Inclusive education means supporting all pupils to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of school life alongside their peers. Our curriculum includes, not only the formal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum / National Curriculum, but also a range of additional opportunities to enrich the experiences of all pupils.
The Curriculum also included the social aspects that are essential for lifelong learning, personal growth and development of independence.
As a Rights Respecting Level 2 School, we place the UNCRC (United Conventions of the Rights of a Child) at the heart of our planning, policies and practice. The school has a Rights Respecting Ethos, where children are empowered to become active citizens and learners.
There are different levels of support offered and each type of support is dependent on the individual learning needs, and is intended to enable access to learning and overcome the barrier to learning identified. These levels can be explained as a graduated approach.
Quality First Teaching and Initial Interventions
This is available for all children: the effective inclusion of all pupils in high-quality everyday personalised teaching. This includes:
- Differentiated and personalised work to meet pupils’ needs
- High expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils
- Adapting teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils
- Behaviour managed effectively to ensure a good and safe learning environment which promotes progress
- Deploying support staff effectively.
Where children need additional support they may be given some intervention to help them ‘Catch Up’ with their peers or prevent a gap from appearing. These interventions are often targeted at a group of pupils with similar needs. Intervention programmes such as pre-teaching for Sounds Write phonics programme, pre-teaching mathematical concepts. Additionally, if a child requires any support for social engagement or emotional guidance, we have specific interventions tailored to these needs. In these cases, a short note will be shared with the child (where appropriate) and their parent. These early discussions with parents will be structured in such a way that they develop a good understanding of the pupil’s areas of strength and difficulty, the parents’ concerns, the agreed outcomes sought for the child, and the next steps. This does not necessarily mean that a child has a SEN, but it may be decided that the pupil needs targeted intervention, and the child may be listed on a provision map.
SEND Support/Interventions
If pupils continue to make inadequate progress, despite high-quality teaching targeted at their areas of weakness, the class teacher, with support from the SENCO, should assess whether a pupil has a significant learning difficulty, which may require highly- tailored interventions. This may include specialist or one to one provision.
Children will be issued with an individual SEND Support Plan which will be discussed and agreed with parents and reviewed regularly. A child that has been placed on a SEN Support Plan:
- has continued to make little or no progress in specific areas over a long period
- continues working at a level significantly below what is expected of a child of a similar age
- continues to have difficulties in developing basic skills
- has emotional or social/mental health difficulties which substantially and regularly interfere with the child’s own learning and that of others, despite having an individualised programme
- has sensory or physical needs, and requires additional specialist equipment or regular advice by the specialist service
- has ongoing communication or interaction difficulties that impede the development of social relationships and causes substantial barriers to learning
Children that are receiving additional support and who are involved in intervention programmes have a Support Plan.
Support for SEND
Any children whom we feel may require extra support to achieve their potential or remove any barriers to learning are quickly identified and appropriate support is implemented. Any extra support that is required is discussed with the child and their parents. External support services will usually see the child so that they can advise teachers on specific interventions, with new outcome focused targets and strategies. This will be implemented, at least in part in the normal classroom setting. The school will endeavor to liaise with these professionals to ensure continuity of provision in school.
Support for children with physical needs:
- Quality First Teaching.
- Gross Motor Skills interventions.
- Fine Motor Skills interventions.
- Specialist group support from outside agencies e.g. Occupational Therapy
Support for children with speech, language and communication needs:
- Quality First Teaching.
- Speech and Language interventions.
- Specialist group support from outside agencies e.g. Speech and Language Therapy
Support for children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties:
- Quality First Teaching.
- Pastoral Care.
- Specialist group support from outside agencies e.g. CAMHs Mentoring and Counselling/ One Point Service.
Support for children with cognition and learning needs:
- Quality First Teaching.
- Differentiation in lessons and activities
- Maths and English specific interventions.
- Specialist group support from outside agencies e.g. Educational Psychology Service.
- Specific individual support for children whose learning needs are severe, complex and lifelong and what this means for your child e.g. Dyslexia, Dyspraxia.
- Staff may use a range of teaching and learning styles.
- A personalized and supportive curriculum.
- A broad range of extra-curricular activities, including Basic Skills After-School clubs
Parents are invited into school to review and discuss support and progress with staff every term. The children also meet with their teacher and discuss their support plan and are asked what they feel helps them to make progress.
More details on how we adapt information, our environment and curriculum can be found in the Accessibility Plan which you can find in the School Policies section of our website.