Inclusion (incl. SEND) Policy – SEND policy

“To develop fully the knowledge, skills, faith and self confidence of all our children in a joyful, enthusiastic and Christain environment”

Date: / January 2017 / Review Date: / January 2020
Inclusion Leader: / Melanie Cork / Link Governor: / J Jeffery

Heathlands is an educationally inclusive school as we are concerned about the teaching and learning, achievements, attitudes and well-being of all our pupils.

We as a school community have a commitment to promote equality. Therefore, a Single Equality & Accessibility Policy and Plan has been undertaken and we believe this policy is in line with the Equality Act 2010.

Aims

To give all pupils regardless of their age, special educational needs, ethnicity, attainment and background the right to learn together.To meet their individual needs through a wide range of provision in line with Special Educational Needs Code of Practice 2014.

Objectives

•Staff members will identify the needs of pupils with SEND as early as possible. Information will be gathered from parents, education, health and care services and early year’s settings prior to the child’s entry into the school.
•Progress of all pupils will be monitored to aid the identification of pupils with SEND. Continuous monitoring of those pupils with SEND by their teachers will help to ensure that they are able to reach their full potential.
•Appropriate provision will be planned to overcome barriers to learning and ensure pupils with SENDwill have full access to the National Curriculum. This will be co-ordinated by the SENCo and will be carefully monitored and regularly reviewed in order to ensure that individual targets are being met and all pupils’ needs are catered for.
•Working closely with parents to gain a better understanding of each child, and involve parents in all stages of their child’s education. This includes supporting them in terms of understanding SEND procedures and practices and providing regular feedback on their child’s progress.
•Work with and in support of outside agencies when the pupils’ needs cannot be met by the school alone. These will include: Educational Psychology Service, Speech and Language Therapy, Children and Adult Mental Health Service [CAMHS], Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapy, the Specialist Teacher Team and any other services as the need arises.
•A school environment where pupils contribute to their own learning. This means encouraging relationships with adults in school where pupils feel safe to voice their opinions of their own needs, and carefully monitoring the progress of all pupils at regular intervals. Pupil participation is encouraged through collecting children’s views and by wider opportunities such as school council, residential visits, school plays, sports teams and after school clubs.

Responsibilities for SEND

The person responsible for overseeing the provision for children with SEND is the Inclusion leader – Mrs Melanie Cork. Mr Jeremy Hallum (Head teacher) and Mr Rick Cranfield (Deputy Head) will also monitor the additional provision and High quality teaching within the classroom, alongside other lead teachers in school as per the Monitoring Schedule.

The Inclusion Leaders responsibilities are to:
  • Embed a person centred approach throughout the whole of school life.
  • Maintain records alongside families, pupils, teachers and learning support assistants using the Assess-Plan-Do-Review cycle.
  • Provide support to teachers and learning support assistants to ensure children are achieving their individual potential
  • Support teaching staff to ensure that work is differentiated and that learning outcomes are achieved through observations and work sampling
  • Work alongside the Assessment Leader to track progress and ensure appropriate intervention and provision is in place
  • Work alongside Core Subject Leaders to track progress and identify intervention during termly Pupil Progress meetings
  • Work closely with external agencies to ensure appropriate support and challenge for all pupils
  • Ensure that all statutory responsibilities are met
  • Co-ordinate provision and support from information gathered
  • Regularly update and maintain the SEND Information Report on the school website and provide sign posts to Essex Local Offer
  • Identify and close gaps in provision through appropriate deployment of staff
  • Cost provision effectively and use funding to maintain appropriate support
  • Identify and provide training to ensure staff knowledge and understanding meets children’s needs
  • Monitor and evaluate effectiveness of provision
  • Inform and update Governors through the Head teacher’s report.

The responsibilities of the Class Teacher are:
  • To ensure that our non-negotiables are evident
  • to ensure that learning and teaching are differentiated effectively to meet the needs of all pupils
  • to ensure that records are annotated, at least half termly, in order to review individual outcomes
  • to communicate effectively and regularly with parents regarding pupil progress and support
  • to liaise with Learning Support Assistants to share outcomes and differentiation within lessons
  • to work with all children to ensure continued progress in their learning
  • to use a variety of teaching methods to engage all children
  • to use ICT effectively to support and challenge all pupils
  • to share ‘next steps’ through marking and verbal feedback so that children are aware of their learning journey
  • to liaise with the Inclusion Leader to discuss pupil progress, appropriate support and provision
  • to maintain detailed records of pupil progress so that early identification can help provision for individual children

Section 20 of the Children and Families Act 2014 states:

‘A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they:

a)have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age

or

b)have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream school or post-16 institutions.

