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By: Gladys Briggs

No: 144337

1.1

All three and four years’ old children are entitled to 15 hours of free early year’s education per week

across 38 weeks of the year. Though it is statutory, it is not compulsory.

They can choose to take this early year’s entitlement at any of the following registered providers:

Pres-school playgroup

Private day nursery

Childminder (registered)

Maintained nursery school

Nursery or reception class in a primary or independent school.

This free education is provided through the Foundation Phase curriculum and is based on the

concept of children learning through play and having their own experience.

In Wales, we also have the Flying Start Programme which is for families with children under 4 years

of age, from deprived areas.

The main outcomes of the flying start programme include:

Free quality, part-time childcare for 2-3 year olds.

An enhanced Health Visiting service.

Access to Parenting Programmes.

Early Language Development.

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1.2

Community School

They are run and owned by the Local Education Authority which usually determines the admission

policy.

They have a governing body.

They open up their facilities and expertise to help build the capacity and social cohesion of the

community they serve with the support of the LEA.

Foundation/Trust School

These schools are run by their governing body which set out the admission criteria and employ staff

in consultation with the Local Authority.

A trust School is a type of foundation school which receives extra support from charitable trusts like

local businesses, community groups or educational charities.

It works with the same framework as other maintained schools (Follows the National Curriculum,

follows schools admission codes and inspected by ESTYN).

Voluntary Schools

They come under two types:

Voluntary aided school: mainly faith schools, although anyone can apply for a place. Run by the

governing body but owned by religious organisation or charity.

Voluntary controlled: Same as above but run and funded by the LA although owned by the church.

Independent Schools

They are governed by a board of directors and monitored by the ‘Independent School’s

Inspectorate’.

Children’s age range is from Nursery/Crèche to sixth Form and they have to pay School fees.

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Although they may receive government funding, all boarding schools must be independent.

They do not have to follow the National Curriculum.

Specialist School

They are state secondary schools that aim to be local centres of excellence in their chosen

specialism. They benefit from public funding under the ‘specialist schools programme’ and private

sector sponsorship. They are governed in the same way as other schools.

They are entitled to access government funds of £100,000.00 for capital projects to enhance the

facilities for specialism subject and ongoing funding of £129.00 per pupil for four years.

1.3

After the age of 16 young people and adults have different options.

Even though they have past compulsory school age, they can choose to continue their

education on a part time or full time basis.

They can have this further education in school, college or an independent learning provider.

If they are not participating in any form of learning, they can be admitted to ‘Entry to

Employment’ (E2E) where they can develop their motivation, confidence, personal

effectiveness, basic skills, vocational knowledge to enable them progress to a job or further

education.

They can gain employment with training to NVQ level 2.

They can partake in an apprenticeship programme or an apprenticeship led programme in

which they must have a work placement or job and get the training alongside.

2.1

School Governors

The school governing body comprises a team of people (parent governor, community governor, LEA

representative, the head teacher, teaching staff representative, support staff representative) who

run the school.

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They work in committees responsible for various aspects of the schools management including:

setting aims and objectives, adopting new policies and setting targets.

They work very closely with the head teacher and senior management team.

Senior Management Team

They write the School Improvement Plan, set out the criteria and ensure that targets are being met.

It usually comprises the head teacher, deputy head teacher and more experienced teachers with

management positions e.g. Head of Literacy.

SENCO

The SENCO is responsible for managing and monitoring the provision for those with special

educational needs within the school.

They liaise with child’s parents, teacher and outside agencies (speech therapist and occupational

therapist) to establish the child’s individual Education Plan.

They oversee the collection, recording and updating of the SEN pupils data ensuring that adequate

provision is in place.

Teachers

They are responsible for planning, preparation and assessing of the Curriculum for pupils in their

class.

They liaise with their support staff to assess pupil’s development and evaluate the learning activities.

They can also be subject leaders, monitor teaching and attend subject leader forums.

Support Staff

There are so many different types of support staff including teaching assistants, midday supervisors,

caretaker. Their roles are all different and their job description should reflect it.

They may support a whole class or be devoted to particular child (1-to-1) who may have special need

including behavioural support, learning disability and physical disability.

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2.2

Educational Psychologist

They support the SENCO in planning the provisions for pupils with additional needs.

They meet with the SENCO at the beginning of the term to establish aims and objectives and set

targets.

