This information has been produced to provide support and clarity to parents, on the type of support, interventions and strategies that should be available to your child in a mainstream setting in the Royal Borough of Greenwich (RBG). The information is primarily for parents with children at SEN support of the Code of Practice i.e. identified as having additional educational needs but not with an Education Health Care Plan, but also applies to pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan.
This document should be read alongside the more detailed guidance about support available without an education health care plan for specific details for individual areas of need (to the right of the screen).
What the Royal Borough of Greenwich expects your child’s schools to do, to
ensure your child is included?
- RBG and partner agencies believe that wherever possible, your child should be educated alongside their local peers in their local school/community
- Schools are expected to meet the individual needs of your child, including any additional needs through personalised learning plans and a graduated response,responsive to your child’s changing needs.
- This response may need to become more intensive with more specialized input being delivered over time, and in some cases may result in a request for statutory assessment if the resources available to the school are not sufficient to meet your child’s needs.
- Your child’s school will be expected to adapt the curriculum, to enable your child’s learning, which may include adaptations to the way the curriculum is delivered e.g. providing a sensory curriculum in older year groups etc..
RBG EXPECTS YOUR CHILD’S SCHOOL TO:
1. Set suitable learning challenges for your child
Teachers are expected to set high expectations for every pupil, including planning
lessons for pupils with additional needs.
2. Respond to your child’s individual needs
Lessons should be planned to ensure that there are no barriers for your child to achieve
and if necessary access will be made for your child to use specialist equipment and
different approaches. There is detailed information available about this in the full
document, organised into different areas of need:
- Cognition and Learning: (Moderate and Specific Learning Difficulties) this includes dyslexia
- Speech & Language Difficulties
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties
- Physical Disability /Medical Condition
- Sensory Impairment: (vision & hearing)
Information is available in each of these specialist areas, based on good practice to meet needs, on:
- How the classroom/whole school environment should be adapted for your child
- How the curriculum should be adapted for your child
- Any specialist teaching methods or interventions that may be appropriate to consider
- Links with you and other important people in their life outside of school
- Support for social development /pastoral support
3. Plan with you and your child to meet your needs:
Schools are expected to plan with you and your child, around what you and your child want them to achieve in their life, leading to achievable and realistic actions and next steps. This will be captured in your child’s “pupil profile” which is always completed when a statutory assessment is requested, but is recommended to be completed at the point that is clear that your child has additional educational needs, and should be updated with you and your child on a regular basis.
Outcomes (future goals) will then be set with you and your child as steps towards the
longer term aspirations.
PUBLIC SECTOR EQUALITY DUTY
The Public Sector Equality Duty, which came into force across Great Britain on 5 April
2011, requires schools to:
- Remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their disabilities.
- Take steps to meet the needs of people with disabilities where these are different from the needs of other people.
- Encourage people with disabilities to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.
These duties apply to inclusion within the school setting but also to trips out of school,
school journeys, shortened school days etc… Detailed information about the Equality Duty can be found here.
FUNDING AVAILABLE IN MAINSTREAM SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN (up to
16 years of age) WITHOUT AN EHC PLAN:
Schools receive funding from RBG to support your child if they need extra support at SEN Support level. It is expected that schools typically have sufficient funds available to provide support if your child needs up to and including 20 hours of support, without needing to ask for a statutory assessment. Schools can request additional support if they have exceptional needs within a year group etc.
If you require information for students older than 16 years this can be provided through the SEN department.
If you require information for children below statutory school age (i.e. not yet in Reception then please use the following link to the detailed guidance, as funding is organised in a different way.
Early Years Inclusion Fund Disability Access Fund