The Special Educational Needs Policy is available in PDF Format here - (Issue date: January 2022)

SEND Policy 2022 - 2023

We support children with special educational needs in line with the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) Code of Conduct (Department for Education and Department of Health, 2015). The school’s policy and this information report apply to children and young people who have SEN and those who are looked after by the local authority and have SEN. We are an inclusive school, and as such, support the Local Authority’s Local Offer for children and young people with SEN.

School contact details:

SEND SLT: Mrs Natalie Kennerley

SENCO: Mrs Christina Eaton

Assistant SENCO: Ms Emily Cooling

Kingsway Avenue KS4 Coordinator: Ms Christine Ayres

Contact: 01706 716761

1 The kinds of SEN that are provided for

Our school currently provides additional and/or different provision for a range of needs, including:

• Communication and interaction, for example, autistic spectrum conditions, Asperger’s Syndrome, speech, and language difficulties
• Cognition and learning, for example, dyslexia, dyspraxia,
• Social, emotional, and mental health difficulties, for example, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),
• Sensory and/or physical needs, for example, visual impairments, hearing impairments, processing difficulties.

2 Identifying students with SEN and assessing their needs

We will utilise academic attainment from previous settings or assess each student’s levels of attainment on entry. Class teachers will make regular assessments of progress for all students and identify those whose progress:

• Is significantly slower than that of their peers starting from the same baseline
• Fails to match or better the child’s previous rate of progress
• Fails to close the attainment gap between the child and their peers once intervention has been put into place.
• Widens the attainment gap

This may include progress in areas other than attainment, for example, social needs.

Slow progress and low attainment will not automatically mean a student is recorded as having SEN.

When deciding whether special educational provision is required, we will start with the desired outcomes, including the expected progress and attainment, and the views and the wishes of the student and their parents/carers. We will use this to determine the support that is needed and whether we can provide it by adapting our core offer, or whether something different or additional is needed.

3 Consulting and involving students and parents/carers

We will have an early discussion with the student and their parents/carers when identifying whether they need special educational provision. These conversations will make sure that:

• Everyone develops a good understanding of the student’s areas of strength and difficulty
• We consider the parents/carers concerns
• Everyone understands the agreed outcomes sought for the child
• Everyone is clear on what the next steps are

Notes of these early discussions will be added to the student’s record.

We will notify parents/carers when it is decided that a student will receive SEN support.

When a student is transitioning into Kingsway Park High School, there will be communication between the previous school and us, to ensure all SEND information is passed on and we can prepare, in school, to meet the needs of the individual. Local feeder primary schools can invite our SENCO/Assistant SENCO (SEN coordinator), to year 6 students EHCp (Education, Health, and Care Plan) annual reviews, or additional SEND review meetings, for SEN support students, to aid a smooth transition into year 7.

Students who may find the transition into high school challenging, will be offered additional transition sessions with the SEND team, which is coordinated with the primary school. This will include visits to the school, additional transition meetings with the SEND Team and an offer to attend Summer School, to ensure that we are more familiar with the individual and are more prepared to meet the needs of the young person. The SEND Team will also liaise with parents and primary schools regarding any students with a diagnosis, to ensure a personalised transition package is formalised. Kingsway Park High School has a designated KS2 transition lead, Jenny Carey, who has regular contact with primary feeder schools to establish strong and robust transition links.

4 Assessing and reviewing students' progress towards outcome

We will follow the graduated approach and the four-part cycle of assess, plan, do, review.

The class or subject teacher will work with the SENCO (or SEND Lead within the school) to carry out a clear analysis of the student’s needs. This will draw on:

• The teacher’s assessment and experience of the student
• Their previous progress and attainment and behaviour
• Other teachers’ assessments, where relevant
• The individual’s development in comparison to their peers and national data
• The views and experience of parents/carers
• The student’s own views
• Advice from external support services, if relevant

The assessment will be reviewed regularly.

All teachers and support staff who work with the student will be made aware of their needs, the outcomes sought, the support provided, and any teaching strategies or approaches that are required. We will regularly review the effectiveness of the support and interventions and their impact on the student’s progress.

Parents will receive two school reports and be able to attend one parents evening each academic year. The school reports consist of data based individual progress scores and updates about the student's attitude to learning, in each subject. The reports/ parent's evenings are spread out over the year.

