SEND Information Report / School Offer: Hilbre High School

The Governing Body of Hilbre High School aims to recognise students' special educational needs, to meet those needs within the resources of the school and the Local Authority, to promote awareness of those children, to pay due regard to the SEND Code of Practice 2014 and enable those children to achieve their potential.

Mrs Z Morrey is the SEND Coordinator and is responsible for the day-to-day provision and the coordination of Local Authority provision. Mrs Morrey is a member of the school's Senior Leadership Team.

Students are placed on the SEN register according to their level of need. Students at SEND Support or those students who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), have a Provision Map which is produced in collaboration with all curriculum areas. Provision Maps are documents which record students’ needs and identify appropriate support strategies. These documents are reviewed and progress monitored during the academic year.

SEND students are fully integrated and supported, where possible, in the class. Students may be withdrawn for individual or small group tuition, as appropriate. The school is fully accessible to students in wheelchairs.

SEND is resourced as part of the annual funding allocation, received directly from the Education Funding Agency to meet the needs of all SEN students on roll. The school also receives additional funding from the Local Authority for designated provisions, ie. for students with EHCPs.  eg, SEN statements and EHCs.

Funding received covers the provision of appropriate staffing, training and educational resources/equipment.

Identification of SEND students occurs through liaison with primary schools and internal referral via Form Tutors, subject teachers or Teaching Assistants. The Code of Practice is implemented to identify and clarify need.

All students have equal access to the curriculum including the National Curriculum which is modified where necessary to meet students' needs. Differentiation of the work occurs as appropriate. Access to education activities would only be denied if it was likely to be prejudicial to the student's health or well-being.

The Governing Body receives reports from the SENCO through the Headteacher’s report to the Governors on a termly basis. Special arrangements for extra reports are made as appropriate. Two Governors have specific responsibility for SEND and report to the governing body after visits and meetings with the SENCO. Progress of SEND students is evaluated on a regular basis and reported upon.

Complaints about special needs provision would be made to the Headteacher or Governor with responsibility for SEND. Disagreements with Local Authority provision are dealt with by them directly. The SENCO and class teachers will deal with complaints should they arise.

Copies of the Local Authority and School Policy are available for reference.

The school values the support from the wide range of Local Authority Support facilities such as SENAAT; School Psychological Service; Hearing and Visually Impaired Service, Speech Therapy and Kilgarth Outreach.

Partnerships with parents are essential, therefore formal and informal liaison takes place on a regular basis. Annual Review Meetings are held for all students with an EHCP, as well as additional meetings with parents as appropriate.

Links with feeder primary schools are essential for the most effective provision to be made.   Pre-visits to special schools are also essential. Links with secondary special schools enable us to investigate SEND strategies for individual students.

The school facilitates a multi-disciplinary approach and works closely with Children's Services.

How do we define Special Education Needs?

Definition of Special Educational Needs (SEN):

The Special Educational Needs (SEN) Code of Practice: for 0 to 25 years states that:

‘a child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. Where a child or young person has a disability or health condition which requires special educational provision to be made, they will be covered by the SEN definition:

‘A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they:

(a) have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age; or

(b) have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.’

The Four Categories for Special Educational Needs and Disability Provision are:

• Communication and interaction

• Cognition and learning

• Social, mental and emotional health

• Sensory and/or physical

• Many children and young people have difficulties that fit clearly into one of these areas; some have needs that span two or more areas; for others the precise nature of their need may not be clear at the outset.

We provide specialist SEND support in the following areas:

• Medical/Physical

• Curriculum

• Sixth Form

• Literacy

• Numeracy

• Social and communication 

• Social, emotional and mental health

• Resourced Provision

• English as an Additional Language (EAL)

• Advisory Capacity for Teaching Staff

More information about our Resourced Provision:

The Resourced Provision at Hilbre is designed to meet the needs of students who have a EHCP for an Autistic Spectrum Disorder and/or Moderate Learning Difficulty. Specifically, it includes those students whose needs are complex and currently not able to adapt to the demands of the whole school curriculum and require smaller group specialist teaching for at least part of the curriculum.

Allocation of places in the Resourced Provision is controlled by the Local Authority and is dependent on needs identified with a EHCP. The provision caters for children from a number of year groups. Lessons are taught vertically as pupils are grouped by Key Stage. 