A child under compulsory school age has special educational needs if they fall within the definition at (a) or (b) or would do so if special educational provision was not made for them.’

Children must not be regarded as having a learning difficulty solely because of their native language.

We believe that all children have the entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. Heathlands is committed to positive, whole school approach. We endeavour to understand the differing needs of children in our school, and recognise that problems with learning can be influenced by academic, emotional, social, physical and behavioural needs. We aspire to respond by extending our knowledge, understanding and strategies to enhance provision and develop High quality teaching to ensure children make the best possible progress.

Early identification and intervention is essential, we will work together, in a person centred manner, with the child, parents/family, staff and other relevant professionals to support the needs of each child.

Identifying Special Educational Needs

The revised Code of Practice states four broad categories of need:

  • Communication and interaction
  • Cognition and learning
  • Sensory/physical needs
  • Social, emotional and health needs

Following an identification of need by parent, staff or child – provision and outcomes will be planned, considering all of the needs of the child.

The graduated approach (as below) is used:

All pupils learning are the responsibility of their class teacher and differentiation is part of High quality teaching to meet all pupils’ needs. This will include targeted support from the teacher or learning support assistants.

At Heathlands, we have termly Pupil progress meetings to review teaching, progress and attainment for all children. Within the pupil progress meetings additional intervention and provision is discussed, as well as strategies for identifying and supporting pupils within the classroom.

We have a range of interventions to target more specific areas of need which may be run by Learning support assistant, Higher level teaching assistant (HLTA) or teacher.

Arrangements for co-ordinating provision

The SENCO will hold all SEND records for individual pupils in the Inclusion room.
All staff can access:
•The school Inclusion (incl. SEND) Policy;
•A copy of the SEND Register.
•Guidance on identification of SEND in the Code of Practice
•Information on individual pupils’ special educational needs, including one page summaries, targets set and copies of provision maps.
•Practical advice, teaching strategies, and information about types of special educational needs and disabilities via the Provision Guidance document.
•Information available through Essex’s SEND Local Offer
Every staff member will have complete and up-to-date information about all pupils with special needs and their requirements which will enable them to provide for the individual needs of all pupils.
This policy is made accessible to all staff and parents in order to aid the effective coordination of the school’s SEND provision.

Admission arrangements

The admission arrangements for all pupils are in accordance with national legislation, including the Equality Act 2010. This includes children with any level of SEND; those with Education, Health and Care Plans and those without.

Resource allocation

All pupils identified with SEND will have access to part of Element 1 and 2 of a school’s budget which equates to £6,000. Some pupils identified with SEND may access further additional funding. This additional funding might be from a budget which is part of the central schools budget share as identified by SENCO on a needs basis. Additional funding may also available from the Local Authority for some children with a Educational Health Care Plan.

