Special Educational Needs in Aston Clinton School

 

 Our Language Development Department

Unique to Aston   Clinton   School is its Language Development Department. This has places for up to 10 children with Statements of Special Educational Needs relating to specific speech and/or language difficulties.   

 

The Language Department is managed by Mrs Melanie Page who is also the school's SENCO and INCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator and Inclusion Co-ordinator). Working alongside Mrs Page are two Speech and Language Therapists.

 

The Language Department’s aim is to provide a specialist education for children with specific speech and language difficulties. It creates an environment, within a mainstream school, that encourages the development of language and communication skills. The Department aims to develop each child’s full potential to use their communication skills as effectively as possible, and to become increasingly confident in the mainstream environment. All children who attend the Language Department are members of mainstream classes and are integrated as fully as possible into these classes.

  

The Language Department takes children on the recommendation of the Local Education Authority.

 

 Definition of Special Educational Needs (SEN)  

A child has special educational needs if he or she has a learning disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. A child has a learning difficulty if he or she:

 

• Has significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age.
• Has a disability which hinders or prevents them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in schools within the area of the local authority.

The Differentiated Curriculum

It is the job of the class teacher to determine whether the curriculum they plan is sufficiently differentiated. This is based on the following:

• Setting suitable learning challenges
• Responding to pupils' diverse learning needs
• Overcoming potential barriers to learning

Aston Clinton School follows the guidance of the SEN Code of Practice 2002 and uses a graduated approach in the identification, assessment and provision of pupils with SEN.

 

The Graduated Approach

 

School Action:

When a child is identified as having a special educational need, interventions are introduced to help the child to make progress. These are in addition to or different from those already provided as part of the school’s differentiated curriculum. A variety of interventions are drawn up in the form of an Individual Provision Map which is monitored by the class teacher and discussed on a termly basis with the child, parents and SENCO. Additional targets will be set for these children e.g. social, behavioural and/or physical.

 

School Action Plus:

The needs of most children will be met at School Action, however some pupils do not make adequate progress despite the additional support. If moved onto School Action Plus, the Individual Provision Map will be drawn up to include advice from outside agencies. This might include Specialist Teaching Service, Educational Psychologists or Health Service.

 

Statutory Assessment:

If the child continues to fall behind other children of the same age, despite the interventions that have been put into place, it might be necessary to refer the child for statutory assessment. The child may then receive a Statement of Special Educational Need. Termly reviews will continue, but in addition to these, an annual review will be held where all relevant outside agencies will be invited to attend in order to evaluate progress and plan for the next year. The LEA monitors progress through the annual review.

 

Provision for SEN

Aston   Clinton   School provides for children with SEN through the following means:

 

• Teaching Assistants work in class to support pupils at School Action and School Action Plus.
• Children are, at times, withdrawn from their classes to work either individually or in small groups with a Teaching Assistant.
• The school uses some of its budget to purchase support from Buckinghamshire’s Specialist Teaching Service. A teacher from this service provides advice, interventions in the form of direct teaching and assessment of pupils’ needs and progress.
• In addition, the school has access to an Educational Welfare Officer, Speech and Language Therapists and the Educational Psychologist.

 

Click here to view our SEN Policy.