Thornham St.James’ Primary School

Inclusion Policy

1 Introduction

At Thornham St.James‘ we value the individuality of all of our children. We are committed to giving all of our children every opportunity to achieve the highest of standards. We do this by taking account of pupils’ varied life experiences and needs. We offer a broad and balanced curriculum and have high expectations for all children. The achievements, attitudes and well-being of all our children matter. This policy helps to ensure that this school promotes the individuality of all our children, irrespective of ethnicity, attainment, age, disability, gender or background. 

2 Aims and objectives

Our school aims to be an inclusive school. 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. We make this a reality through the attention we pay to the 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;
• • children with disabilities
• • able, gifted and talented children;
• • children who are at risk of disaffection or exclusion;
• • looked after children

Objectives:

• To ensure that the Special Educational needs and Disability Act (2001) and the Special Educational needs Code of Practice (2001) are implemented across the school.
• To ensure equality of opportunity for and to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against children with special educational needs.
• To continually monitor the progress of all pupils, to identify needs as they arise and to provide support and challenge as early as possible.
• To provide full access to the curriculum through differentiated planning.
• To provide specific input, matched to individual needs for those children at school action, school action plus and statement levels of intervention.
• To ensure that children with SEN are perceived positively by all members of the school community and that inclusive provision is positively valued by staff and parents/carers.
• To involve parents/carers at every stage in plans to meet their child’s needs.
• Where possible, to involve the children themselves when planning their provision.
• To promote the personal, social, moral and cultural development of all children.
• To include all pupils in all aspects of school life and recognise and celebrate the progress and achievements of all.

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
• • differentiated learning activities
• • responding to advice from outside support agencies

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

• • do all our children achieve their best?
• • are there differences in the achievement of different groups of children?
• • what are we doing for those children who we know are not achieving their best?
• • are our actions effective?
• • are we successful in promoting racial harmony and preparing pupils to live in a diverse society?

3 Teaching and learning style

We aim to give all our children the opportunity to succeed and reach the highest level of personal achievement. We analyse the attainment of different groups of pupils to ensure that all pupils are achieving as much as they can. We also make ongoing assessments of each child’s progress. Teachers use this information when planning their lessons. It enables them to take into account the abilities of all their children and differentiate activities accordingly.

 When the attainment of a child falls significantly below the expected level, teachers enable the child to succeed by planning work that is in line with that child’s individual needs. Where the attainment of a child significantly exceeds the expected level of attainment, teachers use materials from a later key stage, or extend the breadth of work within the area or areas for which the child shows particular aptitude.

Teachers are familiar with the equal opportunities legislation covering race, gender and disability.

Teachers ensure that all children:

• • feel secure and know that their contributions are valued
• • appreciate and value the differences they see in others
• • take responsibility for their own actions
• • are taught in groupings that allow them all to experience success
• • use materials that reflect a range of social and cultural backgrounds, without stereotyping
• • have a common curriculum experience that allows for a range of different learning styles
• • have challenging targets that enable them to succeed
• • participate fully, regardless of disabilities or medical needs 

4 Children with disabilities

A disabled person is one who has a physical or mental disability, which has a substantial and long term adverse affect on his/her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. This covers physical disabilities, sensory impairments and learning disabilities. Often a disabled pupil will also have SEN, but this is not always the case.

All reasonable steps are taken to ensure that disabled children are not placed at a substantial disadvantage to those who are not disabled, in accordance with the Disability Act 2001. However, Thornham St.James’ is not a barrier free school and considerable building modifications would be necessary.

5 Disapplication and modification

The school can, where necessary, modify or disapply the National Curriculum and its assessment arrangements. Our school policy is to do this only in exceptional circumstances. The school makes every effort to meet the learning needs of all its children, without recourse to disapplication or modification. We achieve this through greater differentiation of the child’s work, or through the provision of additional learning resources. When necessary, we also support learning through appropriate external specialists. In such cases, teachers work closely with these specialists to support the child.

In exceptional circumstances we may decide that modification or disapplication is the correct procedure to follow. We would only do this after detailed consultation with parents and the Local Education Authority. The school’s governor with responsibility for special educational needs would also be closely involved in this process. We would ensure that every effort had been made to provide the necessary support from within the school’s resources before considering such action.

6 Summary 

In our school we value each child as a unique individual. We will strive to meet the needs of all our children, and seek to ensure that we meet all statutory requirements related to matters of inclusion.

7 Monitoring and review

In order to determine the effectiveness of a policy, it is necessary to monitor and evaluate its impact. This will be achieved by:

1. a) The Headteacher and SLT:

• Monitoring pupil progress
• Monitoring behavioural incidents
• Monitoring absence and lateness data

1. b) The Governing Body, via the curriculum committee, reviewing the effectiveness of the policy.

 September 2020