years Action or School Action as set out in the SEN Code of Practice. If there is still insufficient progress, then the child will move to Early Years Action Plus or School Action Plus as set out in the SEN Code of Practice. Appropriate intervention will be agreed with the relevant staff, the child and the child’s parents or guardians and the SENCO. The child will be encouraged to participate in reviewing provision and in making decisions about their education by discussion with the SENCO or form teacher. If appropriate, external specialists will also be consulted. If necessary, the school may apply for a statement from the LEA as set out in the SEN Code of Practice.
The type of intervention made will depend on the level of action decided on. It may take the form of:
• extra assistance given in normal classes with advice from Special Needs advisers.
• a special programme delivered in normal classes by the class teacher, classroom assistant or subject teacher. This may involve the child going out of the classroom for some of the lesson, alone or in a group, with classroom assistant.
• a special programme plus extra lessons from specialist teachers, in school time or at home, at parental expense
Welfare provision for pupils with statements of SEN and children with EAL
Every Child Matters sets out that every child, whatever their background or their circumstances, should have the support they need to achieve the five outcomes: be healthy; stay safe; enjoy and achieve; make a positive contribution; and achieve economic well-being.
When a statement of SEN has been made, where a child has English as an additional language, or when multi-agency services are likely to be required the school will complete a wider assessment using the Common Assessment Framework (CAF). The designated Child Protection Officer will co-ordinate provision to ensure the welfare of these children. This provision is likely to require a team of people. This team will bring together, or provide ready access to, for example: the SENCO, teacher in charge of pastoral care and any other member of staff involved, the parents and/or guardians of the child and the child herself, professionals from child health services, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), behavioural support and education psychology services, speech and language therapy, family support (including parenting), educational welfare, and social care.
Parents/guardians of these children will be provided with information on the services, facilities and publications that are available to them.
Record Keeping
For children assessed as having learning difficulties, the following will be recorded with dates where applicable:
• teachers’ initial assessment of child’s special educational needs
• school-based test and assessment results, including any from previous schools where applicable
• work within classroom framework to meet needs of the individual child
• any records of monitoring and reviews of child’s progress
• targets to be met
• details of special help
• discussions with parents or guardians and staff
• advice and support to those who teach the child
• reports from outside agencies
• future action and review dates.
These records will be kept on password-protected computer program and, in paper form, in the locked SEN cupboard. When children leave the school, their SEN records will be kept with their school file.
Responsibilities - see appendix 4 for details
The Headmistress will be responsible for seeing that there is an SEN policy and that it is implemented.
The SENCO will implement the policy. She will:
• ensure that all records are kept up to date
• ensure that all staff are aware of which children are on the register, and what action is being taken
• ensure that meetings are arranged with parents and relevant staff for review of action taken and future support
• provide information to parents about other services available and agencies which can give advice or support
• give internal training as well as encouraging staff to go on external courses.
SENDA
The School is reviewing its SEN/LDD provision in the light of SENDA to ensure that children who are disabled are not placed at any substantial disadvantage in relation to those who are not disabled. The School has a 3 year Accessibility Plan which identifies a range of specific improvements required. In reviewing the curriculum and extra-curricular activities the school will seek to improve access for disabled children. For example school trips should be arranged so that all children can have access to the planned activities.
This policy should be reviewed annually.
Appendix 1
Physical Disability SEN Code of Practice: November 2001
A child is disabled if he is blind, deaf or dumb or suffers from a mental disorder of any kind or is substantially and permanently handicapped by illness, injury or congenital deformity or such other disability as may be prescribed.
Section 17 (11), Children Act 1989
A person has a disability for the purposes of this Act if he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Section 1 (1), Disability Discrimination Act 1995
Appendix 2
ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) (Cosgrove, 1997)
• the individual has difficulty sustaining attention to tasks;
• is easily distracted;
• often does not seem to listen;
• often shifts from one uncompleted activity to another;
• often loses things necessary for tasks;
• often interrupts or intrudes on others;
• has difficulty awaiting turn in groups;
• often blurts out answers to questions;
• often engages in physically dangerous activities without considering the consequences;
• often talks excessively;
• has difficulty playing quietly;
• has difficulty remaining seated;
• often fidgets or squirms in seat;
• has difficulty following instructions.
Where eight or more of these apply, ADHD is likely to be present.
