Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School - SEN Information Report

Our Special Educational Needs (SEN) report is part of the Derbyshire Local Offer for secondary schools and has been produced with students, parents/carers, governors, and staff.

We are committed to working together with all members of our school community. If you have feedback or questions about SEN provisions at DHFS, please contact any of the people below:

Ms J Stubbs

Assistant Headteacher – Inclusion

01246 412372 Ext: 150
jstubbs@dhfs.uk

Mrs S Torry

Learning Support Manager
Operational SENCO

01246 412372 Ext: 269
storry@dhfs.uk

Our School’s Learning Culture

“Success with Care”

We want to inspire students to have a ‘thirst for knowledge’ and develop into successful independent learners. All students have the capacity to develop the attributes of successful Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School learners: responsibility, resilience and reflection (3Rs). Our lessons don’t only focus on what students are learning (the subject content) but also how and why they are learning (skills and benefit). The 3Rs help to provide both students and teachers with a vocabulary to describe the process of learning. The 3Rs must therefore be taught, modelled, celebrated, developed and made explicit in all that we do. The 3Rs of successful learners are that all students are responsible, resilient, and reflective.

Types Of SEN We Support

Autistic Spectrum Disorder
ADHD – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Specific learning difficulties – Dyslexia / Dyscalculia
Hearing impaired students
Visual impaired students
Physical impaired students
Emotional and social development
Speech, language and communications difficulties

Click to access SEND-dyslexic-screener-report-sample-doc.pdf

Supporting learners with SEN

We believe in participation for all. We want all adults and children to participate in learning and we celebrate all members of our community. We want to create an inclusive culture in school and we aim to be responsive to the diversity of children’s backgrounds, interests, experience, knowledge and skills.

We value quality first teaching for all learners and have robust processes in place to monitor the teaching and learning in the school. For more information on our approach, please see our “Learning & Teaching Policy” in the policies area of the website.

Our whole school improvement plan is about developing learning for all and details are planned continued professional learning (PL) opportunities for all staff.

We aim to create a learning environment which is flexible enough to meet the needs of all members of our school community. We monitor progress of all learners, and staff continually assesses the progress of their students ensuring that learning is taking place. Staff record behaviour and learning in the positive report sheet.

Identifying SEN

At different times in their school career, a child or young person may have a special educational need. The Code of Practice defines SEN as:

“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. 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.”

If a learner is identified as having SEN, we will provide provision that is ‘additional to or different from’ the normal differentiated curriculum, intended to overcome the barrier to their learning.

Learners can fall behind in school for lots of reasons. They may have been absent from school, they may have attended lots of different schools and not had a consistent opportunity to learn. They may not speak English very well or at all or may be worried about different things that distract them from learning.

At Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School we are committed to ensuring that all learners have access to learning opportunities, and for those who are at risk of not learning, we will intervene. This does not mean that all vulnerable learners have SEN. Only those with a learning difficulty that requires special educational provision will be identified as having SEN.

Assessing SEN

Class teachers, support staff, parents / carers and the learner themselves will be the first to notice a difficulty with learning. At Dronfield Henry Fanshawe school we ensure that assessment of educational needs, directly involves the learner, their parents/carer and of course their Teacher. The Learning Support Manager (Operational SENCO) will also support with the identification of barriers to learning. We have a range of assessment tools available.

For some learners we may want to seek advice from specialist teams in our school and we have access to various specialist services. We have access to services universally provided by Derbyshire County Council (DCC), which are described on the Local Offer.

Other agencies we work with

Educational Psychologist – Our Derbyshire Educational Psychologist. All work undertaken by the Educational Psychologist will be charged to the school. The work of the Educational Psychologist includes working mainly with young people;

Who have a Statement or an Educational Health and Care Plan or where the local authority needs to make decisions to access.
Where the students’ needs are highly complex and persistent, they have received a graduated response and where they are likely to progress through statutory assessment.
Some children the local authority prioritised e.g. where they have complex needs and are in care and/or facing exclusion.

Such cases will be considered against their threshold for involvement and discussed in termly planning meetings between the Assistant Headteacher Inclusion and the Student Support Manager and our delegated Educational Psychologist.

All work completed by the Educational Psychologist, School will be charged for.

Services provided by DCC and accessed at DHFS for specifically identified and diagnosed students include:

Speech and Language Therapist
Hearing Impaired Service
Physical Impaired Service
School Health and School Nurse
Physiotherapist
Visual Impaired Service

Additional available purchased services at DHFS (costs available on requests) include:

County Behaviour Support Service
Art Therapy
Additional services approved by Derbyshire and Sheffield Local Authority
Tailor made programme

Additional in house services at DHFS include:

We have a variety of teachers and teaching assistants and other support staff working within our school. Every member of staff in our school is trained in all aspects of safeguarding, and in addition, some of our teachers, teaching assistants and additional support staff have taken part in training in relation to autism, dyslexia, ADHD, attachment disorder, dyslexia, and working with hearing, visual or physical impaired students.

