Burnley Brow Community School SEN Policy

Written September 2014 Ratified October 2014

Reviewed September 2015

 

Introduction

Welcome to our Special Educational Needs Policy which is written in line with the New SEN Code of Practice (September 2014).

At Burnley Brow Community Primary School we are committed to working together with all members of our school community, including pupils, parents/carers, governors, and members of staff. We would welcome your feedback and future involvement in our work with children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities, so please do contact us. The best people to contact are:

Mrs Wendy Khan – Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Manager (SENCO)/ Assistant Head teacher

Mrs Helen Atkinson-Smith – Head teacher 

 

Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities – What does it mean?

The term SEN is a legal definition. The Code of Practice defines SEN as:

“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 him or her. A child of compulsory school age has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she:

(a) Has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age; or

(b) Has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in a mainstream school.”

 

Disabilities

The Equality Act 2010’s definition of disability is:

“A person has a disability (for the purpose of this Act) if (s)he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his/her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities”.

(Section 1.1 Disability Discrimination Act 1995)

This definition of disability in the Equality Act includes children with long term health conditions such as asthma and diabetes. Children with these conditions do not necessarily have SEN, but there is often a significant overlap between disabled children and those with SEN (eg – a child who is on the Autistic Spectrum). Children may therefore be covered by both SEN and disability legislation.

 

Our Approach to Teaching Learners with SEN:

At Burnley Brow Community School we believe that all children are entitled to an education that enables them to make progress so that they:

*achieve their best

*become confident individuals living fulfilling lives, and

*make a successful transition into adulthood, whether into employment, further or higher education or training.

We also believe that all teachers are teachers of children with special educational needs. We want all adults and learners to participate in learning and we strive to work with all members of our community. We want to create an inclusive culture in our school and we aim to be responsive to the diversity of children’s backgrounds, interests, experiences, knowledge and skills.

 

We value high quality teaching that is differentiated and personalised for all learners. This will meet the needs of the majority of pupils. We actively monitor learning and teaching throughout the school, through classroom observations, planning and book scrutiny, listening to children’s voices and half termly progress reviews. We always aim to create a learning environment which is flexible enough to meet the needs of all the children in our school, including those with SEN. Regular “environment walks” are also carried out. (For more information see our Learning and Teaching Policy and our Monitoring and Evaluation Policy).

 

The school will have regard to the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice 2014 when carrying out its duties towards all pupils with special educational needs.

 

How we identify SEN:

Learners can fall behind in school for lots of reasons. They may have been absent from school for an extended period; they may have attended a lot of different schools and not had a consistent opportunity to learn; they may not speak English well, or at all; they may be worried about a variety of things going on in their lives. All of these can affect progress and make the child vulnerable. But this does not mean that all vulnerable learners have SEN.

Only those with a learning difficulty or disability that requires special educational provision will be identified as having SEN.

 

At the heart of the work of every class is a continuous cycle of planning, teaching and assessing which takes account of the wide range of abilities, aptitudes and interests of children. The majority of children will learn and progress within these arrangements. Those children whose overall attainments or attainment in specific subjects fall significantly outside the expected range may have special educational needs.

 

Teachers submit details about the progress of children in their class every half term. This data is analysed by the Strategy Team and teachers are asked to reflect on any children in their class who have not made the expected progress. Teachers must carefully consider whether these children have difficulties with:

• All of the work in school.
• Reading, writing, number work or understanding information.
• Expressing themselves or understanding what others are saying.
• Making friends or relating to adults.
• Behaving appropriately in school.
• Organising themselves.
• Some kind of sensory or physical needs which may affect them in school.

 

The identification and assessment of the special educational needs of children whose first language is not English, requires particular care. When there is uncertainty about an individual child, teachers, with the support of the SENCO, will look carefully at all aspects of a child’s performance in different subjects. They will establish whether the problems the child has in the classroom are due to limitations in their command of the language that is used there, or arise from special educational needs. The law says that children do not have SEN just because their first language is not English.

 

The class teacher will provide a written report (known as a RAP) detailing the action they will take to help each of the identified children make progress. This may include:

• different learning materials or resources;
• some group or individual support (in the teacher focus group, with the gap teacher or with a TA);
• extra adult time taking part in an intervention devised to help overcome the barrier to learning and/or to help the child "catch up";
• staff development and training to introduce more effective strategies.

 

Assessment and Provision:

Each unit within school has a Provision Map for each of the following areas of difficulty:

Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)

Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

Moderate learning difficulties (MLD)

Social, emotional, and mental health difficulties (BESD)

Visual Impairments (VI)

Hearing Impairments (HI)

Physical difficulties (PD)

 

The provision maps provide advice about the Quality First Teaching expected at Burnley Brow for children who show symptoms of any of the above.

The implementation of the provision maps and the effectiveness of the action detailed in the RAP are carefully monitored. Those children who still fail to make satisfactory progress may require further assessment regarding the special educational need.

 

Under these circumstances, teachers consult the SENCO to consider what else might be done in order to identify the special educational need. The teacher will complete the ‘Burnley Brow Checklist for Pupils of Concern’.

