Download SEN Policy

OUR LADY OF LOURDES CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL
SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS and DISABILITY POLICY
Mission Statement
‘Living and sharing the message of Christ, in peace we go forward
together.’
1. PRINCIPLES AND AIMS.
Our vision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are the
same as for all children and young people- that they achieve well in their early years,
at school and in college, and lead happy and fulfilled lives.
0-25 SEND Code of Practice
Pupils with SEND are an integral part of our school community. These range from:
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communication and interaction,
cognition and learning,
social, emotional and mental health difficulties
Sensory and /physical needs
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We will meet their needs through the work of all staff, in every classroom.
We will assess these needs and respond to them in the best ways that we can.
We recognise that needs may change and aim to respond to these changes both
through regular monitoring and by providing flexible resources.
Our SEND policy is prepared with our mission statement in mind and our
commitment to extend a Christ-like welcome to all, means that we welcome the
opportunity to do our best for all our children.
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As a whole school we aim to:
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Celebrate a child’s success.
Value and seek to use parents, other children and outside agencies to support
learning in the classroom.
Ensure continuity of teaching across the phases.
Differentiate teaching/learning according to need and expect realistic outcomes.
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Identify as early and as thoroughly possible children with special educational
needs to facilitate effective and meaningful learning experiences.
Ensure confidentiality of information as appropriate.
2. ADMISSIONS AND ACCESS.
The school does not discriminate against the admission of pupils on the grounds of
special educational need and disability where their learning difficulty or disability
can be catered for within the mainstream setting.
The school does not presently have any special arrangements for access to the
building by disabled persons although are currently working on making all
classrooms more accessible to pupil and parents. Access to the current Year five
and six classrooms would require a lift for a child using a wheelchair. The school
would try to accommodate children with wheelchair access by moving classrooms.
The school has an accessibility plan in place from September 2014- July 2017.
3. WORKING DEFINITIONS.
A child or young person has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability
which calls for special provision educational to be made for him or her. Children
and young people who have SEN may also have a disability under the Equality Act
2010.
Where a child or young person is covered by SEN and disability legislation,
reasonable adjustments and access arrangements are considered as part of SEN
planning and review.
NB. A child must not be regarded as having a learning difficulty just because the
language of their home is different from the language he/she will be taught.
Special Educational and Disability Provision (means;)
The range of special needs and disability are very wide, from relatively mild
degrees of learning difficulties to profound and multiple disabilities. We provide
children who have special educational needs arising cognition and learning,
communication and interaction, sensory and/or medical needs and social,
emotional and mental health difficulties.
The school has developed a Behaviour Policy which provides guidelines for
procedures and strategies to be used with children displaying inappropriate
behaviour. In some instances depending upon a child’s needs the strategies and
procedures may be modified and altered accordingly. There may be time when a
child needs timeout from class to enable them to focus more in class and do
things that de stress them, in particular for autistic children. The teacher and
their support will judge what works best for the individual child.
4. HOW WILL THE SCHOOL IDENTIFY IF A CHILD HAS SPECIAL
EDUCATIONAL AND DISABILITY NEEDS?
If parents/carers are concerned that their child has Special Educational Needs they
should initially raise these with the class teacher. We operate an open door policy
where parents/carers can speak to their child’s class teacher or a member of staff
after school. For those parents/carers working full time we are more than happy to
speak over the telephone when convenient. The first member of staff to recognise
that your child may have special educational needs is usually the child’s class teacher.
Teaching staff receive regular training on the identification of specific needs. They
use this information, together with continual assessment of the child’s rates and
patterns of progress, plus any information provided by parents to identify any
concerns that may arise. Termly Pupil progress meetings in numeracy and literacy
track children, highlighting those who haven’t made expected progress. This cannot
solely be used as an indicator for Special Needs but is used to monitor and target
particular children.
The school will use specific tests and in some instances outside agencies to help
identify a child’s needs such as the Educational Psychologists or a member of speech
and language therapist.
