Stopsley High School SEND Information for Parents

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1 Stopsley High School SEND Information for Parents Stopsley High School values the abilities and achievements of all its students, and is committed to working alongside parents, students, other schools and outside agencies to develop a flexible approach to meeting the needs of all students so that they may experience the full spectrum of activities on offer within the school, seek to maximize their full potential and achieve. The school believes that all students possess individual strengths and needs and that a flexible differentiated and personalised response to such strengths and needs is essential if effective progress is to be made by all students. We believe in a whole school approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability. All students should have an equal opportunity to attain their full potential, whatever their ability level, disability or educational need. Furthermore it is our belief that all students are entitled to a sensitive approach to their abilities and needs in order that they may be fully included within the community of the school. We believe that with high aspirations, and the right support, the vast majority of young people can go on to become confident individuals who achieve successful long-term outcomes in adult life. What is a Special Educational Need & Disability (SEND) At various times throughout a school career some students may fall behind the progress their peers are making at school; this could be for many reasons such as long term absence from school, difficulties at home, or because they have a special educational need or disability (SEND). The 2014 SEND Code of Practice provides the following definition of SEND: A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they: - have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age: or - have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions. Children must not be regarded as having learning difficulties solely because their language, or form of the home language, is different from that in which they are taught. The 2014 SEND Code of Practice sets out four areas of SEND: - Cognition and learning. - Communication and interaction. - Physical and sensory. - Social, emotional and mental health.

2 Students who have SEN may also have a disability; the Equality Act 2010 describes a disability as: A physical or mental impairment which has a long-term (a year or more) and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. This includes sensory impairments such as those that affect hearing or sight and long term conditions such as Asthma or Epilepsy. Children and young people with such conditions do not necessarily have SEN, but there is a significant overlap between disabled children and those with SEN. Where a disabled child requires special educational provision they will also be covered by the SEN definition. Some students with SEND will require additional and extra help to make progress and remove barriers. This help is called SEN support (K) and replaces the old terms of school action and school action plus. Following discussion with students and parents/carers, a decision about SEN support will be made and additional support planned. The names of students who require SEN support are added to the school SEND list. The 2014 SEND Code of Practice describes four stages of SEN support assess, plan, do, review. These four stages of SEN support mirror current school practice of assessment, monitoring, tracking and reviewing. Occasionally a student will need a more intensive level of specialist help that cannot reasonably be provided solely from the SEN support resources. In this case school, after discussion with the student s parents/carers, will ask the Local Authority for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment. If an EHC assessment is agreed this provides a student with an EHC plan. An EHC plan brings additional funding for support and resources, some of which are funded from resources in addition to those provided by school. The EHC plan replaces the old term Statement of SEN. Provision Special education provision means: For a child of two or more, educational or training provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for other children of the same age in mainstream schools in the area (Code of Practice 2014) Stopsley High School will have due regard to the Special Needs Code of Practice when carrying out our duties towards all students with special educational needs, and ensure that parents are notified when SEN provision is being made for their child. Special educational provision is underpinned by high quality teaching and is compromised by anything else.

3 Every teacher is a teacher of special educational needs and disabilities and support staff are there to support their teaching. All teachers and support staff are aware of the students who have special educational needs via the Pen Portraits, Inclusion Passports and data. It is expected that the needs of most students will be met through teacher differentiation in the mainstream classroom environment with advice from the SEND team and Teaching Assistants where necessary. Teaching Assistants are available in some lessons to support the needs of students with special educational needs and disabilities. Teaching Assistants work collaboratively with teachers to agree the support needed to help students with SEN to be fully included and to make progress. While occasional periods of intensive 1:1 support may be required in the mainstream classroom, Teaching Assistants strive to support students to become independent learners. It is our aim that all students, where possible, are fully included in learning alongside their peers. Identification and organisation of support for students with special educational needs and disabilities The school has procedures in place for identifying students with special educational needs or disabilities which, at transition into Year 7, generally begins with a process of liaison with the feeder school and parents prior to entry. Information from the previous school Upon transfer to Stopsley High School some students will be placed on the SEN list because their previous school has identified a SEND. A few students will have Statements of SEN or an Education Health Care (EHC) plan. Upon entry into school Results from baseline assessments, carried out during the first few weeks of term or during the first few weeks following entry for students coming on roll throughout the school year, add to the information from the feeder school alongside results of tests from the previous school. After a brief settling in period we aim to have the information necessary to identify the level and type of support needed. Following discussion with the student, parent/carer and staff an agreement will be made about the level of support needed to make progress. Student progress will then be reviewed using the assess, plan, do, review model Sometimes a student will be identified as underperforming; there could be many reasons for this, including a SEND. To investigate the possibility of a SEND, a discussion with the student, parent/carer and school will take place and if agreed, a plan will be put in place. Concerns raised by the individual student or parents/carers Sometimes, a young person or family member may raise concern about the difficulties a student experiences in school. In discussion with the student, family, staff and the SENCO a plan of action may be negotiated if it is agreed that the student s difficulties are of a SEN

