SEND
The person responsible for the provision we make for children with SEND at Freeman is;
Mrs Claire Gilson (our SENDCo)
Phone: 01449 612067
Email: admin@freeman.suffolk.sch.uk
Our policy complies with the statutory requirements in the SEND Code of Practice 0-25 (Sept 2014) and has been written with reference to the following guidance and documents:
- Equality Act 2010: advice for schools DfE (2013)
- SEND Code of Practice 0-25 (2014)
- Schools SEN Information Report Regulations (2014)
- Section 69 (2) of the Children and Families Act (2014)
- Special Education Needs and Disability Regulations (2014) Schedule 1 Regulation 51
- Equality Act (2010) Schedule 10 paragraph 3
Our aims for children with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities
- To provide a safe, caring environment in which every child can learn effectively
- To ensure that children with special educational needs or disabilities make progress across the whole curriculum
- To ensure that all children value and respect each other as individuals whatever their need or ability
- To work co-operatively and share expertise with all stakeholders that support the learning of children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND)
- To facilitate and encourage a successful partnership between home and school
- To ensure children with SEND participate fully in the school community and take an active part in decisions about their own learning journey
- To use a range of teaching and learning styles and resources to enable SEND children to have access to the whole curriculum
- To ensure that Freeman staff have the skills, knowledge and support to be an effective teacher for all children including those with SEND
Our objectives
These enable us to realise our aims:
- To identify and provide for all children who have special educational needs, additional needs or disabilities
- To work with the guidance provided in the SEND Code of Practice (2014)
- To provide a SENDCo who will facilitate our SEND Inclusion Policy
- To provide support and advice for all staff working with special educational needs children and children with disabilities
Identifying Special Educational Needs
The Code of Practice identifies four broad areas of need.
Communication and interaction
Children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) have difficulty in communicating their needs to others. This may be because they have difficulty saying what they want to, understanding what is being said to them or they do not understand the social rules of communication. The profile of each child is different and is likely to change over time.
Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), including Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism are likely to have particular difficulties with social interaction and may experience difficulties with language, communication and imagination.
Cognition and Learning
Support for learning difficulties may be required when children learn at a slower pace than their peers even with appropriate differentiation. Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs. Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD) or Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD) may require support for children with mobility and communication.
With Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), children are likely to have severe complex learning difficulties as well as a physical disability or impairment.
Specific Learning Difficulties (SLD) affect specific aspects of learning and encompass dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.
Social, Emotional and Mental health Difficulties
Children may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which may manifest themselves in a variety of ways: withdrawn or isolated; challenging behaviour; disruptive or disturbing behaviour. These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, self-harm, substance misuse, eating disorders or unexplained physical symptoms.
We have clear systems to manage disruptive behaviour so that other children are not adversely affected.
Sensory and/or Physical Needs
Some children require special provision because they have a disability which hinders them from making use of the educational facilities generally provided. These difficulties may be a vision or hearing impairment, multi-sensory impairment or physical disability all of which require special equipment.
The school will identify the special needs of a child to work out what action it needs to take. It will identify needs alongside parents, carers and other health and education specialists and ensure that due consideration is given to the needs of the whole child not just the special educational needs.
What is not SEND but may affect progress and attainment
- Disability
- Attendance and Punctuality
- Health and Welfare
- English as an Additional Language
- In receipt of Pupil Premium Grant
- Being a Looked After Child
- Being the child of a Serviceman/woman
Working in Partnership with Parents
The new legislation requires each school to write a SEND offer which sets out a range of additional services and provision and provides information about what is available to support families. Our school's SEND offer can be viewed here. Our SENDCo, Mrs Gilson will help children and parents to identify appropriate provision that may be available through the SEND offer and be able to signpost parents to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information and Advice Support Service (SENDIASS) who may offer specific advice, guidance and support.
Managing your child’s SEND need at school
If appropriate we may record your child’s need on our SEND register and the information included will be as follows:
- What work has been done before and by whom
- What high quality teaching approaches have been used in class
- How classroom strategies and differentiation have been personalised for the child
- How reviews are carried out, how often and by whom
- What training is required and for who
- How we decide whether to make SEND provision
- How we will draw on external agencies and professionals for more specialised assessments
- How and when our ASSESS – PLAN – DO – REVIEW cycle will take place
- How we will involve parents and the child in the process
- What documentation we need to keep
- What procedure we will use when a child exits the SEND register
Supporting Children at school with Medical Conditions
The school recognises that a child at Freeman with medical conditions needs to be properly supported so they have full access to the curriculum including school trips and PE. A child may have an Education, Health Care (EHC) plan which brings together their health and social needs or a Medical Care Plan that clearly details the child’s condition and actions for treating or managing their condition.
