SEND Policy

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/or disabilities. Where the school has determined that a child has SEND, those needs will be made known to all who are likely to teach them.

All staff and governors in the school are aware of the importance of identifying and providing for children who have SEND.

All staff will ensure children with SEND are included in school activities as far as is reasonably practical.

Ashmount Primary School SEND Policy 2022-2023

Responsible Persons

The ‘responsible person’ for SEND is Annabel Le Moine (Deputy Headteacher) and in her absence, the Headteacher, Anthony Carmel. The person co-ordinating the day to day provision of education for pupils with SEND is Annabel Le Moine. The SEND Governor is Kerry Dignan.

Definition of Special Educational Needs

Children have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty which requires special educational provision to be made for them.

Children have a learning difficulty if they:

• Have significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children the same age
• Have a disability* which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities provided by the local authority
• Have an emotional/ behavioural difficulty which impacts on their learning,

* A person has a disability if he/she has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect in his/her ability to carry out normal day to day activities (Disability Discrimination Act, 1995)

Role of the Inclusion Manager/ Special Needs Coordinator (SENCO)

Annabel Le Moine is responsible for the arrangements for SEND provision throughout the school. As Inclusion Leader Annabel has responsibility for:

• implementing the day to day operation of the school’s SEND policy
• coordinating identification of and provision for children with SEND and overseeing their records
• Updating the provision map termly
• liaising with parents/carers
• liaising with external agencies including Islington’s Inclusion Advisory Service, Educational Psychology Service and Health and Social Services
• liaising with Headteacher and named governor for SEND
• monitoring the progress made by SEND children termly
• taking the role of lead professional in Early Help meetings

Local Offer

The ‘Local Offer’ is the Borough of Islington’s offer of Special Needs services within the local area. More information can be found on: www.islington.gov.uk/services/social-care-health/disabled-people/local-offer.

Ashmount SEN local offer (School information report)

This is a report detailing all the services, interventions and provision provided for children with SEND within Ashmount Primary School. Please see the school website for the full report. It will be useful to read the School Information Report alongside this policy. www.Ashmount.islington.sch.uk

Admission

All children with SEND are afforded the same rights as other children in terms of their admission to school. However, children who have undergone a statutory Assessment and are having their needs met through the provision of an Education Health Care plan, are given priority as part of the authority’s school admissions procedures.

Identification and Assessment

Teachers will consult the Inclusion Leader when a pupil fails to make progress or shows signs of any of the following:

• Difficulty acquiring literacy and numeracy skills
• Persistently challenging behaviour
• Emotional and social difficulties
• Sensory or physical problems
• Communication or interaction difficulties

The school then follows an ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ approach. Assessment allows the child to show what they know, understand, and can do, and it identifies specific learning difficulties.

Children with SEND may be identified at any stage of this process during their school life.

In the Foundation Stage and Years 1 and 2 the assessments used are:

• Identification of need using Early Years foundation stage goals- (Nursery and Reception) Teacher/TA observations – on going formative( day to day ) assessment (Assessment for Learning)
• informal and formal meetings with parents to raise and discuss concerns
• Formal teacher assessments once a term in reading, writing and maths
• Pupil Progress meetings
• Termly staff meetings to discuss children who are of concern
• Termly inclusion meetings
• KS1 SAT’s assessment

In Key stage 2 (Yrs 3, 4, 5, 6) the assessments used are:

• Teacher/TA observations- ongoing formative assessment -(Assessment for Learning)
• Informal and formal meetings with parents to raise and discuss concerns
• Formal optional SAT’s assessments in reading, writing and maths twice a year
• Pupil Progress meetings
• Termly staff meetings to discuss children who are of concern
• Termly inclusion meetings
• End of Key Stage 2 SAT’s tests

Inclusion & providing the graduated response: SEND Support

Staff are committed to identifying and providing for the needs of all children in a wholly inclusive environment. Inclusion is given a high priority in this policy, in line with the policies of Islington Local Authority

The Curriculum will be made available for all pupils. Where pupils have SEND, 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, as outlined in the Local Offer.

Ashmount will make provision for pupils with SEND to match the nature of their individual needs and the class teacher and SENCO will keep regular records of the pupils’ SEND, the action taken and the outcomes.

Ashmount will support children with SEND in a number of ways;

• There will be flexible grouping of pupils so that learning needs may be met in individual, small grouping or whole class contexts.
• The curriculum will be differentiated to meet the needs of individual pupils. Teaching styles and flexible groups will reflect this approach.
• Curriculum tasks and activities may be broken down into a series of small and achievable steps for pupils who have marked learning difficulties

If a teacher is concerned about some aspect of a child’s progress, behaviour or wellbeing (s) he will decide what action to take within the normal daily classroom routine. If the child is having learning difficulties in one or more areas, the teacher will adapt resources or change the teaching method being used, to suit that child.

Whatever the nature of the concern, the teacher will invite the parents or carers of the child into school to discuss the matter and to ask for their support in resolving the problem. If a child continues to make poorer than expected progress in spite of the strategies the teacher has used in class, the teacher may decide that more intervention is needed. Additional strategies will be worked out with the Inclusion Leader.

At this point the Inclusion Leader will have a further meeting with the parents to discuss the concerns and interventions that will be put into place to support their child. The child will be put on a ‘preliminary’ register.

