May 2004

Camden Junior School Inclusion Policy

Every child has a fundamental right to education and must be given the opportunity to achieve and maintain acceptable levels of learning. . . Every child has unique characteristics, interests, abilities and learning needs . . . Education systems should be designed and educational programmes implemented to take into account the wide diversity of these characteristics and needs. . . Mainstream (settings) with this inclusive orientation are the most effective means of combating discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming communities, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all.

(The Salamanca Statement (adopted in July 1994 following an international education conference in Salamanca, Spain)

Introduction

At Camden Junior School we believe that everyone has a right to equal opportunities. We believe that all children, adults and families should feel welcome and should have an equal chance to benefit from our school and everything it provides.

Our school is open to every child in the community. We acknowledge and value where each child ‘is at’ and provide opportunities and experiences to help them move on to the next stage in their development. We have the highest expectations of all children. We plan our curriculum to extend our children’s knowledge and experience of other cultures, languages and celebrations. We ensure that our curriculum reflects the diversity of our society, and not just our group. We encourage children to explore in a positive way the differences and diversity of people. We positively challenge, in everyone, stereotypes and assumptions, and actively seek to combat all forms of discrimination.

Educational inclusion is about equal opportunities, for all children, whatever their age, gender, ethnicity, attainment and background. It ensures particular attention to the provision made for and the achievement of different groups of pupils within a school. We are aware that specific groups of pupils are more likely to underachieve and/or suffer discriminatory practice than others within our society. These groups include:

·        girls and boys;

·        minority ethnic and faith groups, Travellers, asylum seekers and refugees;

·        pupils who need support to learn English as an additional language (EAL);

·        pupils with disabilities;

·        pupils with special educational needs;

·        gifted and talented pupils;

·        children ‘looked after’ by the local authority;

·        other children, such as sick children, young carers and children from families under stress; and

·        any pupils who are at risk of disaffection and exclusion.

Our Commitment

At Camden Junior School we are committed to constantly monitoring, evaluating and reviewing our practice to ensure that all our pupils

·        make good progress and achieve;

·        are able to learn effectively, without interference and disruption;

·        are treated respectfully;

·        receive additional help according to their needs;

·        have access to a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum;

·        feel safe, secure and happy within the school setting.

We take seriously our legal duties regarding discrimination. The following statutory school policies and procedures are key tools which support us in increasing inclusive practice and should be considered alongside this policy:

          Race Equality Policy

       Policy for special educational needs

       Access Plan in response to the Disability Discrimination Act

To further support us to fulfil our commitment to inclusive practice we use the three principles for inclusion which are part of the Statutory Inclusion Statement within the National Curriculum Handbooks. The three principles are:

       A       Setting suitable learning challenges

We plan our curriculum using the National Curriculum programmes of study as our starting point. However, we recognise that we must plan to teach in ways that suit our pupils’ abilities and their individual starting points. We use the flexibility with the National Curriculum to choose the most appropriate knowledge, skills and understanding from the programmes of study to enable pupils to make progress and demonstrate their achievements. Our short term planning is differentiated to match individual needs.

       B       Responding to pupils’ diverse learning needs

We set high expectations and provide opportunities for all our pupils to achieve. As a staff group we are aware that our children bring to school different experiences, interests and strengths which will influence the way they learn. We ensure our planning includes a variety of approaches to teaching and learning to ensure all children can actively take part in lessons fully and effectively.

C     Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individual and groups of pupils.

We recognise that some children will have particular learning and assessment requirements which, if not addressed, could create barriers to effective learning. This includes children with: special educational needs, disabilities and those at an early stage in learning English as an additional language. For these individuals or groups of pupils our approach to teaching and learning includes making ‘additional to’ or ‘different from’ provision to enable them to participate effectively in the curriculum and assessment activities.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Review

Our commitment to inclusive practice is meaningless unless we actively monitor the impact of this commitment on the experiences of our children in all areas of school life.

We collect information on the effectiveness of our inclusive practice through the following channels:

·        collection of data relating to progress and achievement in curriculum areas;

·        incident records relating to: bullying; inappropriate behaviour (in class and at unstructured times); internal exclusions of pupils; short-term and permanent exclusions and discriminatory incident recording forms;

·        evidence records from our regular programme of lesson observations

·        the views and experiences of our pupils collected through our School Council Forum and as part of our ongoing Personal Social and Health Education and Citizenship programmes.

·        the views and experiences of our parents/carers collected through informal one-to-one discussions and through questionnaires and ‘focus’ parent meetings.

Using this wide range of information we analyse comparative outcomes for individuals and different groups of children.  Pupil tracking and analysis of information enables us to judge whether all children are achieving as much as they can and if not, which individuals or groups of children are under-achieving.

Our next step is to explore why this is happening and whether there are well-founded explanations for the differences we have identified. If this is not the case we identify what action the school will take to improve our inclusive practice, set specific performance indicators and review the effectiveness of this action.

Send mail to jshort@suttonlea.org with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2002 Camden Junior School
Last modified: August 29, 2007