SEN Policy

ASHTON COMMUNITY SCIENCE COLLEGE School Policy for SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS We, at Ashton Community Science College, are committed to meeting the special educational needs of students and ensuring that they make progress.

In line with our mission statement and policy for social inclusion, we aim to: a, discover each student’s talents and abilities and, by taking account of their varied life experiences and needs and removing potential barriers to learning, develop them to the highest level possible, b, provide students with the skills they need to remain safe and healthy, enjoy and achieve within the educational setting and beyond and to achieve economic well being, c, help them develop self – esteem and the capacity to make a positive contribution to society.

1, Objectives In order to achieve our aims and to ensure that students with special educational needs achieve their full potential and make progress, we will: a, ensure that students with special educational needs develop increasing responsibility for their learning and behaviour as they move through the school and become more involved in setting their own targets in these areas. b, ensure that parents of students with special educational needs are increasingly involved in learning and target setting for their children whilst at school. c, ensure that the learning needs of students with special educational needs are identified and assessed as early as possible, and their progress is closely monitored. d, ensure that the school offers a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum that is accessible to students with special educational needs and promotes the highest possible standards of attainment and achievement. This will include making information on students’ levels of attainment available to staff and helping them use this to inform effective lesson planning. e, ensure that teaching assistants, as well as teachers, are involved in planning to meet the learning needs of students with special educational needs. To this end, most Teaching Assistants are now attached to faculties. f, ensure that the school continues to liaise effectively with outside agencies who support our efforts to meet the special educational needs of our students.

2, Rules and Responsibilities There is an identified Governor with oversight of special educational needs provision.

The Principal and SENCO are responsible for the management and operation of this

This policy is monitored by the Governors Personnel Committee

October 2014

policy and keep the full governing body informed regarding such provision. The SENCO will ensure effective day to day provision for students at School Action, School Action Plus and those with Statements and ensure that all staff are involved in planning to meet the needs of such students.

3, Admissions Students with special educational needs will be admitted to Ashton Community Science College in line with the school’s admissions policy. The school is aware of the statutory requirements of the Equality Act and will meet the Act’s requirements.

The school will use their induction meetings to work closely with parents to ascertain whether a child has been identified as having special educational needs and, if alerted that a child may have learning difficulties, will endeavor to use all available information to plan a relevant differentiated curriculum.

4, Disabled Access To ensure access for people with disabilities, the school has a lift, ramps and disabled toilets. As part of the school’s Accessibility Plan, departments are identified by colour coding. Hearing-Impaired students are supported by Teachers of the Deaf or Teaching Assistants during mainstream lessons or work with such members of staff within the Deaf Support Department on a withdrawal basis. A loop system is available on request for visitors to the school who have hearing impairment and a rolling programme of acoustic treatment is taking place in classrooms.

5, Resources The Governors will employ specialist teachers and teaching assistants as required to meet the special educational needs of students on roll at that time. These students may be at School Action, School Action Plus or the subjects of Statements and numbers can vary from one year to the next.

The Governors accept that staff need time to review student progress, discuss curriculum needs and transfer information between teaching groups and phases.

6, Identification, Assessment and Review On Entry When students are first admitted to the school:    

KS2 results are analysed to identify areas of special educational need Information supplied by primary schools and parents is discussed Reading and Spelling Ages of all students are tested NFER CATs are used to identify potential weaknesses and/or discrepancies.

Teacher Referral If a teacher has a concern about a student they may discuss it with a member of the Learning Support department and, if they remain sufficiently concerned, pass it to the SENCO in writing so that a detailed assessment may be initiated.

This policy is monitored by the Governors Personnel Committee

October 2014

Curriculum and Assessment Monitoring Subject Leaders and Progress Leaders will monitor the attainment and progress of students with special educational needs as part of their role. They will ensure that the SENCO is kept fully informed and, if they have a concern, they will:  request that the student is monitored across the curriculum  request additional testing of students.

School Provision Students at this stage have been identified as having difficulty but the setting system currently enables us to meet their needs. It is essentially a monitoring stage where nothing additional to, or different from the curriculum is being put into place. These students are on the special needs list so that staff are aware of the type of difficulty they experience and can assist the SENCO in monitoring their progress.

School Action If a student’s learning or behavioural difficulties are causing sufficient concern to warrant provision that is additional to or different from that generally available through the setting or pastoral system (usually implying a Reading Age of 9.5 years or less or a Spelling Age of less than 9.0 years or initial Compass involvement), they will be placed on the special needs list at this stage.

If targets beyond national curriculum targets or specific short term targets are needed, a target report card may be used.

Progress of students at School Action is reviewed in December and July, unless urgent intervention is required. If progress is entirely satisfactory the student may be removed from the special needs list. If some progress is being made but further support that is additional to or different from that generally provided is deemed necessary, the student may remain at School Action. If lack of progress is still a major concern, the student may be moved to the next stage, School Action Plus.

School Action Plus Students for whom support at School Action is deemed insufficient will be moved to School Action Plus. This involves additional intensive support from specialist staff, often brought in from outside (e.g. Educational Psychologist, or Lancashire Inclusion and Disability Support Service staff).

