Oswaldtwistle School Local Offer

SEN and Disability Local Offer: Pupil Referral Units Name of School: OSWALDTWISTLE SCHOOL School Number: 11142

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Guidance for Completion This template is designed to help schools to pull together information so that parents of children with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND) know what support they can expect if their child attends our school.

The SEND Reforms will place a statutory requirement on schools from September 2014 to make information available to parents about how the school supports children and young people with SEN. This information will form the main basis for the school’s Local Offer, which has to be published on the school’s website. Our website must include the name and contact details of our SENCO and a link to the Local Authority’s Local Offer when it becomes available.

The template asked a number of questions which were intended as prompts and reflect key issues that parents have told us they would like to know about when deciding which school could best meet their child’s needs. We have also consulted with our own pupils’ parents about what to include in our Local Offer.

In developing our school Local Offer we have been mindful that there is a requirement for a feedback facility to be available as part of the Local Offer and for responses to be given to feedback received.

We have provided a copy of our completed template along with the following completed information by email to IDSS.SENDReforms@lancashire.gov.uk Lancashire County Council are in possession of all schools Local Offers from this authority and their responsibility is to include these documents within their own submission which is published on The Local Offer website at: http://www.thelocaloffer.co.uk/ The website can be used to find the Local Offer in all schools in the UK by region.

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School Name and Address Oswaldtwistle School Union Road Accrington Lancashire BB5 3DA Telephone Number 01254 231553 Website Address http://oswaldtwistle.org/ Does the school specialise in meeting the needs of children with a particular type of SEN? No What age range of pupils does the school cater for?

11 – 16 years Name and contact details of your school’s SENCo Mark P. Bocker mark.bocker@oswaldtwistle.org The name and contact details of the person/role responsible for maintaining details of the Local Offer for our school/academy is; Elaine Hillary (Acting Headteacher) Contact telephone numbers: 01254 231553 07876838360 Email head@oswaldtwistle.org

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Promoting Good Practice and Successes The Local Offer gives our school the opportunity to showcase any good practice around supporting children with Special Educational Needs to achieve their full potential. We will soon be showcasing examples of good practice and notable success stories on our Local Offer web pages. For reasons of confidentiality we will not include a child’s full name in any case studies we promote.

I can confirm that our Local Offer has been published on the new school website and is linked to the Lancashire Local Offer and, in turn, The Local Offer national website.

Name M. P. Bocker Date 22.07.2015 Please return the completed form by email to: IDSS.SENDReforms@lancashire.gov.uk

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Accessibility and Inclusion The building wheelchair accessible and provides marked parking spaces specifically for disabled drivers. However, the location of these spaces is under review and consultation.

Access to the setting is via ramps at the side elevation of the building and rear.

The front entrance is unsuitable for wheelchair access and not viable for redesign from within the current school budget.

There are readily accessible changing/toilet facilities.

The auditory and visual environment has not been noticeably improved or enhanced specifically to address disability. It is designed to stimulate and motivate disaffected and/or disengaged learners.

Information - including displays, policies and procedures are highly visible on our website, around school and are always available upon request from the school office. Also, information can be made available in different font sizes, audio information, Braille, other languages etc. Information is made accessible to parents and families with additional needs as appropriate.

Translation services are made available in communicating with parents and families whose first language is not English.

Educational resources are designed to meet the specific needs of our children in accordance with advice from our SENCO, information and advice on statements and also from external agencies such as IDSS1 to support children's access to appropriate support.

The school does not currently have specialised equipment required for those with more complex needs.

1 IDSS stands for the Inclusion and Disability Support Services http://www3.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate/web/?IDSS/29537 LO-OSWALDTWISTLESCHOOL-11142

Teaching and Learning Children with SEN are assessed via the IDSS as follows; “The Core Purposes of the IDSS is to provide one seamless integrated inclusion service serving districts and/or localities with the core purposes of • identifying, assessing and monitoring that the special needs and disabilities of children and young people are met; • providing statutory special educational needs and disability support to children, families, schools and settings; • commissioning and promoting positive outcomes for children and young people with SEND; and • providing a traded team (part of Learning Excellence) which enables schools, settings and interested parties to purchase specialist psychological, teacher and technical support to meet their identified needs.” (excerpt from the IDSS website)

Additional support is provided in the classroom and in high support facilities offsite through specialist teaching resources and fully trained Teaching Assistants.

