Arden Primary School

We aim to be an inclusive school through providing equality of opportunity for the following groups:

• Girls and boys
• Children with special educational needs including physical disability
• Able and talented children
• Minority, ethnic and faith groups
• Children with EAL
• Children at risk of disaffection or exclusion
• Looked after children
• Children who are in families in need of support

The school aims to help develop their personalities, skills and abilities, provide teaching which makes learning challenging, enjoyable and successful and engender a culture of tolerance and acceptance of all with mutual respect where all are valued.

• To ensure the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001) and the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (2001) are implemented across the school.
• To ensure equality of opportunity for and to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against children with special educational needs.
• To monitor the progress of all pupils, to identify needs as they arise and to provide support as early as possible.
• To provide full access to the curriculum, trips and extra curricular activities.
• To provide specific input, matched to individual needs for those children at School Action, School Action + and Statement levels of intervention.
• To ensure that children with SEN are perceived positively by all members of the school community and that inclusive provision is positively valued by staff and parents/carers.
• To involve parents/carers at every stage in plans to meet their child’s needs.

Co-ordinating inclusion The SENCo is the Inclusion co-ordinator. Her role is to:

• Work with all members of the school community to promote inclusion.
• Monitor the inclusion policy and reporting its effectiveness to the Head and Governing body.
• Work with key staff to identify barriers to learning and provide staff and TA’s with appropriate strategies and resources.
• Co-ordinate and encourage the professional development of staff and TA’s to deliver inclusive practice.
• Work with key staff and outside agencies to identify, monitor and assess pupil progress.
• Liaise with parents.

Arden offers a continuum of provision to meet a diversity of pupil’s needs.

• Classes are year grouped or mixed age depending on numbers for the year group. Classes are mixed ability but teachers have the flexibility to set ability groups within year groups for specific aspects of the curriculum.
• Additional in-class support is allocated in each class through TA’s which is targeted at individual pupils and small groups.
• TA’s also deliver a range of intervention programmes to targeted groups.
• Out of class provision is available to school action + and Statemented children who require specialist learning programmes.
• Additional space is allocated for a pupil who occasionally requires a larger learning area.
• A range of clubs and extra curricular activities is available before, during and after school for any child wishing to participate.

The National Curriculum is our starting point for planning a curriculum that meets the needs of individuals or specific groups of children. We do this through:

• Setting suitable learning challenges.
• Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils.
• Responding to children’s diverse learning needs.
• Providing other curricular opportunities outside the National Curriculum to meet the needs of individuals or groups of children.
• Differentiated learning activities.
• Responding to advice from outside agencies.

Access to the Environment

• School has an access plan
• The Headteacher reviews ease of access to all areas of the school building and grounds.
• Recent extensive building work has enabled greater access for wheelchairs into school through slopes and automatic doors. Consideration has been given to lighting, colour and space to make the environment a more pleasant place.
• Appropriate resources are ordered to enable children to access a full and rewarding curriculum.
• We consider the dignity and emotional well-being of our pupils by providing a number of areas for ‘quiet’ and ‘time-out’.

External support

• School through its service level agreement buys in additional teaching time to meet the needs of children with learning difficulties.
• School values the allocated service time of the Educational Psychologist, Learning Support service and Primary behaviour support service.
• School has regular support from Occupational therapy, Speech and language therapy and Parent Support Adviser service.
• School liaises with a number of agencies to gain and give advice and information to promote effective inclusion of its pupils.

We aim to give our children the opportunity to succeed and reach the highest level of personal achievement.

• When planning work teachers take into account the abilities of all children and differentiate activities accordingly.
• Teachers plan from the curriculum and use higher or lower year group objectives to deliver to children performing above or below national average.
• Teachers identify children in need of additional support and place them on the SEN register setting appropriate targets and allocating resources.
• When attainment is significantly higher than national average teachers place the child on the Able and Talented register with specific targets and resources.

Teachers Ensure that:

• Feel secure and know their contributions are valued
• Appreciate and value the differences they see in others
• Take responsibility for their own actions
• Are taught in groupings that allow them to experience success.
• Use materials and resources that reflect a range of social and cultural backgrounds
• Have a common curriculum experience that allows for a range of different learning styles
• Have challenging targets that enable them to succeed
• Are encouraged to participate fully, regardless of disabilities or medical needs

Disapplication and Modification

The Headteacher can, where necessary, modify or disapply the curriculum and its assessment arrangements in exceptional circumstances in accordance with the Education Act of 1996.

Evaluating the Inclusion policy

The Inclusion policy will be evaluated annually focusing on how the aims have been met, effective inclusion provision, attainments of children, parent comments and school’s self evaluation. In the light of this, the policy may be amended.

Complaints procedure

Complaints regarding SEN provision and our inclusive practice should initially be discussed with the class teacher and SENCO. If this is unsatisfactory the issue should be brought to the attention of the Headteacher and ultimately the SEN Governor.

Written: February 2015        Updated: October 2019

Staff responsible: Ruth Sumner (SENCO)   Headteacher: Miss N Haddock SEN Governor: Mr Philip Wilkinson