Addressing various levels of SEND

If the child continues to make poorer than expected progress over 2 terms then the class teacher and Inclusion Leader will meet together to discuss the outcome of previous interventions or additional strategies that have been put in place to support that child. At this point, if appropriate, the child’s name will be placed on the SEND register. The additional support offered to a child is referred to as SEND support: Level 1.

Following further assessment, we will put a plan in place (Provision Mapping, an Individual Plan / Pupil Passport) detailing appropriate interventions, such as:

• Classroom organisation and management
• In-class support by teacher
• Small group work
• Home/school reading schemes
• Behaviour modification programmes
• Use of specialist equipment
• Alternative teaching strategies
• Reading volunteers – providing 1:1 reading support across the school
• Speech and Language groups

The resources deployed to help the child achieve the agreed outcomes will be captured in a Pupil Passport/Support Plan. Parents and children will be involved in developing the plan. Parents will meet once a term with the class teacher and Inclusion Leader to discuss and review their child’s passport and progress. The plans will focus on positive outcomes for the child.

If, despite receiving an individualised programme and/or concentrated support under Level 1 SEND support, the child does not make the expected progress over 2 terms, a referral is made for support from an external service. This is a higher stage of SEND support than Level 1 and is known as Level 2. A child maybe put onto Level 2 if he/she has any of the following:

• social, emotional or behavioural difficulties which interfere with his/her learning and that of the class
• sensory or physical needs which require additional specialist equipment/advice
• ongoing communication difficulties which impede the development of social relationships and cause barriers to learning

Under Level 2 a new individual Support Plan is drawn up and an external specialist may act in an advisory capacity, providing additional specialist assessment and /or be directly involved in supporting a child.

Where more than one agency is involved, the school, in discussion with parents and other agencies will initiate an Early Help Assessment to assist assessment and planning.

Specialist Provision

Ashmount school has level access from outside into the building and it also has a lift. There are 4 disabled toilets and a shower.

Statutory Assessment/ Education Health Care Plans

A small number of children who have severe or complex needs and therefore require more support than can be offered at SEN support level 2 are put forward by the school, in consultation with the parent, for a Statutory Assessment.

This process begins with an observation and assessment by an Educational Psychologist (EP). If the EP considers the child’s needs to be of sufficient severity, a request is then made for the local authority for a Statutory Assessment. From September 2011, a Statutory Assessment will only be carried out in Islington if the child has an Early Help Assessment EHS (replacing the CAF) CAF.

Early Help meetings involve the parents/carers and professionals involved with the child and are held for children who have complex needs. The local authority looks at all the evidence and makes a decision as to whether to issue an Education, Health and Care Plan (ECHP) for the child.

Where an ECHP is issued, it will be subject to an Annual Review. This is a meeting where a child’s progress towards meeting the objectives specified in the ECHP is measured. A decision then needs to be made whether the ECHP should continue to be maintained.

Recognising the Views of Children

The school will work to ensure that children are fully aware of their own needs and the targets in their Plans. We will encourage all children to be independent learners and to work towards a positive progression to adulthood from the earliest stage. Children on the SEND register are invited to attend their review meeting where appropriate and contribute to their review.

Parent Participation

Ashmount actively seeks the involvement of parents in the education of their children. The School recognises that for pupils with SEND the support and encouragement of parents is often a crucial factor in achieving success.

Parents will always be kept informed about the special educational needs experienced by their children in accordance with the recommendations outlined in the Code of Practice.

“the importance of the child or young person, and the child’s parents, participating as fully as possible in decisions, and being provided with the information and support necessary to enable participation in those decisions” SEN Code of Practice 2014

Communications between the parent and the school will be consistently maintained. We will always discuss with parents before we seek support from an external agency. We endeavour to make school a welcoming place where parents feel comfortable and where their views are valued. Where appropriate, interpreters and Bilingual support officers are used.

Transition Arrangements

If a child with SEND transfers to another school, the Inclusion Leader ensures that all the SEND records are passed promptly to the receiving school. In the summer term, the Inclusion Leader attends the Islington Local Education Authority transition conference where Year 6 children with SEND are discussed with secondary school staff and their records are passed to the relevant secondary school.

Multi-agency working

• Regular liaison is maintained with the following external agencies:
• Alternative Education Provision (i.e. Pupil Referral Units)
• Outreach Support Services
• Educational Psychologist
• Child Adolescent Mental Health Service
• Education Welfare Service
• Behaviour Support Team for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties
• Health Service (school nurse, dietician, therapists)
• Families First
• Chance UK (mentoring network)
• Speech and Language Therapy service
• School link Social worker
• Occupational Health Therapy Service

Arrangements for the Treatment of Complaints:

Concerns about provision for SEND pupils or about the identification of their needs should initially be shared with the school Inclusion Leader. The next stage is to talk to the Headteacher. If there is not a satisfactory outcome, then the concern should be taken to the Governors following the school’s complaints procedures.

Workforce Development

In-service training needs related to special educational needs will be identified by the Inclusion Leader and Head Teacher who is responsible for staff Continuing Professional Development in consultation with the staff and will be incorporated into the staff development plan.

Evaluating Success

This policy will be kept under review. The governors will gauge the success of the policy through the Annual Report to Governors and through termly reporting and scrutiny of achievements and progress of SEND pupils at governing body committee meetings. Parents will be consulted through processes such as the ‘Parent Voice’