Broomhill Infant School

Additional Educational Needs

And

Inclusion Policy

November 2003

Reviewed annually

Last review September 2009

Rationale

Broomhill Infant School & Children’s Centre is committed to providing an appropriate and high quality education to all children who attend the school. We are opposed to all forms of discrimination based on a person’s ethnic origin, class, religion, nationality, age, gender, disability, ability or sexuality and believe in equality of opportunity. We believe that all children, including those identified as having ‘additional educational needs’ (AEN) have a common entitlement to a broad and balanced academic and social curriculum, which is accessible to them, and to be fully included in all aspects of school life.

We believe that all children should be equally valued in school. We will strive to eliminate prejudice and discrimination, and to develop an environment where all children can flourish and feel secure.

Broomhill Infant School & Children’s Centre is committed to inclusion, in line with the Bristol Inclusive Education Policy, the UN Convention on the rights of the child, and the UNESCO Salamanca agreement.

By ‘inclusion’ we understand that school will seek to adapt systems and structures to meet the needs of all children: this will include adaptations to the school curriculum, to buildings, to attitudes and values, and language.

We believe that educational inclusion is about equal opportunities for all learners, whatever their age, gender, ethnicity, impairment, attainment and background.

We aim to engender a sense of community and belonging, and to offer new opportunities to learners who may have experienced previous difficulties.

We believe that inclusive education benefits both disabled and disaffected learners as well as ‘mainstream’ and able-bodied children. Children, whatever their impairment or approach to learning, have a part to play in society in adult life. They can more easily play that part if they have not been excluded from mainstream schooling early on. Society will only begin to change to take account of the needs of all people if the barriers of ignorance and prejudice are broken down by educating children together. We believe that ‘mainstream’ or non-disabled children have the right to experience a real environment in which they can learn that people are not all the same and that all people should be welcomed, should have the right to have their individual needs met appropriately and that differences should be celebrated.

This does not mean that we will treat all learners in the same way, but that we will respond to learners in ways which take account of their varied life experiences and needs.

This policy describes the way we, at Broomhill Infant School & Children’s Centre, meet the need of children who experience barriers to their learning, which may relate to sensory or physical impairment, learning difficulties or emotional or social development, or may relate to factors in their environment, including the learning environment they may experience at school.

We recognise that children learn at different rates and that there are many factors affecting achievement, including ability, emotional state, age and maturity. We believe that many pupils, at some time in their school career, may experience difficulties which affect their learning, and we recognise that these may be long or short term.

At Broomhill Infant School & Children’s Centre we aim to identify these needs as they arise and provide teaching and learning contexts, as well as care, space and time, which enable every child to achieve to his or her full potential.

Broomhill Infant School & Children’s Centre sees the inclusion of children identified as having ‘additional educational needs’ as an equal opportunities issue, and we will also aim to model inclusion in our staffing policies, relationships with parents/carers and the community.

The Additional Educational Needs and Inclusion Coordinator (AENICo) role is fulfilled by Mr Tristan Middleton. The AEN Governor is Mr Mark Williams. Mr Middleton is a member of the Senior Leadership Team and will report to the Senior Leadership Team. Mrs Newman will communicate issues to the School Governors in this area.

Objectives

·         To ensure the SEN and Disability Act and relevant Codes of Practice and guidance are implemented effectively across the school.

·         To ensure equality of opportunity for, and to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against, all children, including those with ‘special educational needs’.

·         To regularly monitor the progress of all pupils, to identify needs as they arise and to provide support as early as possible.

·         To provide full access to the curriculum, wherever possible, through differentiated planning and curriculum delivery by class teachers, AENICo and support staff as appropriate.

·         To provide specific input, matched to individual needs, in addition to differentiated classroom provision, for those pupils recorded as having AEN at School Action , School Action Plus or School Action Plus Enchanced.

·         To ensure that pupils with AEN are perceived positively by all members of the school community, and that AEN and inclusive provision is positively valued and accessed by staff and parents/carers.

·         To ensure that we are able to meet the needs of as wide a range as possible of children who are eligible for placement at our school, where a placement at the school would be beneficial to the child.

·         To ensure that the school accesses all available financial support to allow children with identified additional educational needs to receive the best possible educational opportunities

·         To involve parents/carers at every possible stage in plans to meet their child’s additional needs.

·         To involve the children themselves in planning and in any decision making that affects them wherever this is possible and to the benefit of the child.

Identification, assessment, monitoring and review procedures

·         The school’s system for regularly observing, assessing and recording the progress of all children is used to identify children who are not progressing satisfactorily and who may have additional needs.

·         Based on the school’s observations and assessment data and following discussions which may involve the class teacher, AENICo and parent/carer, the child may be recorded as needing either:

o        Differentiated curriculum support within the class

o        Additional support through School Action provision

Where it is deemed necessary to involve outside agencies to assess or support the learning of the child, they will be recorded as needing support through School Action Plus provision.

Our threshold criteria for School Action in the area of Cognition and Learning are attached as Appendix 1

Pupils placed on the AEN register, at either School Action or School Action Plus, must then receive help / support that is above and beyond ordinary differentiation (this does not include catch-up programmes such as Further Literacy Support (FLS)).

If a child does not make adequate progress following a period of provision under School Action Plus, in agreement with the parent/carer, the school may request a statutory assessment from the LEA or additional funding through the School Action Plus Enhanced funding system. On these occasions, the school will follow the procedures for this process as outlined in the document “Funding Arrangements For Supporting Pupils with Special Educational Needs”. (Available at www.bristol-cyps.org.uk/services/pdf/sen-sape-manual.pdf) This process will only be undertaken where the AENICo and/or members of the SLT agree that all necessary evidence, as outlined in the “Funding Arrangements For Supporting Pupils with Special Educational Needs”, is available to the school.

