INCLUSION - ensuring every individual is included

Our Inclusion Lead is Mrs Bennett. If you would like to contact her please call the school office on 01342 712372 or email her directly at sen@copthornejunior.co.uk.

Our team of Learning Support Assistants work in the classrooms to assist children with their learning. In some cases this can be on a 1:1 basis, but usually they work with a group of children to encourage children to work together and to ensure social integration.

Mrs Linda Kensett is our Learning Mentor. She works with children who have emotional or social difficulties (for example: bereavement, friendship issues, anxiety etc) on a 1:1 basis (usually for a session a week or every 2 weeks) to help them overcome any difficulties which are affecting their learning.

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If you feel your child needs a referral to our Learning Mentor, please contact their class teacher or the Inclusion Manager (contact details above).

INCLUSION STATEMENT

Our school offers a broad, balanced curriculum enriched with opportunities for children to become highly motivated, well developed and independent learners. We aim to be an inclusive school; to include all pupils, whatever their abilities or special needs. We actively seek to remove the barriers to learning and participation that can hinder or exclude individual pupils, or groups of pupils.

This means that "Equality of Opportunity" must be a reality for our children.

This means we adapt to allow all children the same opportunity wherever possible. This spans a wide continuum; some examples are a child may need:

• a wheelchair to move around
• a special cushion to provide sensory feedback and so aid concentration
• a pencil grip to assist handwriting
• extra time with an adult

ALL CHILDREN ARE DIFFERENT AND HAVE DIFFERENT NEEDS

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We attend to a number of different groups of children within our school:

• girls and boys
• minority ethnic and faith groups
• children who need support to learn English as an additional language
• children with special educational needs
• gifted and talented children
• children who are at risk of disaffection or exclusion
• travellers and asylum seekers
• Looked After Children
• pupils eligible for Pupil Premium funding (those who have or have had Free School Meals)

If an individual child’s special needs require special support or arrangements we will endeavour to meet their needs, making such adjustments as are necessary and reasonable. In our School the teaching and learning, achievements, attitudes and well-being of every child are very important.

We strive to:

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• set and maintain the highest standards of behaviour
• develop in each child an awareness of self and of the needs of others
• allow each child to feel fulfilment through achievement
• encourage initiative, resourcefulness, tolerance and perseverance

We are committed to giving all our children every opportunity to achieve the highest of standards. The National Curriculum is our starting point for planning a curriculum that meets the specific needs of individuals and groups of children.

We meet these needs through:

• setting suitable learning challenges
• responding to children’s diverse learning needs
• overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils
• providing other curricular opportunities outside the National Curriculum to meet the needs of individuals or groups of children, eg: speech and language, co-ordination, social skills groups.

We aim to achieve educational inclusion by continually reviewing what we do, through asking ourselves these key questions:

• do all our children achieve their best?
• if there are differences in the achievement of different groups of children, why?

Local Offer - What do East Grinstead Group of Schools (EGGS) offer children
with Special Educational Needs

As you may know, the Government has recently changed the way children with Special Educational Needs will be provided for. We work closely with our locality group of schools and in response to the changes together, we have written the following statement explaining how we are addressing these changes. This will be kept updated as there are changes.

"In response to a request from the EGGS Headteachers' Group and in the light of forthcoming national legislation, EGGS SENCos have taken a proactive approach to the development of future Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) provision for the 0-25 age group by considering the feasibility of a local SEND Hub Network based in East Grinstead.

Representatives of parents, governors and SENCos have met together to share an introduction to the concept of a SEND Hub Network.

The group felt that strategically the creation of a local hub would better serve the families, children and young people in the area and this will be the basis of the local offer.

A working party will take this project forward over the coming month, reporting to headteachers, governors and SENCo's initially and with a view to reporting to and consulting more widely with a broader stakeholder group including families, providers and associated services, including health and social care.

If you have any queries , please do not hesitate to contact Miss Melissa Ash, our Deputy Headteacher with responsibility for Inclusion.

What if I think my child has special educational needs?

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We recognise you know your child best and if you have concerns please speak to your child's class teacher or contact the Inclusion Manager, who would be more than happy to help.

It might help to think about the following questions:

• What are you pleased to notice?
• What are your concerns? Is you child struggling with something in particular?
• What are your best hopes?

What if I think my child is gifted or talented?

We recognise that you know your child best and they may have talents and interests outside of school we would love to hear about and encourage in school. So please speak to your child's class teacher or contact Miss Melissa Ash our Inclusion Manager who would be more than happy to help.

It might help to think about the following questions:

• What areas are they excelling in? What tells you this?
• What are you pleased to notice?
• What are your concerns?
• What are your best hopes?