SEND Policy

 

 

Meeting the Needs of Pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Brooklands Farm Primary School’s Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Policy

Brooklands Farm Primary School believes that every pupil has an entitlement to develop to their full potential and is committed to meeting the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs. There is a shared expectation that all pupils, regardless of their specific needs, should be offered inclusive teaching which will enable them to make the best possible progress in school and feel that they are a valued member of the wider school community.

Brooklands Farm Primary School is an inclusive school and offers the following range of provision to support children with; cognition and learning, communication and interaction, sensory, emotional, social, complex medical and physical needs.

The range of support deployed will be tailored to individual needs following assessment by internal or external agencies. It is designed to promote pupils working towards becoming independent and resilient learners and should not be seen in isolation.

We have produced a guide for parents of children with special educational needs (SEN), which is available from our website and is a comprehensive set of frequently asked questions explaining how the school supports children with SEN and disabilities.

The SEND policy is written to comply with the 2014 Children and Families Act and its SEN Code of Practice together with the Equality Act 2010.

Defining SEN

The 2014 Code of Practice states that:

A person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. At compulsory school age this means he or she has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others the same age, or, 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 mainstream schools. Taken from 2014 SEN Code of Practice: 0 to 25 Years –

Introduction xiii and xiv

Objectives at Brooklands Farm School

• To identify, at the earliest possible opportunity, barriers to learning and participation for pupils with SEND

• To ensure that every child experiences success in their learning and achieves to the highest possible standard

• To enable all children to participate in lessons fully and effectively

• To value and encourage the contribution of all children to the life of the school

• To work in partnership with parents

• To work with the Governing Body to enable them to fulfil their monitoring role

• To work closely with external support agencies, where appropriate, to support the need of individual pupils

• To ensure that all staff have access to training and advice to support quality teaching and learning for all pupils

Identifying children with Special Educational Needs

Children with SEN are identified by one of three assessment routes all of which are part of the overall approach to monitoring progress of all pupils. The progress of every child is monitored at termly pupil progress meetings. Where children are identified as not making progress in spite of quality first teaching they are discussed with the SENCo and a plan of action is agreed. Class teachers are continually aware of children’s learning. If they observe that a child, as recommended by the 2014 Code of Practice, is making less than expected progress, given their age and individual circumstances, they will seek to identify a cause.

This can be characterised by progress which:

• is significantly slower than that of their peers starting from the same baseline

• fails to match or better the child’s previous rate of progress

• fails to close the attainment gap between the child and their peers

Parent Partnership

In Brooklands Farm Primary School parents are seen as partners and their views, aspirations and hopes for their child will always be valued. We aim to have good and informative relationships with all our parents. If parents have concerns about about their child they should speak to their class teacher first who may then be directed to the SENCo.

Roles and Responsibilities

The class teacher is responsible for:

• Adapting and refining the curriculum to respond to strengths and needs of all pupils. Checking on the progress of all child, identifying and planning the delivery of any additional support.

• Contributing to devising personalised learning journeys to prioritise and focus on the next steps required for your child to make progress.

• Applying the school’s SEND policy.

The Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) – Ben Williams is responsible for:

• Coordinating provision for children with SEND and developing the school’s SEND policy

• Ensuring that parents are involved in supporting their child’s learning and access to the curriculum and kept informed about the range and level of support offered to their child.

• Liaising with a range of agencies who can offer advice and support to help pupils overcome any difficulties

• Providing specialist advice and facilitating training to ensure that all staff are skilled and confident about meeting a range of needs.

The Head Teacher – Maxine Low is responsible for:

• The day to day management of all aspects of the school, including the provision made for pupils with SEN.

The SEN Governor – Michael Howe is responsible for:

• Supporting school to evaluate and develop quality and impact of provision for pupils with SEN across the school.

Assessment procedures

All children deserve to have their achievements and progression recognised and the school’s curriculum reflects the different levels of attainment likely to be achieved. The school fully embraces using a consistent nationally recognised assessment system, which relates to the early learning goals, the P scales for pupils with learning difficulties, the extended scales for EAL, and the National Curriculum levels of attainment, including exceptional performance for gifted and talented pupils. All teachers monitor and review pupil progress using this assessment procedure.

Underachievement is identified as early as possible through teacher referral and additional assessment using standardised reading and non-verbal reasoning tests. Pupils are set individual challenging targets, which address the area of underachievement. Pupil progress is monitored and reviewed termly.

The school’s reward system of points, and certificates of achievement for outstanding work and performance, effort, and improved behaviour contribute to raising pupil self-esteem and motivation.

Professional development

All members of staff have access to advice, information, resources and training to enable them to teach all children effectively. Staff are kept fully informed about local authority, national and regional training courses, seminars and networks which relate to SEND practice. Members of staff are also encouraged to observe good inclusive practice within school, and also in other schools.

Teaching and learning

The school believes that all children learn best with the rest of their class. Our aim is for all children to be working in class, at the cusp of their potential. When allocating additional Teaching assistant support, our focus is on outcomes. We aim to put in sufficient support to enable the child to reach their challenging targets, but without developing a learned dependence on an adult.

The school has a range of interventions available which are listed on a provision map. When considering an intervention, the school first look first at the child’s profile of learning in order that we can select the intervention which is best matched to the child.

Interventions are often crucial in closing attainment gaps and are monitored closely by both the class teacher who monitors progress towards the targets during the intervention and by the SENCo who monitors overall progress after the intervention.

Access to extra-curricular activities

All of our children have equal access to before school, lunchtime and after school clubs which develop engagement with the wider curriculum. Where necessary, we make accommodation and adaptation to meet the physical and learning needs of our children.

Class trips are part of our curriculum and we aim for all children to benefit from them. No child is excluded from a trip because of SEN, disability or medical needs.

Transition Arrangements

Transition into and within school

We understand how difficult it is for children and parents as they move into a new class or a new school and will do what we can, according to the individual needs of the child, to make transitions between classes- including from the nursery- as smooth as possible. This may include, for example:

• Additional meetings for the parents and child with the new teacher

• Additional visits to the classroom environment in order to identify where the toilets are, where the pegs are etc.

• Opportunities to take photographs of key people and places in order to make a transition booklet.

Enhanced transition arrangements are tailored to meet individual needs.

Transition to Secondary School

The secondary school SENCO is invited to Annual Reviews and other review meetings.

Additional transition arrangements may be made at these reviews e.g. extra visits, travel and training.

Milton Keynes’ Local Offer

The purpose of the local offer is to enable parents and young people to see more clearly what services are available in their area and how to access them. It includes provision from birth to 25, across education, health and social care. Milton Keynes’ Local Offer is available from the website

http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/schools-and-lifelong-learning/special-educational-needs/