IPPN1 Managing Special Education in 2005

IPPN2 BACKGROUND The greatest challenge facing most principals and schools, from the smallest to the largest, is managing Special Education. Providing for pupils with special needs is at present taking a disproportionate amount of a principal’s time. Why is this?

IPPN3 RECENT LEGISLATION  The Education Act 1998  The Equal Status Act 2000  The Education Welfare Act 2000  The Education for Persons with Disabilities Act 2004

IPPN4 EDUCATION ACT 1998 The Education Act 1998 makes provision “for the education of every person in the state, including any person with a disability or who has special education needs”

IPPN5 THE EDUCATION FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES ACT 2004 The Education for Persons with Disabilities Act 2004 makes “further provision for the education of people with disabilities shall have the same right to avail of, and benefit from, appropriate education as do their peers who do not have disabilities”

IPPN6 The Impact of Legislation on our schools 1. Staffing 2. Staff roles 3. Accommodation 4. Special Needs provision 5. Policies 6. Other agency supports

IPPN7 STAFFING Total No. of Teachers – 16 Class teachers – 11 Learning Support – 1 Supply Panel – 3 Principal - 1 Special Needs Assistants - 0 Caretaker – 1, Secretary – 1 Cleaners - 2 Total Staff – 20

IPPN8 STAFFING Total No. of Teachers – 31 Class Teachers – 17 Learning Support – 1 Resource Teachers 8 Supply Panel – 3 Home School – 1 Principal – 1 Special Needs Assistants - 22 Caretaker, Secretary, Cleaners (3) Total Staff - 58

IPPN9 STAFF ROLES - PRINCIPAL The administration and management of Special Educational provision has added greatly to the workload of the principal. Unfortunately the Dept. of Education has contributed enormously to this workload. It has taken up to two years to get resources sanctioned for some pupils. The fact that NEPS (National Educational Psychological Service) established in 1999 is still unable to offer a comprehensive service – sometimes no service – creates more work for principal in trying to source private assessments.

IPPN10 Managing the change No principal can deal with the management of Special Needs on their own, often teach a class, and carry out the rest of their duties. This year we have restructured our in-school management to create a Special Education team. Each member of the team has a primary responsibility

IPPN11 Special Needs Organiser The leader of the SEN team is the deputy principal whose primary role in the school is as a special needs organiser. The Deputy Principal : Manages the day to day operation of the SEN policy Supports and advises colleagues Acts as link with parents Acts as link with external agencies Co-ordinates the provision for and manages the responses to children’s special needs Monitors and evaluates the provision Co-ordinates the work of the other team members

IPPN12 SEN Team Learning Support Teacher – responsible for organising assessments and IEP meetings and ensuring that they are written up. Post Holder – responsible for co- ordinating policies and ensuring that they are written up. Principal – liaises with the DES and Special Council.

IPPN13 STAFF ROLES – SNA’s SNA’s are appointed to foster the participation of pupils in the social and academic process of our school and to enable the pupils to become independent learners. As a rule they are only appointed to pupils who may have physical or toiletry needs, or to pupils that may be a danger to themselves or to others. The SNA gets a better chance to perform if they can be part of a team. This means at class level and at school level.

IPPN14 Special Needs Assistants SNA must remember that their main aim is to encourage the child to become independent. In our school we have found the following to be useful: The SNA has their own space in the classroom at which to work. We have found that having the SNA removed from the pupil, except when needed, often removed a barrier between pupil and teacher. All the teachers give a list of work/jobs that they would like done if a SNA is free. Ground rules for parents, teachers and SNAs are a must. SNAs are part of the staff – have voting rights re. extra days, staff parties, etc. Movement of SNAs between allocated pupils is policy – this cuts down on over dependence by pupil and also gets rid of the ‘ownership’ by parent. Also some pupils are harder work – it spreads the load.

IPPN15 METHODS OF INTERVENTION Every special needs pupil is entitled to an Individual Education Plan (IEP). These IEP’s address the pupil’s full range of needs and include details from class teacher, assessments results, reports from other agencies, learning strengths and attainments, priority learning needs, learning targets, class based learning activities and home support activities. It is a small steps approach with finely graded steps and targets which helps ensure that children experience success.

IPPN16 METHODS OF INTERVENTION Based on the pupil’s needs our school uses the following: 1. Individual tuition (outside the classroom) 2. Small group tuition (outside the classroom) 3. Intervention in the classroom 4. Shared or paired intervention 5. Class teacher carries out the intervention – resource teacher teaches the class 6. Shared teaching in the classroom

IPPN17 STAGES OF INTERVENTION Circular SP. ED. 01/05 states ‘Only those pupils who have learning difficulties arising from their disabilities and whose special educational needs cannot be met fully by the class teacher and/or the learning support teacher should be supported by resource teaching or special class placement.’

IPPN18 STAGES OF INTERVENTION We currently operate three stages of intervention. Record of differentiation within the class. School action – Group/individual profile and learning programme. I.E.P. (See attached sheets in Appendix). We will have a paper trail for each pupil that we are giving extra help to – and also have quantifiable evidence when we seek additional resources.

IPPN19 POLICIES Many of our school policies had to be re-written or revised – enrolment, discipline, etc, New policies are being devised on special needs provision, handling and lifting, restraint, inoculation for staff, staff roles and responsibilities, dealing with challenging behaviour, communication, health & safety. (See attached policy on special needs). We recently had a full evaluation of Education Provision for Children with Autism in our school. The Divisional Inspector made eleven separate recommendations. Nine of the recommendations related to actions being clearly described in the school plan.

IPPN20 OTHER AGENCY SUPPORT This should really come under the heading of major challenges to SEN. In mainstream schools it is almost impossible to access proper levels of support in speech and language therapy, psychological services, occupational therapy and physiotherapy. Very often the support is non-existent.

IPPN21 THE FUTURE 1. New Weighted System has to be revised. 2. Class Size must be reduced. 3. Training for teachers esp. in drawing up IEP’s, dealing with challenging behaviour, etc. 4. Training for SNA’s. 5. Inclusion v. integration.

IPPN22 THE FUTURE 1. All staff to be counted as basis for administrative principal. 2. Proper support from other agencies. 3. Resource provision for pupils with SEN must be determined by what the pupils actually need and not by what the government is prepared to pay. 4. Adequate SENO’s to be appointed to each county.

IPPN23 CONCLUSION In concluding it is important to remember that “All the children in our school are special”. “Not alone did you change my son’s life but you have also changed our lives”(mother of autistic pupil). there are many challenges ahead, but given the proper support, these give us many opportunities to make a difference.