The aim of the provision is to meet the individual needs of students in small teaching groups, whilst providing and supporting access to the wider school community. This access includes inclusion in appropriate lessons within the mainstream school, and support in unstructured time within the school day. 

There are two models which operate within the Resource Provision, access to these models is dependent on the primary need of the student. The first model is for students who cannot access mainstream lessons due to a moderate learning difficulty and/or a barrier to learning that significantly impairs their ability to access a mainstream curriculum . These students are taught their core subjects in the Base and access the mainstream for optional subjects to allow for inclusion. The second model is for students whose primary need is ASC and are of average academic ability. These students access their core subjects in the mainstream school and are withdrawn from optional subjects to allow time in the Base to attend holistic lessons that address their social and emotional needs. 

The students in Resourced Provision are taught by specialist teachers in supporting their special educational needs, with extra input from subject specialists where possible. The groups are taught in our dedicated Base which consists of 2 rooms, one for each Key Stage. The Resource Provision also has a sensory room for the students who access the Resourced Provision. In addition, there is also a school dog which is based in the Resourced Provision to provide therapeutic support to Resource Provision students. 

As students progress through the school, they can access either GCSE or alternative curriculum options. This allows them to leave school with qualifications when they may access further education or a secure place of employment.

How do we identify, assess and provide for pupils with SEND?

Criteria for SEND Action:

We identify required actions for SEND students in terms of rates of progress to be achieved and access to learning. When children or young people have significant gaps in terms of their actual progress or access to learning and when this deficit can be ascribed to an identifiable learning need (as stated in the SEND definition above), the child or young person will be placed on the SEND register so that they are able to make greater progress with SEND support, rather than without it.

Important: Defining a child or young person as having SEND does not mean that they will automatically be placed on the SEND register (see below). It may be the case that, should they not meet criteria for this, they will be monitored and that, should their progress dictate, they will be placed on the register at some future point. Equally, if a registered student who has received SEND support becomes able to make the expected progress without further SEND support, the student will be removed from the SEND register.

The SEND categories we use are:

• Non SEND Register Support (N)

• SEND Support (K)

• EHCPs (E)

The SEND Register:

The SEND register is comprised of two categories. The highest category of need is represented by students who have an Education, Health and Social Care Plan (EHCP). These students require additional resource, provided either out of the school’s own funding (‘Tier 2 funding’) or via a combination of school’s funding plus ‘top-up’ funding provided by the Local Authority (‘Tier 3 funding’).

Some students will have additional needs that require extra support but this support will be at a level below that of an EHCP. These students will be identified as having SEND Support and they form the second category of students whom we place on the SEND register. Students in this category receive a Provision Map,  a document which serves to indicate their needs to teachers as well as summarise the key aspects of their needs and strategies that can usefully be adapted in the classroom.

Note: In addition to the two categories above that appear on the register, we also have identified groups of children who may require extra support but who do not appear on the register (SEND monitoring). These students will receive targeted support in the classroom from their teachers. They may also receive an individual plan in the form of a Provision Map.

Intervention and Support:

The Hilbre SEND Department and all Hilbre staff operate with the following aim:

• To ensure that all students can access school life and the school curriculum regardless of additional need.

Within this remit the department seeks to provide support in the following ways:

• By supporting teaching colleagues as they deliver Quality First Teaching.

• By providing discrete interventions for students who are on the SEND register to support students in terms of their progress.

• By providing medical/physical support

• By providing discrete support as appropriate (e.g. EAL intervention).

Process of Referral and Intervention:

Our teachers are responsible and accountable for the progress and development of the students in their class, even where students access support from teaching assistants or specialist staff. Where a student is not making adequate progress, the SENCO, teachers and parents/carers must, where appropriate, collaborate on problem-solving, planning support and teaching strategies for individual students.

Identification, Information Gathering and Review:

The identification of SEND is built into the overall approach to monitoring the progress and development of all our students.

At Hilbre, we carry out a detailed individual assessment of each child or young person and their situation at the earliest opportunity to make an accurate assessment of their needs.

Assessment consists of:

• CATs Testing

• Reading and Spelling Age Assessment

• Key Stage 2 SATs testing

• Specialised testing. E.g. dyslexia screening / additional reading tests

• Observation by specialist teachers. E.g. ASC.

In addition to the above, teachers, supported by the Senior Leadership Team, make regular assessments of progress for all students and student progress is regularly recorded in school monitoring. Where students are not making adequate progress given their age and starting point, they will initially receive additional support from their teacher.