5. HOW WILL SCHOOL MEET THE NEEDS OF THE CHILD?
The school follows the new statutory guidelines outlined in the new Special Educational
Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. School Action and School Action Plus provision
has been replaced by a single school-based category for children needing extra support.
We classify this as SEN support.
The interventions and expected outcomes planned for these children will be clearly set
out and their progress reviewed each term.
Parents will be informed when pupils receive this additional support in school. This means
that in discussion with parents and with their permission, school will start the process of
documenting a child’s needs and how the school intends to meet them.
In school, we work with the teacher, child and support staff to ensure that targets
are appropriate, realistic and well resourced. These are done in the form of a Pupil
Passport, which look at what a child is good at, what is important to and for a child
with short term targets and support given, the views of the parents/carers and
children all contribute to the setting and assessment of targets. This is a more child
centred approach. These passports will be set up with parents, pupils, class teacher
and SENDco.
Depending on the varying needs of the children they may be also supported by a
teaching assistant within the class, in small group support or with one to one over
time. Any work undertaken outside the classroom is overseen by the class teachers
and implemented by Teaching Assistants fully trained to deliver that specific area
of support.
The children with Special Educational Needs and Disability are monitored closely by
the class teacher, SENDco, Learning Mentor and Senior Management Team. Staff
have termly progress meetings with the SMT to monitor the SEN progress and
provision. The SENDco tracks the children’s progress through assessment data
from class teachers, specific assessments and observations plus additional
assessment from outside agencies. These are all used to decide the next steps for
the children.
If the child does not make sufficient progress with the intervention and support,
the teacher, in consultation with the SENDco will talk to the parents about asking
for further advice from Trafford’s advisory team, speech and language therapy.
Psychologists and other professionals.
The child will be assessed using LEA criteria or other forms of assessment
depending upon their needs. Those involved with the child will work together to
develop further targets. The IEP will be discussed with the child and the parent and
should be reviewed termly. Pupil Passports will be introduced to throughout the year.
Requesting an Education, Health and Care needs Assessment
The SEN support is adapted or replaced depending on how effective it has been in
achieving the agreed outcomes. When school has taken relevant and purposeful action to
identify, assess and meet the SEN of the child, the child has not made expected
progress, the school or parents can consider requesting an Education, Health and Care
needs assessment.
Here the Local Authority will see the evidence of the action taken by the school as part
of the SEN support.
From September 2014 education, health and care plans (EHC) will replace
statements and learning difficulty assessments. This change is expected to take
place over the next three years so old guidelines may be followed for some pupils
until 2017. The government says that parents know their children best, so the new
system aims to put families and young people at the centre of discussions about
support.
6. STORAGE OF INFORMATION.
Information collected on a child’s SEN is confidential and will only be communicated
to persons involved with the child with the knowledge and agreement of the parents,
the SENCO, or headteacher. Confidential information regarding the child’s special
needs is kept in the SEN Action file in a locked filing cabinet. It should not be
removed without permission. Class teachers will each have their own SEN file in
which should be kept the current IEP/ Pupil passports for each child on the SEN list
in their class. Copies of reviews and targets are sent to parents. Parents are
encouraged to attend review meetings, these are sometimes conducted during
Parents evening.
7. AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY.
a) The SENDCO Amanda Seville and Assistant Senco/Learning Mentor Noeleen
Davis are responsible for:
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Ensuring the SEN policy is monitored and reviewed
Co-ordinating provision for children with SEN
Keeping parents/carers informed of their child’s progress
Liaising with governors
Supporting and liaising with class teachers
Acting as an intermediary in the communication of information between
parties involved with the child; headteacher, parents class teacher, teaching
assistants and advisory services.
Ensuring evidence and information for formal assessment is collated.
Ensuring that referral forms are complete and that the school’s SEN
records are maintained.
Purchasing adequate resources to cater for SEN within the school.
Monitoring that the terms and objectives of Statements of SEN are being
met.
Organise training for staff.
