Cambridge Education @ Islington
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Our Inclusion

Special Educational Needs in Islington
We want as many children with SEN as possible to receive their education within mainstream schools, whilst taking into account the needs of the child or young person and their family's wishes. We have delegated resources to mainstream schools to ensure that they have maximum flexibility to meet children's needs as efficiently as possible. However, to support this flexibility, we provide a range of services that provide advice, support and training to schools in the area of special educational needs including some individual pupil support. Our special schools in Islington, and their outreach services, are part of the support we provide.

Our aim will be to ensure that we continue to have access to a range of provision which meets the requirements of all children with special educational needs and increases the opportunities for inclusion. In terms of pupil placement we recognise that, for some children, a special school or unit may be the more appropriate provision, and we respond as far as possible to the preferences expressed by parents.

We have agreed an SEN Strategy for Islington which was drawn up following extensive consultation with schools, parents and other agencies in response to legislation and government guidance. Our strategy is based on a comprehensive needs assessment.

One of the foundations of the Islington SEN Strategy is to provide services within four SEN Service Areas. These are in line with the SEN Code of Practice and comprise: Communication and Interaction; Emotional Social and Behavioural; Physical and Sensory; and Learning and Cognition.

The SEN Service Areas are each led in partnership with the appropriate special school. Each special school has been provided with additional funding to provide outreach services to mainstream schools and also plays a key role in working with Cambridge Education @ Islington on pupil placements, service development and training for teachers and support staff in mainstream schools.

In our SEN framework we have retained and built on the expertise of our special schools and to brought them closer to mainstream practice, not just in policy and service development but also physically. Three special schools are co-located on the sites of mainstream schools. The vision here is for inclusive campuses offering high quality special and mainstream provision where the ethos of inclusion is developed in the best way possible to meet individual pupil needs. The campus also provides extended day, out of school learning and full-service school programmes in partnership with other agencies.

In addition to providing support to mainstream schools from our special school outreach services, we also offer a range of specialist central services for vulnerable children, including SEN services. We provide advice, support and training for school staff and work collaboratively with our special school outreach services.

In summary, we want to develop inclusive education in partnership. This means teachers and support staff working together across mainstream and special schools, effective training and support offered at school level and through central training. It also means involving schools, parents and other agencies and services in our planning so that we can work together to improve the quality of education for all our pupils.