SEN in EnglandTuesday 19th March 2013

Mr Ashley IzzardHeadteacher

Loatlands Primary School

What are Special Educational Needs?The government produced the SEN Code of Practice, which became effective from 1st January 2002 and “Local Education Authorities (LEA’s), schools, early education settings and health and social services must have regard to it. These bodies must fulfil their statutory duties towards children with SEN, and use the Code of Practice to make effective decisions about what to do in each individual case” (Department for Children, Schools and Families (DFES), 2001, p3).A child is defined as having special educational needs “if they have a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for them” (DFES,2001,p7).The SEN Code of Practice states that “children have a learning difficulty if they: have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than most children of the same age, or have a disability that prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities generally provided for children of the same age” (DFES , 2001, p7).

Sue York and Dani Ward co-ordinate SEN at Loatlands school. Every school has a requirement to have a qualified teacher trained as a Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordinator. They must undertake a qualification at University and complete an action research project.

Alison Ball co-ordinates the Early Years SEN .

Ashley Izzard as Headteacher has overall responsibility for SEN.

What do we do?

O Help staff to identify children with SEN school;

O Support staff in having realistic yet challenging expectations of pupils

O Provide guidance and support in meeting the needs of SEN pupils

O Classroom arrangements to support individuals

O Links with other schools at transfer (different aspect of support)

O Identification of staff training needs

Supporting Colleagues - Managing resourcesO Deploying and managing staff

effectivelyO Flexible use of the teamO Providing quality information to staff

– quicklyO Using yourself as a resourceO Effectively using external resources

Supporting colleagues (using data)

O Using data to inform practiceO Moderating levels of work with staff;O Analysing data to inform

weaknesses or areas for development in teaching

O Using local (school knowledge ) to identify immediate and future training needs

Identification, Assessment andProvision in the Primary Phase

Working with others - who can help?

O Other colleagues in the same/similar situation – SENCO networks

O Key people attached to the school – EPs; EWO; SALTs etc

O Using the systems available to you –pastoral workers, EP; Support Teams (Additional Needs teams); Local special schools

Most children admitted to an infant or primary school will already have attended an early education setting. Some will not. Children with special educational needs who have attended a nursery class, playgroup or other early education setting should have had their needs identified already. Others may not.

Schools should therefore be aware that any child admitted to the reception class might have unidentified special educational needs. The same applies to children who transfer from one school to another during the primary phase.

Provision for children with special educational needs is a matter for the school as a whole.In addition to the governing body, the school’s head teacher, the SENCO and all other members of staff have important day-to-day responsibilities. All teachers are teachers of children with special educational needs. Teaching such children is therefore a wholeschool responsibility. In practice, the way in which this responsibility is exercised by individual staff is a matter for schools, to be decided in the light of a school’s circumstances and size, priorities and ethos.

At the heart of the work of every primary school class is

a continuous cycle of planning, teaching and

assessing which takes account of the wide range of abilities,

aptitudes and interests of children. The majority of

children will learn and progress within these arrangements.

School ActionWhen a class teacher or the SENCO identifies a child with SEN the class teacher should provide interventions that are additional to or different from those provided as part of the school’s usual differentiated curriculum offer and strategies (School Action).The triggers for intervention through School Action could be the teacher’s or others’ concern, underpinned by evidence, about a child who despite receiving differentiated learning opportunities: makes little or no progress even when teaching approaches are targeted particularlyin a child’s identified area of weakness.

The school has a duty to inform the child’s parents that special educationalprovision is being made for the child because the child has SEN.

Identification, Assessment and Provision in the Primary Phase shows signs of difficulty in developing literacy or mathematics skills which result in poor attainment in some curriculum areas presents persistent emotional or behavioural difficulties which are not ameliorated by the behaviour management techniques usually employed in the school has sensory or physical problems, and continues to make little or no progress despite the provision of specialist equipment has communication and/or interaction difficulties, and continues to make little or no progress despite the provision of a differentiated curriculum.

Individual Education Plans

Strategies employed to enable the child to progress should be recorded within an Individual Education Plan (IEP). Further information on managing IEPs and Group Education Plans can be found in the SEN Toolkit. The IEP should include information about: the short-term targets set for or by the child the teaching strategies to be used the provision to be put in place when the plan is to be reviewed success and/or exit criteria outcomes (to be recorded when IEP is reviewed). The IEP should only record that which is additional to or different from the differentiated curriculum plan, which is in place as part of provision for all children. The IEP should be crisply written and focus on three or four individual targets, chosen from those relating to the key areas of communication, literacy, mathematics, and behaviour and social skills that match the child’s needs. The IEP should be discussed with the child and the parents.

Reviewing IEPsIEPs should be reviewed at least twice a year. Ideally they should be reviewed termly, or possibly more frequently for some children. (At Loatlands, we review them three times a year.) Reviews need not be unduly formal, but parents’ views on the child’s progress should be sought and they should be consulted as part of the review process. Wherever possible, the child should also take part in the review process and be involved in setting the targets. It is always important to gather the views of the child. (See Have My say Booklet)

School Action Plus

A request for help from external services is likely to follow a decision taken by the SEN Team and colleagues, in consultation with parents, at a meeting to review the child’s IEP.

Schools should always consult specialists when they take action on behalf of a child through School Action Plus. But the involvement of specialists need not be limited to such children. Outside specialists can play an important part in the very early identification of special educational needs and in advising schools on effective provision designed to prevent the development of more significant needs. They can act as consultants and be a source for in-service advice on learning and behaviour management strategies for allteachers.

School request for a statutory assessment

Where a request for a statutory assessment is made by a school to an

LEA, the child willhave demonstrated significant cause for

concern.

What is a Statutory Assessment?

Funding for Statutory Assessment was held by the Local Education Authorities. This has now been devolved to all schools

to provide a nominal amount of £6000 per statement. England will be moving towards a national funding formula for school and SEN funding will be part of

this.

The future of SEN in England?

Government plans to move from statements to Education and Health Care plans. Parents to have more control over these and the funding linked to it.

New SEN code of practice coming in future to reflect changes

Resourceshttp://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/councilservices/EducationandLearning/sen/shoebox/Pages/default.aspx

The Northamptonshire Shoebox resource helps support children with social, emotional, behavioural and mental health issues.

https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DfES%200558%202001

SEN Toolkit-older but useful resource

http://www.gl-assessment.co.uk/

Assessments that can be purchased to empower school staff to diagnose needs

http://www.senteacher.org

Useful website with worksheets and other useful links for SEN