Access to the curriculum and the development of independent learning is regularly reviewed and often may include support from external agencies such as Associate Educational Psychologists, Counsellors and ELCAS 2.

Appropriate SEN, disability and awareness training is available to all staff through Lancashire’s online training resources, IDSS specialist courses and those bespoke courses provided by external trainers.

Our staff expertise in SEN and disability is as one might expect in a mainstream school with additional expertise in behaviour management, nurture techniques and individual support and intervention.

Ongoing support and development is in place for staff supporting children and young people with SEN through the IDSS and an external independent advisor.

Reasonable adjustments in the curriculum and support to the pupil during exams is reviewed and subject to advice received by referring schools and agencies.

Educational progress and outcomes with parents are shared with parents at regular review meetings and by termly reports.

Our SEN provision map is currently under review and will highlight the range and level of support for individual pupils or groups with similar needs and the resources allocated to meet those needs.

2 ELCAS refers to the East Lancashire Child & Adolescent Services

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Reviewing and Evaluating Outcomes Review meetings for children with Statements or Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans take place in accordance with the SEN Code of Practice.

Arrangements are made for children with other SEN support needs internally through our assessment procedures using widely available toolkits and teacher assessments.

We regularly assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the provision we make for children and young people with SEN and Disability during staff meetings where SEN is a standing item on our agenda. We also receive updates from our SENCO in this forum, at Senior Team meetings and in the termly SENCO report to Management Committee.

In addition, requests for advice and guidance are sought from the local SEND Officers through the IDSS where required.

In cases where disputes are raised, cases are referred to SENDIST.3 Procedures for their function are outlined below: “Appeals may be made to the Tribunal, following procedures and timescales, for: •

LEA decision not to make a Statement of Special Educational Needs

•

Disagreements about the provision made in the Statement of Special Educational Needs

•

Cases of discrimination against pupils in the educational setting where the discrimination (including fixed period exclusion but not permanent) is on the grounds of disability

Cases of dispute may also be referred to the Disagreement Resolution Service prior to the Tribunal meeting.

For further information contact the SEN Team for the relevant area or Lancashire Parent Partnership.

SEN Tribunal: an independent body which has jurisdiction under section 333 of the Education Act 1996 for determining appeals by parents against Local Authority decisions on assessments and statements.

The Tribunal’s decision will be binding on both parties to the appeal.” (excerpt from IDSS website).

3 Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal

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Keeping Children Safe Risk assessments are carried out by our SENCO, Designated Senior Person (Safeguarding) or Pupil Support Manager as appropriate with clearly defined handover arrangements made at the start and end of the school day. The designated parking areas for pick up and drop offs is directly opposite the main school entrance.

Support is offered during breaks and lunchtimes by specialist Teaching Assistants and other support staff in the area of the school designated for students with additional health needs.

Activities taking place outside the classroom (e.g. during PE lessons and school trips) are covered and carefully planned in accordance with best practice in physical education using the Association of Physical Educations guidance on “Safe Practice in PE and Sport (New Edition)” and/or Lancashire County Councils Educational Visits procedures.

Information on the school’s restorative and nurturing ethos can be found on the school website and policies which are freely available from school reception.

Included within these documents are fully integrated procedures for dealing with complaints, bullying allegations and any other concerns regarding the safety of our children raised by staff, parents/carers and children.

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Health (including Emotional Health and Wellbeing) The safe keeping and administration of medication is controlled by First Aid trained staff with medicaments being held securely in the school office. Records are also held centrally and are regularly monitored by the School Business Manager.

From September 2014 the new Children and Families Act 2014 will become law.

This replaces the current Statement of Special Educational Needs and Section 139a Learning Difficulty Assessment with the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) running from birth to age 25 years for children with special educational needs.

We are currently updating “All About Me” for our students and respective care plans to ensure that all relevant staff are aware of the plan and our responsibility to meet the objectives expressed in the plan as they relate to the health element.

In the case of a medical emergency, standard procedure is to report immediately to reception whereupon appropriate action is assessed and First Aid delivered whilst emergency services are contacted.

