A student may be identified as having a Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND) at any stage during his/her education.  This may be a long term difficulty requiring continuing support or a short term difficulty requiring a specific intervention.

Information about your child’s special educational needs comes from a number of sources:

• Primary School liaison for Year 6 transfer
• Cognitive Abilities Tests
• Screen tests for reading and spelling
• Observations
• Learning Support Assistant/teacher feedback
• Parental concern
• Student self-referral
• Pastoral Leader concern

If you think that your child may have special educational needs that have not been previously identified then you should contact the school and ask to make an appointment with the Special Education Needs Coordinator. (SENCo)

If you have any concerns about your child’s special educational needs, please contact our SENCo:    Miss K Daley

kdaley@worthinghigh.net
01903 237864

School staff will support individuals at a level appropriate to their needs through effective differentiation in the classroom.

The Inclusion Team aims to ensure the fullest possible access to the curriculum for students on the Inclusion Register with Special and Additional Educational Needs.

The provision is reviewed every year to ensure it addresses the needs of current students.

Please see the school website for more detailed information about the many different interventions which are in place to support our students.

In addition to the normal school reporting process, all students on the Inclusion Register have a Keyworker who meets with parents/carers and the student twice yearly at the Individual Education Plan (ILP) Review Meeting. The keyworker will be the main contact with parents/carers and will conduct the IEP Reviews and negotiate targets. They will also advise teaching staff about strategies to support the student in mainstream lessons and will liaise effectively with Learning Support Assistants who are working with the designated students. The keyworker will also initiate and attend multi-agency meetings, as necessary.

 We consider that the parents/carer’s views are a vital part of the review and therefore request your attendance and support for your child.

Students with an Education, Health and Care Plan will also have an Annual Review Meeting and outside agencies may be invited to attend.

Reports you may receive would include:

• IEP Reviews
• Annual Review
• Social Skills/Social Communication Evaluation
• School reports: Interim and full reports
• Personal Education Plans
• Individual Behaviour Plans
• Contact with Keyworker, Pastoral Leader, Group Tutor, Community Leader
• Rewards & Sanctions system
• Planner communication

How does the school know how well my child is doing?

Teaching staff enter data on individuals on a six weekly basis. This ensures that there is always relevant and up to date information on the level that is currently being achieved by each student.In addition to this, students who have IEPs have their targets and progress monitored to ensure that the school has complete information on the whole learning experience and not just the academic side of things.

How will I know what progress my child should be making?

Parents/carers will receive regular formal reports from subject staff.In addition to this there are the Subject Review Evenings which provide an opportunity to meet with subject staff and discuss progress.Furthermore, the Personal Programmes have clear targets on them and all staff working with an individual will be aware of what these targets are.These will be reviewed regularly and updated versions of the Personal Programmes will be sent home to parents/carers.

The Inclusion team aims to ensure the fullest possible access to the curriculum for students with Special and additional Educational needs. The provision is reviewed every year to ensure it addresses the needs of current students.

In Key Stage 4, the school offers different pathways to ensure that students are able to achieve their maximum potential by being matched to the pathway which addresses their learning needs while presenting some challenge.

Differentiation is seen as a priority in all lesson planning and in additional provision, and is supported by Inclusion staff who are working alongside their subject colleagues.

Effective differentiation will enable your child to participate fully in all aspects of learning and to make the best possible progress. 

All students are supported by their Pastoral Leader who works within their community. In addition, students with SEND or AEN may be included in social skills programmes and also offered break and lunchtime support. Other interventions include:

• Mentors
• HLTA support
• Clubs
• Rewards
• Behaviour Plans
• Celebration Assemblies/Breakfasts
• Liaison with outside Agencies

Training for teaching students with special educational needs is considered essential.  There is an on-going programme of whole school training in teaching and supporting students including:

Specific Learning Difficulties, general learning difficulties, Autism, Attachment and trauma informed practice, Hearing Impairment, and English as an Additional Language, Sensory Support, Disability Awareness, and First Aid.

In addition there is regular training in:

Emotional Literacy, Child Protection, First Aid, Outstanding Teaching, Looked After Children, Managing Challenging Behaviour, Child Protection.

Specific training for the Inclusion team includes:

Bereavement Counselling, Meditation, Anger Management, ME/Chronic Fatigue, Speech and Language, Self-harm, Access Arrangements, Diagnostic Assessment.