Adequate progress is progress which:

• is similar to that of peers starting from the same baseline;

• matches or betters the child’s previous rate of progress;

• closes the attainment gap between the child and their peers;

• prevents the attainment gap growing wider.

At this initial stage of identification, teachers may suspect that a student has SEND. While gathering further evidence (including the views of the student and their parents/carers) teachers will put general teaching support in place, where required. The student’s response to such support can help to identify their particular needs.

Where students continue to make inadequate progress, despite high-quality teaching targeted at their areas of weakness, the SENCO, working with the class teachers, will assess whether the child has a significant learning difficulty. Where this is the case, then a decision will be made about the level of SEND support that is required to support the child.

Determining the Level of Support Required:

After Identification and Information Gathering, a decision whether to take the referral further will be made.

Step 1: Consult with referrers

Step 2: Consult with teachers and other internal staff

 Step 3: Consult with parents/carers

Step 4: Consult with Outside Agencies

Step 5: Decision: The student is SEND and will be placed on the register, or not.

Step 6: Decision: If the student is SEND but not at a level sufficient for registration, the SEND team will organise (non-register) support to be administered in the classroom by teachers and be placed on the monitoring list.

Step 7: If the student is SEND and should be placed on the register, a decision as to what level of support is required will be made. 

Step 8: Inform parents/carers of the outcome

Step 9: For EHCP Students: Consultation with outside agencies and parents/carers to agree to make a referral for an assessment to the Local Authority  for an EHCP.

Review criteria:

Is progress based on the SEND Code of Practice as follows?

All students are able to make adequate progress which:

• is similar to that of peers starting from the same baseline;

• matches or betters the child’s previous rate of progress;

• closes the attainment gap between the child and their peers;

• prevents the attainment gap growing wider.

Termly Review Decisions:

• Is the student responding to the level of support given?

• Is the student achieving the targets/outcomes that have been set?

• Do we maintain, withdraw, increase or decrease SEND support?

• Should alternative (none SEND) support be given as an alternative?

• Should the student be exited from SEND support?

 The Process of Individual Planning:

Two forms of plans exist for students on the SEND register; Education, Health and Social Care Plans (EHCPs) and Additional SEND Support Plans (Provision Maps). The process of both identification and planning can be summarised as follows:

Referral/initial identification – assessment – planning – monitoring - review

Progress and Monitoring:

Written into both EHCPs and Provision Maps are targets and success criteria. Both forms of plan will be formally reviewed and monitored on a termly basis. This monitoring consists essentially of measuring students’ rates of learning progress and, in light of this, reviewing, amending, adapting or ceasing the plan. Any major changes to a plan will be discussed first and as we seek to ensure that the plan continues to reflect the views of the young person and their families. EHCPs are also monitored via a scheduled annual meeting between the key support agencies and the young person and their family.

 

Use of Data and Record Keeping:

We will record details of additional or different provision made under SEND support. This will form part of regular discussions with parents/carers about the child’s progress, expected outcomes from the support and planned next steps. We will ensure that we have accurate information to evidence the SEND support that has been provided over the student’s time in the school, as well as its impact.

How is Hilbre High School Accessible to students with SEND?

Facilities for SEND Students or Students Who are Disabled:

The school is working with students with physical disabilities and their parents/carers and carers to enable them to participate in school life as fully as possible.

The School has full wheelchair access and works with relevant organisations and agencies to adapt the environment and curriculum to ensure continuing access.

Below is our Hilbre High School Humanities College Access Strategy:

The school has a responsibility to provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all students. The curriculum provided meets the needs of individuals and groups of students and responds to individual and diverse learning needs and overcoming barriers to learning.

The school will always try to ensure that the needs of most children with SEND and disabilities can be met in a mainstream setting.

Main Principals:

• Secure a greater involvement of disabled students in the day to day life in school and participation in the curriculum

• Achieve changes in confidence in staff in teaching and supporting disabled children with a range of needs

• Secure improvements in the attainment and progress of disabled students.

• Demonstrate a commitment to innovation in curricular development, extending inclusive opportunities

• Ensure access to resources and high quality support to ensure full participation of all students

• Develop relationships with parents/carers and carers and other involved agencies to provide the best learning environment

• Enable all students with SEND and disabilities to realise their potential

• All students with SEND and disabilities will be given a high quality of education and achieve educational standards appropriate to their capabilities

• Improve physical access to school and make them as accessible as would be reasonably expected

• Provide forward looking accessibility strategies

The strategy for developing inclusive schooling for disabled students will be an integral part of the School Improvement Plan and the school will continue to provide increased opportunities for students to access specialist programmes within its mainstream setting.

