Special Educational Needs Policy

Trinity School

Principles and objectives

Trinity School's Mission Statement:

'Trinity school seeks to draw out the best in every facet of each individual's nature, academic and intellectual, social, emotional and physical, moral, psychological and spiritual. The School aims to build confidence by developing personal qualities that help to form trusting and stable relationships and encourage sound moral judgements to be made. The School's Roman Catholic and Anglican foundation affirms the Christian principles that permeate all aspects of School and family life'.

The guiding principles and objectives of the School's SEN Policy are to ensure that the aims of the Mission Statement are secured for all students. We recognise that all students may have special educational needs at some time in their school career and that provision for these needs is on a continuum. We regard the students' self-esteem to be of vital importance to their learning and intend that students should not feel stigmatised by their need. Teachers aim to ensure that all students have the chance to succeed, whatever their individual needs and the potential barriers to their learning may be.

The role of SENCO

School designated SENCO: J.A. Hargood, Head of Learning Support.
Governor responsible for SEN: Mrs L Martin.

The duties of the Special Needs Co-ordinator fall into two categories: meeting the individual's need and curriculum support.

The duties set out in The Code of Practice (DfEE, 1994a) are as follows:

• the day-to-day operation of the school's SEN policy
• liaising with and advising fellow teachers
• co-ordinating provision for children with special educational needs
• maintaining the school's SEN register and overseeing the records on all students with special educational needs
• liaising with parents of children with special educational needs
• contributing to the in-service training of staff
• liaising with external agencies including the educational psychology service and other support agencies, medical and social services and voluntary bodies.
• (DfEE,1994a 2:14)

The SENCO works with a team of qualified SEN teachers to meet the needs of the individual student, and an experienced Learning Support Assistant for curriculum support

Reporting and Liaison

SENCO Reports to: Director of Studies

Liaises with: Subject Teachers, Key Stage Heads, Examination Officer, School Nurse, Preparatory Department and Nursery.

Disability Discrimination Act & Specialisms

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995(DDA) and the extension of the act 2002 seeks to prevent discrimination against disabled people in their access to education and in all aspects of school life (see Disability Policy & Accessibility Plan). We recognise that we have the duty to ensure that:

• disabled pupils are not treated less favourably when compared with the treatment of a pupil who is not disabled;
• we make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils to ensure that they do not experience substantial disadvantage
• The School has over the years developed some expertise teaching students with specific learning difficulties (dyslexia). We provide for these students by one-to-one specialist tuition, using multi-sensory teaching methods, along with subject teachers’ sensitivity to the needs and learning styles of these students. We have also experienced teaching students diagnosed with AD(H)D, pragmatic and semantic disorders, non verbal language difficulties, dyspraxia and general learning difficulties. We aim to use these labels to inform our practice but recognise that each child is an individual and that labels have a limited use.

Identification assessment and review

We aim to identify a student's special need as soon as possible. We use the results of base-line tests, reading and comprehension tests, key stage tests, tests of self-esteem and an on-going process of monitoring progress by subject and form teachers, to identify the possibility of a learning difficulty. Some students’ difficulties will have been identified by their previous school. The student, once identified, will be referred to the Head of Learning Support and after a discussion with parents will be entered on the Learning Support Register.

If the difficulty the student is experiencing is due to a gap in learning, and some extra tuition will remedy the problem, this is discussed with the parents and put into practice.

If after further testing we feel that a learning difficulty is evident, we will recommend that the student is assessed by an educational psychologist to identify the particular strengths and weaknesses and give advice on teaching strategies. The contents of the Educational Psychologist Report will be circulated to staff to inform their practice by identifying the learning style of the student and aiding differentiation. Extra specialist tuition will be arranged as recommended in the report and agreed by the student's parents.

Students with Statements of Special Need and those whose difficulties are outside the normal range of differentiation will have an Individual Education Plan (IEP) written by the SENCO and Action Plans written by the subject teachers. IEPs are reviewed twice a year and a statement review is arranged every year. All the students attending learning support lessons have an ongoing Individual Programme placed in their files.

Progress is monitored both informally and formally by learning support teachers, subject teachers and key stage heads.

Appropriate special arrangements in Key Stage and GCSE examination will be sought for those students with learning difficulties.

Gifted and Talented Pupils

Principles and objectives

It is recognised that 2% of young people may be categorised as Gifted in the sense of possessing exceptional ability in most or many areas of experience. Up to a further 10% may be exceptionally Talented in only certain specific areas. Trinity School aims to provide for the individual needs of all students. Therefore, it is important that the needs of Gifted and Talented students should be recognised and strategies developed for their identification and support. It is critical to recognise the existence of all round exceptional ability but we also acknowledge the greater number of students who are Gifted in specific areas.

