The school believes that all teachers are responsible for helping to meet the needs of students with AEN. All students are entitled to a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum, differentiated to meet their needs.

AEN is a broad term and relates to a wide range of students. It includes students with physical disabilities, specific and general learning difficulties, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Its also includes students who are very able.

Provision

Students needing extra support in small groups are placed in one of four nominated forms. In 2007/08they are:
Year 7 - G1 and G2, P1 and P2,
Year 8 - P1 and P2, D1 and D2
Year 9 - G1 and G2, P1 and P2

These forms are allocated an extra teacher per pair of classes in the following subjects:

English
French
Chemistry
Mathematics
History
Geography
Welsh
Biology
Physics
Technology

The AEN students are then taken out to form a smaller learning support group in the subject areas in which they need extra support.

Procedure for movement between Learning Support Groups and Mainstream

1 Learning Support Group teacher and mainstream class teacher discuss possibility of movement. This might include looking at exercise books, test papers and teacher records.

2 Current teacher discusses move with student.

3 A convenient date for the changeover is fixed and the following people are informed:

Student
Mainstream teacher
Learning Support Group teacher
Subject AEN Co-ordinator (who informs AENCO)

4 AENCO informs parents by letter.

New Students

It is the responsibility of the Head of School Section to inform the AENCO of the arrival of students who have a record of AEN. It is the responsibility of the AENCO, working with the Head of School Section to ensure that the new student is placed in appropriate teaching groups and is added to the AEN Directory.

AEN Directory

To ensure that all those who teach a student with AEN know about their needs, the AENCO compiles and distributes relevant information. The Directory contains:

The AEN register.
Individual Education Plans which outline the ADDITIONAL needs of the student and the implications for the classroom.

Each subject AEN Co-ordinator is given a copy of the AEN Directory, containing all the updated information, in September of each Academic Year. It is the responsibility of the Subject
Co-ordinator to ensure that the information reaches the member of staff who teaches the student.

Monitoring and Assessment

In Year 7, students are screened using the NFER Cognitive Abilities Test. They also are tested using the Suffolk Reading Test and have formal examinations towards the end of Year 7.

It is the responsibility of the class teacher and/or the department to differentiate teaching and testing material to suit the requirements of individuals and groups of children with AEN. Departments provide differentiated examination material for internal examinations.

The AENCO, with the Head of School Section, makes appropriate ADDITIONAL arrangements for examinations of AEN students. Arrangements include, (where appropriate) the allocation of extra time, alternative accommodation, a reader, an amanuensis and the use of a keyboard.

Specific Learning Difficulties

A large proportion of the children on the AEN register come under the umbrella term of specific learning difficulties. This usually refers to difficulties of a dyslexic or dyspraxic nature. These children represent a range of ability and will be found in mainstream and Learning Support Groups. They may have support or tuition with a tutor from the Newport Service for Students with Specific Learning Difficulties. Time allocated to children is rarely more than one hour a week. Children with Specific Learning Difficulties therefore, need teachers' support and understanding in all their lessons.

Increasingly there are number of children who have difficulties of a dyslexic nature who have been denied a statement of AEN from the LEA. The school needs to meet the needs of these children from its own resources. It aims to do this by encouraging teachers to differentiate work, to provide photocopied handouts of notes, to develop its own literacy initiatives and to encourage the use of laptop computers and spellcheckers in class and for homework.

Ways to support students with AEN in the classroom

Avoid dictation and extensive copying.
Encourage the use of highlighter pens to emphasise key ideas in notes.
Provide written as well as verbal instructions.
Give lists of ADDITIONAList vocabulary at the beginning of a new topic.
Avoid the use of BLOCK CAPITALS. They make word recognition much harder for children with literacy difficulties.
Use a generous size font in handouts.
Encourage and praise every achievement, no matter how small.

AEN Code of Practice

The new code takes account of the AEN provisions of the ADDITIONAL Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001.

A stronger right for children with AEN to be educated at a mainstream school.
A new duty on schools to tell parents when they are making ADDITIONAL educational provision for their child.
A recommendation that schools adopt a graduated approach through School Action Plus to make provision with needs.

School Action (SA) Teacher identifies a child with AEN and provides interventions that are additional to or different from those provided as a part of the school's differentiated curriculum.

School Action Plus (SAP) External support services are involved to advise, set targets, provide support or perform ADDITIONAList assessments to measure progress.

Statement of AEN Following a statutory assessment, the LEA issues a statement of AEN to determine the ADDITIONAL educational provision which the child's difficulty calls for.