These students also have Individual Education Plans, which are also reviewed in December or July, unless urgent intervention is required. If progress is entirely satisfactory, the student may be returned to School Action or even removed from the special needs list. If support at School Action Plus is having a positive effect, but still deemed necessary, the student will remain at this stage.

If lack of progress is still a major concern, we may ask the Local Authority to carry out a Formal Assessment of the student’s special educational needs, which may lead to a Statement.

Statement A very small proportion (around 2% nationally) of students have special educational needs deemed severe enough to warrant a Statement. This is a document outlining the student’s needs and the provision that the student is entitled to meet those needs. Most statements no longer attract extra funding from the LA but there is still a statutory requirement for an Annual Review.

We review Year 7 and Year 8 Statements in January and February (when Year 7 students have had time to settle in), Year 9 Statements in March (when Year 9

This policy is monitored by the Governors Personnel Committee

October 2014

students are choosing their options for Key Stage 4), Year 10 students in the Summer Term (in preparation for Year 11) and Year 11 students in December (when there is still time to act effectively on any concerns which may arise).

Targets which will be incorporated in the student’s next Individual Education Plan are agreed at such reviews and at the Year 9 review a Transition Plan, outlining targets and support reaching beyond school, is drawn up with the Young People’s Services Personal Adviser. This person will continue to act as adviser and advocate for the remainder of the student’s school career and beyond if needed.

7, Curriculum In order to ensure that students have access to and make progress across the curriculum, the school will: 

ensure access to literacy through Reading Recovery and Paired Reading.

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ensure access to numeracy through small group work or individual intervention,.

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offer additional in-class support through Support Teachers and Teaching Assistants as appropriate and available,

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ensure that teacher planning provides for differentiation of work,

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provide resources in order to help students make progress.

8, Access to the Full Life of the School All students will be involved in the full life of the school Clubs and school activities are available to all students School trips are organized ensuring access for all students. Support will be made available whenever necessary.

9, Success Criteria The following criteria may be considered when evaluating the success of the school’s policy for special educational needs: Quantitative Judgments 1, Movement between stages and off the register 2, Curriculum testing, SATs, GCSEs etc.

3, Individual Education Plan targets met 4, PIVAT profiles Qualitative Judgments 1, Staff views 2, Student views 3, Parental views 4, Advisor views, on monitoring visits In addition to these, the special needs element of the School Improvement Plan is reviewed annually.

This policy is monitored by the Governors Personnel Committee

October 2014

10, Complaints Should a parent or carer have a concern about the special provision made for their child, they should, in the first instance, discuss this with the teacher concerned. If the concern continues, then the SENCO should be involved and if it cannot be dealt with satisfactorily at this stage, it should be brought to the attention of the Principal.

Should the Principal be unable to resolve the difficulty, the concern should be put in writing to the Governor with oversight of special educational needs. The Chair of Governors will be involved if other avenues to resolve the situation have been exhausted. The school will inform concerned parents of students with special educational needs about Lancashire Parent Partnership and channels to make representations to the Education Authority.

11, Training The Governors will ensure that they are kept fully abreast of their statutory responsibilities by attending training and receiving regular updates from the Principal/SENCO. The SENCO and Principal will keep fully up to date about special educational needs issues through attendance at training and cluster meetings. In addition, the SENCO’s skills will be developed through attendance at specialist training with outside agencies, reading and through subscriptions to professional bodies.

The Senior staff responsible for curriculum development will regularly discuss special needs issues with the Principal/SENCO. Other teaching staff will be kept up to date informally by the Principal/SENCO and formally at staff meetings and training.

Teaching assistants need a wide range of curriculum and special educational needs knowledge. This will be regularly updated by INSET organized through the Continuing Professional Development Leader.

12, Outside Agencies Liaison with the following outside agencies, when appropriate, will be undertaken as follows:           

Educational Psychologist – SENCO or Senior Leader for Student Support as appropriate SEN Advisor – SENCO School Paediatrician, Nurse, ACERS etc. - SENCO Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service – SENCO, Progress Leader or Senior Leader for Student Support as appropriate Counsellor – SENCO, Progress Leader or Pastoral Team as appropriate Social Care – Senior Leader for Student Support , SENCO or Pastoral Team as appropriate Lancashire Parent Partnership – SENCO Case worker, SEN and Disability Officer and area manager at the Education Authority - SENCO Lancashire Inclusion and Disability Support Service – SENCO Speech & Language Therapist – SENCO Young People’s Services – SENCO or Senior Leader for Student Support as appropriate

This policy is monitored by the Governors Personnel Committee

October 2014

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Lea Police – Senior Leader for Student Support , Progress Leader or Pastoral Team as appropriate.

13, Parents and Carers Parents and Carers are encouraged to become involved with their children’s education through the following:     

Welcome Evenings and Induction of new students, Provision of information, e.g. Parents’ Evenings, School Newsletter, Parental review questionnaire, Governors’ Report to Parents, Individual Education Plans and reviews thereof.

14, Links The school has links with Sir Tom Finney, Hope High, Royal Cross and Moorbrook Special Schools. Students from the special schools have been placed here for specific subjects, such as English, Science and Music or parts of the week. Expertise is shared between the schools, both formally and informally.

This policy reflects current provision. We are working towards implementing the contents of The Children and Families Bill, in anticipation of it becoming law

This policy is monitored by the Governors Personnel Committee

October 2014