Catering for Children with Special Needs

Special Needs Overview

The progress of our children is constantly monitored in school. Children who may need additional or alternative strategies and help will be discussed with our Special Needs Co-ordinator, Mrs Mytton. Such children may be entered onto the additional needs register. Parents will be informed, consulted and involved by the class teachers and SEN staff. Some children may require their own Individual Education Plan (IEP) to help focus on their needs. IEPs will then be followed at school in class, in small support groups and also at home.
Where difficulties persist or become more of a concern, the school may seek advice from multi-professional agencies such as a Learning Support Teacher, Educational Psychologist, Speech and Language Therapist or other health professionals. If in any doubt please contact your child?s class teacher initially, who will then consult Mrs Christine Mytton.

SPECIAL NEEDS POLICY

A Objectives of the School's SEN Policy

1 We intend to provide the most effective support for our pupils with special needs.

2 All pupils have an entitlement to access the full curriculum of the school.

3 Extra support is given in such a way as to minimise the disruption to the child.

4 Support will be provided at the earliest opportunity.

5 Parents will be fully involved in decisions made about their child.

6 Pupils will be involved in decisions about how they should be supported.

7 All staff will be fully involved in the ways of providing for SEN pupils.

8 All staff are committed to removing the barriers pupils with SEN have to learning.

9 We will work to ensure that this policy and its implimentation is in accordance with our policy on Race Equality.
B Staff Responsible for SEN Provision

Mrs C Mytton is the additional needs coordinator (SENCO).
Mrs A Pritchard is the SEN Classroom Assistant working with all classes.
Mrs D Moore is the Governor responsible for SEN
Mrs D Moore is a Learning Support Assistant.

All teachers are teachers of children with Special Needs.

Mr Clayton and Mrs Mytten are responsible for the day to day SEN provision. The Governing Body is responsible for the SEN Policy.

The teaching staff, SENCO and SEN assistants discuss the needs of individual children regularly, so that all staff can pool ideas and share awareness.

C Coordinating Provision

Basic Entitlement:
All children in the school have access to a broad, balanced curriculum and a wide range of strategies and resources. The school has developed a Basic Entitlement Provision Map detailing this provision. The development of this provision is an ongoing process, as staff access an increased range of teaching and learning strategies.

School Action
Children who need support which is additional to and different from the normal school arrangements. For these children, an Individual Education Plan (IEP) will be drawn up, in consultation with the pupil, parents and teacher, with focused targets set and reviewed regularly.
Many of the strategies and programmes from the Basic Entitlement will still be relevant for these children. School will be able to seek advice from multi-professional support services. Children with similar difficulties may have a Group Educational Plan.

School Action Plus
The school may apply for additional funding (SEND plus) for children at School Action, with complex and significant difficulties. There is likely to be ongoing direct advice and intervention from support services for these children. (Funding will often take the form of assistant support, or some extra resources / equipment.)

LEA Action
Those children with identified complex needs who are in receipt of a Statement of Special Educational Needs, as determined by the LEA.
The SENCO can discuss individual children, (with parental permission), and general school SEN issues at the twice yearly SEN Consultation Meetings, attended by the Support Services.

D Admission Arrangements

There are no special admissions arrangements for pupils with additional educational needs. In the case of a pupil with a statement, the LEA has a responsibility to name the school the pupil should attend.

E Specialist Provision

The school does not have any specialist provision other than that listed in this policy.

F Facilities for SEN Pupils including those which assist access

All classrooms may not have full access to all pupils. Each classroom has word processing facilities, and tape recorders and other equipment is available to facilitate accessible ways of recording work. Shortfalls are addressed in the School?s Accessibility Plan.

G Allocation of Resources

The school receives delegated funding for pupils with additional educational needs (SEND). This is additional to the funding the school gets for all pupils. Special Needs pupils have access to all the resources for the school equally with other pupils. SEND funding provides for an SEN assistant, Mrs Pritchard, on a daily morning basis. Mrs Pritchard mainly supports Literacy and Numeracy work with Special Needs children, but this can vary, according to need. This support is decided in discussion with the staff and SENCO. The delegated funding also helps towards funding the SENCO time and some additional resources, as required. SEND Plus is currently providing 90% funding for a Learning Support Assistant. Additional funding may be allocated through the School Development Plan; or through application for SEND Plus funding for individual children.