Where pupils do not qualify for SA, but staff need to know information for good 'Inclusion' practice, the school indicates this with code 'I'.

Individual Action Plans (IEP's) According to the Code of Practice for AEN, all students at SA, SAP and ST of the code need IEP's.

Writing IEP's

An IEP is not a list of the skills and topics that you are planning to cover. It is a list of
things that you believe an individual child in your group will have achieved by the review
date.

1 The targets need to be

Specific - instead of "improve spelling", specify a group of words or a spelling rule which will be learned; instead of 2improve behaviour in class", specify a particular feature of classroom behaviour like "will raise his hand instead of calling out".

Measurable - by someone else as well as the person writing the IEP e.g.: will be able to measure accurately to the nearest 5mm; will be able to identify six pieces of laboratory apparatus; will read with sustained concentration for 10 minutes twice a week.

Achievable - remind yourselves of the number of lessons you have and the nature of the child's difficulties.

Recorded - the IEP will be your record although you may need to keep weekly notes in your mark book.

Timed - the IEP co-ordinator will organise details of the time span over which the IEP cycle will run.

2 More than one student can have the same IEP.

3 Share the IEP with the student. If possible stick a copy in the exercise book and highlight targets and/or tick them off to show the student how they are doing. This practice has been shown to improve motivation and students' sense of achievement.

Reviewing Statemented Students

All statements of AEN must be reviewed annually. It is the responsibility of the LEA to initiate the review process but, in practice, it is the school which initiates, co-ordinates and documents the review. Statements for Year 9 students are reviewed in the Spring Term before option choices are made. These Year 9 (or transitional reviews) include contributions from a Careers Adviser.

Most other reviews are done in the Summer Term. All teachers who teach the student are asked to contribute some written information. Parents are invited to attend the meeting and are sent a copy of the review document. All statemented students are invited to contribute to the review either through informal discussions with the AENCO prior to the meeting or by attending the meeting in person.

Learning Support Staff Nursery Nurse (NNEB)

Mrs. Adams Mrs. Davies* Mrs. Gregory* Miss Thomas
Mrs. Gibb Mrs. Moon* Mrs. Parker Miss Johns
Mrs. Nelson Mrs. Walters* + appointments need to be made

*These members of staff are currently studying for the NVQ Level 3 Teaching Assistant Qualification

The Role:

1 Reiterating and clarifying instructions from the class teachers.
2 Assisting non able-bodied children.
3 Encouraging and prompting students to help them stay on task.
4 Checking on the student's understanding of class work.
5 When asked, will work with other individuals and groups, both in and out of the class.
6 Photocopying, helping to prepare materials, helping to prepare classroom displays.
7 Assisting students with physical disabilities when they are moving about the school or engaged in practical activities.
8 Ensuring students have made a clear note of homework set.
9 Liaising with parents through the link book or home-school book (where used).
10 Helping students catch up on any work missed through absence.
11 Organisation and supervision of lunchtime club for children with AEN.
12 Taking part in paired reading, handwriting and homework sessions.
13 Monitoring behaviour of identified pupils and giving support to improve behaviour and organisational skills, where necessary.
14 To act as prompter, reader and amanuensis in tests and examinations.

Links with Outside Agencies

The school has links with the Educational Psychology Service (EPS) for three LEAs: Torfaen, Newport and Monmouthshire. The school has a four-hour per fortnight commitment from Newport's EPS and has time from the Torfaen and Monmouthshire EPS on request.

Parents and Heads of School Section contact the EPS through the AENCO, and children are prioritised according to the urgency of the case.

The AENCO also liases with Social Services, the school's Education Welfare Officer (EWO) and with professionals from the medical profession when the needs of individual children require this kind of involvement.

Flexibility

The school is proud of this flexible system of supporting AEN children. We believe it allows students to develop strengths while receiving support in weaker areas. Students experience both the challenge of larger, mixed ability classes and the support of small group tuition.

All students with AEN are entered for a range of External Examinations. Some go to study A Levels.

Subject Co-ordinators

(Mathematics, English, History, Geography, Modern Languages, Science, RE, Music, Art, DT, PE, IT, Business Studies, Welsh)

The Role

1 Distributing information to departmental staff from the AEN Directory.
2 Co-ordinating Individual Education Programmes for their department as appropriate.
3 Ensuring that differentiated examination materials are available.
4 Co-ordinating the movement of children between mainstream and learning support groups.