Heworth Grange SEN

If pupils have received SEN support during their time in primary school they will be assessed by the SEN team.

New for 2006 entry; This year, pupils most in need of support will now have 3 literacy lessons per week. As well as this, SEN staff have been increased to a team of 6 dedicated staff.

Special Education Needs in Heworth (The S.E.N. List)

Pupils who have been identified in Primary as needing extra support to make progress are placed on a list on entry to year seven. The reason for this could be:

| Medical | Behavioural | Learning Difficulty |

Pupils with either medical or behavioural problems are placed in either the 'A' or 'B' band according to their academic ability. Their individual needs are supported from either learning base.

Pupils with learning difficulties are placed in the "B" band and supported in the following ways:

'B' band teaching groups are small groups of no more than 20 pupils.

School Action:
When a pupil is not making the expected progress a concern may be expressed by a teacher or a parent and the reason for lack of progress is examined more closely and the pupil is then moved to Action and the level of support is increased. Following assessment of the difficulties an Individual Educational Plan is written and circulated to staff and each department will support the IEP objectives. This raises the awareness of individual pupil's difficulties, thus enabling teaching staff to offer the appropriate support to the pupil.

Pupils may also be offered support in a combination of any or all of the following ways:

--> Success maker - Computerised Reading and spelling workshops for half a lesson each day

--> Parental involvement supervising home reading scheme and/or phonics spelling programme

--> Peer group reading 2/3 mornings (15 mins) each week during registration

--> One to one support with a Learning Support Teacher

Progress continues to be monitored by Learning Support Teachers and reviewed through the school reporting system.


Action Plus:
Pupils who do not make progress are moved to "Action Plus" and the advice of the appropriate outside agency is enlisted. Advice and strategies are given and implemented. An Action Plus I.E.P. is written and circulated to staff so that support plans can be implemented. Reviews of progress are then made regularly and are attended by school staff, authority advisers and parents.

From this stage the pupil may move back to Action if progress is positive, L.E.A. advisers will close the case and their involvement ceases. However, if a pupil's difficulties persist and they are likely to need a lot of support the decision to apply for a statement may be made.
Information is collected from all involved agencies and is submitted to the LEA together with an up to date case history.

Statement:
If the L.E.A. agree with the assessment of the pupils' needs, a statement
is issued stating the provision that should be made to meet those needs.

Reviews now take place annually and are attended by school staff, authority advisers and parents. I.E.P.'s are drawn up and circulated to departments so that support plans can be drawn up.

It should be noted here that pupils can move back down through the stages. This would happen when a difficulty was overcome and the pupil no longer needed the designated level of support. The final question to be answered in the review is "Does the statement remain necessary?" If the answer were no then the statement would be discontinued.
Each level of support has its own documentation format. Copies of Action Plus and Statement Review Notes/I.E.P's are forwarded to all parties involved in the review and to the LE.A.


Parental Involvement
The school operates an open-door policy for parents and tries to work with them in an equal partnership. In the SEN department this is encouraged by offering parents the opportunity to have an input into their child's learning programme, where they feel able to contribute.
Pupils are encouraged to involve their parent/carer by seeking their help and guidance, and one of the ways in which parents are asked to help is the Home Reading Scheme. Pupils read at home for 10-15 minutes 5 times weekly: there is a simple recording system in which this is verified by the signature of a responsible adult. The pupils reward for this extra work is through the credit system.
An individual phonics-spelling programme can also be worked on at home in a similar way with parents giving the spelling 'test' and marking and recording the result.
If it is considered, from knowledge of the child's background, that working at home in this way is not possible then it is not used and other ways to support the pupil are considered.
Pupils are supported in both internal and external examinations for external examination formal application is made to the relevant boards at Key Stage 4 and the authority at Key Stage 3. The support given is specific to the needs of the individual child, the most usual form of support is the provision of a reader, but we have also provided scribes; enlarged print papers; readers in place of the tape for the mental arithmetic. Subject teachers are aware that help is available for internal papers to be read to pupils if they request it.
These opportunities for support are available for pupils from years 7 to 11.

SUPPORT AVAILABLE IN HEWORTH

Peer Group Reading
Pupils are paired with an older pupil who will hear them read for 15mins 2/3 mornings a week during the registration period. Once both the reader and the reading tutor have made the commitment to do this work they are expected to attend regularly.

Skills Club
This is held on two lunch times each week, each session lasts for 30 minutes. The pupils work on a variety of games, puzzles, computer activities, writing and spelling activities aimed at consolidating basic skills. Three members of staff volunteer their services for theses sessions, and this is quite often augmented by volunteer students. The numbers attending the sessions vary, the maximum is 20 and it is quite usual to have a waiting list in the first two terms of the academic year. As their confidence grows the numbers dwindle, this is of course a voluntary option for pupils. Where older pupils have shown an interest they have been encouraged to come to one or both of the sessions as a helper, this has been very successful and as recent reports have shown gains to helpers can be greater that gains to those being helped. When pupils want to bring course work or homework and complete it in these sessions provision is made for them to do so.

Success-Maker
This is an integrated learning package that assesses the child's level, diagnoses their specific problems and sets appropriate individual learning exercises to overcome their difficulties. Pupils are timetabled for a daily session of 25 minutes for which they leave their lessons at the appropriate time. The daily session is composed of 10-12 minutes on each of a reading and a spelling workshop. Reports are available to the teacher to indicate both progress and areas of difficulty for individual pupils.

Withdrawal
Pupils may be withdrawn for 1 lesson each week to work one to one, or in a group of 2 or 3, on their specific difficulties as indicated on their IEP.
Most of the support in Heworth is directed at pupils who have a Literacy and Numeracy problems but we do have a setting system that allows for brighter pupils to develop at their own rate. Staff are aware of these pupils and have the expertise to provide differentiated work that is challenging to the brighter pupil and enables them to realize their full potential.