The progress of pupils on the AEN register will be monitored annually by the AENICo using the school’s new data tracking system. The findings of this monitoring will be used as a tool to plan whole school provision for AEN.

Children in public care

The school monitors the progress of children in public care as a distinct group. The AENICo and/or head teacher will liase with agencies involved in the planning of provision for individual children in public care and will contribute the relevant elements to Pastoral Support Plans that are drawn up.

Arrangements for coordinating SEN provision

Individual Education Plans (IEPs):

All pupils with a Statement of Special Educational Needs and those at School Action Plus  and School Action Plus Enhanced  should have current IEPs. All pupils at School Action should have IEPs unless alternative arrangements have been agreed with the AENICo.

Parents / Carers:

When a new IEP is written, class teachers and the AENICo have a responsibility to work closely with the parents / carers of concerned children. The class teacher should invite the parents / carers to make an appointment to meet and discuss the IEP. If the parents / carers fail to respond, then the class teacher will set an appointment for the parents / carers. If the parents / carers still fail to respond, a copy of the IEP will be sent home with a request for the parents / carers to read and sign, should this copy fail to be returned, this should be recorded on the relevant child’s IEP.

Storage:

Current IEPs to be kept by class teacher as a working document. This should be accessible daily by Class Teachers and Support Staff who are working with the class and/or child. It should also be available for the AENICo or connected professionals upon request to the class teacher.

Superseded IEPs should be stored in a central school location, filed by pupil surname, under the supervision of AENICo and Senior Leadership. These documents will be available to class teachers upon request.

All pupil-related correspondence, including reports and recommendations, once read by class teacher and other school staff (where relevant), should be stored in central school location with superseded IEPs. When class teacher and any other staff read correspondence, they should annotate the correspondence with their name and the date to indicate this. The class teacher may keep copies of these documents should they require.

Confidential or sensitive documents, i.e.: those containing child protection information, should not be copied without express permission of a member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and the original and all copies of these documents should be stored securely in central school location.

Timing:

 

IEPs will be written for pupils by the beginning of the second half of the Autumn term. This may be altered when a pupil’s situation alters significantly or a pupil enters the school at a time other than the beginning of the academic year.

IEPs should be reviewed by the second half of the Summer term. The revised targets from the Summer term review may then be carried forward until the end of the first half of the following Autumn term.

IEP targets will be monitored regularly in between termly reviews and relevant and significant factors recorded.

Targets may be reviewed or changed at times other than those set for reviews at the discretion of the class teacher and AENICo.  

AENICo / Class teacher meetings:

The AENICo will meet with each class teacher at least twice a year to discuss additional needs concerns, IEPs and support provision.

At other times the AENICo will be available to class teachers to discuss newly arising concerns.

Liaison:                                            

Support staff, class teachers, AENICo, Head teacher and outside agencies will make every effort to liaise and share developments in order to inform reviews and planning.

Specialised Provision

Broomhill Infant School & Children’s Centre has a wealth of staff with wide-ranging experience of working with children with diverse needs. Wherever possible, the school will facilitate professional development, to develop expertise and knowledge of staff working with children with ‘special educational needs’. It will be the responsibility of staff who have received training to keep a record of their professional development and also to disseminate new learning with other colleagues in school, where relevant.

The SLT will review the allocation of staff annually to ensure that needs and available skills are matched as closely as possible.

The AENICo will be responsible for producing a Provision Map, which will show how we allocate resources to each year group.

Broomhill Infant School & Children’s Centre has an established provision of a specific intervention for identified pupils, the Treasure Room. This provision has worked as a preventative resource for children whose emotional, social, behavioural and learning needs mean that they require provision not available within a mainstream class. This provision takes the form of a ‘Nurture Group’.

Access to the Environment

The school itself along with equipment and resources are important tools in ensuring inclusive access to learning. As such, we aim to make the school building, furniture and resources accessible to all. When furnishing the school, choices will be made with due attention to the needs of all those who will be using the furniture. When acquiring educational resources, care will be taken to reflect the differences in our school and the wider community.

An Access Plan, covering the period from 2009-2012 is currently in place and is attached as Appendix 2. This plan may be reviewed and updated during the life of this policy.

Appendix 1

Threshold Levels / criteria for considering pupils to be placed on the

Additional Educational Needs register in the area of Cognition & Learning.

This is intended as a guide, to make clear the levels at which children might be considered for extra help. The actual decisions will depend on assessment and knowledge of the child and their rate of progress, in discussion between the class teacher, other school staff and the AENICo.

Pupils placed on the AEN register, at either School Action or School Action Plus, must then receive help / support that is above and beyond ordinary differentiation (this does not include catch-up programmes such as FLS, ELS or Springboard).

This document was drawn up with close reference to “ Bristol SEN Manual” Feb 2003 and “Assessing pupils performance using P levels – The Bristol Schools Portfolio”

Appendix 2

ACCESS PLAN September 2009 to July 2012

Appendix 3

Complaints Procedures

If a parent / carer wishes to complain about the provision for Special Educational Needs or the Additional Educational Needs and Inclusion Policy, they should, in the first instance, raise their complaint with the Special Educational Needs and Inclusion Coordinator, who will try to resolve the situation.

If the issue can not be resolved within 10 working days, the parent can submit a formal complaint to the Head Teacher in writing or any other accessible format. The Head Teacher will reply within 10 working days.

If the issue continues to remain unresolved, the parent / carer will be referred to Bristol CYPS.

Complaints about service standards can be referred to Bristol City Council Children & Young People’s Services (CYPS), information is available at

http://www.bristol-cyps.org.uk/policies/pdf/complaints-schools-leaflet.pdf

Broomhill Infant School's