SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS POLICY
This policy is informed by general principles and should be read with them clearly in mind:
- All children have individual needs that should be met; At some point in their school life many children will have needs that are additional to, or otherwise different from those generally expressed in children of his or her age.
- The views of children should be sought and taken into account;
- Parents have a vital role to play in supporting their child's education;
- Children with SEN should be offered full access to a broad, balanced and relevant education, including an appropriate curriculum for the foundation stage and the Montessori Curriculum.
The Montessori Place has a duty:
- to decide the school’s SEN policy and approach, setting up appropriate staffing and funding arrangements and oversee the school’s work;
- to do its best to ensure that the necessary provision is made for any pupil who has a special need;
- to ensure that teachers in the school are aware of the importance of identifying and providing for those pupils who have SEN;
- to ensure that a pupil with SEN joins in the activities of the school, together with pupils who do not have SEN, as far as is reasonably practical and compatible with the child receiving the SEN provision, their learning needs call for the most effective education of the pupils with whom they are educated and the efficient use of resources;
- to report to parents on the implementation of the school’s policy for pupils with SEN and notify them when SEN provision is being made for their child;
- to have regard to the policy when carrying out duties towards all pupils with SEN;
- to appoint a ‘responsible person’, who makes sure that all those who work with a child with a statement of SEN are told about the statement.
Policy
The Montessori Place recognises the definition of Special Educational Needs (SEN) in the SEN Code of Practice (Department for Education and Skills, 2001), in which special educational provision is defined as that: ‘which is additional to, or otherwise different from the educational provision made generally for children of their age in school’ (page 6). A child may have SEN at any point in their school life.
As an inclusive school, The Montessori Place offers an interconnected curriculum that enables all children to explore and discover the world around them, irrespective of social background, culture, race, gender, differences in ability and disabilities. Inclusion is an equal opportunities issue. We model inclusion in our staffing policies, and relationships with parents/carers and the community. We never regard any child’s needs as ‘a problem’, but look at what additional provision we must make for that individual.
Responsible Person and SENCo
Rob Gueterbock
Aims
1. Ensure the SEN and Disability Act, relevant Codes of Practice and guidance are implemented effectively across the school.
2. Ensure a graduated response to the needs of pupils with SEN, as per guidance in the Code of Practice.
3. Continually monitor the progress of all pupils, to identify needs as they arise and provide support as early as possible, recognising the importance of early intervention.
4. Ensure that all pupils with SEN – whether, physical, intellectual, social, emotional or behavioural – receive appropriate, differential educational support.
5. Provide full access to the Montessori curriculum including the EYFS through differentiated planning.
6. Promote confidence, enthusiasm and positive attitudes, and enable every child to experience success.
7. Provide equality of opportunity for all pupils, and ensure that pupils with SEN are perceived positively by all members of the school community and that inclusion and SEN provision are positively valued and accessed by staff and parents/carers.
8. Enable children to move on from us well equipped in the basic skills of literacy, numeracy and social independence to meet the demands of secondary school and life-long learning.
9. Involve parents/carers at every stage in plans to meet their child’s additional needs.
10. Involve the children themselves in planning and in any decision-making that affects them.
11.
Co-ordinating SEN provision
1. The SENCo meets with each community’s Lead Guide at least once a term to discuss additional needs and concerns, and review any Individual Education Plans (IEPs).
2. At other times, the SENCo can be alerted to new concerns by the Guides, parents or the child themselves – either by written message, email or verbally.
3. The SENCo will discuss such concerns with the relevant Guide within one week of being notified.
4. IEP reviews are held on a 6-weekly basis for all children.
5. Targets arising from IEP meetings and reviews will be used to inform and support whole-class approaches to inclusion, e.g. differentiation, varied teaching styles, specific support of intervention.
6. The SENCo monitors planning for SEN and supports Guides with their planning, as necessary.
7. The SENCo, monitors the quality and effectiveness of provision for pupils with SEN I various ways including classroom observation.
8. Guides, SENCo and outside agencies liaise and share developments in order to inform reviews and planning.
9. IEPs for children with SEN are in class files for easy access and updating.
Evaluating success
The success of the school’s SEN policy and provision is evaluated through:
- Monitoring of classroom practice by our Pedagogical Advisor
- monitoring of procedure and practice by the Board of Directors
- ongoing school self-evaluation
- feedback from children and parents
- feedback from LA advisors and other professionals
Roles and responsibilities
- The Board of Directors determine the SEN policy and the approach to provision, so that the needs of children with SEN are met.
- Rob Gueterbock as the Responsible Person and SENco has the relevant SEN training. He is responsible for developing and monitoring the SEN policy
o ensures that financial resources are available to carry out the SEN policy
o has up-to-date knowledge of SEN provision, including deployment of funding, equipment and staff
o ensures that SEN provision is an integral part of the school development plan
o liaises with other Directors and staff
- Our staff
o share the responsibility of meeting an individual’s special needs and are aware of the school’s procedures for identifying, assessing and making provision for these pupils
o identify the SEN of individual children and plan for their needs in conjunction with the SENCo
o carry out work directed by the SENCo and the pupil’s Guides
o ensure that colleagues are aware of children's needs
o provide learning experiences which are appropriate to the needs of each and every child
o provide a detailed record of the IEP targets, the strategies adopted and their success for each child
o attend appropriate training.
