Telephone : 01227 931300 Email : Office

SENDCO:  Miss Lisa Murphy MSc.  lisa.murphy@swale.at

SENDCO Administrator:  Mrs Claire Tabony.  claire.tabony@swale.at

Exam Access Coordinator:   Mrs Angela Standen. angela.standen@swale.at

At The Whitstable School, we believe all students are entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum, which is appropriately differentiated to meet individual needs. Early identification and intervention of those needs ensures every student makes progress and experiences success.  The staff and students at TWS work together to unlock potential and embrace school experiences by putting learning first.

Many students, at some time in their school career require short-term or long-term support in order to make progress in line with their academic ability or to overcome barriers to learning. The skills and expertise that exist within the department at TWS means that a wide range and variety of support and interventions can be employed in order to address these needs and difficulties.

We value a working partnership with parents and external agencies that helps ensure a sharing of information, consistency of approach and the best use of professional advice.

Aims

• To enable all students to reach their potential

• To allow access to the curriculum for all students

• To work in a manner that supports and enables inclusion

• To provide individual educational programmes with resources appropriate to the needs of the child

• To facilitate independent learning

• To ensure early identification of needs

• To monitor and assess regularly the progress of each child

• To carry out an annual review of policy and practice to ensure continuing development of teaching and learning

• To ensure that the Governing Body,  staff and parents are aware of and endorse the school’s policy

• To encourage a shared responsibility and partnership between school, parents, pupils and external agencies

• To encourage and develop staff awareness of types of individual need at all levels

Procedural Statements

The Governing Body has appointed a SEND Governor (Chair of Governors) to represent the Governors with special responsibility for Special Educational Needs.  The Chair of Governors can be contacted through the school office. The 2014 Code of Practice states that a child or young person has SEND if “they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. Special educational provision or training provision that is additional to or different from that made generally for other children or young people of the same age.”

The SENDCO undertakes the following duties:

• Responsibility for the day-to-day operation of Special Educational Needs in the college.

• Maintain an up-to-date profile of individual needs

• Liaise with and advise other staff members to enable early identification of individual needs

• Responsibility for the Learning Support Centre

• Liaise with external support services

• Maintain the school’s SEN Profile and Policy

• Liaise with parents / carers

• Facilitate and implement in-service training

• Review equipment and resources

• To plan and chair review meetings

• Supervision of Teaching Assistant support

• Advising colleagues of strategies/materials/resources to facilitate learning for individual children

• Reporting to governors

• Applying a graduated response to the assessment of children with SEND

• Apply for Higher Needs Funding to support SEND students

Identifying SEND

A student will be identified through baseline and ongoing assessments by the teachers and brought to the attention of the SENCO.  This is particularly if progress is less than expected, in spite of high quality differentiated classroom teaching targeted at the student’s area of weakness.  The SENCO will work with staff and parents to investigate this further and may engage the help of external agencies.  Students may be presented at LIFT (Local Inclusion Forum Team) and professionals such as the Educational Psychologist or Speech and Language Therapist will become involved to identify the student’s area of need. The student’s name will then be entered on the SEND profile as needing SEND support.

We strongly believe that high quality teaching, differentiated for individual pupils, is the first step in responding to students who have or may have SEN. We follow the Mainstream Core Standards advice developed by Kent County Council to ensure that our teaching conforms to best practice.  The Mainstream Core Standards can be found on KELSI website at:  http://www.kelsi.org.uk/policies-and-guidance/inclusion-and-achievement-documents 

In meeting the Mainstream Core Standards, the school employs some additional teaching approaches, as advised by internal and external assessments e.g. small group tutoring, precision teaching, mentoring, use of ICT software learning packages.

The Code of Practice 2015 outlines the four broad areas of need as:

1. Communication and interaction

2. Cognition and learning

3. Social, emotional and mental health difficulties

4. Sensory and/or physical needs

Special Educational Provision:

Teachers are responsible and accountable for the progress and development of the students in their class. This is through high quality teaching, differentiated for all students including those who may have SEND.  Class teachers complete comprehensive student profiles, which highlight areas of need.

The Whitstable School has a Learning Centre, which supports bespoke learning programmes and interventions targeted to meet individual needs and abilities.  These interventions are reviewed regularly to ensure the student is making progress and the best academic and emotional needs are met.

If a child or young person continues to make less than expected progress, in spite of special education provision and the involvement of outside agencies, the SENCO will follow the statutory guidance on requesting an assessment for an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP).  The Local Authority will then decide if extra resources and funds will be required outside the school’s normal provision.

All EHCP’s are reviewed annually with all relevant bodies being invited to attend and make recommendations with regard to the student’s progress and future provision. The continuation of the EHCP will be considered and new targets set if appropriate. 

At any time if the teacher, support staff, SENCO, parents and Headteacher agree that the student’s needs can now be met within the scope of usual class differentiation the child’s name will be removed from the SEN profile. Their progress will continue to be closely monitored.

Parental Involvement

TWS believe that parents should be fully involved in the decision-making process, understand the purpose of any intervention or programme of action and be informed when individual student needs are identified.  This triangulated support is crucial in meeting the needs of, and unlocking the potential of our students.

Exams

For some students it may be necessary for the school to apply to the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) in order to gain Access Arrangements (special arrangements) for external and controlled assessments using the strict criteria set down by the board.  Access Arrangements exist to ensure that a student is not disadvantaged by their difficulties.  For more information regarding exams arrangements, please contact Mrs Standen on:  angela.standen@swale.at

Resources

Resources are provided to enable curriculum access for all children either through the school or outside agencies. This may also be through additional adult support, ICT and curriculum resources.

Admissions

The Whitstable School’s admissions policy will apply. Children with SEND will be treated as fairly as all other applicants for admission. 

Criteria for success

The effective implementation of the SEND policy will be demonstrated by:

• Positive parental involvement

• Communication between SENCO and teaching and support staff, which leads to positive outcomes for students with SEND

• Progress of students with SEND which matches their abilities

• Early identification, assessment  and provision of children with SEND

• Accurate record keeping for all children with SEND

• Regular reports to the Governing Body

Local Offer:

The Local Offer details the services available for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). These services are provided by many local organisations, which include education, health and social care services. The Local Offer serves to increase access to services for parents & carers of children with SEND.  

Details to our Local Offer can be accessed via the following link:  http://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/special-educational-needs