4 nature. Most often the assess, plan, do, review process will be used to provide additional information and inform the measures needed to address concerns. Key people in the school available to discuss parental/carers concerns about a young person s SEND The Subject teacher, form tutor and House Team are often the first to be contacted in case of a concern. Concerns can be discussed at the regular Vulnerable Children and Inclusion Panel meetings where students can be referred to the support team in school. The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) department includes: Pam Whiting is the Inclusion Manager and one of the Assistant Headteachers. She can be contacted by telephone on: Gill Laskey is the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO). She can be contacted by telephone on: Ruby Ahmad is the Manager of Stopsley Provision for students with Social and Communication Difficulties (The Archimedes Centre). She can be contacted by telephone on: Sharon Jeycock is the Pastoral Welfare Manager. She can be contacted by telephone on: What different types of support can the student receive in school? Support provided for students aims to remove barriers to learning and is focussed upon the individual needs. SEND resources are allocated in a variety of ways to overcome barriers and enable progress; this could include- Additional in class support from a Teaching Assistant Additional intervention support from a Youth Worker (this is a time limited intervention with clear targets set and assessment of progress) Inclusion in one of our daily small group intervention programmes for reading or spelling Inclusion in one of our small group programmes for Maths For those students identified with social, emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties we are able to offer a range of social skills and behaviour management programmes as well as a comprehensive re-engagement programme. Where students are included in an intervention programme the aim will be to identify the specific areas in numeracy and literacy, or social, emotional or behavioural difficulties which

5 are presenting a barrier to progress in the mainstream curriculum and to work on those skills so that progress is made to remove the barrier so that students can return to mainstream learning. Where appropriate the school will seek to gather evidence and secure assessment to support access arrangements for examinations. Where we feel there is likely to be sufficient evidence we may put in place access arrangements for internal examinations. We strive to put access arrangements for internal exams in place only where information and assessments indicate that it is likely that the student would meet the criteria to apply for access arrangements for KS4 external examinations. School will gather evidence over time that access arrangements are needed regularly as part of normal classroom practice. At times this may necessitate a request from parents to speak to other agencies working with the young person. There are a wide range of resources available to staff to support differentiation and intervention including: - Laptops for loan during the day from the SEND department. - Visual aids to support students to plan for writing and to support vocabulary development - Visual aids and strategies to support students with concentration or impulsive difficulties - Handwriting resources - IT programs a whole school licence for Lexia. Accelerated Reader and My Maths. - Literacy resources including WordBlaze and Read, Write inc Fresh Start - Individual intervention programmes such as Toe by Toe and Word Wasp, - Social skills games and resources. - Language resources such as Language for Thinking and Talking Partners. The school has recently invested in the Dragon voice activated word-processing package. Where need is evident students may be assessed, trained and offered access to a laptop with Dragon access. Monitoring and record keeping The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator keeps records of all SEND students. Teachers and Teaching Assistants monitor the work which is being done to meet the needs of each student. Records of progress are kept and regular testing takes place using standardised tests and in class assessments to contribute to reviews of progress. Teachers, students and parents are all involved where possible in the review process and have the opportunity to help in the target setting process and drawing up of the Inclusion Passport. Where a student has a Statement of SEN (or EHC Plan) progress will also be reported to the LA yearly via the Statement or EHCP Annual Review. Parents, the student, key staff in school and relevant external agencies will be invited to submit reports towards or to attend this. Use of outside agencies For some students the school may refer to external agencies for support. We have experience of working closely with a range of professionals from outside the school including the Educational Psychologist, Alternative Learning and Progression Service, Speech, Language and Communication Needs Advisors, speech and language therapists, Special Educational

6 Needs Service (including the team for Autism), Learning Support Service, SEN Transition Team, CAMH, RELATE, Child in Care Advisory teachers, Community Paediatricians, Visual Impaired and Hearing Impaired service. The School is proactive in working with external agencies. Student progress is reviewed at regular Vulnerable Children and Inclusion Panel Meetings. Consent will be sought from parents before a student is discussed with an external agency. Professionals may visit the school to carry out an observation and assessment in order to provide advice to the school, again parental consent will be sought. Some outside agencies come into the school to work on short intervention programmes with students on Stopsley site, again parents will be consulted before students are included in any of these programmes. Where a student is working with an external agency e.g. CAMHS or Community Paediatrician it is helpful if parents ask these agencies to copy reports to the SENCO at the School. Whilst we aim to meet all student s educational needs on the school site and within our school resources, at times some students need to access an alternative curriculum in order to meet their needs and support them to make the best educational progress. We use a range of offsite provisions including the Hub (Luton LA) as well as a number of providers, all of which have been quality assured by Luton ALPs. Whenever students are placed off site for all or part of their school week we work with Luton Alternative Learning and Progression Service (ALPS) to set targets and review progress. The school seeks to liaise regularly with providers, parents and students including discussing curriculum, progress, attendance and welfare issues and ensuring information is shared. Where students work for part or all of the curriculum at offsite provisions every effort is made to ensure students are fully included in learning opportunities including careers guidance, visits to Post 16 providers and work experience.