POLICY for SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS and DISABILITIES
Purpose: This policy explains how the school caters for pupils with Special Educational
Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and fulfils its obligations under SEN Code of Practice and
relevant legislation.
The Policy:
It is the policy of Larchwood Primary School to comply with the Special Educational Needs
and Disability Act 2001, the Education act 1996, and subsequent regulations as detailed in
the SEN Code of Practice and “SEN Toolkit”
 The Education (Special Educational Needs) (England) (Consolidation) Regulations
2001.
 The Special Educational Needs (Provision of Information by Local Education Authorities)
(England) Regulations 2001.
 The Education (Special Educational Needs) (Information) (England) Regulations 1999.
The Rationale:
Larchwood Primary School is committed to ensuring that all pupils are able to participate
fully in a differentiated curriculum, including the National Curriculum, enabling their true
potential to be used to maximise their achievement. Learning support encompasses all
pupils, with special need provision for less able pupils and the more able and gifted.
The law states that “a pupil has special educational needs if he or she has learning
difficulties and therefore, needs a particular type of learning support.” A pupil has learning
difficulties if he or she finds it much harder to learn than most pupils of the same age. The
school is willing to take such action as it can reasonably resource, so as the make additional
support available, in consultation with parents and specialist advisers.
Not all pupils with disabilities will require specific support for learning but some may require
support to access either the sections of the physical environment or certain resources.
Guiding principles:
The school aims to meet the needs of any pupil whom the parent wishes to register at the
School, as long as a place is available and the admission criteria are fulfilled. The currently
agreed admissions policy of the Governors makes no distinction with regard to pupils who
have SEN. No pupil can be refused admission solely on the grounds that he/she has SEN,
except where the pupil is the subject of a “Statement” under section 168 of the Education Act
1983 and the Local Education Authority has indicated (in section 3 of the Statement) that the
provision required is incompatible with that available at the school.
All members of the teaching staff are regarded as teachers of pupils requiring learning
support and play an important part in a monitoring process to identify learning difficulties and
establish the need for additional support. The SEN Team and learning support staff will
support the pupils, parents and teachers in a three way partnership that is underpinned by
explicit support for the school ethos of entitlement and equal value.
2
The school will use strategies of assessment and monitoring suitable for all pupils, and the
identification and assessment of pupils’ educational needs will be as laid down in the Code
of Practice, including requesting a statutory assessment.
.
The school is committed to providing teaching staff with training specifically for the purpose
of supporting pupils with additional needs.
.
Arrangements for considering complaints about special educational provision at Larchwood
Primary School are through the school’s complaints procedure policy.
Those responsible include:
o the head teacher who has overall responsibility for the provision of learning
and additional support in the school;
o the SENCO, meeting with other staff, pupils, parents and outside agencies,
maintaining records and monitoring the progress of individual pupils.
o a named Governor, who monitors SEN support in the school.
Expected outcome:
Criteria for evaluating the success of the school’s SEN policy is set out as follows:
The SEN policy is successful when
o the number of pupils on SEN Stages of Assessment is minimised
o pupils on Stages make progress working towards coming off Stages
o pupils have tangible achievements at Key Stage 1and Key Stage 2
o pupils self-esteem and confidence are boosted.
Related documents:
Equality Information and Objectives
Accessibility Plan
Review:
This policy will be reviewed triennially at a meeting of the Curriculum and Standards
Committee in the Spring term.