What does inclusion mean at Bowhill Primary School?
At Bowhill Primary School we work closely with children and their families to ensure we understand the needs of those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). We are committed to inclusion and ensuring we provide the best for children with SEND. We respect all children as individuals and pride ourselves on building the relationships with children and families that is necessary to facilitate this support. We have built an understanding of the challenges families with experience of SEND face and are dedicated to doing all we can to support them and/or signpost them to the best advice.
Our school SENCo (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator), who leads the day to running of our SEND provision, is Miss Helen Eustace. She is supported by our assistant SENDCo Jenni Woodman.
How do we describe SEND at Bowhill Primary School?
There are four types of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), decided by the department for education for which provision is made at Bowhill Primary School:
1. Communication and interaction
2. Cognition and learning
3. Social, mental and emotional health
4. Sensory or physical
A full description of SEND provision at Bowhill is available within our information report:
SEND information report 2024-2025
There is also further information about SEND at Bowhill Primary School contained in our SEND Policy:
What are Devon’s responsibilities for SEND?
In September 2014 the Government introduced changes to the law for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The new law will result in changes to the way families and children receive support from the local council, health and social care services.
All schools are supported to be as inclusive as possible, with the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities being met in a mainstream setting wherever possible.
Devon County Council, as part of the changes that took place, is required to produce a local offer, details of this local offer can be found on the link to the website below.
> > https://new.devon.gov.uk/send/.
What describes Equality at Bowhill Primary School?
Our school fully supports the Equality Act 2010 and strives to ensure that everything done in school is fair, non-discriminatory and does not put individuals or groups at a disadvantage. In particular, we try to ensure that we do not discriminate, harass or victimise a pupil or potential pupil in relation to:
- admissions;
- the way we provide education for pupils;
- excluding a pupil or subjecting them to other disadvantages
In accordance with the Act, we do not discriminate or treat a pupil-less favourably because of their:
- disability;
- race;
- religion or belief;
- sex;
- sexual orientation.
In addition to the above ‘protected characteristics,’ the following also applies to employees of the school:
- age;
- marriage and civil partnership;
- pregnancy and maternity;
- gender reassignment.
As part of the Equality Act, schools must comply with the Equality Duty. This means that when we are making decisions or developing policies, we consciously think about how we:
- eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation;
- advance equality of opportunity;
- foster good relations.
Equality Objectives:
- To deliver a broad and balanced curriculum, which provides opportunities for all pupils to achieve the highest standards of education, using specialist programmes and dedicated resources (e.g. Pupil Premium funding) to support pupils who need it the most.
- To advance equality of opportunity by ensuring that teaching, learning and the curriculum promote equality, celebrate diversity and promote community cohesion by fostering good relations.
- To ensure our curriculum and provision is equitable offering children all they need to reach their potential.
- To eliminate any discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
- To ensure that no one is unfairly or illegally disadvantaged as a consequence of their age,
disability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, colour, race, ethnic or national origin, disability or religious beliefs. - To review pupil-related policies and procedures (particularly, but not limited to, the behaviour policy, the anti-bullying policy, the provision for SEN children and the schools’ accessibility plans) to ensure they facilitate full access to the curriculum and the school premises and facilities whenever possible.
- To recognise and celebrate diversity within our community whilst promoting community cohesion.
- To ensure that this policy is applied to all we do.
- To ensure that pupils and parents are fully involved in the provision made by the school.
Good practice:
- We use whole school, phase and class assemblies to raise awareness with children of the protected characteristics and our responsibilities to others.
- We strive to achieve a cohesive community and expect that children respect one another and that their parents feel fully engaged in the school.
- We aim to enhance a wider sense of community locally, as well as in the context of the UK and the World communities.
- Through our policies and actions, we undertake to ensure that every child and young person is healthy, safe, is able to enjoy and achieve in their learning experience, and is able to contribute to the wider community.
- We consider it prudent and sensible to maintain the practice of logging discriminatory incidents and reporting them to the local authority.
- We monitor and log incidents that discriminate against children and young people or adults in our school with protected characteristics, e.g. racist or homophobic bullying.
- We also monitor and log bullying incidents
The implementation and impact of these objectives will be monitored by School Governors through:
- Reviewing pupil progress and attainment for different sub-groups (e.g. individual schools, boys/ girls, FSM, SEN and Children in Care).
- Receiving reports from Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher and SENCo
- Receiving reports from monitoring visits.
- Taking advice from relevant parties such as the HR provider and Devon Admissions team.
Bowhill has a sensory room installed in the Oasis Room The sensory room is there to provide a safe and comfortable environment for pupils to experience a range of sensory stimuli, to develop communication and language skills from the reactive environment, to develop sensory skills and encourage and develop imagination.