EHCP students will have an annual review of targets set and progress. This is done via a meeting with parents, school and any other involved internal or external agency. An additional review meeting can be arranged if needed and parents/ carers will receive a copy of the review, along with the Local Authority.

Any SEND intervention work undertaken over a period of time will be discussed with parents/ carers prior to start and parents will be informed of the success of the intervention on completion. Feedback of this intervention could be formally reported, via written communication or informally communicated e.g., phone conversation or face to face meeting.

5 Supporting students moving between phases and preparing for adulthood

 We will share information with the school, college, or other setting the student is coming from or moving to. For students moving to another setting, we will agree with parents/carers and students which information will be shared as part of this.

Students with an EHC Plan will have additional transition meetings with their chosen post 16 education providers. This can include visits to the provider or the SEN link from the chosen provider attending Kingsway Park High School, to meet the students and to attend their annual reviews, so their needs can be written in their plan. Where an Education, Health and Care Plan is put in place, the further education or training provider will be named following discussion with the young person and their family, via the review process and consultation with any provider to ensure that they are able to meet the needs of the young person.

Any student who has SEN support may also have additional transition meetings where necessary. There will be communication between the students chosen post 16 provider, the school SENCO or utilising our Positive Steps representative (Michelle Plant), to ensure that the provider is prepared to meet the needs of the individual.

6 Our approach to teaching students with SEN

Teachers are responsible and accountable for the progress and development of all the students in their class.

High quality teaching is our first step in responding to students who have SEN. This will be differentiated for individual students.

We will also provide the following interventions, as appropriate:

• In-class support provided by Teaching Assistants
• ‘Kingsway Avenue’ nurture and alternative provision for small numbers of SEN learners within KS3. 15 students per year group.
• ‘‘Kingsway Avenue’ nurture and alternative provision for small numbers of SEN learners within KS4. 12 students per year group.
• All students with an EHC Plan are allocated a key worker.
• Personalised timetables
• Literacy and Numeracy programme – built into timetables and/ or on occasion withdrawal from usual lessons
• Access to Kingsway Avenue provision during social times.
• Sensory Intervention
• Social and Life skills workshops
• Specialist Equipment, as required
• Dyslexia Screening
• Support from Educational Psychologist and RANS
• Access to health care professionals
• Kingsway Avenue nurture provision
• Homework Club
• A personalised student passport/profile created and shared with the school community.
• Testing for access arrangements for exams
• Regular updated staff training and drop-in sessions
• Year 7 settling-in evening for parents

7 Adaptations to the curriculum and learning environment

We make the following adaptations to the curriculum and the learning environment to ensure all students’ needs are met:

• Differentiating our curriculum to ensure all students can access it, for example, by grouping, 1:1 work, teaching style, content of the lesson.
• Adapting our resources and staffing
• Using recommended aids, such as laptops, coloured overlays, reduced text, visual timetables, larger font.
• Differentiating our teaching, for example, giving longer processing times, pre-teaching of key vocabulary, reading instructions aloud.
• Ensuring the school environment is accessible to wheelchair
• Offering a ‘safe space’ for SEND students to work in, to support emotional needs. The library and Restaurant are available for students to complete extraction work and Kingsway Avenue provision can be accessed during social times.
• Allowing outside agencies (g., RANS, Health, or Educational Psychologists) to work with students in lessons and during extraction time to develop strategies to support students' learning further

8 Additional support for learning

We have 11 Teaching Assistants and 8 Foundation Assistants who are trained to deliver interventions, when needed, such as; in-class support, extraction 1-1 or small group work, liaising with Maths and English teachers to lead the Literacy and Numeracy intervention programme, supporting students with any specialist equipment required, working with teachers to differentiate work to ensure it is suitable for specific SEND learners, social time interaction.

Kingsway Park High School also offers ‘Kingsway Avenue’ provision. Kingsway Avenue is a bespoke SEN provision that runs within the mainstream of the school. It consists of three foundation classes within Key Stage 3, one in each year. These classes are taught by additional needs specialists, who deliver a bespoke Foundation Curriculum. 65% of the curriculum is delivered within each foundation room, allowing the child a nurturing, familiar base for most of their learning. The curriculum delivered is broad and balanced, like the mainstream of the school, with an extra level of nurture to support those students who require it most. Additional support is targeted and delivered to accelerate progress with the aim of integrating students back into a full mainstream timetable, when appropriate.