EHC plans are drawn up in partnership between the school, parents and a relevant local authority professional with the aim being to capture the steps which a school should take to help the child manage their condition and overcome any potential barriers to getting the most from their education.
The partners will decide together who will take the lead in writing the plan but the school will ensure it is finalised and implemented. The plan may need to include the support needed for re-integration if the child has been in hospital or had home tuition.
The plan will include information about:
- The medical condition and triggers, signs, symptoms and treatments.
- The child’s resulting needs
- The specific support for the educational, social and emotional needs of the child
- The level of support needed
- Who will provide the support and their training needs and cover arrangements for when the support is unavailable
- Who in the school needs the information
- Arrangements for administering of medication
- Arrangements for trips or other school activities
- The individuals to be trusted with information , where confidentiality issues are raised
- What to do in an emergency e.g. who to contact and any contingency arrangements
Monitoring and Evaluation
The school will regularly and carefully monitor, evaluate and review the quality of provision for each child. Our SENDCo will meet with class teacher, child and parents regularly to audit the quality of learning and will also meet regularly with our SEND Governor to audit the school’s effectiveness.
Training and Resources
The SENDCo makes bids to the Headteacher for funds to provide and update the school’s vast range of resources e.g. intervention schemes, i-Pads, software packages, special seats, angled desktops etc. Our SENDCo also arranges appropriate CPD for all relevant staff. Our SENDCo works closely with local schools and SEND specialists to share best practice and keep up to date with national requirements.
Roles and Responsibilities
SENDCo and Manager of Medical Needs - Mrs Claire Gilson
Designated Safeguarding Lead – Emma Gerry (Acting Headteacher)
Manager Responsible for Pupil Premium Grant & Funding – Emma Gerry (Acting Headteacher)
Storing and Managing Information
All documents relating to SEND children are stored safely and securely. All members of staff recognise that they have a duty of confidentiality towards the school both as employees and former employees and therefore must not divulge to any person, company or organisation confidential information relating to the school. Furthermore, any notes or documentation held electronically or otherwise by members of staff remain, at all times, the property of the school.
Staff will take great care when producing confidential documents. Any such documents will not be printed to a remote source unless the sender is present to receive them. All unwanted confidential documents are shredded ( our Confidentiality Policy can be viewed here).
Admission Arrangements
If a child is entering our Nursery or Reception, we will have meetings beforehand with parents and any professionals that have been involved with the family to date. We take time to share all your knowledge about your child so that we can plan the way forward together. Once your child has started school we will continue to chat on the phone, meet up at the start or end of the school day and have review meetings with school staff and external agencies.
In Years 5 and 6, long before High school transition, we arrange visits to the High School for each child with our SENDCo, we work with our High School colleagues to set up meetings with the High School staff for the child and parents.
Accessibility
We want to ensure that the physical environment in and around our school is accessible to all children especially those with Special Educational Needs.
We are fortunate that our school has just one level and so there are no stairs, but we have ensured that there is a ramped entrance to the school and Early Years Building for wheelchair access. The remaining non-ramped entrances and exits will be altered as the need arises or when works are required in that area. We have an accessible toilets at the front of the school building and in our Early Years Building. Most classrooms are able to house specialist desks and chairs, standing frames, computer stations etc. with some careful planning as the need arises.
Each SEND child has a risk assessment of their access needs carried out by our SENCo and we purchase or borrow any equipment needed to remove an access barrier e.g. dietary modifications, IT hardware with appropriate software etc.
All classroom resources are made accessible by making personalised modifications as necessary e.g. coloured overlays, enlarged type, dyslexic dictionaries, proximity to whiteboards, etc.
Physical activity planning is personalised to the needs of each child through liaison with specialist services e.g. wheelchair throwing activities and swimming at a local pool with a hoist.
Trip sites are visited beforehand to ensure any barriers are removed or alternate provision is put in place e.g. suitable travel arrangements, road crossing safety measures, a zip wire double harness, keys for accessible toilets, provision for crossing rough terrain etc.
Extra-curricular provision ensures equal access to all children with individual arrangements e.g. an additional adult for supervision or as a facilitating partner.
You can view our latest Accessibility plan here.
Dealing with Complaints
We aim to work in close partnership with parents and families and regularly meet to review and audit each child’s learning journey. If parents are unhappy with the provision and wish to complain they can do so to:
- Emma Gerry, Acting Headteacher 01449 612067
- Sue Hayter, Chair of Governors – in writing via the school address
- Special Educational Need and Disabilities Information and Advice and Support Service 01473 265210 (office hours Monday to Friday)
Reviewing our Policy
Our SEND Policy and SEND offer are reviewed annually to ensure that best and latest practice are in place.
Appendices
For copies of our Behaviour Policy, Equality Opportunities Policy, SEND offer and Accessibility Plan please see our Policies section of the Web site.
Click here for the DfE document – Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions at School 2014.