Early identification
The Montessori Place recognises the importance of early identification, assessment and provision for any child who may have special educational needs. The earlier action is taken, the more responsive a child is likely to be. Early intervention is also likely to be less disruptive to the child’s learning and social experience within the school.
Assessment is not a single event but it is a continuing process. If a child’s difficulties prove to be transient, the child will subsequently be able to progress without additional support. If a child’s difficulties prove less responsive to the school’s provision, an early start will be made in considering additional help the child may need.
To help identify children who may have special educational needs, The Montessori Place will measure children’s progress by referring to:
- the ongoing observation and assessment carried out by the Guides
- the social / behavioural observations as monitored by their Guides
- their progress in literacy and numeracy
- their performance against the level descriptions within the EYFS and within our in-house Assessment framework, details of which are available on request.
Identification of a child’s need can be made by a number of people, for example a GP, health visitor, speech therapist, educational psychologist, pre-school counsellor, teacher or parent. The child’s own experiences are listened to and inform the identification process.
----policy reviewed above this line on Friday 13 December 2013------
Types of Provision: assessment, monitoring and review
1. Differentiated provision
Montessori education is based on all children experiencing differentiated and personalised provision. This allows for a natural inclusiveness within the learning community for children. The differentiation may involve modifying learning objectives, teaching/communication styles and access strategies.
A child’s progress will be monitored by the Guide and this will inform future personalised provision within the wider community of children. Progress will be reviewed at the same intervals as for the rest of the class and a decision made about whether the child is making satisfactory progress at this level of intervention. The school uses the definitions of adequate progress as suggested in the SEN Code of Practice, that is, progress which:
- closes the attainment gap between the child and their peers
- prevents the attainment gap from growing wider
- is similar to that of peers starting at the same attainment baseline, but less than the majority of peers
- matches or betters the child’s previous rate of progress
- ensures full access to the curriculum
- demonstrates an improvement in self-help or social or personal skills
- demonstrates an improvement in the child’s behaviour.
Where a child is not making adequate progress OR where the nature or level of a child’s needs are unlikely to be met by continuation of the general approach to differentiated provision, provision at the School Action level may need to be made.
2. School Action provision would be indicated where there is evidence that:
- there has been little or no progress made with existing interventions
- additional support is required to develop literacy or numeracy skills
- additional support is required for emotional, behavioural or social development
- additional support is required for sensory or physical impairments
- additional support is required for communication or interaction needs
A child receiving support at School Action will have an Individual Education Plan (IEP). This document forms an individual record for the child and contains information about school-based observation and assessment, a summary of the child’s additional needs and action taken to meet them, including any advice sought from external agencies. The IEP will include information about:
- the short-term targets set for the child
- the teaching strategies to be used
- the provision to be put in place
- when the plan is to be reviewed
- outcomes (to be recorded when IEP is reviewed).
The IEP will only record support that is additional to, or different from, the differentiated curriculum and will focus upon three or four individual targets that match the child’s needs and have been discussed with the child and the parents.
Monitoring is ongoing and carried out by all those involved with the child. Significant achievements and difficulties will be recorded on the IEP. The SENCo refer to monitoring information when reviewing the IEP and make adjustments to the child’s provision, if appropriate. IEP reviews are held termly. Following reassessment, children who have made satisfactory progress may no longer require intervention strategies to meet their needs. In this case, School Action provision will be withdrawn in line with the ‘graduated approach’ in the SEN Code of Practice.
If the SENCo and school colleagues, in consultation with the parents/carers, conclude that, despite an individual programme and/or concentrated support for a considerable period, a child continues to have significant needs which are not being met, provision at School Action Plus level may be made available.
3. School Action Plus
Provision at this level always includes the involvement of specialist services. A variety of support can be offered in this way, such as advice to the school about targets and strategies, specialised assessment or some direct work with the child. Additional or different strategies to those at School Action are put in place. The specialist services will always contribute to the planning, monitoring and reviewing of the child’s progress.
Provision at School Action Plus level would be indicated where there is evidence that the level and duration of a child’s additional needs are such that the child:
- continues to make little or no progress in the areas of concern
- continues working at levels substantially below that expected of children of the same age
- continues to have difficulty in developing literacy and numeracy skills
- has emotional, behavioural or social needs which significantly interfere with the child’s or others’ learning
- has sensory or physical needs which require additional specialist equipment or regular advice or visits from a specialist service
- continues to have communication and interaction needs that interfere with the development of social relationships and act as a barrier to learning.
A child receiving support at School Action Plus will have an IEP. Monitoring will take place as for School Action and reviews will be on a termly basis. Provision will run concurrently with differentiated curriculum support.
Where a child is not making adequate progress despite a period of support at School Action Plus, the school –with the agreement of parents/carers – may request the LA to make a statutory assessment in order to determine whether it is necessary to make a Statement of Special Educational Needs. Planning, provision, monitoring and review processes continue as before while awaiting the outcome of the request.
4. Statement of Special Educational Needs
Arrangements for a child who has a Statement of Special Educational Needs will continue as for School Action Plus, with additional support provided using the funds made available through the Statement. The school will make every endeavour to comply with the provision as outlined in the statement and involve outside agencies, where appropriate.