We work with several agencies including the following to provide support for students with SEN, when required:

• Educational Psychologist
• Rochdale Additional Needs Team (RANS), which includes specialists teaching team for Physical disabilities, Visual impairment, Hearing impairment, Developmental language disorder (specific language impairment), Social communication and interaction difficulties (including autism spectrum conditions)
• Child and Adult Mental Health Service (including #Thrive)
• School Nurse
• Pediatric Health Teams, including Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Team.
• Positive Steps
• Child Care Services
• Health, which includes Speech and Language Therapists and Occupational Therapists.
• Rochdale Parent Carers Voice
• SENDIASS Rochdale - Special Educational Needs Disability Information Advice Support Service
• Educational Mental Health Practitioner
• Mental Health and wellbeing provision (Refer Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy for further information)

9 Expertise and training of staff

Our SENCO has been a teaching since 2004 and has been a practicing SENCO since September 2018. She has a wealth of experience of working with a wide variety of children and families, including SEND. Her previous roles include 8 years as a teaching Head of Year and an Assistant Curriculum Leader and 19 years as a Science Teacher.

She is allocated 60% of her timetable to manage SEND provision.

We have a team of 18 Teaching assistants, including 2 higher level teaching assistants (HLTAs) who are trained to deliver SEN provision. Alongside to this there is an Assistant SENCO, Emily Cooling, who has considerable experience of working in a specialist SEN provision.

In the last academic year, staff have been trained in:

Safeguarding and Child Protection

ASC, Strategies, including emotion coaching and 5-point scales

ADHD, Strategies

Visual Impairment, Strategies

Hearing Impairment, Strategies

Differentiation in-class

Attachment issues

Behaviour management, Strategies.

Fire evacuation chair use.

10 Evaluating the effectiveness of SEN provision

We evaluate the effectiveness of provision for students with SEN by:

• Reviewing students’ individual progress towards their goals.
• Reviewing the impact of interventions by comparing before and after the intervention has been completed.
• Using student voice
• Monitoring by the SENCO or SEND Team
• Using provision maps
• Holding annual reviews for students with EHC plans
• Following the whole school Quality Assurance Policy

11 Enabling students with SEN to engage in activities available to those in the school who do not have SEN

All our extra-curricular activities and school visits are available to all our students, including our before-and after-school clubs.

All students are encouraged to go on our residential trip(s) including Annual London History Trip.

All students are encouraged to take part in all school events including sports day, school plays, drama workshops, after school extracurricular clubs, school visits, visits organised by MUF and MCF events, the school council, student leaders, etc.

No student is ever excluded from taking part in these activities because of their SEN or disability.

12 Support for improving emotional and social development

We provide support for students to improve their emotional and social development in the following ways:

• Students with SEN are encouraged to be part of the school council or become a Student Leader. All students can attend visits outside school, working with the community.
• Students with SEN are also encouraged to be part of initiatives/clubs to promote teamwork/building friendships etc. This includes Kingsway Avenue lunch time club, Pyramid Club, Drama workshops, attending Kingsway Avenue nurture provision.
• Students with SEN can utilise the Kingsway Avenue facility, during social times, to promote social interaction and express emotion.
• Students with SEN may take part in social skills workshops, to improve social interaction and teamwork.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to bullying; further detail can be found in the school’s anti-bullying policy.

13 Complaints about SEN provision

Complaints about SEN provision in our school should be made in line with the school’s complaints policy.

The parents/carers of students with disabilities have the right to make disability discrimination claims to the first tier SEND tribunal if they believe that our school has discriminated against their children. They can make a claim about alleged discrimination regarding:

• Exclusions
• Provision of education and associated services
• Making reasonable adjustments, including the provision of auxiliary aids and services

14 Contact details of support services for parents/carers of students with SEN

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) offer impartial, confidential, and free support. They can be contacted on 01706 769634 with information provided at: https://www.barnardos.org.uk/rochdalesendiass

15 Contact details for school

In school your child’s class/form teacher is your first point of contact

Or your child’s Head of Year.

If your child is working within Kingsway Avenue, please contact the foundation teacher for your child’s year group

Miss Chloe Millett – Year 7

Mr Adam Dawson – Year 8

Ms. Emily Cooling – Year 9

You can also contact the SENCO- Mrs Christina Eaton-Caswell, or Assistant SENCO – Ms. Emily Cooling 01706 716 761

16 The local authority local offer

Our local authority’s local offer is published here: https://www.ourrochdale.org.uk/kb5/rochdale/directory/localoffer.page