Identification, assessment and review

The identification of Gifted and Talented students is not an easy task: consequently, a variety of methods will be employed which can give reasonable information collectively. The school will take advantage of information about students from a variety of sources: teacher recommendation, parents, previous school, screening information. Assessment and monitoring will take place within the normal structures of the school. (see The Assessment, Reporting & Recording Policy).

Curriculum

The central aim of Trinity School is to provide all of our students with educational experiences and opportunities which will enable them to discover and fulfil their own potential. All programmes of work will have opportunities for enrichment and extension activities. Differentiation will be built into our curriculum planning:

• Differentiation by outcome. Students may respond at very different levels to the same initial stimulus.
• Differentiation by task. Some materials or activities will be accessible to only the most able students.
• Differentiation by pace. Gifted and Talented students need the facility to proceed at a greater speed.
• There will be a commitment to developing extension and enrichment materials which:
• Allow individuality of response
• Encourage creativity and imagination
• Satisfy developmental stage rather than chronological age
• Stress process rather than content
• Encourage high quality thinking/using higher order skills
• Provide many open-ended situations
• Give a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment
• Open up further opportunities for research
• Involve an abstract quality for both number and language
• Involve problem solving and decision making
• Encourage empathy

Differentiated homework will be made available when appropriate, including open-ended tasks.

Pastoral

The school’s Gifted, Able and Talented coordinator will be responsible for coordinating the identification and developments for Gifted, Able and Talented students across the school. Heads of year will be responsible for the implementation of the policy in their areas. The gifted, Able and Talented coordinator will liaise with them on a regular basis.

This policy will be reviewed and updated regularly

Involving pupils in assessment and decision making

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the General Assembly in 1989, and ratified by the United Kingdom in 1991, recognises in Article 12,13 and 23 that children have a right to obtain and make known information, to express an opinion, and to have that opinion taken into account in any matter or procedure affecting the child.

We seek to promote active participation by the pupil in any programme of intervention designed to support their learning by:

• providing clear and accurate information about the pupil's special educational needs and the purpose of any assessment, individual education plan or intervention
• ensuring that the pupil understands the agreed outcomes of any intervention and how they can be a partner in working towards the goals. Pupils who play an active part in assessment and in developing and monitoring agreed targets will also have greater self-esteem and feel confident that they are making progress
• explaining clearly what additional support or assessment arrangements are being made and how the pupil can contribute to them
• consulting with pupils who need individual support to ensure that such support is provided in a timely and sensitive way
• recognising the potential stress of assessment and review arrangements and ensure that the pupil understand the role and contribution of any other professionals who may be involved

Curriculum

The School has a responsibility to ensure that each child has access to a broad and balanced curriculum and teachers have a responsibility to provide effective learning opportunities for all pupils by providing relevant and appropriately challenging work. Teachers are expected to:

• set suitable learning challenges
• respond to pupils’ diverse learning needs
• overcome potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils

In-class support with experienced learning support assistants will be provided as necessary and ICT will be used to enable pupils to communicate their true abilities.

Those pupils who need to be withdrawn for specialist tuition are withdrawn from any lessons in Key Stage 4 but in Key Stage 3 the core subjects (English, Maths & Science) are avoided. We seek to maintain a broad curriculum and avoid withdrawal from a subject in which the pupil has a flair or special keenness.

Integration

The school endeavours to ensure that all pupils are fully integrated into the life of the school where safety permits.

Inset/Staff development

Supporting pupils with a range of special educational needs will involve everyone across the school. The school has a general plan for staff development and inset training. The SENCO will ensure that SEN is a significant part of the plan.

External Support

There are a range of professionals within education, health and social work whose expertise, advice and service will from time to time be sought:

• Educational Psychologist - for assessment and advice
• Speech Therapist, South Devon Healthcare- visits and advice
• Specialist Units, John Parks Unit - advice
• Devon & Cornwall Careers Service - visits and advice
• Devon and Torbay Local Education Authority
• District Manager, Social Services, Teignmouth/Dawlish

Parents

We value and welcome the perspectives of parents on their children's special educational need. We also welcome any help parents can give to their children at home; the learning support department is always available to advise on the ways that parents might help their children and to discuss any worries or give information on progress.

The school takes very seriously any complaints by parents or pupils (see ‘Complaints Procedure’ in Pupil & Parent Handbook). Parents also have a right to appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST), where the claim is that a child has been discriminated against because of a disability

Transition arrangements

We aim to support the transition of pupils between schools or onwards to FE by providing relevant information to the receiving school or college. We recognise the importance of the transition process for pupils with SEN and the need for affective co-operation between the different agencies involved. We enlist the help of the Careers Teacher and the Careers Service in providing information and assistance to pupils, enabling them to enter appropriate further education or work.

We also aim to support transition within the school, from the Nursery Department to the Preparatory Department, and from the Preparatory Department to the Senior Department. We do this by arranging pupil visits to the receiving department and by good communication between those responsible for SEN in each area of the school.