Special Education Policy

School: Carlow Educate Together NS

Definition of a Special Educational Need (SEN)

A child with special educational needs falls into any of the following categories:

• children with a diagnosis from a psychologist
• gifted children ( as specified in a psychological report).
• children from disadvantaged backgrounds ( focus to be on basic needs as per Maslow’s hierarchy).
• children with social, emotional and behavioural needs
• children who have not been diagnosed but have been identified as having needs in academic, social, emotional, behavioural areas or with basic needs.

 

Aims and ethos

As an Educate Together school, we believe in a child-centred approach, which is as inclusive as possible. This is done in conjunction with the core values of Educate Together, namely co-education, equality-based, child-centredness and democracy. Our vision is to create an environment where every member of our community feels happy, safe and able to learn. We aim to help each student develop his or her potential to the full. We aim to ensure all students feel valued and value others equally within the school community. We aim to provide regular opportunities for our staff to attend professional development courses in the domain of Special Educational Needs so that they may bring back new knowledge and expertise that should benefit our students.

 

Structure of SEN in our school:

Our school community is divided into groups.

• Board of Management
• Principal
• The SEN support team – learning support and resource teachers.
• Teachers
• Special Needs Assistants (SNAs)
• Parents / Guardians
• Children

 

Roles and responsibilities:

1. Board of Management

• must ensure that this policy conforms to law. 
• should ensure that the school is utilising the policy. 
• should also be involved in the drawing up, ratification and revision of this policy.

 

2. Principal and SET Coordinator

• Have overall responsibility for the day to day running of this policy.
• Will monitor in collaboration with all staff, this policy.
• Will meet regularly with the SEN team to discuss the timeline and appropriate due dates for relevant documents/ procedures.
• Will compile a list of training dates and courses to which staff are attending in relation to SEN and encourage staff to attend.
• Will compile the caseload list of children with SEN teachers.
• Ratifies the support timetable drawn up in September of each year.
• Ensures that IEPs and other required documentation are produced by staff on time.
• can discuss any support issues with the SEN team and/or parents along with the mainstream class teacher.
• checks IEPs.

 

3. The SET support team:

• Are responsible for supporting their respective mainstream class teacher both inside and outside of the classroom. 
• will write short-term weekly/fortnightly plans based on the IEPs of children in their caseload.
• Should communicate with mainstream teachers with regards to children in the case-load (please see communication of progress section).
• should work with the mainstream class teacher to develop a timetable to support children on his/her caseload
• Will make every effort to ensure that IEPs and other relevant documents are produced on time and when required.
• Will engage in team teaching for literacy and for maths, as per school timetable.
• Should engage in regular professional development training in the area of SEN.

 

4. Mainstream class teachers

• Have overall responsibility for any child with SEN in their class (in all aspects inside and outside of the classroom during school hours).
• Must collaborate with SEN team members who are compiling IEPs and student profiles for their students. 
• Contribute to and carry out the in-class strategies / differentiation section of the IEPs of their students.
• Assess, on a termly basis the effectiveness of the in-class differentiation strategies. 
• Engage in professional development to enhance their teaching of children with Special Educational Needs.
• Communicate with parents/guardians about their child’s progress (The teacher may ask the support team to meet with parents/guardians).
• Ensure intervention steps are put in place for children who he/she has concerns about.

 

5. Integrated class teachers

The integrated class teacher takes full responsibility for the children in his/her class as this class has no access to SET Hours. He/she designs an integration plan for children in his/her class each term in collaboration with the relevant mainstream class teacher. 

6. Special Needs Assistants

 

• Have a vital role in providing continuity for a child with SEN. Teachers (including substitute teachers) should consult with SNAs to ensure that routines, structures and successful strategies are maintained from year to year (or any time there is a change of teacher).
• Work with the class teacher to ensure the care needs of the child(ren) entitled to SNA access in his/her care are met.
• Help to fill in the role of the SNA on the IEP form.
• When working in the Integrated Class, the SNA will be required to undertake some duties, as per the Department of Education contract, some of which are educational in nature.  These must be done under the guidance of the integrated class teacher.

7. Parents / Guardians

• Meet with teachers in the school to be updated on their child’s progression at key stages in the timeline.
• Contribute to their child’s IEP in collaboration with the teacher.
• Sign each IEP for their child.

 

Process for School Support Plan 

(A School Support Plan is a name for an Individual Education Plan and the terms are used interchangeably)

 

1. In the case of a child with a diagnosis starting school (or moving from another school) an Informal meeting with parents will take place. This may also include a visit to a preschool or home.
2. Assessments and screening, (September): Use this time to gather information.
3. Analysis of assessments and screening: reflect on observations and any reports, look at psychological reports and cross reference the same with observations and assessments. Begin to identify needs that may be targeted during I.E.P formulation.
4. Child’s view: To be used in conjunction with formulation of strengths and difficulties. Talk with the child informally – get to know the child from the child’s perspective. This can be discovered informally.
5. Teacher input: class teacher and SNA, where applicable, to detail possible areas of strengths and difficulties and pre- formulation of possible targets and strategies.
6. Pre-I.E.P meeting: Teacher, parents and support staff record areas of strength and weaknesses – collaboration of all lists forms the final list from which priority targets can be identified.
7. Building the I.E.P: Support staff draft the I.E.P in conjunction with class teacher and SNA, where applicable. In the case of an integrated class teacher, he/she should consult with SNAs and previous class teacher.
8. I.E.P completion: Teacher and parents/guardians agree on the final document to be used. 