The School Improvement Plan will give obvious consideration to budgetary and funding constraints in relation to SEND funding for resources, specialist and capital projects and resource provisions.

What are our arrangements for consulting with students with SEND?

A key element of the 2014 legislation is to ensure that children, young people and their families and carers are central in the process of creating EHCPs and Provision Maps. At Hilbre, we will ensure that this is the case by adopting a Person Centred Planning (PCP) approach to the creation of these plans.

This means that we have a process whereby students’ thoughts and feelings about their own learning and needs are carefully gathered. Similarly, the views and feelings of parents/carers, and where appropriate, the young person’s wider family are also collected. To carry out this process properly, time needs to be spent in discussion with both the young person and their families. Our staff follow a structured approach to this process and our aim is to write a structured plan that properly reflects the key views, concerns and wishes of the young person and their family. In the case of EHCPs, the planning process will often cover provision within education but also, where needs dictate, provision within Health and Social Care. Clearly when this is the case we operate a multi-agency approach to support. (Depending on the specific nature of the young person’s needs, Hilbre may be the lead agency when organising the creation of the plan, or in some cases it may be an external Health or Social Care agency that takes on this role).

For Provision Maps, the process of creating the plan is essentially the same, in that it seeks to gather the young person’s feelings and views in relation to their learning and needs, as well as their parent’s/carer’s views. The essential difference in comparison to EHCPs is that these plans are completely internal and focus entirely on educational provision and support within Hilbre.

Student Consultation:

Students who are placed (or are in the process of being placed) on the SEND Register will participate in a Person-Centred Planning process (Provision Maps). The aim of this process is for the student to represent his or her own views about their needs (when relevant this will include needs that could relate to health and social care support) and about their experiences in school. The structure of this process will vary according to the student’s age; the aim will always be to enable the student to best communicate his or her views and feelings about their educational experiences with regard to what works well, what they find problematic and what barriers they feel that they face. The process will also include the setting of targets/outcomes for the student.

Do we have a complaints procedure for parents/carers of students with SEND?

The school aims to be sensitive to the needs of the students and their parents/carers. The SENCO welcomes meeting with parents/carers at mutually agreed times to discuss the needs of their children and the school’s provision for them, including aspects such as health, progress, behaviour at home and at school; factors contributing to difficulties students may be facing and further steps the school might take.

Informal complaints may be made through the child’s Group Tutor, Head of Year, Subject Teacher, Teaching Assistant, SENCO or the Deputy Headteacher. Complaints will be acknowledged and a response given or a meeting arranged for further discussion as soon as possible.

More formally, the Headteacher will receive and investigate complaints and seek to resolve problems.

Parents/carers who have a concern which they feel has not been properly addressed may put their concern in writing to the Chair of the Governing Body.

Parents/carers’ Right of Appeal:

Following statutory assessment by the LA and a decision being made, parents/carers have a right to appeal about the decision to the Special Needs Tribunal.

The following reasons may be used by parents/carers to appeal:

• Refusal to make a formal assessment of the child’s SEND

• The LA has refused to issue an EHCP

Parents/carers may value independent advice and support when their child is being assessed for a possible Statement or EHCP. This can be sought from Parent Partnership.

Who are the other people providing services to pupils of SEND in Hilbre?

Involving Specialists:

Where a student continues to make less than expected progress, despite evidence-based support and interventions that are matched to the student’s area of need, we will consider involving specialists, including those secured by Hilbre or from outside agencies.

Hilbre may involve specialists at any point to advise them on early identification of SEND and effective support and interventions. We will aim to involve a specialist where a student continues to make little or no progress over a sustained period or where they continue to work at levels substantially below those expected of students of a similar age despite evidence-based SEND support delivered by appropriately trained staff. The student’s parents/carers will be involved in any decision to involve specialists. The involvement of specialists and what was discussed or agreed should be recorded and shared with the parents/carers and teaching staff supporting the child in the same way as other SEND support.

Where assessment indicates that support from specialist services is required, it is important that children and young people receive it as quickly as possible. Joint commissioning arrangements should seek to ensure that there are sufficient services to meet the likely need in an area.