 

The SENCO will analyse the checklist to prioritise the children and decide on what other assessments are required. Burnley Brow has a range of assessments and screening materials which can provide more information on children with Special Educational Needs. These include the following assessments:

The Boxall Profile

Bangla assessments

Renfrew Language assessment

Suffolk Reading Test

Diagnostic Number assessment 

Ann Arbor Dyslexia Screener

A number of screening materials which can indicate the likelihood of ASD, ADHD, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, Auditory / Visual memory difficulties and some other difficulties which can affect learning.

 

The results of the assessments/screening tests may lead to the conclusion that the pupil requires help over and above that which is normally available within the class. The key test of the need for action is evidence that current rates of progress are inadequate. The Code of Practice states that there are 4 broad areas of need:

* Communication and interaction

* Cognition and learning

* Social, emotional and mental health difficulties

* Sensory and/or physical needs

 

Children often have needs that cut across more than one of these areas and their needs may change over time. The parents will be informed that their child is to be placed on the SEN Register and the category that the school will initially provide for.

 

Partnership with parents plays a key role in enabling children and young people with SEN to achieve their full potential. The school recognises that parents hold key information and have knowledge and experience to contribute to the shared view of a child’s needs and the best way of supporting them. All parents of children with SEN will be treated as partners and supported to play an active and valued role in their children’s education. They will be encouraged to participate in all the decision-making processes and contribute to the assessment of their needs, the reviews and transition processes. 

 

Children with SEN often have a unique knowledge of their own needs and their views about what sort of help they would like to help them make the most of their education will be ascertained.

 

A person centred review will be held so that the SENCO, class teacher, parent/carer and learner can all share their concerns and agree outcomes and support for the child.

 

To find out if our support is effective we follow the ‘assess, plan, do, review’ model and ensure that parents/carers and children are involved in each step.

Provision for children with special educational needs is a matter for our school as a whole even though the child’s class teacher will remain responsible for working with the child on a daily basis and for planning and delivering an individualised programme.

 

What we do to support Learners with SEN:

Every teacher is required to adapt the curriculum to ensure access to learning for all children in their class, including those with SEN. They will use various strategies to adapt access to the curriculum, which might include –

• Visual timetables.  
• Writing frames.
• I-Pads, lap tops or other alternative recording devices.
• Specialist equipment.
• Additional support and practice in the areas of difficulty, through specific interventions.
• Positive behaviour strategies and rewards.

 

The type of support is dependent on the individual learning needs, and is intended to enable access to learning and overcome the barrier to learning identified. This support is detailed on a provision map which describes the interventions and actions that we undertake to support learners with SEN across the year groups.

 

SEN Support

The school will record the steps taken to meet the needs of individual children across the school. The SENCO has responsibility for ensuring that all SEN records are kept and available as needed.

For some learners we might want to seek advice from specialist outside teams and agencies. In our school, we have access to various specialist services, including an Advisory Learning Support Teacher (from the Local Authority QEST Teams and VI,HI,PD Specialist Teams), and frequently refer to the Educational Psychologist, Speech and Language Therapist and teams working within Community Paediatrics. Within school we have many members of staff specifically trained in working to support children with speech, language and communication needs; behavioural, emotional and social difficulties and general delays in development. Some staff are trained to work with children with ASD, VI, PD and HI. The SENCO is a teacher trained in many areas of SEN, including the assessment and screening for specific disorders. The SENCO suggests and oversees intervention programmes, in addition to training and supporting TAs to deliver the interventions.

 

When school seeks the help of support services, those services will need to see the child’s records in order to establish which strategies have already been employed and which targets have been set and achieved. The specialist may act in an advisory capacity, providing more specialist assessments to inform planning and the measurement of a pupil’s progress and / or give advice on the use of new or specialist strategies or materials. They may be involved in teaching the child directly on a regular basis or providing support for particular activities. The details will be recorded in an Integrated Assessment Plan (IAP) for the child. This will set out fresh strategies for supporting the child’s progress. The delivery of the interventions and strategies recorded in the IAP continues to be the responsibility of the class teacher. However the child’s progress is monitored more thoroughly by the SENCO and the Strategy Team.

 

The IAP 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 the IAP is reviewed).

 

School request for a statutory assessment

If the implementation of help and advice provided by specialists has still not resulted in satisfactory progress being made by the child, the school, in discussion with parents/carers, may decide to request Statutory Assessment of the child’s needs. Where a request for a statutory assessment is made by the school to the LA, the child will have demonstrated significant complex difficulties. The LA will need information about the child’s progress over time, and will also need documentation in relation to the child’s special educational needs and any action taken to deal with those needs, including any resources or special arrangements put in place. The school will provide this evidence with the child’s SEN Support file. The information in this may include:

• individual education plans for the pupil and records of regular reviews and their outcomes, in addition to the new IAPs.
• the pupil’s health records, including the child’s medical history where relevant
• National Curriculum levels /attainments in English and mathematics /progress over time
• educational and other assessments, for example from an advisory specialist support teacher or an educational psychologist
•  views of the parent and child
• involvement of other professionals such as health or social services.