Autism (National Autistic Society, www.autism.co.uk/asd)
All people with autism have impairments in social interaction, social communication and imagination. This is referred to as the triad of impairments.
• Social interaction (difficulty with social relationships, for example appearing aloof and indifferent to other people)
• Social communication (difficulty with verbal and non-verbal communication, for example not really understanding the meaning of gestures, facial expression or tone of voice)
• Imagination (difficulty in the development of play and imagination, for example having a limited range of imaginative activities, possibly copied and pursued rigidly and repetitively)
In addition to this triad, repetitive behaviour patterns are a notable feature and a resistance to change in routine.
Asberger Syndrome
Asberger syndrome is a form of autism, .... A number of traits of autism are common to Asberger syndrome including:
• difficulty in social relationships
• difficulty in communicating
• limitations in imagination and creative play
However, people with Asberger syndrome usually have fewer problems with language then those with autism, often speaking fluently though their words can sometimes sound formal or stilted. People with Asberger syndrome do not usually have the accompanying learning disabilities associated with autism; in fact, people with Asberger syndrome are often of average or above average intelligence.
Dyspraxia (www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/pages/symptoms.html)
Primary level
The dyspraxic child may have displayed many of the symptoms listed below and some will have been evident before the age of 3.
• Irritability at birth
• Poor feeding
• Poor sleeping
• Engages in high levels of motor activity, constantly waving arms and legs
• Slow to achieve milestones such as sitting (often after the age of 8 months), crawling (some never crawl), walking, hopping, jumping, walking up and down stairs
• Constantly tripping and falling over
• Limited ability to concentrate on specific tasks and is easily distracted
• Unaware of external dangers e.g. jumping from a high wall or from the top of a climbing frame, walking towards a busy road
• Often frightened and will not climb on apparatus
• Delayed acquisition of language
• A classroom observation will enable the teacher to determine whether there are certain activities which the child finds difficult or avoids. Areas which will present particular difficulties to the child are:
• Development of perceptual skills (finds form boards, shape sorters and constructional toys difficult to assemble)
• Laterality remains unestablished so the child will use the right hand to complete tasks on the right side of the body and the left hand to complete tasks on the left side
• Games lessons/music and movement classes are often difficult. The child has difficulty with ball skills and other hand and eye/foot co-ordination activities
• Listening skills may be poor and the child may not respond to sequential commands
• Immature social skills
In addition to the above the following behaviour can be observed by the age of seven:
• problems adapting to a structured school routine
Dyslexia (www.dyslexia-inst.org.uk/what.htm)
Dyslexia checklist
All ages
• Is she bright in some ways with a 'block' in others?
• Is there anyone else in the family with similar difficulties?
• Does she have difficulty carrying out three instructions in sequence?
• Was she late in learning to talk, or with speaking clearly?
•
Ages 7-11
• Does she have difficulty with reading or spelling?
• Does she put figures or letters the wrong way e.g. 15 for 51, 6 for 9, b for d, was for saw?
• Does she read a word and then fail to recognise it further down the page?
• Does she spell a word several different ways without recognising the correct version?
• Does she have a poor concentration span for reading and writing?
• Does she have difficulty understanding time and tense?
• Does she confuse left and right?
• Does she answer questions orally but have difficulty writing the answer?
• Is she unusually clumsy?
• Does she have trouble with sounds in words, e.g. poor sense of rhyme?
Appendix 3
LDD Procedure
Class/Form/Subject Teacher (CT/FT/ST) fills in the first part of the concern form, attaching evidence if possible, and puts it into the SEN file. Evidence may be work by the child, or the teacher’s description of behaviour etc.
The SENCO will meet the teacher/s as soon as possible and complete the concern form, agreeing the next steps to take.
If it is decided that the child needs some more formal targets and that the parents need to be aware of concerns then CT/FT makes appointment with parents by letter. They meet CT/FT and SENCO. If parents agree, the child is added to the special needs register on SENCO Manager under ‘initial concerns’. A record is kept of this meeting. The child will be moved to…
Differentiated programme
1 CT/FT gives one copy of the minutes of the meeting to parents and one is kept on file by the SENCO. He/She will inform staff of any matters arising from the meeting.
2 CT/FT/SENCO decides on extent of differentiated programme, with strategies to be used and success criteria, and circulates to parents, SENCO and staff involved. A date is set for reviewing progress. Progress must be reviewed at least once a term. Staff are expected to teach using the strategies set out.
