DERBYSHIRE LA

Special Educational Needs Policy

MUNDY C OF E JUNIOR SCHOOL

Adopted June 2019

SEN policy 2019

Mundy C of E Junior School

Derbyshire County Council

Overview:

Mundy Junior School is a single form entry Junior School with a Senior Leadership Team comprising the Headteacher and Senior Leader.

The SENCO and Inclusion manger is Miss Jasmine Catton.

SLT SEN representative Miss Dot Adair

SEN Governor Miss Anne  Musson

Details of staff can be found on our website: www.mundyjunior.org

Telephone: 01773 713427

E mail: info@mundy.derbyshire.sch.uk

This policy is written in line with the requirements of:-

• Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014.

• SEN Code of Practice September 2014.

• The Equality Act 2010

• The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014

• The Special Educational Needs (Personal Budgets and direct payments

regulations) Clause 49; 2014.

• The SEN Information report regulations 2014.

• Teachers standards 2012

This policy should be read in conjunction with the following school polices and documents: –

Anti-Bullying Policy, Accessibility Plan, Disability Policy, Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions Policy,

Safeguarding policy, Medicines policy, Local Offer for SEN, Support for children on SEN

register, Flow chart for Identification of SEN at WCPS and WCPS Equality Statement.

Definition of Special Educational Needs (SEN) as taken from section 20 of the

Children and Families Act 2014.

Pupils identified with low level SEN have the same rights of admission as all other prospective pupils.

The School follows the Local Authority’s Admissions Policy.

Pupils with Education Health Care Plans are admitted following LA policy and ensuring that the school can meet their needs under the new Code of Practice.

At Mundy Junior School we are committed to meeting the special educational needs of pupils and ensuring that they make progress.  We seek to help all children achieve their full potential across all aspects of their personal development in a secure and happy learning environment, and to grow into informed, responsible and caring members of society, with the ability to think for themselves and take authority for their actions. We plan to achieve this through a curriculum, which is broad, balanced, relevant and manageable, and through the development of good relationships within and around the school, so that everyone feels they have a valued contribution to make.

What are Special Educational Needs?

A child or young person has special educational needs if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her; namely provision different from or additional to that normally available to pupils of the same age.

A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they;

(a) have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age,

or

(b) have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.

A child under compulsory school age has special educational needs if they fall within the definition at

(a) or (b) above or would do so if no special educational provision were made.

Children must not be regarded as having a learning difficulty solely because the language or form of language of their home is different from the language in which they will be taught.

The SEN Code of Practice 2014 defines Special Educational Needs under four main areas –

• Communication and interaction
• Cognition and learning
• Social, emotional and mental health
• Sensory and or physical.

Many children will have inter-related needs; these broad categories give an overview of the range of needs we plan for at Mundy Junior School but we consider the needs of the whole child.

Special Educational Needs Provision at Mundy Junior School

We have high expectations for all our learners and we aim to provide every child with equal opportunities to access a broad and balanced education; enabling them to reach their full potential spiritually, academically and socially.

Our objectives:

• To welcome pupils with SEN and to accommodate and meet their needs in a positive manner so they achieve their best and become confident individuals.
• To identify and assess children with SEN as early as possible by gathering information from the child, parents, previous schools and other agencies.

• To provide an inclusive education for all pupils with SEN and use our best endeavors to remove barriers to learning by providing high quality teaching differentiated for individual pupils.

• To identify and address pupils’ needs through the graduated approach and the four part process of assess, plan, do, and review; ensuring that there is careful monitoring and assessment of pupils throughout their time at the school.

• To work with parents to gain a better understanding of their child and involve them in all stages of their child’s education.

• That, where possible, pupils participate and are involved in the process of information gathering and reviewing progress.

• To ensure funding is allocated to provide high quality provision for those with identified SEN.

• To make reasonable adjustments for disabled children to help alleviate any substantial disadvantage they experience because of their disability as set out in the equality act 2010.

• To ensure that support agencies are used effectively and to work together as a multi-disciplinary team.
• To encourage confidence and raise self-esteem by providing a caring and well organised environment so children with SEN can achieve their best.

• To ensure that SEN is reflected in school policies, schemes of work, planning, monitoring and record keeping.

• To develop existing skills of all staff in the identification, assessment of and provision for pupils with SEN and to provide training and support as appropriate.

• To have a whole school approach, where staff work together as a team to provide high quality provision for those with identified SEN.

How do we aim to meet these objectives?

