Ystruth Primary School is an inclusive school. All children in the school with ALN have access to the Curriculum. Within every class there will be children with a wide range of abilities and staff prepare work to cater for the varying needs of these pupils.

The school works within the guidelines of the ALN Bill. We place a high emphasis on partnership between parents, school and child. The school provides a graduated response to the needs of the child. The majority of children’s needs will be net using our Ordinarily Available Provision.

If Ordinarily Available Provision cannot meet the child’s needs, then, as an initial step, the school will develop a one-page profile in collaboration with the child and parents to establish appropriate Targeted provision, which includes an Action Plan.

If Targeted Provisions are not generating successful outcomes, we will need to conduct a Person-Centred Planning Meeting with parents to establish the Focussed provision required to overcome the barrier to learning for the child. This would likely to involve contacting outside agencies to provide guidance to the school. On review of the Action Plan, using the Person-Centred Planning process, the school would seek further additional advice from outside agencies. This would then generate a School Based Individual Development Plan.

Progress is reviewed regularly and decisions are made on how to proceed. This would constitute the child being supported using a School Based Individual Development Plan. If the child does not make sufficient progress, and parents and staff are still concerned, the school will refer the child to the Local Authority Additional Needs Panel to establish whether the child requires specialist provision. If the request is upheld, this would result in the Local Authority preparing and holding the child’s Individual Development Plan.

At Ystruth Primary School we are committed to working in partnership with parents and pupils in providing the best possible education for all children. Every effort is made to support all children requiring provision. This includes very talented and able children as well, who may also require additional support.

The school is on multiple levels, however, should the need arise, we would be able to accommodate pupils with disabilities as there is a lift and ramps available to move between the main parts of the building.

The Accessibility Plan seeks to deal with any such eventuality.

A copy of the ALN Policy is available on request at the office or here on the school website.

 

Ystruth Primary Resource Base

Ystruth Specialist Resource Base for ALN is a Blaenau Gwent Local Authority-maintained provision designed to host 12 children aged 5 – 11 and is attached to Ystruth Primary School. The provision is designated for children with Social Communication/ Autism Spectrum Conditions and associated difficulties characterised by severe and complex communication and interaction difficulties that seriously impede the development of social relationships. In addition, pupils also experience delays in one or more of the following: learning, socialisation, emotional wellbeing, behavioural development, and independence.

The Resource Base has the advantage of high teacher to pupil ratios and offers a broad and balanced curriculum with targeted specialist teaching to meet the identified additional learning needs of the pupils who attend. All learners are expected to access structured and unstructured aspects of school life offered by the attached mainstream school whenever it is appropriate for the individual child to do so. The intention is for the time spent engaging in mainstream activities and classes to be periodically increased to the point where learners meet the criteria to return to their full-time mainstream provision.

All pupils who attend the resource base are in receipt of Individual Development Plans, which are implemented in collaboration with parents/ carers and other service providers wherever applicable. Pupils’ progress is reviewed regularly. The Individual Development Plan may be updated at any time following a progress review. The Individual Development Plan will be updated at least annually by holding a person-centred review. During the person-centred review, continuing the placement at Ystruth Resource Base will always be reconsidered. Consideration will be given to: the child remaining at Ystruth Resource Base or accessing alternative specialist provision offered by the Local Authority, or, whenever possible, returning to full-time mainstream education. If, during the review process, the appropriateness of the provision is questioned, then agreed evidence [see below] must be submitted to the Additional Learning Needs Panel for their consideration and decision.

Admission to the Resource Base Provision is independent of the Ystruth Mainstream Setting. Placement in the Resource Base will only be considered following the submission of:

• Evidence of sustained, reviewed actions and outcomes identified by the referring school;
• Evidence of multi-agency involvement identifying the impact of involvement;
• Agreed evidence and paperwork for scrutiny and assessment from the referring school to Blaenau Gwent to the Local Authority Additional Learning Needs Panel.

The Local Authority Additional Learning Needs Panel meets twice every month during term-time. Placement is dependent on appropriate, recent, agreed multi-agency evidence [as outlined above] submitted by the referring school, reflecting the strict entry criteria to the resource base.

Useful Links 

Local Authority Information

Information from the Local Authority regarding ALN can be found here: 

https://www.blaenau-gwent.gov.uk/en/resident/schools-learning/additional-learning-needs-aln/

SNAP Cymru

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