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SEND

Trewidland School - Special Educational Needs Policy

Aims and Objectives
  1. The Governing Body and teaching staff will do their best to ensure that the necessary provision is made for any pupil who has special educational needs and ensure that, where the Headteacher or the appropriate Governor has been informed by the LA that a pupil has special educational needs, those needs will be made known to all who are likely to teach them.
  2. The staff and governors of the school are aware of the importance of identifying and providing for those pupils who have special educational needs.
  3. The staff will ensure that pupils with special educational needs join in the activities of the school together with pupils who do not have special educational needs, so far as that is reasonably practical and compatible with the pupil receiving the necessary special educational provision, the efficient education of other children in the school and the efficient use of resources.
Responsible Persons
  1. The ‘responsible person’ for SEN is Mr Lovell (Headteacher).
  2. The person co-ordinating the day-to-day provision of education for pupils with Special Educational Needs is Mrs K Pipe (SENCO).
Admission and Inclusion
  1. All the teachers in the school are teachers of children with Special Educational Needs. As such, Trewidland School adopts a 'whole school approach' to special educational needs which involves all the staff adhering to a model of good practice. The staff of the school are committed to identifying and providing for the needs of all children in a wholly inclusive environment. Inclusion is regarded as crucial to the policy, in line with that of the Local Authority.
  2. The school operates an equal opportunities' policy for children with special educational needs who are afforded the same rights as other children. This includes both those children with statements of special educational needs and those others with less significant problems.
Access to the Curriculum
  1. The National Curriculum will be made available to all pupils. Where pupils have Special Educational Needs a graduated response will be adopted. The school will, in other than exceptional cases, make full use of classroom and school resources before drawing on external support. The school will make provision for pupils with Special Educational Needs to match the nature of their individual needs and the class teacher and SENCO will keep regular records of the pupils’ Special Educational Needs.
  2. There will be flexible grouping of pupils so that learning needs may be met in individual, small group or whole class contexts.
  3. The curriculum will be differentiated to meet the needs of individual pupils. Teaching styles and flexible groups will reflect this approach.
  4. Schemes of work for pupils, within classes and year groups, will reflect whole school approaches to teaching and learning and will take account of special educational needs.
  5. Curriculum tasks and activities may be broken down into a series of small and achievable steps for pupils who have marked learning difficulties.
Register of Need

The school offers a differentiated curriculum when a pupil fails to make progress and shows signs of difficulty in some of the following areas: acquiring literacy and numeracy; presenting persistent EBD difficulties; has sensory or physical problems or has communication or interaction difficulties. These children will be supported in a range of ways including: classroom organisation and management; in-class support by Teacher/Teaching Assistant; withdrawal for individual/small group work; home/school reading schemes; behaviour modification programmes; use of specialist equipment; alternative teaching strategies.

Identification and Assessment – a Graduated Response
  1. If progress is still not achieved despite the schools interventions, the child may be assessed bearing in mind the County criteria with a view to initiating a statutory assessment of special educational needs. The appropriate forms will be used for recording and referral as necessary.
  2. Identification of special educational needs will be undertaken by all staff through the SENCO and the appropriate records and LA forms will be maintained. Records will be developed through a process of continuous assessment by the class teacher or as a result of standardised tests of educational achievement administered by the class teacher together with end of Key Stage attainment tests. Assessments allow the pupil to show what they know, understand and can do, as well as to identify any learning difficulties. Where necessary, pupils will be referred to the SENCO for diagnostic testing to construct a profile of the child’s strengths and weaknesses.
  3. The progress of children with special educational needs will be reviewed through formative and summative assessments as outlined in the Code of Practice. Additionally, the progress of children with a statement will be reviewed annually.
Liaison
  1. Parents will always be informed when an external agency becomes involved with their child.
Staff Development

In-service training needs related to SEN will be identified by the Headteacher in consultation with the staff and will be incorporated into the staff development plan supported by SEN Standards Fund.

Working with Parents
  1. The school will actively seek the involvement of parents in the education of their children. It is recognised that it is particularly important with pupils who have special educational needs where the support and encouragement of parents is often the crucial factor in achieving success.
  2. Parents will always be kept informed about the SEN experienced by their children in accordance with the recommendations outlined in the Code of Practice. Communication between the parent and the school will be consistently maintained. Parents will be kept fully informed about the Parent Partnership Service.
  3. Parents will be fully consulted before the involvement of LA support agencies with their children, and will be invited to attend any formal review meetings at all stages.
Pupil Participation

The school will work to ensure that pupils are fully aware of their next steps. Efforts will be taken to involve pupils in decisions which are made regarding their education.

Evaluating success

This school policy will be kept under regular review. Evidence will be gathered regarding: staff awareness of individual pupil needs; success of the identification process at an early stage; academic progress of pupils with special educational needs; improved behaviour of the children where this is appropriate; pupil attendance; number of exclusions; number of children supported by the funding allocation for non-statemented special educational needs; consultation with parents; number of pupils moving between stages and pupils’ awareness of their targets and achievements.

Reviewed November 2022

Next review November 2023