Introduction

Ingleton Primary School;

  • A caring place where everyone feels secure, valued and quality relationships are important.
  • A positive place for developing and celebrating high standards.
  • A successful place where individuals work hard to fulfil their own potential.
  • A place where fairness, honesty, trust and a sense of belonging are promoted.

We value the individuality of all of our children, staff and parents. We are a welcoming school. We are committed to giving all our children every opportunity to achieve the highest of standards. This policy helps to ensure that this happens for all the children in our school – regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, attainment or background.

The policy links in to all areas of school life and feeds in to all other school policies, as well as legal documents.

Aims and objectives

Our school aims to be an inclusive school. This means that equality of opportunity is a reality for our children. We pay attention 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;
  • gifted and talented children;
  • any children who are at risk of disaffection or exclusion.

We have a responsibility to provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all our pupils. The National Curriculum is our starting point for planning a curriculum that meets the specific needs of individuals and groups of children. We do this by:

  • setting suitable learning challenges;
  • making learning fun;
  • ensuring that pupils are healthy and safe;
  • 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. (including speech and language therapy)

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

  • do all our children achieve as much as they can?
  • 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?
  • Who is vulnerable and how can we best support them?

Implementation

We aim to give all our children the opportunity to succeed and reach the highest level of personal achievement. When planning their work, teachers take into account the abilities of all of their children and set suitable learning challenges. Teachers have high expectations for all. 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. For some children, it is appropriate to use the programmes of study from a different key stages or year group.

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 relevant equal opportunities legislation covering race, gender and disability.

Teachers ensure that Ingleton Primary School 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;
  • participate safely in clothing that is appropriate to their religious beliefs;
  • 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;
  • know that bullying and any form of harassment is unacceptable;
  • have challenging targets that enable them to succeed;
  • are motivated and encouraged to concentrate;
  • are encouraged to participate fully, regardless of disabilities, emotional and behavioural difficulties or medical needs.

Children with disabilities

It is unlawful for any school to discriminate against disabled pupils. An audit of the accessibility of our school building and grounds has been completed and is regularly reviewed. Teachers modify teaching and learning as appropriate for all children e.g. they may give additional time to children with disabilities to complete certain activities. For any child with hearing or visual difficulties we follow the advice from NY SEN advisers.

Teachers ensure that the work for all children:

  • takes account of their pace of learning and the equipment they use;
  • takes account of the effort and concentration needed in oral work, or when using, for example, vision aids;
  • is adapted or offers alternative activities in those subjects where children are unable to manipulate tools or equipment, or use certain types of materials;
  • allows opportunities for them to take part in educational visits and other activities linked to their studies;
  • includes approaches that allow hearing-impaired children to learn about sound in science and music, and visually-impaired
  • children to learn about light in science, and to use visual resources and images both in art and design and in design technology;
  • uses assessment techniques that reflect their individual needs and abilities.

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 very 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 agencies 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.

Should we go ahead with modification or disapplication, we would do so through:

Section 364 of the Education Act 1996. This allows modification or disapplication of the National Curriculum, or elements of it, through a statement of special educational needs;

Section 365 of the Education Act 1996. This allows the temporary modification or disapplication of the National Curriculum, or elements of it.

Staff Development

Staff training supports inclusion by helping staff to respond to the diverse needs of our pupils.  We seek in particular to use opportunities to share expertise within school. Governors also have opportunities to attend appropriate training and undertake visits to see what is happening in school. At least two staff meeting per term is dedicated to inclusion and SEN issues. The School Nurse, as well as our parents keep us informed about any medical conditions that children in our school have.

Resources

The school has good resources to support inclusion of children. We recognise that some learners need more resources than others and, within the constraints of our budget allocation, we meet their needs.

Buildings and Access

Fortunately our building is accessible to all but even so consideration of inclusion issues is a factor of any grounds or premises improvement.

Attendance

We promote punctuality and good attendance, keeping records and monitoring absences. If there is cause for concern it is initially discussed with parents and when appropriate an ESW or the School Nurse is asked to support.

Celebrating

We celebrate other cultures and promote understanding and appreciation of other people.

Recording Incidents

We do not tolerate any Bullying, Racism or Homophobia. Incidents are dealt with and recorded. Bullying and Racist incidents are reported to the L.A.

Summary

In our school the teaching and learning, achievements, attitudes and well being of every child are important. We follow the necessary regulations to ensure that we take the experiences and needs of all our children into account when planning for learning.

Jo Colledge

Reviewed October 2020