H Identification and Assessment

The Head teacher and Class teacher meet all parents and children before they start school. Pre-school staff will liaise with school, through the SENCO and class teacher about any special needs children, before entry to the school. Ongoing classroom assessment help to focus on and provide for individual pupil needs within the Reception / Foundation Year. The Reception teacher and SENCO will discuss any children with specific difficulties, involving the parents (and possibly referring to any relevant outside agencies eg Speech and Language Therapist) and working on ways to support the child.

Termly assessments are carried out in the 3 core subjects. These are used to identify needs and targets are drawn from the assessments.


Towards the end of the summer term all Yr 1 pupils will be screened by the SENCO using the Salford Reading and Young?s Spelling Tests. The results of these scores will be scrutinised by the SENCO and class teacher to check on children experiencing particular difficulties. Appropriate support will be given towards helping these children.

SATs scores will be scrutinised for pupils experiencing difficulties in specific areas. Particular attention will be paid to a mismatch in pupil ability and achievement.

All Year 3 pupils are tested on the Edinburgh Reading Test.

The SENCO may use other assessment materials, as necessary, for individual children. The school may draw on multi-professional advice for further, more specific assessment.

Staff will aim to support children through a range of strategies from the school Basic Entitlement Provision Map.

Children who are causing significant concern will be placed at School Action and appropriate targets set through an Individual Education Plan (IEP), with the support and involvement of the parents.

I Monitoring and Review

Children on the register are monitored throughout the year by: regular teacher, SENCO, parent, pupil discussion; school and child assessments; termly reviews; SENCO and SEN assistant liaison; and multi-professional review and monitoring.



J Access to Curriculum


All teachers design the learning activities in ways that enable the full range of pupils to access them. There are a range of groupings used in the classroom based on pupils' abilities and opportunities for pupils to work at their own pace with and without support. Assessment activities enable pupils to record their understanding in various ways and multisensory approaches are used to enable some pupils to learn. Collaborative learning styles are encouraged as well as different methods of recording for some pupils.

The school?s Basic Entitlement Provision Map details the range of approaches which may be used to enable children greater access to the curriculum.

SEN assistant support (and SENCO support where appropriate) is allocated according to the greatest need, in discussion with staff. This mainly takes the form of in-class support, with some withdrawal time for work on a pupil?s IEP targets or for group work with a specific focus (eg Additional Literacy Support). Every effort will be made to minimise any disruption made to a pupil?s school day by withdrawal.
K Evaluating Policy

Targets are set as part of the school development plan and are reviewed annually.

The following information will be collected annually and reported to the SEN governor:
v The scores of pupils from the Year 1 screening process
v SAT?s scores
v The progress pupils have made through reviews.
v The number of pupils in each class identified with Special Educational Needs
v The views of the staff about the success of the policy.
v The number and nature of complaints.

L Complaints Procedure

If parents are concerned about the provision for their child they should discuss it with the class teacher or Head teacher. The results will then be explained to the parents. All complaints will be logged in the SEN file.

M SEN inset

Inset days are used to provide appropriate training for staff, details of each year?s SEN inset can be found in the Governor?s Annual Report to Parents.

N External Support Services

The school will actively involve, as appropriate, the following services to provide advice for children with special educational needs and training on SEN issues:

County Learning Support Team: Learning Support Advisor, Educational Psychologist, Behaviour Support Advisor.
Other Health Professionals will also be involved, or referrals made as necessary eg Speech and Language Therapist, School Nurse / Doctor, Occupational Therapist etc. Referrals for advice and / or assessment are always made with parental permission.

O Partnership with Parents

Parents receive a specific invitation to visit the school and discuss their child's progress each term.

General information is provided for parents in the school handbook and on the school website.

Informal visits are encouraged and many parents help the school in a wide range of ways.

Parents of pupils with SEN will be informed, consulted and involved by the class teachers and / or SENCO. They will be invited to contribute towards reviews as appropriate. Parents will then be involved in any action and support plans to help their child at home.

Provision for the more able child

The curriculum committee monitors the needs of these children. The policy regarding more able children is kept in the curriculum file.