Policy Document Sensory Curriculum

Transcription

1 Policy Document Sensory Curriculum March 2011

2 SENSORY CURRICULUM POLICY INTRODUCTION The Sensory Curriculum forms a central part of the Foundation Curriculum; one of the four intertwining strands that makes up the whole Fairfield s Curriculum. It functions in two inter-related ways. Firstly, it outlines the skills many pupils need to learn in the area of sensory development and secondly, it outlines sensory learning as a teaching and learning approach. For many of the pupils at Fairfields School, development of skills in this area will allow access to other Curriculum areas. This policy outlines the purpose, nature and management of the Sensory Curriculum taught in our school. The policy reflects the consensus of opinion of the whole teaching staff and has been drawn up as the result of staff discussion. The implementation of this policy is the responsibility of the Headteacher and the teaching staff, with guidance from the co-ordinator. RATIONALE For all children the Sensory Curriculum provides a means of understanding, developing awareness and making sense of their surroundings and for some children the Sensory Curriculum provides prerequisites for accessing other areas of the Curriculum. The Sensory Curriculum seeks to help the children improve, use and integrate their visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory and kinaesthetic awareness and skills. Fairfields School believes that the teaching of sensory skills is vital to the development and enhances the experiences of pupils of all abilities. The Sensory Curriculum therefore contributes to the following school aims: * To recognise and value the qualities, abilities and dignity of each individual. * To provide a high quality and appropriate environment in which all pupils are encouraged to develop to their full potential. * To provide a relevant, broad and balanced curriculum. * To encourage the greatest possible independence of thought and action. * To promote the spiritual, moral, physical and personal development of each child. 2

3 * To ensure equality of opportunity is provided for all within the school. ENTITLEMENT At Fairfields School, we aim to offer equality of opportunity. To achieve this, all Children will have access to the Curriculum at the level appropriate to their development and taking into account their individual needs and preferences. For some pupils the Sensory Curriculum will enable them to access the National Curriculum. Relevant aids to enable Children with specific sensory impairment to have the opportunity to develop as part of the school community will be provided as funding permits. IMPLEMENTATION Planning to use the Sensory Curriculum relies heavily on communication between staff to ensure the continuity of approach, particularly in the early stages of learning. On entry into the school there is an initial assessment and period of observation to decide the level of functional ability of each individual culminating in entry point assessment in pupils files relating to Teacher Assessment and PACE documentation. Individual priorities are identified for pupils who need to develop in this area. Sensory learning can be broken into four intertwining strands: * That which is taking place at all times and during all activities naturally. (There is no such thing as non-sensory experience). * That which is planned for as an ongoing classroom activity. * That which is planned for an individual or small group in order to develop particular sensory skills. * That which is planned to develop sensory integration. Sensory skills are also developed and enhanced through music therapy and the use of the multi-sensory room. Sensory learning is often integrated and extended throughout the Curriculum and individual priority objectives are also allowed to develop through topic related activities. The topic provides a context for learning for some Children. It is essential that skills are maintained in everyday environments and that Children are allowed to develop and generalise skills in context. 3

4 Pupils are cued into activities with physical or environmental cues. These may be tactile, olfactory, visual or auditory. There are also environmental implications particularly for Multi-sensory impaired Children (see MSI policy). Consistency of timetabling, staffing and routines are considered vital to reduce the child s confusion and increase their understanding of their environment. This builds self-awareness and confidence enabling them to form attachments in order to cope with change. There is continuous assessment in order to monitor the functional ability and/or functional/ physical deterioration of the senses. Clinical monitoring is undertaken by the NHS. A range of published and unpublished assessment and monitoring schemes are used to record the pupil s development. The recently purchased Profound Education Curriculum (The School for Profound Education 2010) will be implemented into classrooms through daily activities and fed into the Schemes of Work for pupils with PMLD. The Curriculum is designed to elicit sensory awareness in modes relevant to the individual learner, to develop heuristic play leading to self-engagement and environmental awareness. These opportunities will support pupils as a pre-curser to all learning. RESOURCES Many resources are stored in individual classrooms as is appropriate to the needs of the pupils with in each class. The multi-sensory room is timetabled for use by different groups. The staff who are involved with these groups are responsible for setting up the activities required and the switching off of the equipment when the session is complete. The multi-sensory room is designed as an inter-active room with coloured soft play surroundings. It is used most effectively when used by pupils and staff on a one to one basis. Assessment sheets have been produced to enable monitoring of the pupil' response to stimulation in this area. There are two rooms within the school which have been altered environmentally to accommodate multi-sensory impaired children. This was achieved with the assistance of Gest funding from the MSI consortium. Some of the classrooms have created their own dark rooms and multi sensory areas to support the needs of their pupils and to provide contrasting and distraction free areas. The outside sensory garden is used during the warmer months of the year, and there is currently a project underway to build an outdoor learning area including a large Polly Tunnel which will offer a wealth of outdoor sensory activities for all pupils to access. The role of the co-ordinator is considered to encompass the following tasks: *To lead policy development *To attend relevant courses and feed back information to staff *To manage and co-ordinate resources *To provide information to staff *To keep abreast of developments in the subject 4

5 *To maintain equipment *To monitor the continuity of approaches through staff discussion and observations as resources will allow *To manage the Sensory budget CROSS CURRICULAR LINKS By its very nature, the Sensory Curriculum enables the Child to benefit from and increase attainment across the full Curriculum. This policy will be reviewed in three years in accordance with the school development plan. HEALTH AND SAFETY The Multi-Sensory room. Any faults found when using the equipment should be reported to the Curriculum Coordinator immediately. The Multi-Sensory room is serviced annually by the Electrical Testing Service (see Health and Safety Policy). Guidance on the use of Ultra Violet Light (U.V.) is attached and a more information regarding the use of U.V. Light can be found in Silver Class (see Appendix B). A copy is also available in the Multi- Sensory room. This policy will be reviewed in three years as part of our agreed cycle. 5