At Mundy Junior School we follow the graduated response of Assess, plan, do and review.

Assess:

Before students arrive at Mundy Junior School:

• SENCo will visit the infant schools to obtain information about a pupil, through talking with the child’s current class teacher and/or head teacher.
• SENCo will go and observe the child in their current setting.
• SENCo will attend annual review meetings and/or IEP meetings for the child in Year 2.
• Meeting/discussions held with parents.
• Information will be gathered and obtained from any relevant outside agencies involved with the child.
• Extra transition arrangements put into place, where appropriate.

Assessing needs once a child is at Mundy Junior School:

If a child does not make adequate progress compared to peers, their starting point or previous attainment this would raise concerns that they had learning difficulties. MJS aims to identify if a child is not making adequate progress as early as possible, using a process of summative and formative assessments. This is achieved through:

• Ongoing teacher observation.
• Outcomes from summative assessments and their progress in relation to age related expectations (whole class formal assessments are carried out every term and individual assessments if it is felt appropriate by the class teacher).
• Details of previous progress and attainment and comparisons being made.
• Parents will be consulted to gain their insight into their child’s progress.
• Concerns raised by parents’ will be listened to and valued, discussions held to ensure the best outcomes for their child. At Mundy Junior School parents’ opinions and aspirations for their child will be taken seriously. 
• Involvement from outside agencies, where it is deemed appropriate. (Parental consent is always sought before the school requests involvement of any outside agency)
• Discussions with the child.
• Discussion with the SENCo.
• A child’s emotional well-being will also be monitored and considered in different situations.

Plan/Do:

After the assessment stage planning will involve consultation between the teacher, SENCo and parents to agree longer term learning objectives and hoped for outcomes. This is achieved through the following ways (this may include all or some depending on the needs of the child):

• All those working with the child, including support staff will be informed of the child’s individual needs.
• Individual targets set for the child.
• Interventions (where appropriate) put into place, this may involve group work or one to one teaching. Where this is away from the class teacher they will work closely with the member of staff carrying out the intervention.
• Specific teaching strategies will be put into place.
• Specific resources allocated.
• To track the progress and support a child is receiving they will be placed on our whole school provision map.
• Supporting social, emotional and mental health through the provision of nurture group and/or positive play.
• Involve outside agencies, where appropriate, and incorporate the strategies suggested. (The school works closely with various outside agencies including: NHS Physiotherapy Therapy Service, Occupational Therapy Service, Education Welfare Officer, Sensory Team (visual and hearing) MAT team, Educational Psychologist, School Nurse and Social Services)
• Tailor support and strategies to assist and aid the targets set within a child’s Education Health Care Plan (EHCP).
• Strategies put in place and all efforts made to overcome individual pupils’ barriers to learning.
• A range of teaching styles are used including auditory, visual and kinaesthetic.
• Positive reinforcement to encourage pupil’s achievements and frequent celebrations of success giving equal status to physical, cognitive, social and emotional achievements enabling all children to feel valued for their efforts.

Review:

The review process will evaluate the impact and quality of the support and interventions. This will be done through:

• Discussions between members of staff involved with child.
• Discussions with the SENCO
• Meetings and discussions held with parents. (These will be carried out termly, although additional meetings will be held if deemed appropriate)
• Discussions held with the child.
• Assessments carried out where applicable.
• Discussions held with any outside agencies that may be involved. These may also carry out their own assessment.
• For formal annual reviews of EHCPs pupils contribute their voice in a style and format most suited to their age and aptitude.

If the child is deemed by all to be making progress within the above cycle of assess, plan, do, review with this additional and different support/intervention then the above cycle will be continued and tailored to meet the individual needs of the child.

Special educational provision required to meet some children’s needs cannot reasonably be provided from within the normal resources here at Mundy Junior School, therefore, where this is deemed to be the case we will gather all the information required by the LA to request additional GRIP funding or an assessment of educational, health and care needs (EHCP). When applying for an EHCP, part of the formal application is for families to outline their short and long term aspirations for their child. The SENCo will discuss this process with parents before an application is completed.

Role and Responsibilities

The class teacher:

The Class Teacher is responsible and accountable for progress and development of all pupils in their class:

• The teaching and monitoring of all their pupils and identifying and reporting any concerns about SEN to the SENCO/Inclusion Manager – Planning and delivering differentiated interventions for all pupils with identified SEN.
• These should be additional to or different from those provided as part of the school’s usual

differentiated curriculum.

• Reviewing the effectiveness of the intervention in securing progress to inform the next

steps in a graduated approach for support.

