COLLEGE POLICIES

DISABILITY & LEARNING
DIFFICULTIES POLICY
In accordance with the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) AND Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001)

General Information

Fine Arts College recognises the need to identify and care for students with learning difficulties, to treat each student as an individual and to encourage and promote the progress growth and development of the student in all areas of college life.

The college is responsible for identifying students’ needs and collating information from parents, staff and previous schools to ensure each students needs are met successfully.

Staff with specific responsibilities for learning difficulties are:

1. The SENCO: Oonagh Ryan, Director of Studies
(with Anita George, Director of GCSE)
2. The Examinations Officer: Sigrid Assan, Exams & UCAS Officer
3. The Admissions Officer: Georgina Aldworth, College Administrator
4. Specialist Teacher: Sarah Paterson, SpLD & Assessor (on a consultancy basis)
5. Specialist Teacher: Anita George, SpLD (on a consultancy basis)

Every subject tutor is responsible for alerting the SENCO of any students with difficulties who may require further assessment or help.

The Principals hold overall responsibility

Responsibilities

The Admissions Officer

1. To pass on any assessments made by educational psychologists or other professionals to the SENCO and Examinations Officer.
2. Ensure that relevant information is kept up to date in the student’s file.

The SENCO

1. To liaise with students and parents to ensure that the student’s needs are assessed and met, with extra help within college if necessary.
2. To liaise with relevant staff members including the Principals and Personal Tutors to discuss any special provisions.
3. To arrange for extra help for students with learning difficulties if necessary such as scribing and note taking.

The Examinations Officer

1. To liaise with parents to ensure professional assessments are up to date.
2. To liaise with exam boards to ensure that special provisions are in place for students with learning difficulties.
3. To arrange suitable spaces for candidates using laptops and ensure scripts are submitted with the relevant paperwork.
4. Make arrangements for students with extra time.

Subject Tutors

1. To pass on any information from parents or students.
2. To alert the SENCO to any students with difficulties or signs of learning difficulties.

Provision of Support

1. The College makes provisions for up to 25% extra time and use of a laptop in examinations provided that this is approved by the appropriate examining bodies and/or Examinations Officer, SENCO or Principal and is supported by the necessary documentation and evidence.
2. The college makes provisions for extra study periods for students when it is considered necessary by the SENCO or Principal. This may include scribing, note taking or typing as appropriate.
3. The college has two qualified Dyslexia specialists to support students with their academic studies.

Laptop Policy

The school recognises that for some students with specific learning differences a laptop may be the most appropriate method of organising and presenting their work.

Use of a Laptop during Lessons

Students will be allowed to use a laptop during lessons under the following conditions:

a. A need has been established and its use is recommended by an Educational Psychologist.
b. The pupil has received recommended training to ensure that typing is efficient, accurate and at least 25wpm.
c. The pupil has been briefed clearly on the organisation of work and the printing and filing of copies when using a laptop.

Limitations of Laptop use

A subject teacher has the right to veto the use of a laptop in particular situations:

a. Where particular exercises should not be done with computer assistance e.g. maps and diagrams
b. Where calculations are required without the assistance of computer functions such as in Mathematics.
c. If an individual pupil, in any lesson, is using a laptop in such a way as to cause a distraction or disturbance to the learning of others.

Details

a. Students should not expect to have access to mains power and are therefore advised to have a spare battery.
b. All written work, which would normally be done in exercise books during lessons, is to be printed out nightly at home and filed appropriately so that students possess a hard copy of all their work filed in ring binders or pasted into exercise books.
c. Students should use a plain Roman font and allow room for teacher’s comments.
d. Spell check can be used on all pieces of work except in examinations.
e. If there are problems with a laptop during lessons, the pupil should immediately stop using it and switch to pen and paper
f. Student Name and subject must appear on each page as a header of footer, each page is appropriately numbered and work is frequently saved.
g. Students should not expect the School staff to maintain their machines.

Backup

Students should backup their work on to a separate hard drive on a regular basis – ideally weekly, but at the very least at each half term. The cost of losing a term/year’s work through a computer crash can be very considerable, both literally and in terms of stress.

Printing work

Students should print off their work at home.

Security of Equipment

a. All laptops are to be security marked with the user’s identity and postcode.
b. Adequate insurance cover should be arranged by parents to cover damage or loss
c. The school does not accept liability for damage to or loss of any laptop computers, which will remain the responsibility of the owner at all times.

Use of Laptops in Public Examinations

The current rules and practice regarding the use of word processor in public examination is as follows:

a. The use of a word processor in examinations requires appropriate supporting documentation and evidence that it is the students normal mode of working i.e. that they use a laptop in lessons. Evidence of competent touch typing skill is essential and students who cannot touch type will be required to undertake relevant training. Requests to use a laptop in public examinations must be submitted to the Examinations Officer by the advised date given to parents at the start of the academic year.
b. Once authorisation has been granted, the Examinations Officer will make contact with the candidate to arrange in which exams they wish to use a word processor.
c. Student may not use their own laptops. Only College Laptops are allowed in public examinations (Windows only).
d. Students are not allowed to use spell check, grammar check, thesaurus or any other grammar/punctuation/spelling tools. These tools will be disabled during public examinations. Students will be advised how to set up documents with relevant personal details. The word processor will be set to save automatically every five minutes, but we suggest saving at regular intervals on top of this.
e. Laptops are not allowed in Maths or Music examinations
f. At the end of examination the candidate will be required to remain in the room while their work is printed off ( and authenticate the relevant hard copy)

Records Management

Copies of all student assessments and relevant information are kept by the Examinations Officer. The College Administrator and SENCO are responsible for forwarding any relevant information or updated/revised assessments to the Examinations Officer.

Students with Physical Disabilities

Wheelchair access

The college will ensure that classes are timetabled to take place in rooms with wheelchair access.

Hearing Disabilities

In the case of deaf or dumb students The SENCO will assess the student and liaise with parents and professional to ensure appropriate teaching and learning methods are used. The SENCO will assign a tutor to help the student if necessary.

This policy is reviewed annually and is available for inspection by staff or parents at any time on application to the Principal.