This policy is currently under final review by the Gloucester House Steering Committee (Autumn 2024).

Currently all our pupils have Education healthcare plans (EHCP) and have a complex range of needs.  All of our pupils have had disrupted early experiences at home and at school and our task at Gloucester House is to work together in this multi-disciplinary setting to address some of these complex needs.

The educational provision at the Gloucester House has to be of a quality that recognises and considers Special Educational Needs & Disabilities at the heart of it.

In recognition of this the designated SENCO takes responsibility for monitoring progress in relation to children’s Special Educational Needs & Disabilities and for supporting a curriculum and developing schemes of work and interventions alongside teachers, that fits the profile of our pupil population.

Pace of learning – Special needs (SEN) policy 

The organisation of our curriculum takes into account that for the majority of our children learning is a complex process. There are significant gaps in their learning and for others additional learning and /or attention difficulties. 

Most children in mainstream schooling learn incidentally – i.e. after a couple of presentations of the knowledge, skill or understanding associated with the topic they will have acquired it:  therefore most lessons are planned with this learning rate in mind – the subject or skill is presented, reinforced a couple of times and possibly reviewed again later in the term.

However, most of our children have had disrupted learning, some will need many more presentations, using a variety of methods before learning reaches the stage of acquisition.  The methods will embrace as many perceptual channels as possible to reinforce and consolidate the learning in a multisensory way – auditory, visual, and kinaesthetic and the encouragement of elaborated talk.  Hence the child with a slower rate of learning or a high level of distractibility may need a considerable amount of overlearning.

Once the child has reached the level of acquisition in learning, regular reinforcement will be required before the stage of consolidation is reached.  Otherwise there is likely to be little retention and the child is likely to have forgotten it by the next week.

This is based on the principles of learning theory, which tend to break learning down into its component parts.  In order for slow learning children to make effective progress.   This “breaking down” of the learning process has to take place to ensure not only that the learning is acquired, but also consolidated and maintained, and then become fluent, or integrated into the child’s repertoire of responses and generalised to other contexts.

Purpose

  • To ensure that all the objectives outlined in the child’s statement or the outcomes in the EHCP are addressed.
  • To ensure that a framework is provided in which additional needs can be identified at the earliest possibility and steps taken to address these.
  • To ensure all staff are aware of their responsibilities in relation to SEN

Duties and responsibilities

The Headteacher will be responsible for:

  • Ensuring EHCP needs are met across the service.
  • Working alongside the SENCO to allocate Annual Review Chairs (which will include the Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher and SENCO).
  • Ensuring all statutory reporting deadlines are met.
  • Ensuring cover of all the duties listed below for the SENCO should they be absent or should there be a gap in recruitment.

The Gloucester House SENDCO will be responsible for:

  • Maintaining a record of any special needs, as stated in the statement/EHCP, in addition to SEMH.
  • Ensuring that resources are in place to meet these needs, in liaison with the LA, Case Co-ordinator and teachers where necessary.
  • Updating the EHC plan with the LA Case Officer
  • Arranging whole school INSET where necessary to meet these needs.
  • Liaising with the Case Co-ordinator, SALT and OT to ensure effective monitoring and assessment of individual programmes.
  • Monitoring and reviewing learning and behaviour regularly.
  • Convening Annual Reviews and reporting to referrers on completion of these.
  • Supporting transitions onto new placements.
  • Producing EHCP summaries for all children.

The Class Teacher will be responsible for:

  • Ensuring that s/he is aware of individual needs levels within his/her class group.
  • Ensuring that other staff are aware of individual needs where necessary.
  • Ensuring that s/he plans and implements a differentiated curriculum to meet the needs of all the pupils in the class.
  • Linking with the Tavistock Ed. Psychologist, through the Headteacher, re: any additional concerns about a pupil’s needs or progress.
  • Setting and maintaining targets in behaviour, maths and literacy and sharing with staff, pupil, parents/carers.
  • Carrying out ongoing assessment to monitor pupil’s progress.
  • Carrying out standardised tests in reading, spelling and mathematical reasoning.
  • Placing all pupils on SOLAR termly (see Assessment, Recording & Reporting Policy).
  • Ensuring s/he has a working knowledge of the statements/EHCP’s for pupils in their class.
  • Writing a report reviewing EHCP outcomes to contribute to the annual review.

The Progress Support Workers will be responsible for:

  • Alerting the class teacher of any concerns they have about a pupil’s needs or progress. 
  • Ensuring that they carry out programmes, as directed by the teacher, to ensure they meet individual needs effectively.