• To inform parents of concerns and the interventions that are proposed and involving them

in any reviews of their child’s progress.

• Termly monitoring of progress and target setting to track progress towards planned

outcomes through the use of formative and summative assessment.

• Completing SEN documentation in accordance with the COP and liaising with the

SENCO/Inclusion Manager, parents and pupils

• Collaborating with the SENCO/Inclusion Manager to match classroom provision to the specific needs of the pupil.
• As part of the graduated approach to collaborate with outside specialists and work with

the advice of the specialists to plan outcomes and provision.

• Planning to ensure quality provision for pupils with SEN focused on outcomes.
• Regularly reviewing the support provided by staff and the impact on the progress of SEN pupils.

• To work closely with and monitor the support provided by the teaching assistant.

Teaching Assistants (TA):

They are responsible for the following:-

• collecting evidence of progress through observations both formal and informal.
• alerting the class teacher to concerns which have been observed through close working with the pupils.

• tracking progress towards outcomes set by a class teacher for specific SEN pupils.
• providing effective feedback to the teacher on interventions.
• Collaborating with the SENCO/Inclusion Manager to match classroom provision to the specific needs of the pupil.

• Contributing to progress reviews or annual reviews.

The SENCO:

In line with the recommendations in the SEN Code of Practice 2014, the SENCO will oversee the day- to-day operation of this policy in the following ways:

• Maintenance and analysis of whole-school SEN register.
• Identify through provision mapping those in receipt of additional SEN support from the
• School’s devolved budget, those in receipt of GRIP funding and those with Education Health and Care Plans.

• Co-ordinating provision for children with special educational needs liaising with and advising teachers to identify pupil’s needs.
• specific assessments or monitoring to help identify the barrier to learning.
• Managing and supporting other classroom staff working with vulnerable learners
• Overseeing the records on all children with Special Educational Needs
• Liaising with and advising all staff on the graduated approach.
• Liaising with parents of children with SEN, in conjunction with class teachers, keeping them informed of progress and listening to their views of progress.
• Overseeing and supporting staff in identifying key needs and setting outcomes.
• Termly review of progress against expected outcomes by the class teacher; ensuring learning objectives are revised and reviewed.
• Contributing to the in-service training of staff
• Implementing a programme of Annual Review for all pupils with an Education Health Care Plan.
• Carrying out referral procedures to the Local Authority to request funding
• Education Health and Care Plan when it is suspected, on strong evidence arising from previous intervention (additional SEN support from devolved budget), that a pupil may have a special educational need which will require significant long term support.

• Overseeing the smooth running of transition arrangements and transfer of information for

Year 6 pupils identified as SEN or vulnerable learners.

• Working with feeder schools to ensure successful transition into KS2.
• Ensuring interventions for SEN pupils are effective and evidence based.
• Evaluating regularly the impact and effectiveness of additional interventions for SEN pupils.

• Arranging specific SEN resources.
• Be the key point of contact with external agencies especially the LA.
• Liaising closely with a range of outside agencies to support SEN/vulnerable learners in consultation with parents.
• Attending LEA SENCO network meetings and training as appropriate.
• Liaising with the school’s SEN Governor, Miss A Musson, keeping her informed of current issues regarding provision for vulnerable learners, including those with Special Educational Needs (nationally, locally and within school).
• Liaising with school admin, to ensure care plans have been completed and information is shared on a need to know basis.
• Working with the Senior Leadership team to ensure SEN information is shared with staff and SEN is included in the school development.
• Reviewing the SEN policy annually and ensuring up to date information is on the website.

Head Teacher:

The Head and SENCo are responsible for the following in all phase groups.

• Liaising with the SENCO to timetable and direct the work of support staff working in their phase.
• To identify vulnerable learners in all phases who are not on SEN register to ensure they are making adequate progress.
• To monitor the outcomes of additional support for vulnerable learners.
• To work with the SENCO to ensure provision maps are kept up to date.
• Attend termly monitoring and tracking meetings.
• Attend Annual Reviews when a child is moving into their phase, or as deemed necessary by the SENCO.
• Support teachers in their phase with parent meetings when requested.
• To ensure that any special arrangements are in place for SEN pupils when taking formal end of KS2 tests.
• To work with the SENCO on the smooth running of transition arrangements and transfer of information for Year 6 pupils identified as SEN or vulnerable learners.

