Prestbury St Marys CofE junior School

Special Educational Needs Prestbury St Mary’s Junior School values the contribution that every child can make and welcomes the diversity of culture, religion and learning style. The school seeks to raise the achievement, remove barriers to learning and increase physical and curricular access for all. All children with SEN (Special Educational Needs) are valued and respected as equal members of the school. As such provision for pupils with SEN is a matter for the school as a whole. All teachers are teachers of pupils with SEN. The governing body, headteacher, SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) and all other members of staff have important responsibilities. Objectives
	• To ensure that the culture, practice, management and deployment of resources are designed to meet the needs of all pupils including those who have SEN • To enable pupils with SEN to maximise their achievements • To ensure that the needs of pupils wth SEN are identified, assessed, provided for and regularly reviewed • To ensure that all pupils with SEN are offered full access to a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum including the National Curriculum as appropriate. • To work in partnership with parents to enable them to make an active contribution to the education of their child • To take the views of the child into account
Roles and responsibilities The SENCO is Mrs Ruth Rudge, Her key responsibilities are:
	• Overseeing the day to day operation of the SEN policy. • Co-ordinating provision for children with SEN. • Liaising with and advising teachers on the writing of IEPs. (Individual Education Plans) • Managing the LSWs. (Learning Support Workers) • Overseeing all the records of SEN children. • Liasing with parents of children with SEN. • Contributing to the inservice training of staff. • Liaising with external agencies including the LEA’s support and educational psychology services, health and social services and voluntary bodies. • Liaising with other SENCOs at Key Stage1 and Key Stage 3.
The SENCO may also teach SEN children in small groups. The Headteacher Mrs Nicki Bennett has the responsibility for the day to day management of provision for children with SEN. She keeps the governing body fully informed and works closely with the SENCO. The Governing Body has a responsibility for SEN and reports annually to parents on the school SEN policy. They have appointed an SEN Governor, Mrs Lindsey McGowan whose role is to:
	• Ensure that the school has an up to date SEN policy which is reviewed annually • Work closely with the SENCO • Keep informed about SEN practices in school • Keep SEN on the agenda at governor’s meetings • Use school visits to inform herself on current SEN issues • Act as a liaison between the SENCO and governing body
All teaching and non-teaching staff should be fully aware of the school’s procedures for identifying, assessing and making provision for pupils with SEN and of who is on the SEN register.
	• provide a reasonably peaceful, suitable place in which pupils can do their homework - alone or together with an adult • make it clear to pupils that they value homework, and support the school in explaining how it can help their learning • encourage pupils and praise them when they have completed homework • help them when appropriate, but not do their homework for them • as far as possible become actively involved in joint homework activities with children • try to provide some basic resources such as pens, pencils, calculators and dictionaries
Admission Arrangements The Governing Body is responsible for the admission arrangements in accord with the admissions policy. The school acknowledges in full its responsibility to admit pupils where ever possible with already identified Special Educational Needs, as well as identifying and providing for those not previously identified as having SEN. Specialised Provision Our school has a disabled toilet with access to this and the hall via a ramp. (See Accessibility policy) Allocation of resources Funding for SEN is received through the LEA budget. This funding is used to provide teaching support for children with SEN and the provision of appropriate learning and teaching materials. We use a variety of resources for identification, assessment and teaching purposes. Resources are generally available to all staff, non-teaching staff and support staff. A variety of standardised tests are also available. A range of differentiated work is prepared and structured by class teachers and learning support workers. Every class has a Learning Support Worker. A part of their role is to support groups of SEN children in class. The SENCO maintains information relating to the nature of various types of Special Educational Needs, the symptoms expressed and strategies for providing for the need. There are lists of contact addresses for various supportive services in the SEN filing cabinet. Identification and Review Some children join us with already identified special needs. The SENCO liaises with the SENCO at St Mary’s Infant School at the end of the summer term to discuss SEN children transferring to us the following September. Other children will normally have their need identified by their class teacher. Some children join us mid phase from other schools. It is the SENCO’s responsibility to make sure that we receive any SEN information relevant to them. If the teacher is concerned about the progress of a child and thinks that the child has educational needs that differ from the majority of children in the class she will talk with the parents and the SENCO. The school may then place the child on a stage of SEN. Stages of SEN - School Action With consultation with the child’s parents and the SENCO, the class teacher will write an Individual Education Plan. This sets the child specific targets to work towards which are different from the majority of the class. Care is taken to ensure that these targets are relevant to the national curriculum where appropriate, measurable and achievable. The IEPs are reviewed twice a year in consultation with the class teacher, parents, child and the SENCO. Who then decide whether a target has been achieved and then write a new IEP containing the same targets if they are still ongoing or new ones if appropriate. Stages of SEN - School Action Plus If a child still does not make significant progress after two reviews at School Action, the teacher and SENCO may decide that they need to take advice from external agencies to help meet the child’s educational needs. The SENCO will arrange for an external advisor to come and observe the child followed by a consultation meeting with the teacher. They will then produce a report that will be sent home to the parents. This will lead to the writing of a more specifically focussed IEP. It is usually reviewed in a termly meeting to which the child’s parents are invited. We may seek advice from the following LEA support services:
	• The Educational Psychologist. • Speech and Language services. • Learning or behavioural support services. • Health service personnel. • Social Services.