All students in the school have regular reports and an annual Subject Review Evening. There are also regular meetings for Parents/Carers to inform them about events for relevant Year groups. These include, for example:

• Year 7 Induction Evening
• Year 9 Option Evening
• Year 10/11 Study Skills

Parents/Carers may also contact any of their child’s teachers directly using the email address given on the school website.

If your child has SEND he/she will be placed on the Inclusion Register and you will be invited into school to discuss provision to address the special educational needs. Your child will be given a Keyworker who will monitor progress very carefully and meet with you both on a regular basis for the IEP review.

The ILP is written with you to support your child in school. It contains information about the student’s special educational needs, appropriate provision and interventions, advice for teaching staff and personal targets.

In addition students with an Education, Health and Care Plan will have a multi-professional Annual Review which looks carefully at progress towards the EHCP targets.

There is advice and resources for supporting your child with independent study on the school website.

Most students with additional needs are supported and encouraged to be fully involved in all areas of school life. All clubs and trips are open to them and individual arrangements are planned in advance to ensure that they are able to participate.

For students with medical/physical needs, any issues around trips and activities will have been discussed and addressed with parents/carers in the Care Plan.

For students with AEN/SEND, individual issues will have been discussed with the parents/carers, Keyworker and Pastoral Leader. 

All corridor walls have a visual line to support students with Visual Impairment in their movement around the school.In addition, signage is very clear and advice has been taken from the Sensory Advisory Service to ensure that as high a standard of safety as possible.

The school is on two floors in several unconnected areas which are inaccessible to wheelchair users as there are no lifts.Entrances to the school have ramps; therefore only the ground floor is accessible to wheelchair users.

Disability toilets are available.

We gather a lot of information about your child in order to make the best possible preparation for joining Worthing High School from the following sources:

• Close liaison with Primary School during the Summer Term
• Primary School records
• Additional transfer visits with staff from the Primary School in the Summer Term
• Screen Testing on Intake Day in July, and in September
• Reports from agencies that are already supporting your child
• Contact with parents/carers

Students who are on the Inclusion Register may see the Careers Advisor throughout Year 10 & 11 who will guide them through the transition process. The Careers Advisor and the SENCo co-produce the Transition Plan which provides the new setting with information about the student’s SEND and requirements. 

As an academy, Worthing High School receives its school budget directly from the Education Funding Agency, rather than West Sussex County Council.

We allocate specific funding from this school budget share to cover the work of our inclusion team. This is in addition to funding provided for the Special Support Centre based within the school which is funded separately, based on the number of students supported.

The decision making process is informed by the data and information received from the previous setting. This, alongside current assessments, is discussed with the student and parents/carers at a meeting with the Keyworker. As a result of the meeting, a programme to address the child’s needs is agreed until the next review period. The programme will have targets specific to your child which are central to the ensuing review: future provision is decided on how far these targets are being met.

The needs of each student on the Inclusion Register are very carefully reviewed and considered for the coming year. This information is placed on the Provision Map which informs our timetabling and budgeting. In this way, we endeavour to address the needs of each individual with a specific programme of support and teaching.

The school endeavours, wherever possible, to ensure that an interpreter is available for parent meetings. Any written communication is sent by email so that parents/carers, for whom English is not their first language, may use a translation facility.

If your concern is about well-being, behaviour or medical issue then you need to speak to your child’s Pastoral Leader.

If you wish to discuss any educational concerns then you should contact your child’s Keyworker.

For more serious concerns, you will need to contact your child’s Community Leader.

The West Sussex Local Offer helps you find information about local services, support and events for children and young people aged 0 - 25 years who have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).

https://westsussex.local-offer.org/ 

Worthing High School has an SSC with a designation of Social Communication Needs. We have 18 planned places which are allocated in consultation between Worthing High School and West Sussex SENAT. For a student to be placed within the SSC they must have an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and have social communication as their primary area of need. The aim of the SSC is to provide additional support for our students to enable them to access mainstream education. Provision is allocated on an individual basis and may include:

• Interventions relating to social skills, emotional regulation, literacy, numeracy and SaLT.
• LSA support.
• Additional lessons within the SSC.

All students with an SSC placement will attend mainstream lessons and will be fully integrated into the schooling community.