HEARING IMPAIRED DEPARTMENT

· The Hearing Impaired Department caters for children across the whole spectrum of hearing loss and provides whatever mode of communication meets their needs. This ranges from the auditory/oral approach, through Sign Supported English to bilingualism, where the child's first language is British Sign Language. The difficult transition from the syntax of BSL to English is facilitated by the use of Signed English to develop reading and writing skills. All children are fully integrated into classes or with sets of hearing children, but may be withdrawn for individual support when required.

· Children enter the HID where their Statements are maintained and reviewed annually according to the SEN Code of Practice, overseen by the Head of Department and Teacher of the Deaf. We have two deaf tutors who develop the signed communication skills of staff and children and who ensure that their pastoral needs are met. In addition, we have two Specialist Speech and Language Therapists. We also have a skilled and enthusiastic team of trained Communicators who support the learning of all the children so that they can be included in all the activities of the school.

· We work in partnership with Wycombe Hospital; The Hospital for Children, Great Ormond Street, London; and the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, to ensure maximum benefit from hearing aids and cochlea implants. The children are provided with Solaris Radio Aids and, in some cases, Sound Field Amplification.

· Highworth HID has also developed close links with "Young Deaf Activities" which invites hearing impaired children, their parents and siblings to meet regularly for fun events. This gives the children an opportunity to widen their horizons and at the same time provides Outreach Support to parents.

· The Hearing Impaired Department is a real strength of our school. It has a very positive influence, not just on our pupils who are deaf or hearing impaired but also on the entire school community. All members of the Department are fully integrated into mainstream classes and the children work and play together with mainstream pupils. The close relationships which develop from this enable all pupils to better understand each others' needs. This has been a significant factor in establishing the caring ethos, which is evident in our school and which is one of our published aims.

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

All mainstream pupils, both in the school as well as in the nursery, are regularly screened to detect learning difficulties. Once special needs are identified, the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator [SENCo] (Mrs Hazel Hackett) liaises with class teachers, parents and outside agencies to ensure an appropriate response.

The Area Support Team provides us with additional support on a fortnightly basis to help us meet the requirements of these children.

There are many different types of special needs presented by children and, depending on what they are and the level of seriousness, the special provision varies.

The initial stage is called School Action and involves additional support and/ or different materials that are provided by the school. The following stage is called School Action Plus and includes support from professionals outside the school. This support may be advice, resources or assessment information depending on the needs of the child. The stages above this are for requesting and receiving a Statement of Special Educational Needs. Very few children will need to reach this stage of support.

Our SEN Policy is in accordance with the Education Act 1993 and the accompanying Code of Practice (January 2002) which advocates that the needs of most children with special educational needs should be met within a mainstream school with necessary support.

Detailed planning and documentation are an important part of the process and parents are closely involved at all stages.

FACILITIES FOR THE DISABLED

All schools are required to provide information about the arrangements for taking disabled pupils into the school, the steps taken to ensure they are treated on equal terms with other pupils and the facilities provided to help them with access to the school. As a Community School, we are bound by the County's Admissions Policy, which ensures that there is no discrimination against pupils with disabilities.

Highworth with its Hearing-Impaired Department is in a special position and has a higher proportion of pupils with disabilities than most schools. The Orchard Room provides an excellent range of specialist facilities for the hearing impaired and, in consideration of them, we also have fire alarms that flash as well as ring. Staff with a hearing impaired child in their class wear radio microphones so that they can be heard more clearly. Signing Assistants support the signing children in the classroom to maximise their access to the curriculum. In addition several members of staff are learning to sign. We also have special pieces of equipment to assist children with impaired sight.

All disabled pupils are fully integrated into the school. The hearing impaired children are only withdrawn for separate support when the lesson is of such a nature that they would not be able to gain from it. There are signed songs and stories to aid understanding among the rest of the children and deaf awareness is a part of our PSHE course.

For people with other disabilities, there are other modifications around the school although the design of the buildings does not make it an easy place to convert. There is a ramp to the main entrance and it would be possible for someone in a wheelchair to get to all areas of the school although, admittedly, by a rather circuitous route to avoid the internal stairs. We also have a toilet suitable for wheelchair bound visitors.

At Highworth we value our specialist department and are proud of its success in integrating pupils, both socially and academically.

During the last year we have improved the facilities which are available for people with disabilities – and have achieved some of the aims of our Accessibility plan. The County funded Sound Field reinforcement systems for more of our classrooms. They are now fitted to at least one classroom in each year group. We have also been able to incorporate a ramp in our new corridor extension. This will enable wheelchair users to travel directly from the top playground to the hall and admin corridor. Although this is a significant improvement, there are still some classrooms which are not accessible to wheelchairs and resolving this remains a priorty.