Responsibilities for the Co-ordination of SEND Provision in addition to the SEND Department:

• Head of Year and Sixth Form: Heads of Year and Head of Sixth Form should ensure that House meetings contain the opportunity to discuss SEND issues including referral of concerns about individual students. They have a responsibility to collate information about specific students and raise concerns relating to SEND with the SENCO.
• Curriculum Area Leaders: Curriculum Area Leaders should appoint a link SEND teacher to attend SEND Management meetings. They should ensure that Curriculum Area meetings contain the opportunity to discuss SEND issues including referral of concerns about individual students. They must liaise with the SENCO and/or other SEND staff and ensure that their team members liaise, to ensure that advice and guidance is provided for teachers requiring SEND support for the teaching of SEND students.
•  Curriculum Area Link SEND Teacher:  The SEND link teacher acts as the formal link between curriculum areas and the SEND department. They attend SEND Management meetings and refer any Curriculum Area issues to the SENCO. Student referrals must be made using the SEND Referral Form. They will feedback relevant information from the SEND meetings during Curriculum Area meetings.
• Subject Teachers: Subject teachers must ensure that they are aware of the Special Educational Needs of students in their classes. They should be familiar with details given on the school’s SEND register and relevant information (EHCP, Provision Maps) and use the suggested strategies in order to help each student to make adequate progress. Class work and homework should be differentiated in accordance with the students’ SEND.

How to access Wirral Local Authority’s Local Offer

Local Offer Wirral can be accessed by clicking this link www.localofferwirral.org

Local Offer Wirral provides information for children and young people (0-25 years) with special educational needs and disabilities.

The local offer provides information on what services children, young people and their families can expect from a range of local agencies, including education, health and social care as well as information about other local, support services. Knowing what is out there gives you more choice and therefore more control over what support is right for your child.

Local Offer Wirral has been, and will continue to be, developed in partnership with parents, carers, Community Action Wirral, Wirral Family Forum and all service providers. Ensuring that this site provides clear, comprehensive, accessible and up-to-date information about local provision and how to access it.

What are our arrangements for supporting pupils transferring between stages of education and preparing for independent living?

Transition Arrangements for Students with SEND:

In the normal course of events our transition arrangements are such that all students who will be attending Hilbre will, in the summer term of Year 6 meet, in their Primary School environment, a key member of Pastoral staff from Hilbre. Students then attend Hilbre on Induction Day. Some students will, on account of their additional needs, require an enhanced transition. This may require additional visits in order that students can experience various aspects of the school day in advance of Induction Day or following Induction Day and in response to any issues that are identified.

Transition information is arranged when Pastoral staff make their visits to primary schools. In the case of students with additional needs, direct communication between parents/carers/carers/primary colleagues and Hilbre’s SENCO (or other SEND staff) may be required. For some students, additional work may be needed in terms of a ‘Transitions Toolkit’ or other documents designed to collect specific information, particularly for students who are on the Autistic Spectrum. All SEND documentation is transferred from Primary Schools late in the summer term.
 

Post-16:

Under section 41 of the Children and Families Act 2014 (the Act) we will carry out the following specific statutory duties:

Co-operate with the Local Authority on arrangements for children and young people with SEND. This is a reciprocal duty.

The duty to admit a young person if we are named in an Education Health and Care EHCP. Young people have the right to request that an institution is named in their EHCP, and local authorities have a duty to name that institution in the EHCP unless, following consultation with the institution, the Local Authority determines that it is unsuitable for the young person’s age, ability, aptitude or SEND, or that to place the young person there would be incompatible with the efficient use of resources or the efficient education of others.

We will support children and young people in moving between phases of education and in preparation for adulthood – as young people prepare for adulthood this will be reflected in outcomes that reflect their ambitions (eg in relation to employment, higher education, independent living and participation in society).

 

 

Definition of Special Educational Needs (SEN):

The Special Educational Needs (SEN) Code of Practice: for 0 to 25 years states that:

‘a child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. Where a child or young person has a disability or health condition which requires special educational provision to be made, they will be covered by the SEN definition:

‘A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they:

(a) have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age; or

(b) have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.’

The Four Categories for Special Educational Needs and Disability Provision are:

• Communication and interaction

• Cognition and learning

• Social, mental and emotional health

• Sensory and/or physical

• Many children and young people have difficulties that fit clearly into one of these areas; some have needs that span two or more areas; for others the precise nature of their need may not be clear at the outset.