Case Co-ordinators will be responsible for:

  • Alerting the SENDCO to any concerns the parents/carers may have about their child’s educational needs or progress.
  • Supporting parents/carers to recognise their child’s special educational needs.
  • Ensuring the assessing pair pass on any relevant information to the team and working in partnership where recommended in relation to the child’s special educational needs.

The Educational Psychology Service accessed by Gloucester House can support through:

  • Carrying out assessments on pupils causing concern, advising on programmes and supporting class teachers in monitoring progress.
  • Liaising with parents/carers and case coordinators regarding assessments and observations.

Procedures

  • SDQs are completed prior to child’s admission as part of the initial assessment period.
  • On arrival all children are assessed by different members of the disciplinary team (see ARR Policy).  
  • The core team draw up an Integrated Care Plan (Appendix 2) for all children in consultation with Case Coordinators/Parent Worker/Class Teacher/Referrer.  
  • During the first 6-10 academic assessments are carried out and this information is shared at the 6-10 week review (see ARR policy).
  • Maths, literacy and behaviour targets will be set and reviewed regularly / at least termly with child/parent/carer/class teacher/progress support workers.  
  • Teachers will be involved in producing and implementing targets alongside children and parent/carers.  Targets must be written and set with a full knowledge of the objectives outlined in a child’s statement/EHCP.
  • There will be assessments of all pupils both formative and summative.
  • Where pupils make sufficient progress with their emotional and behavioural needs attempts will be made to set up integration programmes within a mainstream setting.
  • An Annual Review will be held in partnership with the parent/carers, the child and other professionals.  (Special Educational Needs are also considered during Core Teams/ Review slots and Whole Team Meeting).

The Curriculum/Planning 

Lessons are planned, and Schemes of Work written, to engage children who have significant barriers to learning due to emotional, social and behavioural difficulties as well as differentiated for special educational needs within that:

Maths/English:  

Maths and English are usually organised on a carousel basis which supports learning for children who need a variety of activities for a variety of learning styles.  The carousel incorporates opportunities for:

  • oral work
  • independent work
  • written work
  • practical activities (such as games)
  • ICT

Maths and English usually takes place in the morning. Some lessons are within the topic but breadth of skills in the range outlined in the NC with some discreet separate English lessons in addition to the topic.

Pupils who are gifted, talented or excel in particular curriculum areas will be identified and their needs catered for through individual differentiation and extension activities.  We will work with parents around particular areas of talent to encourage them to support these outside Gloucester House in addition to what we can do internally.

Topics last anywhere between 1 and 6 weeks.  The topics are in line with our curriculum framework and in line with the national curriculum so that all our pupils receive a broad and balanced curriculum and their statutory entitlement. Children are also involved in choosing topics.

We have designed our curriculum in a subject/topic based way to take account of the special educational needs of our pupils with opportunities to revisit and embed ideas and knowledge over a chunk of time rather than isolated once or twice weekly lessons.

Process for monitoring compliance with the policy

Each child will have at least 6 targets set termly.  There are, two to three for literacy, two to three for maths and one to two for behaviour.  These are co-constructed with parents/carers and children and are available in the classroom in their books or on their target sheets. 

Annual Reviews (also see Appendix 1 for Annual Review protocol and procedures)

The SENDCO is responsible for setting up Annual review meetings and ensuring that relevant Gloucester House Staff and outside agencies are informed and invited.

  • Class teachers are responsible for writing annual review reports, linked to previous targets, checking statements and setting future targets, in consultation with other Gloucester House staff, parents/carers and outside agencies, as part of the Annual Review meeting. Reading and spelling ages are tested at Annual Reviews.
  • Case-Coordinators, therapists, educational psychologist and, where relevant, Gloucester House Psychiatrist/OT & SaLT are responsible for writing Annual Review reports.
  • Staff are responsible for ensuring that reports are given to Gloucester House’s Administrative Manager at least 3 weeks before the Annual Review meeting.
  • The Case Co-ordinator is responsible for ensuring that clinical reports are given to the Administrative Manager.
  • HONOSCA and CGAS are also mentioned at Annual Reviews.

The Administrative Manager is responsible for ensuring that all professionals are invited, and Parents/Carers, receive copies of the report at least 2 weeks before the meeting.

Social Workers/parent/carers views must be sought for Annual Reviews.

Teachers’ reports need to outline an overview of progress over the year using data in relation to targets met, in addition to other qualitative progress data. 

The SENCO/Headteacher is responsible for ensuring that the Local Authority Annual Review reporting format is circulated within 2 weeks of the meeting.