Organise own training and qualifications.
b) The Headteacher is responsible for:
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The day to day management of provision for all children including those with SEN
Keeping the governing body informed.
Working closely with the SENDCO
Modifying materials or dis applying pupils from the National Curriculum.
b) The Governors are responsible for:
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Maintaining an oversight of this policy, our approach to provision and our work
with children with SEN.
The head’s report to governors will include a report on the number of pupils with
SEN and the effectiveness of the school’s system for identification, assessment,
provision, monitoring and record keeping, involvement of parents and resource
allocation.
d) The class teacher is responsible for:
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The day to day implementation of Pupil Passports and IEP’s.
Liaising with the SENDCO..
Working together to develop and review our procedures for identifying,
assessing and making provision for pupils with SEN.
Caution should be taken when discussing SEN diagnosis with parents in the
early stages.
Differentiation of work to match their ability.
e) Teaching assistants.
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Teaching assistants and learning support assistants have a role to play.
Learning support assistants and teaching assistants work in
collaboration with school staff, assisting in the identification of needs
and the planning process to develop a variety of teaching methods and
help provide effective learning strategies appropriate for individual
children.
They may work with individual children and small groups; they may give
support within the class or withdraw children from the class depending
on the child’s needs. Learning support assistants also help to assess,
monitor and evaluate the child’s learning and have an important role to
play in providing evidence for Review meetings.
f) Parents
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A child’s parents have a large amount of knowledge and information about
their child. They can provide a valuable source of support for their child’s
learning at home. For these reasons, we believe it is important to involve
parents at every opportunity with regard to their child’s SEN.
It is vital that the parents are informed of the concerns which school has
about the child’s difficulties. These should be discussed sensibly with the
parents and they should be given the opportunity to provide any
background information regarding their child’s difficulties. Parents will be
asked to contribute to the child’s learning targets in whatever way they
feel able to at home. They will be given support and suggestions from the
SENDCO and the class teacher.
Parents will be kept informed of their child’s progress by attending review
meetings/Parents evening and receiving copies of their IEP /Pupil
Passports of their child’s new targets.
Parents of children with SEND will be invited to regular review meetings to
discuss their child’s progress with the SENDCO, the class teacher and any
members of the support staff involved in their child’s education. This will
take place at least once a term.
8. PROVISION AND RESOURCES.
Our most valuable support with regard to SEN provision is the partnership between the
SENDCO and the class teachers who can provide for the needs of pupils with SEN more
effectively than resources/equipment alone. It is important however, to provide specific
resources for SEN children and subject co-ordinators should take this into account
when purchasing new materials in order to meet the needs of all abilities across the Key
stages.
9. STAFF DEVELOPMENT.
The SENDCO liaises regularly with the class teachers to support them in their provision
for SEN children. The SENDCO liaises with subject co-ordinators to discuss the staff
development needs relating to SEN within subject areas. The SENDCO and the Senior
Management team have a responsibility to identify areas for future staff development,
ensuring the provision is appropriate in meeting the needs of staff and providing staff
development. At least one staff meeting per term will be allocated to Special Needs
which the SENDCO and Assistant SENDCO leading the training.
10. COMPLAINTS.
If a parent wishes to make a complaint, they should arrange a meeting with the SENDCO.
If the problem cannot be resolved, the SENDCO will then inform the headteacher.
Any complaint that cannot be resolved within the school will be referred to the SEN
Governor and the Trafford Parent Partnership Service.
11. POLICY/PROVISION MONITORING AND EVALUATION.
The success of this policy will be judged by:
 The early and accurate identification of children’s learning difficulties.
 Children achieving the targets on their IEP as this will indicate that the targets
are specific, achievable and appropriate.
 Close working links with the LEA advisory team and the governing body.
 The positive involvement of both children and parents.
This policy will be reviewed on an annual basis.
Reviewed November 2015
Next review: November 2016
Signed
SENCO Amanda Seville
ASSISTANT SENCO Noeleen Davis
Headteacher Paul Gibbons