Staff are trained/qualified to deal with children’s particular needs as far in advance as possible and practicable. Where we do not have sufficiently qualified staff to manage a child’s needs safely, provision would not be offered without external support and funding.

Health advice is available through signposting or, in the case of sexual health; teenage relationships; domestic violence; drug misuse and healthy lifestyles, we have a range of professionals who deliver courses and can offer advice within the team. We also provide an extensive package of support through our Working Together with Families programme funded by LCC. Therapy services include support from ELCAS workers and our own Counsellor.

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Communication with Parents Parents are made aware of who they can contact if they have concerns about their child/young person at the initial meeting post-referral to the school. If necessary, a keyworker and key manager is also identified as the single conduit for information sharing.

The new school website will contain all the relevant information required to record concerns or to make contact with a member of staff positioned to deal with any issue.

We will often review our communication procedures by distributing questionairres through Survey Monkey in order to capture successes and areas in need of improvement and welcome suggestions on all fronts.

The school has an Open Door policy and will make every effort to make key staff available at all times within reason.

We offer half termly Open Days where parents, professionals and the children are updated with the young person’s progress. We are always happy to supplement these days with interim meetings where requested.

Parents are encouraged to give feedback to the school on any issue causing concern but equally to offer advice and compliments in order that we are able to understand what we do well and use this information to improve the school for our children.

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Working Together Children have regular opportunities to express their views to elected members of the school council who, in turn, have an elected representative who offers a feedback report to our full Management Committee termly. The report is fed directly into the standing agenda and receives a formal response or action.

Parents have regular and irregular opportunities and avenues to express their feelings both formally and informally to school. There will also be a section of the new website dedicated to anonymous feedback and links to social media routes to offer thoughts and feelings about our provision.

We actively encourage and welcome parents who wish to get involved in the life of the school or become school governors and will support any such request or enquiry with great enthusiasm.

The Management Committee receives regular updates from the Headteacher and other key staff on all aspects of the involvement of other agencies in meeting the needs of pupils with SEN and supporting their families. These reports are fully recorded in the minutes of their meetings and are, of course, available in the public domain.

We rarely use home/school contracts/agreements to support children with SEN and their families but are always open to methods which are seen to heighten our awareness or improve our service.

Again, we have a strong and very proactive Working Together with Families programme with it’s own dedicated staff seeking to support families holistically in meeting any unmet needs associated with their children.

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Help and Support available for Families Help is always made available for completing forms and paperwork if required and our Pupil Support Manager meets pre-admission with families to resolve any such issues prior to attending the school for the admissions meeting.

Information, advice and guidance from a variety of agencies, providers and services is signposted by the school with contact information freely available on the website. Many of these services are accessible through the school as our professional relationships are well constructed and formalised to include referral through the school.

Advice and guidance can be obtained by any member of the Senior Team, school office or Pupil Support Manager.

Transport and travel plans to children to and from school are provided as appropriate and, most often, are funded by the County Council through High Needs Block funding or is funded by local referring schools.

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Transition to School and School Leavers Support is offered for pupils coming to the school pre-admission during the home visits coordinated by the Pupil Support Manager.

On leaving school, support is offered for young people in respect of careers guidance, visits to colleges, apprenticeships, supported employment by the Young Peoples’ Service with whom we have a service level agreement. This is renewed annually across all Pupil Referral Units in Lancashire and is monitored and evaluated by the service managers and reported to Schools Forum.

Advice and support is also provided through an extensive PSHE programme to young people in preparing for adulthood, relationships, finance and many other issues affecting their lives in employment and socially.

We also provide advice and support to young people and their parents about higher education, employment, independent living and participation in wider society including voluntary working opportunities and global issues.

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Extra Curricular Activities

We currently do not offer school holiday and/or before and after school provision but this is under review as, in the past, we have run some successful holiday clubs and well attended after school access to further education opportunities for parents.

Lunchtime and/or after school activities are offered according to demand and have proved popular particularly with local referrals. However, most children come to the school from across East Lancashire and therefore require transport making after school activities difficult to sustain. There is never any charge for these activities to parents.

Any such clubs, activities and residential trips are completely inclusive and open to all students with appropriate risk assessments in place and specialist staff support planned into the itinerary.

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