Timeline

 

• September: informal meeting with parents, information gathering through observation and screening assessments, observations and analysis of response to intervention through hands on work with the pupils. I.E.P process to be followed as outlined above once all information has been gathered and evaluated.

 

• End of January, Early February: Review of I.E.P’s. Information gathering, screening and collating . The process is followed as above for I.E.P collaboration and formation.

 

• End of June: Assessment of progress (End of Year Report) based on the pupil’s IEP. This will be of benefit should there be a changeover of teachers looking after this pupil, All assessment should be noted in the end of year report filed in the pupil’s file.

Caseloads

Since 2016, the General Allocation Model and Resource Hours Model have been replaced by a new allocation system. Schools are given a general allocation of hours based on an algorithm every two years. Children no longer receive a guaranteed level of support based on a diagnosis and schools have been ordered to offer the greatest amount of support to the greatest level of need. In other words, schools are asked to decide which children get support and which do not. This has the impact that children with diagnoses and recommendations may not receive support as the resources offered to schools generally fall short of the need. The school will endeavour to support any child with additional needs but it is not a guarantee. Most teachers in the SET have a maximum caseload they work with depending on the needs of the children in the school. 

 

A Note on EAL

From 2009 to 2022, children who had English as an additional language were amalgamated into the resources for additional needs. Depending on numbers, additional EAL teachers were allocated. Having English as an additional language is not a special need and in 2022, the Department of Education changed the criteria for these children. Since 2022, children are offered EAL support if they fulfil both criteria below:

• Have been living in Ireland for <2 years
• Do not speak English in their home

 

After this, children who still require English language support will fall into the SET Allocation Model. While this is not ideal, as the child may not have additional needs, the Department of Education do not provide for further English language support after two years to children.

 

Support Structures and Procedures

 

Within both models of support children may receive support in the following way.

 

1. Receive one-to-one tuition from a support teacher either in class or in the resource room.
2. Children may receive tuition in smaller groups
3. Children may receive additional support in the form of in-class teaching support or team teaching structures that occur in school.
4. Children may be removed from class to participate in social classes or activity breaks which could include use of our multi-sensory room.

Current support offered by the support team:

 

1. Literacy support.
2. Numeracy support.
3. Social and communication skills support. 
4. Behavioural, Social and/or Sensory related interventions (activity breaks, multi-sensory room access).

 

Integrated Classes

Our integrated classes can have a maximum capacity of 6 children. Minimum staff with 6 children is 1 class teacher and 2 special needs assistants. Since September 2013 we have two classes. One will be a Junior Class and one will be a Senior Class, the class split will be age dependent.

 

Enrollment

cf School Enrollment Policy

 

Overall aims

The aim of our integrated classes is to provide opportunities for autistic children to access the curriculum in a supported environment. We aim to differentiate for all our children through a complete individualised approach incorporating a variety of strategies, assessments and methodologies. The overall aim is that children are integrated into mainstream classes as fully as possible according to their needs.

Strategies and Methodologies

(not an exhaustive list)

 

• TEACCH – the classroom environment, organisation, structure, teaching methodologies and daily routine are based on this strategy.
• HANEN – this is a strategy which we use to enhance effectiveness of communication with children who appear to have communicative and language processing needs.
• PECS – where pictures are used as a form of communication
• DIR Floortime and Intensive Interaction where appropriate
• Multi-sensory room.

 

Please note: All strategies used must be used in conjunction with an individualised approach. Best practice may see a variety of the above strategies and more being used rather than a major focus on any one of the above independently. 

 

Multi-Sensory Room 

The school contains two multi-sensory rooms, which are used mainly by children in our integrated classes but also by children in mainstream classes, particularly those with diagnoses or recommendations from an occupational therapist. The multi-sensory room is a therapy room that uses light and sound to help children with sensory needs. Special Needs Assistants are most likely to be the staff members who will be using this room with children.

Integration and Reverse Integration

It is our aim and our hope that all children will integrate successfully either full-time or part-time into mainstream during their primary education experience at our school. However at all times we aim to provide the most inclusive form of education for our children.

 

Mainstream integration:

• Most students can avail of the opportunity to integrate into a mainstream class for a least one section of a day. This is child dependent and the amount of time they spend in mainstream must reflect their level of comfort, social ability and learning ability within a mainstream setting for the child.
• An SNA and/or Class Teacher may attend these classes with the student(s) where applicable and needed.
• Where possible, work will be differentiated and this will reflect the strategies and methodologies used by the integrated class teacher.
• The child / children are an integral part of the class sitting amongst the other students and participating in all activities to the best of their ability, where possible.
• Assessment within the mainstream class both non-academic and curricular will be completed or followed up by the integrated class teacher in conjunction with the SNAs and mainstream teacher. 

Reverse integration:

Reverse integration happens when children from other classes join with children in the integrated classes for lessons.

Full-time Integration:

If a student is beginning the process of full-time mainstream integration the following procedure should be followed. This is a gradual process of integration and should be done over a period of time.

 

The NEPS psychologist may be asked to provide advice and support around issues of integration before the plan for mainstream integration, parents will be invited in to discuss the process

Absences

If a teacher in an Integrated Class is absent, their class is not split. Usually, a support teacher or another teacher will provide cover for the day if a substitute is not available. In exceptional circumstances, a mainstream class teacher may be asked to cover in the Integrated Class while their own class is split for the day.

Staffing

All staffing arrangements are the responsibility of the principal. However, the principal will consult with staff members each year to establish the most appropriate roles. In certain cases, a mainstream class teacher and an integrated class teacher might swap classes for a block of lessons or period of time as agreed between the teachers.