Several of our teaching assistants are faculty based and therefore have subject specific training.

We employ a variety of Teaching Assistants’ from Level 2 to HLTA level.

Emotional Support Worker
Positive Support
Group work / Catch up for literacy and numeracy skills
1:1 interventions
Academic Mentor
Peer Mentor

Supporting learners with SEN at DHFS

Every teacher is required to adapt the curriculum to ensure access to learning for all children in their class. The Teacher Standards 2012 detail the expectations on all teachers, and we at Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School are proud of our teachers and their development.

Our teachers will use various strategies to adapt access to the curriculum, this might include using:

Writing frames
iPads, lap tops or other alternative recording devices
Peer buddy systems
Behaviour rewards system
Personalisation and differentiation
Deployment of a teaching assistant

Each learner identified as having SEN, is entitled to support that is ‘additional to or different from’ a normal differentiated curriculum. The type of support is dependent on the individual learning needs, and is intended to enable access to learning and overcome the barrier to learning identified.

SEN funding

Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School receives funding directly to the school from the Local Authority to support the needs of learners with SEN. This is described in a SEN memorandum and forms part of our overall school budget.

Evaluating how effective our support is

Monitoring progress is an integral part of teaching and leadership within Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School. Parents/carers, students and staff are involved in reviewing the impact of interventions for learners with SEN. We follow the ‘assess, plan, do, review’ model and ensure that parents/carers and children are involved in each step.

Before any additional provision is selected to help a child, the SEND Consultant, Assistant Headteacher Inclusion, Learning Support Manager, Teachers, House Progress Leaders, House Support Managers, parent/carer and learner agree what they expect to be different following this intervention. A baseline will also be recorded, which can be used to compare the impact of the provision.

Stakeholder involvement

Children, parents/carers and teaching and support staff will be directly involved in reviewing progress. This review can be built in to the intervention itself, or it can be a formal meeting held at least once a term, where we all discuss progress and next steps. If a learner has a Statement of Special Educational Needs or an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC plan,) the same termly review conversations take place, but the EHC plan will also be formally reviewed annually.

The Learning Support team collates the impact data of interventions, to ensure that we are only using interventions that work. Intervention data is shared with our senior leadership team and with governors.

Progress data of all learners is collated by the whole school and monitored by Teachers, Senior Leaders and House Progress Leaders.

Our school data is also monitored by the Local Authority and Ofsted.

Other opportunities for learning

All learners should have the same opportunity to access extracurricular activities. At Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School we are offering a range of additional clubs and activities.

We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to ensure participation for all, so please contact our Learning Support Manager (Operational SENCO) for further information.

Disability

This legislation of the Equality Act 2010 places specific duties on schools, settings and providers including the duty not to discriminate, harass or victimise a child or adult linked to a protected characteristic defined in the Equality Act and to make ‘reasonable adjustments.’

The Equality Act 210 definition of disability is:

“A person has a disability for the purposes of this Act if (s)he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to day activities.”

Section 1(1) Disability Discrimination Act 1995

This definition of disability in the Equality Act includes children with long term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and cancer. Children and young people with such conditions do not necessarily have SEN, but there is a significant overlap between disabled children and young people and those with SEN. Children and young people may therefore be covered by both SEN and disability legislation.

For more information about the Equality Act, the protected characteristics or duties on public bodies, please refer to the Equality Act 2010 Guidance document. Also see our “Equalities Policy & Objectives” document in the policies area of the website.

Preparing learners for the next step

Transition is a part of life for all learners. This can be transition to a new class in school, having a new teacher, or moving on to another school, training provider or moving in to employment. Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School is committed to working in partnership with children, families and other providers to ensure positive transitions occur.

Planning for transition is a part of our provision for all learners with SEN. Transition to our school for students with a Statement of Special Educational Needs or a Health and Educational Care plan will start during their Year 5 review where the Student Support Manager from DHFS will be present, to ensure enough time for planning and preparation is given to each individual student.

Information relating to students moving from Year 6 into Year 7

Contribute and have your say

We can shape and develop provision for all of our learners ensuring achievement for all. This SEN report declares our annual offer to learners with SEN, but to be effective it needs the views of all parents/carers, learners, governors and staff. We welcome your feedback and future involvement in the review of our offer, so please do contact us .