Statement of Special Educational Need If after two reviews at School Action Plus the child is still not making significant progress those involved may decide to apply for an external assessment, which may lead to a Statement of Special Educational Need. This statement which is reviewed annually will normally recommend a number of hours of one to one support. Assessment Assessment is normally performed by the class or subject teacher, the SENCO or headteacher. This may take the form of continuous assessment and curriculum assessments supplemented by standardised and/or diagnostic tests.
	• On entry to year 3 the SENCO conducts reading, comprehension and spelling tests. • All children including those with SEN are then tracked through the school using the Holborn reading and the Blackwell spelling tests. • Additionally all children take standardised tests in English and Mathematics in May.
Provision Pupils with SEN are based predominantly in the classroom supported by differentiated work through flexible grouping strategies. These children are taught by the class teacher sometimes supported by a Learning Support Worker. Access to individual or small group tuition to support IEP targets may be delivered through limited periods of withdrawal with the SENCO or LSW. Specialist teachers or Educational Psychologists may be involved in providing advice on teaching strategies. Pupils with Statements of Special Educational Need will be supported individually by an LSW, employed by SENSS for the number of hours specified on their statement. Record Keeping The SENCO keeps any records relating specifically to SEN. Prestbury St Mary’s Junior School has adopted its own curricular record. This provides a sound basis for detailed record keeping, both on a class and individual basis. Individual pupil profiles are kept through this record and are updated on an on-going basis which also helps with the identification and assessment of SEN. Access to the Curriculum All pupils have the entitlement to a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum. All pupils with SEN are taught for most of the week with their peers in mainstream class and study the curriculum appropriate for them. All teaching and support staff are aware of the National Curriculum Inclusion Statement and in their planning and teaching they strive to:
	• Provide suitable learning challenges. • Meet the pupil’s diverse needs. • Remove the barriers to learning and assessment.
With advice from and the support of the SENCO, teachers match the learning to the needs and abilities of the pupils. They use a range of strategies to develop the pupil’s knowledge, understanding and skills. Where appropriate materials are modified so support is provided to enable pupils with SEN to access the learning or assessment processes. The school acknowledges that its practice make a difference. The school and teachers regularly review issues related to pupils with SEN including classroom organisation, teaching styles, methods, materials and tasks, to determine how these could be improved. Access to the Wider Curriculum In addition to the statutory curriculum the school provides a wide range of additional activities. These include lunch -time and after school clubs, class and residential visits. Pupils with SEN are actively encouraged and supported to join in and benefit from these activities. Monitoring and Evaluating The school, including the governing body, is committed to regular and systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of its work. In this respect, the governing body report annually to the parents upon the quality of education provided for and the achievements of pupils with SEN. The school employs a series of methods to gather data for analysis including:
	• Regular observation of teaching by Headteacher, Deputy Head, Co-ordinators and individual class teachers. • Analysis of the attainment and achievement of different groups of pupils with SEN. • Scrutiny of teacher’s planning and pupil’s work. • The views of parents and pupils. • Regular monitoring by the SEN governor. • Maintenance of assessment records (e.g. reading and spelling ages) that illustrate progress over time • Regular meetings between SENCO, class teachers and learning support workers
As a result of the above the school reports annually upon its successes and identifies aspects for future development in the annual governor’s report to parents. Arrangements for dealing with complaints from parents - See General Complaints Procedure policy. In-Service training This may include:
	• SENCO attendance at local and national courses/conferences including local school cluster meetings. • Membership of NASEN. (National Association for Special Educational Needs) • Externally accredited courses eg diplomas, certificates, degrees. • Training for LSWs, teaching and non-teaching staff. • School inservice training. • Training provided by the LEA for inducting newly qualified teachers and staff new to the school.
The Role of Parents of Children with SEN In accordance with the SEN Code of Practice the school believes that all parents of children with SEN should be treated as equal partners. Their active involvement is a vital part of ensuring their child’s progress. The school aspires to have positive relationships with parents, provides user-friendly information and strives to ensure that they understand the procedures and are aware of how to access advice. Parents will be supported and empowered to:
	• Recognise and fulfil their responsibilities as parents and play an active and valued role in their child’s education • Have knowledge of their child’s entitlement within the SEN framework • Make their views known about how their child is educated • Have access to information, advice and support during assessment and any related decision making processes about special educational provision.
This policy was written by the Special Needs Co-ordinator in consultation with the Special Needs Governor and the staff of Prestbury St Mary’s Junior School in December 2002.