INCLUSIVE NEEDS POLICY

RATIONALE

To ensure children experience an environment where their health is promoted.

Te Whariki Goal 1 Well Being

PRINCIPLES

To develop a policy that ensures reasonable steps are in place to provide inclusive education and care for children with special educational needs.

The Ministry of Education describes a child with special educational needs as a child who needs extra support because of “a physical disability, a sensory impairment, a learning or communication delay, a social, emotional or behavioural difficulty, or a combination of these”.

POLICY

The centre will encourage continuous opportunities for children with additional needs to be included in the centre programme.

PROCEDURES

Inclusion in an early childhood service ensures every child is valued as a unique individual and supported to be fully involved in all aspects of the curriculum. Inclusion is an ongoing process rather than a result, a journey towards responsive, reciprocal relationships, encompassing attitudes, resources, participation and curriculum.

• Inclusion involves the full staff team taking steps towards actively identifying barriers to learning and participation and adapting aspects of their practice to resolve these. This might involve altering the physical environment to facilitate inclusion or using teaching approaches not typically found in education settings, for example, sign language.
• All staff members are expected to express and promote a positive attitude to children with additional needs towards the children, colleagues, parents/whānau and the wider community.
• Management will ensure that all children have access to all areas of the premises and facilities that are child appropriate.
• If applicable, teachers will share their observations with the Centre Manager first if they have any concerns regarding a child’s development. A room or centre discussion may follow for wider input of observations from the full team. The Centre Manager and profile teacher may then meet with the family for an initial conversation to share observations or similarly, if a parent or family raises any concerns.
• Management will meet with whānau and children who have additional needs in advance of their starting date and create a Hazard Analysis and Individual Education Plan.
• Management will ensure that staff undertake regular appropriate assessment of children with additional needs and use this information to plan future curriculum experiences. An individual plan will be developed for every child with additional needs, in consultation with external agencies, experts and their family/whānau.
• Teachers will keep appropriate records of their observations, planning and evaluations to develop their skills in working with children who have additional needs. Management will provide professional learning development opportunities annually to support teachers’ strategies and skills, in working with children who have additional needs. Teaching teams and individual teachers will be supported and encouraged to develop a classroom management plan alongside the individual education plan, to ensure the well being of all children and teachers. The Manager will ensure appropriate time is allocated at staff/room meetings for the team to discuss and plan different levels of support for individual children.
• Management will ensure through its purchasing and evaluation, that visual and audible resources displayed in the centre will reflect in a positive way children with different abilities.
• Management will ensure parents and teachers have access to relevant information about children with additional needs.
• Management will seek information and guidance from Specialist Services where appropriate, to enable them to work effectively with children and their family/whānau.
• If a child is approved an Educational Support Worker, ESWs will work alongside teachers to support the inclusion of children with the highest needs. ESWs work under the guidance of an early intervention specialist, and as part of a team of parents, whānau, specialist education practitioners, educators, and health professionals. This team works together to develop an IP to support the inclusion of the child in the service.
• ESW’s must undergo a workplace induction. They will have clear expectations of their role and responsibilities. They will be involved in the development of individual plans and assessments of the children’s needs and interests.