3 CT/FT is responsible for explaining the success criteria to the child.
4 CT/FT should review the targets with the child. This should happen at least once before the review. If possible this should be done more than once, and a ‘joint feedback line’ could be used for this (use joint feedback lines – 1-5, where does the child think she is and where does the assistant/teacher think she is. Try to bring them together up the line).
5 SENCO will remind staff a week before review is due. Involved staff will comment on the progress of the child with reference to the success criteria ready for next meeting. They may suggest future action required when reviewing progress.
6 SENCO meets, or gets written reports from, CT/FT and staff involved to review progress and agrees what will be recommended to parents at next meeting.
7 CT/FT invites parents to review, (plus SENCO and other staff if necessary). He/she will make a record of this meeting. The process starts again unless the outcome of the meeting is (8).
8 If at review the decision is that progress is not sufficient, the child will be moved to School Action/Early Years Action in SENCO Manager. The school or parents may suggest SENCO or outside testing at this stage (see 9 in School Action/Early Years Action). The child will then move to…
School Action/Early Years Action
1 SENCO gives one copy of the minutes of the meeting to parents and keeps one on file. She will inform staff of any matters arising from the meeting.
2 SENCO writes targets and circulates IEP to parents and staff involved. A date is set for reviewing progress. Progress must be reviewed at least once a term. Staff are expected to plan accurately to the IEP, explaining to classroom assistants how to use the strategies set out, and what they are required to teach.
3 SENCO is responsible for explaining the targets to the child.
4 Child will have 1/1 or group sessions with classroom assistant (or SENCO).
5 The child may have a report card to record achievement of a specific target. All staff should use these to record achievement. CT/FT should see this at least once a week and give rewards as set down in the IEP. CT/FT is also required to monitor extra work sent home, e.g. handwriting sheets. Rewards may also be detailed in the IEP for these. He/she should review all targets at least twice with the child, possibly using a ‘joint feedback line’ as in Bramley1. SENCO to discuss progress with the child before the review date.
6 SENCO will put up enlarged IEP at least a week before review is due. Involved staff will annotate the IEP sheet ready for next meeting. They should take full account of the success criteria when reviewing progress. They may suggest new targets for a child.
7 SENCO will arrange review with staff involved and agree what will be recommended to parents at next meeting.
8 SENCO makes appointment with parents by letter (with other staff if necessary). SENCO will make a record of this meeting. The process starts again unless the outcome of the meeting is (9)
9 If at review the decision is that progress is still not sufficient, then outside assessment will be asked for and the child will be put on School Action Plus/Early Years Action Plus in SENCO Manager. The SENCO may suggest external professionals. Generally the parents will be expected to arrange (and pay for if necessary) assessment from an external professional. An exception to this may be when a Speech and Language Therapist is suggested as this can be arranged through the school. Other external assessments may be arranged through the GP or directly with a specialist, e.g. Educational Psychologist. School will complete any questionnaire/report about the child, and/or provide examples of her work to the external assessor if required. The child will be moved to…
School Action Plus/Early Years Action Plus
1 Copy of report from EP/SLT/other agency will be received by school.
2 SENCO will put this in the SEN file and staff should read it and initial when done. SENCO to monitor this.
3 SENCO meets staff involved and recommendations to parents are agreed with regard to recommendations set out in the report.
4 SENCO makes appointment with parents by letter (with other staff if necessary). Targets are set and specialist provision agreed (SENCO or outside specialist).
5 SENCO gives one copy of the minutes of the meeting to parents, one to any external specialist and keeps one on file. She will inform staff of any matters arising from the meeting.
6 SENCO will circulate IEP to involved staff, parents and any outside specialist. A date is set for reviewing progress. Progress must be reviewed at least once a term. Staff are expected to plan accurately to the IEP, explaining to classroom assistants how to use the strategies set out, and what they are required to teach.
7 The child may have a report card to record achievement of a specific target. All staff should use these to record achievement. CT/FT should see this at least once a week and give rewards as set down in the IEP. CT/FT is also required to monitor extra work sent home, e.g. handwriting sheets. Rewards may also be detailed in the IEP for these. He/she should review all targets at least twice with the child possibly using a ‘joint feedback line’ as in Bramley1. SENCO to discuss progress with the child before the review date.