 

Parents or other agencies can also make an application for Statutory assessment. However, Oldham Local Authority usually only consider the need for statutory assessment where all those involved with the child agree that this is necessary and they can prove that, despite receiving individualised support under SEN Support, the child:

• continues to make little or no progress in specific areas over a long period
• continues working at National Curriculum levels substantially below that expected of children of a similar age
• continues to have difficulty in developing literacy and mathematics skills
• has emotional or behavioural difficulties which substantially and regularly interfere with the child’s own learning or that of the class group, despite having an individualised behaviour management programme.
• has sensory or physical needs, and requires additional specialist equipment or regular advice or visits by a specialist service
• has ongoing communication or interaction difficulties that impede the development of social relationships and cause substantial barriers to learning.

 

Statutory Assessment of Special Educational Needs

Where the evidence presented to the Local Authority suggests that the child’s learning difficulties have not responded to relevant and purposeful measures taken by the school and external specialists and may call for special educational provision which cannot reasonably be provided within the resources normally available to mainstream schools, the LA will consider the case for a statutory assessment of the child’s special educational needs.

The Local Authority may decide that the degree of the pupil’s learning difficulty and the nature of the provision necessary to meet the child’s special educational needs is such as to require the LA to determine the child’s special educational provision through an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). These were previously known as “Statements of Special Educational Needs”.

 

An Education, Health and Care Plan will include:

•  the pupil’s name, address and date of birth
• details of all the pupil’s special needs
• identify the special educational provision necessary to meet the pupil’s special educational needs and how this should be monitored
• Identify the type and name of the school where the provision is to be made
• Include relevant non-educational needs of the child
• Include information on non-educational provision

 

All children with an EHC Plan will have short-term targets set for them which have been identified in the plan itself. The funding supplied through an EHC Plan is not linked to a specific number of TA hours for the child. The funding is linked to the outcomes required by the child and his/her parents, in addition to the needs of those involved with the child in meeting these outcomes.

Parents may apply for a Personal Budget when the Local Authority has confirmed that it will prepare an EHC Plan or during a statutory review of an existing EHC plan.

 

Annual review of an Education, Health and Care Plan.

All EHC Plans must be reviewed at least annually. The parents/carers, the pupil, the LA, the school and any other professionals involved will be invited to consider whether any amendments need to be made to the description of the pupil’s needs or to the special educational provision specified in it. The annual review should focus on what the child has achieved as well as on any difficulties that need to be resolved.

At the review in Year 5, the aim should be to give clear recommendations as to the type of provision the child will require at secondary school. It will then be possible for the parents to visit secondary schools and to consider appropriate options within the similar timescales as other parents. The SENCO of the receiving schools are invited to attend the final annual review in primary school to allow the receiving school to plan an appropriate IAP to start at the beginning of the new school year and enable the pupil and the parents to be reassured that an effective and supportive transfer will occur.

 

 

 

School Links and Transitions:

Transition is a part of life for all learners. This can be transition to a new class in school, having a new teacher, or moving on to another school. We are committed to working in partnership with children, families and other providers to ensure that a positive transition occurs for all children, including those with SEN. Links between pre-school providers who transfer children to this school are established through the LA, Foundation Stage staff and SENCO. The programme of consultation is also well established with the various Secondary Schools. Meetings between the SENCOs from schools of transfer are held in the Summer Term. Where it is felt children would benefit from extra visits, arrangements will be made to meet these needs.

 

Organisation of School Resources:

This SEN policy details how we will do our best to ensure that the necessary provision is made for any pupil who has SEN and we will make these needs known to all who are likely to teach them. We endeavour to ensure that teachers in the school are able to identify and provide for these pupils. Pupils with special educational needs will join in all the activities of the school together with pupils who do not have SEN, so far as is reasonably practical and compatible with the child receiving the special educational provision. At certain times it may be necessary for the child with SEN to be taught outside of the classroom, in order for more focussed and intense work on their area of need.

The Governor specially designated to oversee SEN provision in the school is Mrs Karen Worrall, who, alongside the Head Teacher and the SENCO makes annual SEN reports to the Governing Body, which will include a written report of numbers of children on the SEN Register and details of the SEN budget and resources.

Mrs Wendy Khan is the SENCO/Assistant Head. Her responsibilities include:

• overseeing the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEN policy
• co-ordinating provision for children with special educational needs
• liaising with and advising fellow teachers
• liaising with teaching assistants in conjunction with fellow teachers
• overseeing the records of all children with special educational needs
• liaising with parents of children with special educational needs
• contributing to the in-service training of staff
• liaising with external agencies including the LA’s support and educational psychology services, health and social services, and voluntary bodies.
• carrying out further assessments in order to provide information regarding specific children’s levels of potential and achievement, and to suggest future actions.

 

Complaints Procedure:

If a parent has any concern or complaint about the provision of Special Educational Needs in the school they should contact the SENCO and/or Head teacher.

If after consultation with the Head teacher and SENCO the concern/complaint has not been resolved then the complaints procedure will be followed.  Copies of this are held in the school office.

The Head teacher or Governors may at any of these stages contact the LA for further clarification and advice on any issue that has been raised.