Members of the Senior Management Team:

• The day to day management of the SEN Policy and the Disability Equality Duty Scheme

and Accessibility Plan

• Allocating and monitoring appropriate resources for SEN from the delegated budget and statement funding together with the SENCO/Inclusion Manager

• Ensuring the effective use of the COP (Code of Practice) especially through professional development and appropriate time allocations.

• To ensure that staff are delivering high quality teaching differentiated for individual pupils through the teacher appraisal process using the teaching standards.

• Monitoring teachers’ planning and pupil achievement each term and ensuring action points are followed through.

• Working with the SENCo to ensure training needs for the staff for SEN are identified and put into place.
• Reporting to Governors on COP procedures and SEN resourcing and Disability Equality Duty Scheme.

The Governing Body:

The Headteacher and SENCo keep the Governing Body informed about all SEN matters.

• Ensuring that the best possible provision is made for all pupils with SEN
• Monitoring the quality of SEN Provision
• Ensuring information about the implementation of the policy for SEN is published on the school website and this is updated annually.

• Ensuring the integration of pupils with SEN in the school community
• Ensuring that the budget for SEN is allocated appropriately
• Electing a designated SEN Governor to liaise with the SENCO
• Defending the school should a complaint be brought to the SEN and Disabilities Tribunal

Transitions

Staff make contact with feeder schools at least one term before the child enters KS2.

Close links exist with the secondary schools to which pupils transfer in September each year.

Meetings are held between SENCOs/Inclusion managers of all KS3 schools and primary schools at which SEN documents are discussed and exchanged.

Additional visits are made for pupils with EHC Plans and other children who may need/benefit from this.

Staff from the feeder secondary schools are invited to attend the annual review and any other relevant meetings held in the summer term.

Supporting Pupils and their Families.

Parents and carers are always welcome to the school. At Mundy Junior School working as a partnership is recognised as an essential element in the successful education of all pupils, in particular for those pupils with special needs; therefore, we maintain an open door policy.

Parents may phone or call to make an appointment to see staff whenever necessary. Written reports are issued at the end of each academic year in July, alongside three parents’ evenings held during an academic year.

For children with Education Health Care Plans, the annual review is held around the date of issue and a representative from the LEA SEN Team is invited to attend. Parents/guardians and pupils contribute to all reviews as well as staff from any outside agencies who are involved with the pupil. If parents or staff have additional information or concerns an interim review can be arranged at any time throughout the academic year.

Following consultation parents may be invited to meetings with professional specialists’ in

school or as a result of a referral in a clinic setting. For all parents and carers Parents Partnership Scheme operates very successfully, enabling parents to help the school in a variety of ways using their particular skills and talents. Parents also help on outings and with a wide range of social and fund raising activities.

Miss Catton is available to help parents with any questions or worries about their child or the school. If parents wish she is available to support them in meetings with other members of staff or arrange joint meetings.

The Derbyshire Local offer can be found on the Mundy Junior Website. Derbyshire LA publish a Local Offer on their website; http://www.derbyshiresendlocaloffer.org/

The school recommends and introduces parents to the service of the LA Parent Partnership Officer (01773 748002) who supports parents with SEN issues and is independent of the school and the LA.

Dealing with complaints around SEN

Please look on the school web site ‘Complaints policy’ for further details.

Parent/carer complaints are dealt with at the school in the following ways:

• Discussed informally with the Class Teacher and/or the Deputy Head for their child’s Phase.
  • Referred to the SENCO
  • Referred to the Headteacher.
  • In writing to the Governing Body, following which a written reply will be given
  • The parents may contact the LA who will then contact the school
• The parents may go to SEN/Disability Tribunal. Support for this is available from Independent Parent Special Education Advice http://www.ipsea.org.uk/
• At any stage in the complaint process parents may request the advice of Amber Valley Partnership Officer, (see address above).

STORING AND MANAGING INFORMATION

Information at Mundy Junior School is stored in line with Derbyshire and Mundy Junior School’s polices on Management of Information and Freedom of Information.

• All staff are aware of sharing information on a ‘need to know’ basis.
• Class teachers are kept up to date with the most recent and relevant documents.
• Sensitive information is stored in locked filing cabinets in the SENCOs working space or in the School Office.
• Common and Shared Assessment forms are kept in locked filing cabinets.
• Medical care plans are available for relevant pupils in their classroom and in the school office in case of emergency

Reviewing the Policy

This policy will be reviewed annually in line with the Code of Practice and shared with the school governors, all school staff and placed on the school web site.

Reviewed May 2019 by Miss Jasmine Catton.