8 SENCO will put up enlarged IEP at least a week before review is due. Involved staff will annotate the IEP sheet ready for next meeting. They should take full account of the success criteria when reviewing progress. They may suggest new targets for a child.
9 SENCO will arrange review with parents and external specialist/s if possible (with other staff if necessary). SENCO will make a record of this meeting. The process starts again at (5) unless the outcome of the meeting is (10)
10 If at any review the school, external specialist/s or parents think it necessary the child may be referred for a statement to the relevant LEA.
At any review meeting it may be decided that progress is sufficient for the child to return to a lower level of provision. E.g. from School Action to Differentiated Programme.
Appendix 4
Staff Responsibilities
Subject teacher’s/Classroom Assistants and Nursery Nurses/General responsibilities
• Remember that every teacher is a Special Needs teacher (Code of Practice)
• Fill in concern form, attach evidence and put into SEN file.
• Feel free to comment on a child (on register or not) using the comment form in the SEN file.
• Check the SEN/LDD file regularly.
• Read any external reports on children, particularly the summaries, and initial when done.
• Read IEPs and keep your copies where you can easily refer to them.
• Teach to the specific targets and plan work for the classroom assistants accordingly.
• Ensure that the classroom assistants understand the strategies and methods to be used.
• Review the targets with reference to the specific success criteria.
• Attend any review meetings/give written feedback on children for review meetings with parents.
• Prepare any extra work required and ensure that you or the Class/Form teacher gives it to the child and monitors it.
• Inform the SENCO of any resources needed or courses which would be helpful.
• English and Maths co-ordinators to help staff, if requested, by agreeing the appropriate level of intervention when IEPs are being written.
• ICT co-ordinator to make SEN software available on network or laptops.
Class/Form teacher’s responsibilities
As above plus
Arrange initial meeting with parents and SENCO.
For any child in class/form on Differentiated programme:
1 Copy minutes of meetings to SENCO and parents.
2 Write up specific differentiation and success criteria in collaboration with the SENCO.
3 Circulate to all staff involved, SENCO and parents. This will include a review date.
4 Explain success criteria to the child.
5 Review success criteria with the child at least once a term and preferably more often. Joint feedback line can be used for this.
6 Review progress with any staff involved. SENCO to arrange meeting time.
7 Arrange review meeting at least once a term with parents (plus SENCO and other staff if necessary).
8 Continue from (1) above.
For any child on School Action or above (extra to general responsibilities):
• Monitor any record cards and award stars for achievement if specified on IEP.
• Monitor (and provide if appropriate) any extra work specified.
• Review targets with the child as for Differentiated programme.
• Review targets with regard to the success criteria ready for meeting with SENCO.
• If required, attend the review meeting arranged by the SENCO.
SENCO’s responsibilities
Keep the children’s SEN/LDD files up to date. File any specialist reports and prepare short version of salient points and recommendations for staff.
Arrange meetings with staff who have filled in a concern form.
Attend initial meeting with parents and CT/FT.
For any child on Differentiated programme:
1 Attend meetings arranged by CT/FT with parents if required.
2 File copies of minutes of meetings and programmes.
3 Remind staff about reviews at least a week before the meeting.
4 Arrange review meetings at least once a term with CT/FT (and any other staff if necessary).
For any child on School Action/Early Years Action:
1 Take minutes of meetings and copy to parents.
2 Write IEP and circulate to all staff involved and to parents
3 Explain targets to child.
4 Review targets with child at least once a term and preferably more often (using joint feedback lines, including any done by other members of staff, if appropriate).
5 Possibly take child 1/1 or in a group.
6 Remind staff about reviews at least a week before the meeting.
7 Arrange review meeting with staff.
8 Arrange review meeting with parents.
9 Co-ordinate filling in of any report material/questionnaire and collecting evidence for external assessor if required.
10 Provide any extra resources needed.
For any child on School Action Plus/Early Years Action Plus:
As above plus:
1 Liaise with external specialist teachers.
2 Circulate IEPs to external specialists as well as staff if appropriate.
3 Invite external specialists as well as parents to review meeting if appropriate.
4 Co-ordinate filling in of any report material/questionnaire and collecting evidence for LEA if statement is being applied for.
For any child with a statement or EAL:
5 If required, attend any review meetings for statemented children
6 If required, attend any meetings regarding the welfare of statemented or EAL children
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