The Graduated Approach at Heathlands

High Quality Teaching (and/or Initial Support plans)
a)Any pupils who are falling significantly outside of the range of expected academic achievement in line with predicted performance indicators will be monitored.
b)Once a pupil has been identified as possibly having SEND they will be closely monitored by staff in order to ascertain barriers to learning and support to be put in place.
c)The child’s class teacher will take steps to provide differentiated learning opportunities that will aid the pupil’s academic progression and enable the teacher to better understand the provision and teaching style that needs to be applied.
d)The SENCO will be consulted as needed for support and advice and may wish to observe the pupil in class.
e)Through (b) and (d) it can be determined which level of provision the child will need going forward.
f)If a pupil has recently been removed from the SEND register they may also fall into this category as continued monitoring will be necessary.
g)Parents will be informed of every stage of their child’s development and the circumstances under which they are being monitored. They are encouraged to share information and knowledge with the school.
h)The child is recorded by the school as being under observation due to concern by parent or teacher but this does not automatically place the child on the school’s SEND register. Any concerns will be discussed with parents informally or through planned meetings. Initial support plans may be used to identify outcomes and provision during transition times for pupils.
i)Parent’s evenings are used to monitor and assess the progress being made by children.
SEND Support
Where it is determined that a pupil does have SEND, following discussion with the parents, class teacher and SENCO the pupil will be placed on the SEND register. The aim of formally identifying a pupil with SEND is to help school ensure that effective provision is put in place and so remove barriers to learning.
The support provided consists of a four – part process (please see Appendix for further details):
•Assess
•Plan
•Do
•Review
This is an ongoing cycle to enable the provision to be refined and revised as the understanding of the needs of the pupil grows. This cycle enables the identification of those interventions which are the most effective in supporting the pupil to achieve good progress and outcomes.
Educational Health Care Plans
If a child has lifelong or significant difficulties they may undergo the Statutory Assessment Process which is often requested by the school, but can be requested by a parent. As a school, we will support parents in completing the request where appropriate.
This will occur where the complexity of need or a lack of clarity around the needs of the child are such that a multi-agency approach to assessing that need, to planning provision and identifying resources, is required.
The decision to make a referral for an Education, Health and Care Plan will be taken at a One Plan review.
The application for Education, Health and Care Plans combines information from a variety of sources including:
Parents, Teachers/SENCO, Health professionals, Educational professionals – Specialist teachers, Educational Psychologist and other services as the need arises.
Information will be gathered relating to the current provision provided, action points that have been taken, and the preliminary outcomes of targets set. A decision will be made by a group of people from education, health and social care about whether or the child is eligible for an EHC Plan. Parents have the right to appeal against a decision not to initiate a statutory assessment leading to an EHC Plan.
Further information about EHC Plans can found via the SEND Local Offer:

Care Plans [EHC Plan]
a.Following Statutory Assessment, an EHC Plan will be provided by Essex County Council, if it is decided that the child’s needs are not being met by the support that is ordinarily available. The school and the child’s parents will be involved developing and producing the plan.
b.Parents have the right to appeal against the content of the EHC Plan. They may also appeal against the school named in the Plan if it differs from their preferred choice.
c.Once the EHC Plan has been completed and agreed, it will be kept as part of the pupil’s formal record and reviewed at least annually by staff, parents and the pupil. The annual review enables provision for the pupil to be evaluated and, where appropriate, for changes to be put in place, for example, reducing or increasing levels of support.

Curriculum access, information and other services

Pupils with SEND are given access to the curriculum through the specialist SEND provision provided by the school as is necessary, as far as possible, taking into account the wishes of their parents and the needs of the individual.
Every effort will be made to educate pupils with additional needs alongside their peers in a mainstream classroom setting. Where this is not possible, the SENCO will consult with the child’s parents for other flexible arrangements to be made.
Regular training and learning opportunities for staff on the subject of SEND and SEND teaching are provided both in school and across the family of schools. Staff members are kept up to date with teaching methods which will aid the progress of all pupils including those with SEND.
In class provision and support are deployed effectively to ensure the curriculum is differentiated where necessary.
At Heathlands, we set appropriate individual targets that motivate pupils to do their best, and celebrating achievements at all levels.

Inclusion of pupils with SEN

The Head Teacher and SENCO oversee the school’s policy for inclusion and are responsible for ensuring that it is implemented effectively throughout the school.
The school curriculum is regularly reviewed to ensure that it promotes the inclusion of all pupils. This includes learning outside the classroom.
The school will seek advice, as appropriate, around individual pupils from external support services.

Evaluating Provision

At Heathlands we value feedback from staff, parents and pupils regarding additional provision. This is part of the One Plan reviews and will be discussed and reviewed through progress meetings with parents.

Pupil progress will be monitored on a termly basis in line with the SEND Code of Practice, and tracked carefully by the SENCO. This is reported termly to the Governors.

Children with a Statement, EHCP plan or SEND Support will each have a One Plan. This person centred approach brings together all those involved in working with the child to discuss what is working well, what needs improving and agree actions. The child’s needs are at the centre of all discussions and it is the meeting and conversations which are important, rather than the paperwork produced.

SEND provision and interventions are recorded on provision maps, which are updated termly. These interventions are monitored and evaluated termly by the SENCO and information is fed back to the staff, parents and governors. This identifies whether provision is effective.