Disability Equality Scheme and Action Plan 2009 – 2012
‘Education should develop each child's personality and talents to the full. It should encourage children to respect their parents, and their own and other cultures’ Article 29 ‘Children who have any kind of disability should have special care and support, so that they can lead full and independent lives.’ Article 23 The purpose of this Disability Equality Scheme is to show how Blandford St Mary Primary School is going to promote disability equality for disabled pupils, staff, parents and the wider community. We believe in treating everyone fairly and we are committed to creating an environment in our school in which everyone involved can take part. The Governors aim to meet its duty to promote disability equality for disabled pupils, staff and parents. All school staff has a responsibility to treat everyone fairly and to promote arrangements for people with disabilities. We aim to encourage, listen to and involve local people in this scheme and the successful implementation of it in our school. Blandford St Mary Primary School complies with the duty and will: publish this Disability Equality Scheme (DES); involve disabled people in the development of the scheme; implement the scheme; report on the scheme annually. Definition of disability
The DDA defines a disabled person as someone who has ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. The definition includes a wide range of impairments, including hidden impairments such as dyslexia, autism, speech and language impairments, and long-term conditions such as cancer and HIV. These are all likely to amount to a disability, but only if the effect on the person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities is substantial and long term, as defined above. Blandford St Mary Primary School acknowledges the Disability Equality Duty of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005 in relation to the duties on schools when carrying out our functions, to: promote equality of opportunity between disabled people and other people; eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the DDA 1995; eliminate harassment of disabled people that is related to their disability; promote positive attitudes towards disabled people; encourage participation by disabled people in public life; take steps to meet disabled people’s needs, even if this requires more favourable treatment.
Blandford St Mary Primary School makes the following provision for children with disabilities under the DDA 2005: training for staff on learning difficulties, Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD), behaviour difficulties has already been undertaken;
time given to communicate with relevant professionals and staff to ensure the needs of the child are being met the curriculum has been adapted to meet the needs of disabled pupils materials have been adapted e.g.: on different coloured paper for dyslexic pupils additional resources have been purchased e.g.: wobble cushions and slant boards the new part of the school has been built to increase disabled access for children, staff, parents and members of the community adaptations for building access is being addressed through the school’s Accessibility Plan; information for parents and public is regularly reviewed in line with DDA. individualised teaching programmes for specific needs to increase children’s access to the curriculum assessments updated and shared with staff and parents regularly children of concern identified each term and interventions are put in place to help them access their learning progress monitored every term to ensure that all children are making expected progress opportunities for children and parents to feedback on the blog and through questionnaires equal treatment of children through adhering to policies e.g.: behaviour policy, race equality plan etc all children are given opportunities for different learning styles, needs and resources in and out of the classroom children are not segregated due to their needs – all are given opportunities to take part in football, music, gym. analysis of attendance is completed by SMT and discussed regularly. Issues and concerns are taken further by SMT SEN Governor is involved with the DES as well as meeting with the SENCo to discuss issues and progress. Blandford St Mary Primary School audits the performance, adherence and compliance with the DDA 2005 regularly and reports progress made. We publish the Disability Equality Scheme on the school website together with an annual report on actions taken and how the school is complying with the DDA 2005. Blandford St Mary Primary School will support the Local Authority in monitoring the county wide compliance with the duties and work collegiately to eradicate unlawful discrimination as defined in the Acts of 1995 & 2005. The Disability Equality Scheme is contained in our Equalities Plan and can also be found on the SEN blog on the book shelf. It can also be found in SEN file 1: section 1 The School has identified certain areas of good practice where proactive steps have already been taken. Improved transition arrangements between schools, such as the primary and secondary school and key stages for pupils with disabilities. Whole school training on autism through the use of the IDP unit on ASD ASD training through visiting a special school and outreach work Consultation with the DES working party - this is happening once a term SEN and DES parental questionnaires to ascertain views and thoughts – this has been ongoing and is continually developing through the use of online surveys Children questionnaires to find out their views through the use of online surveys and snap shot surveys Achievement of Level 1 Rights Respecting schools Introduction of ‘Circle of Friends’ to ensure that children with disabilities are understood by their peer group and have a group of peers to help support them in the classroom and the playground. Use of the school nurse and doctor to support staff and where necessary pupils within their peer group if their disability is causing issues in the classroom. The school is aware of some areas of concern as identified through the use of a Self-Evaluation Audit Tool and address these concerns in the DES Action Plan. The DES Action Plan sets out proposed actions from 2009 and can be found within our Equalities Plan. It will be published on the SEN blog on our school website and can also be found in the SEN file 1: section 1.
The DES will be considered in line with all other policy making decisions in the school and will be linked to budgetary implications for the governing body with reference to FMsiS (Financial Management standard in Schools). The DES Action Plan will follow the year financial management plan for the school. Blandford St Mary Primary School meets the accessibility requirements and has produced an action plan showing how we will improve access for disabled pupils by: increasing access to the curriculum; making improvements to the physical environment of the school to increase access; making written information accessible to pupils in a range of different ways. The Accessibility Action Plan can be found in our Equalities Plan and can also be found on the SEN blog. A hard copy is in the SEN file 1: section 1.
Approved by
____________________ (Chair of Governors)
Date agreed by Governors
____________________
DES Review date
____________________
The Annual Report of the Disability Discrimination School will be available and published on the school website.
SEN/DES/10