Chipping Hill School is committed to equal opportunities and aims to be a school where everyone:

• is respected and respects others
• takes part in the life of the school
• achieves to their potential
• develops skills essential to life
• exercises choice

We share the belief that no-one should receive less favourable treatment on the grounds of: race, gender, disability, sexuality, age, income, religion, colour, ethnic or national, origin, marital status, nationality.

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 children, or groups of children. 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
• Travellers, asylum seekers and refugees
• children who need support to learn English as an additional language (EAL)
• children with special educational needs
• gifted and talented children
• children “looked after” by the local authority
• children with physical disabilities
• other children, such as sick children and those children from families under stress
• any children who are at risk of disaffection or exclusion

At Chipping Hill School we aim to:

• include all pupils in school life
• ensure that all pupils feel safe, secure and happy within the school setting
• ensure that all pupils are treated respectfully
• enable all pupils have access to a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum
• continue to raise staff awareness of inclusion by on-going staff development
• maximise the learning potential of all pupils and raise educational attainment for all
• promote the personal, social, moral and cultural development of all children
• recognise and celebrate the progress and achievements that all members of the educational community make
• develop inclusive practices throughout the educational community in order to promote equality of access and opportunity for all learners.
• ensure resources for all groups are closely matched to their needs
• work together with all partners in the education of the young person
• seek to continuously monitor and evaluate the success of our policy and practice

Children with English as an additional language (EAL)

The school is committed to making appropriate provision of teaching and resources for pupils for whom English is an additional language and for raising the achievement of minority ethnic pupils. The school will identify individual pupil’s needs, recognise the skills they bring to school and ensure equality of access to the curriculum. We have a Learning Support Assistant who specialises in supporting children with English as an additional language. We aim to ensure that all EAL pupils are able to: use English confidently and competently, use English as a means of learning across the curriculum and, where appropriate, make use of their knowledge of other languages.

Children with Special Educational Needs

Almost all children experience difficulty at some time in their school career, albeit at different levels. The problems may be learning, behavioural, physical or a mixture of the three. They may already have the problem when they start school or it may manifest itself at any time. As soon as a difficulty is noted by the teacher, she will try to define the problem and break the child’s work down into easier steps. The teacher will also discuss the problem with the SENCO, Assistant SENCO, other teachers and the class Learning Support Assistant (LSA). She will refer to the child’s records to look for relevant clues that might assist her plans for action.

The teacher and LSA will decide on an action plan to correct the problem. This proactive method is very effective. Our SEN motto is ‘early identification’. We believe it is the first key to success.

How do we help?

Children who are not coping as well as expected in maths, reading or writing have their work differentiated for them. We want them to succeed at the small targets we set within a short space of time. We will
possibly involve the parents at this stage.

For mild but persistent behavioural problems we may try to alter the circumstances which are creating the problem as well as setting the child achievable targets.

If a child’s difficulty persists, we then meet with the parents to discuss the action to be taken by school and suggest what can be done at home. We then write an individual educational plan (IEP) for the child with timed targets to be achieved over a term. The child is now on “Essex Stages of Assessment”. We will see the parents at least termly to discuss progress. In many cases the child’s initial difficulty has met with success through the differentiated work given but if the targets were not met, we must deduce that the work is inappropriate and the child needs their work even more finely tuned.

If at this level, the child is still not improving, the Educational Psychologist may be consulted (with the
parents’ permission).

Sometimes, in severe cases, other agencies such as Speech and Language therapists, Special Needs Support staff, doctors and many other specialists will draw up a Statement of Educational Needs, which may give the child the right to obtain a larger amount of one-to-one help, and ensure that the particular agencies maintain their support and advice.

Our LSAs give daily individual help to the children who need it. The Assistants will spend most of their time supporting particular children both individually and in groups.

How is progress monitored and evaluated?

Teachers with children who have special needs keep a record of their progress. The teacher or the LSA will enter her comments on the child’s performance each day. When there is either obvious progress or no progress the teacher and the LSA will alter the education plan to suit the needs of the child.

Teachers and their Assistants will discuss the children’s progress almost daily and matters pertaining to learning difficulties and behavioural problems.

How are resources allocated for children with special needs?

The LSAs in each class are our major resource as they personally support each child with Special
Educational Needs for an agreed amount of time each day. Each financial year we receive money from the County towards the cost of resources required. However this does not meet the real cost which must be borne by the school.

The Governors’ objectives for supporting children with Special Educational Needs

• Early identification
• A Learning Support Assistant (LSA) in every classroom
• Adequate allocation from the school budget to fund LSAs and resources

All teachers and LSAs attend training throughout the year on many areas of Special Needs.

Children with disabilities

Chipping Hill School is committed to providing a fully accessible environment which values and includes all pupils, staff, parents and visitors regardless of their education, physical, sensory, social, spiritual, emotional and cultural needs. Chipping Hill School is committed to challenging negative attitudes about disability and accessibility and to developing a culture of awareness, tolerance and inclusion.

The school has an Accessibility Plan in place which specifies the measures being put into place to
accommodate the needs of children and adults with disabilities. The school does not have stairs to any classroom, a toilet and a bidet for disabled people has been installed, a changing bench has been installed and a ramp has been built to provide access to the offices and library area. Future projects are a review of signage and a purchase plan of resources for specific needs.

We would expect that pupils with disabilities would already have a Statement of Educational Need and therefore bring with them an allocation of one-to-one assistance. If parents desire to send their children here, we will do all in our power to ensure he or she enjoys complete equality of learning. We will ensure that they will be able to participate in all activities in some way, and be respected and valued members of our small school. When we have children with complex difficulties they definitely help all other children. They are treated with the utmost care and consideration. Other children ‘look out’ for them because they instinctively understand their difficulties. Our very special children have helped all other pupils to be far more aware of each other’s needs.

Identifying and celebrating talent

We believe that children who show outstanding progress and flair in any particular area of the curriculum are entitled to appropriate education in order to extend and develop their skills and talents. We provide for more able children through enrichment and extension activities, working with others of similar ability, differentiation, challenges within subject areas and by developing their higher level thinking skills.

All staff look for other talents that children have. Out of school hobbies may reveal talents and hidden skills in the arts or in sports. Once identified, we will celebrate and encourage those skills as much as we can. As a school we want to recognise the many different talents our children have.

In our Friday ‘Achievements’ assembly we praise those children who have excelled academically, or who have shown care and consideration to those around them. We also celebrate with those who have gained a special award outside school in music, sport or the arts.