Educational Inclusion

In our school, we aim to offer excellence and choice to all our children, whatever their ability or needs. We have high expectations of all our children. We aim to achieve this through the removal of barriers to learning and participation. We want all our children to feel that they are a valued part of our school community. Through appropriate curricular provision, we respect the fact that children:

• have different educational, social, emotional and/or mental health, sensory and physical needs;
• require different strategies for learning;
• acquire, assimilate and communicate information at different rates;
• require a range of different teaching approaches and experiences.

Teachers respond to children’s needs by:

• providing support for children who need help with cognition and learning, language and communication, social, emotional and mental health and sensory or physical needs;
• planning to develop children’s understanding through the use of all their senses and of varied experiences;
• planning for children’s full participation in learning, and in physical and practical activities;
• helping children to manage their social/mental health needs and to take part in learning effectively and safely;
• helping individuals to manage their emotions, particularly trauma or stress, and to take part in learning.

Special Educational Needs Support

Children with special educational needs support have learning difficulties and/or a disability that calls for special provision to be made. All children may have special needs at some time in their lives. Children are recognised as requiring special educational needs support if:

• they have significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age;
• they have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of the educational facilities that are provided for other children of the same age.

Many of the children who join us have already been in early education. In many cases, children join us with their needs already assessed. All children are assessed when they enter our school, so that we can build upon their prior learning. We use this information to provide starting points for the development of an appropriate curriculum for all our children. At any time a parent carer, pupil, teacher or TA may raise concerns about a learning difficulty or disability that may be hindering a child’s progress. At this time it may be considered appropriate to complete a cycle of Assess, Plan, Do, Review. An initial meeting will be set up with parent carers and pupils to discuss concerns and gather information. Then the class teacher and Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) may assess further to address the concerns raised. At St Joseph and St Teresa’s Catholic primary School the SENCO is Mrs Jessica Burgess. 

INTENT & IMPLEMENTATION 

Intent: 

At St Joseph and St Teresa’s it is our intention that all children will access a broad and balanced curriculum tailored to their individual needs.  As detailed in the SEND Information Report, all children will be provided with opportunities to engage in meaningful learning experiences, be taught strategies to encourage them to be independent life-long learners, and empowered with the confidence to challenge themselves in all areas of life.  It is our intention that all learners will be supported in becoming full members of the wider school community through tailored provision that follows their individual interests and hobbies, whilst carefully linking it to the whole school provision, National Curriculum expectations and agreed schemes of work. 

As detailed in the SEND Information Report, the school works closely with parents at every stage of the graduated response.  It is the intention for all learners that open channels of communication are maintained at all times.

Implementation: 

All staff are regularly updated in their responsibilities as outlined in the SEND Code of Practice through informal and formal monitoring, staff meetings and training.  The SENCO and Head teacher identify any training needs and ensure that staff are equipped to meet the needs of the children in the classes. Teachers use the Somerset Graduated Approach to identify appropriate strategies for learners and follow procedures to involve the SENCO if these initial adaptations and adjustments are not effective.  Once a child has been identified as needing further support, internal referral forms detail provision that is in place and the impact that this has had.  Further involvement from the SENCO and parents then leads to their progress being monitored using an Assess-Plan-Do-Review cycle format.  This allows for close monitoring of the impact of the interventions being made.  The SENCO oversees targets and provision for these children, and identifies when it is necessary to carry out more specialised interventions or involve external agencies in collaboration with staff and parents.

Termly data scrutiny by the Head Teacher and SENCO ensure that any children who have not already been raised by class teachers are identified and their needs met accordingly.  Parents are involved through parent evening meetings and additional reviews where necessary. 

The SENCO engages with Local Authority services to stay up to date with current practices and seek advice from multiagency teams to ensure that the provision within school is relevant and specific to the needs of the current cohorts.