They also support the SENCO in providing observations and assessments yearly.

Speech and Language Therapist

They work with pupils who have language and communication problems.

They are normally based outside the schools but they come into schools to observe and assess pupils

and outline plans and strategies for the SENCO and support staff to implement.

Sometimes (When pupil’s speech problems lead to communication and social difficulty) they work in

partnership with the educational psychologist and the behaviour support worker.

Education Welfare Officer

Sometimes called ‘The Education Social Worker’, is based within the local authority.

They work with the head teacher to monitor pupil’s attendance and provide support with

absenteeism issues.

They work with parents to help excluded pupils return back to school.

3.1 and 3.2

Ethos

In my school the ethos is “Everyone aiming to achieve our very best, through commitment,

challenge and high expectation”. This is a maintained school and it’s running the Welsh Assembly

Government’s Foundation Phase 3 – 7 Years old. Its belief is to support the children to discover the

world around them, thereby achieving the best possible outcome.

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The children are at the centre of everything. When you walk into the classrooms you find different

stations of activities for the children to explore, reading area, creative area, literacy area with

alphabets, sounds etc. All these different experiences will stimulate their senses and they will

wonder and ask questions, investigate and develop. This will help them to achieve.

Mission

In my school the mission statement is:

“Providing a happy, caring and welcoming environment where individual contributions are valued

and success is celebrated”.

The school provides an enabling environment were the children can try their best to achieve and

when they achieve their success is celebrated. They have their work on display on the walls for

people to see. They receive awards and certificates in areas of achievement from teachers, teaching

assistants and head teacher. As the children celebrate their success, the school also celebrates it’s

success as it’s overall results and ratings go higher.

Aims

In my school the aim is: “Effectively working together to ensure quality education for all children”.

My school has a great community spirit. It’s like one big family of staff, governors, children and

parents and I think team work is a big factor in its success story hence “Effectively working together”

is part of it’s Aims.

Quality of education is another important aspect of my school. It invests in quality, energetic and

enthusiastic teaching and non teaching staff (who share in its EMAVs); learning resources are

available and the learning environment is very stimulating for young children. Children’s

development is looked at in a holistic way rather than being focused on just intellectual.

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Values

My school values include:

Use polite and kind words every day

Listen carefully to each other and teachers

Be kind to each other and be gentle and careful with our friends' property

Keep our School clean and tidy

Walk around the inside of our School

Do our VERY BEST

It’s all about providing an environment where success can be achieved. The children learn how to

look after each other, respect adults, respect school property and safeguard themselves. The school

is a happy place and children look forward to coming in. They gain all aspects of their development

which helps them to reach their full potential.

How My School communicates its EMAV’s

On entry to the school reception you will find these things boldly written and pasted on the wall for

all to see.

School values are also pasted in the school hall which is the central position of our school and in the

yard to remind the children of the values that they need to uphold as pupils of the school.

My school also communicates through letters to parents and governor’s report to parents.

One area where I think my school needs to do a bit more in communicating is on it’s website as that

will give prospective parents and visitor a feel of the school online even before actually visiting the

school . They should also have a prospectus readily available in a visible area and these EMAVs

should be included in the prospectus.

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4.1

Children Act 2004

The children Act 2004 (Every Child Matters) came into effect after the death of Victoria Climbie.

The goal of the Act is to ensure that every child irrespective of their background or circumstance has

the support they need to:

Be healthy

Stay safe

Enjoy and achieve through learning

Make a positive contribution to society

Achieve economic wellbeing

Data Protection Act

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 all schools processing personal data must comply with the eight

enforceable principles of good practice. Data must be:

1. Fairly and lawfully processed

2. Processed for limited purposes

3. Adequate, relevant and not excessive

4. Accurate

5. Not kept longer than necessary

6. Processed in accordance with the data subject’s rights

7. Secure not transferred to other countries without the data subject’s rights

SEN Code of Practice/Disability Discrimination Act

The Fundamental Principles of the SEN Code are:

• A child with SEN should have their needs met.

• The SENs of Children will normally be met in mainstream schools.

• The views of the child should be sought and taken into consideration.

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• Parents have a vital role to play in supporting their child’s education.

• Children with SEN should be offered full access to a broad, balanced and relevant

education and based on the National Curriculum.

Disability Discrimination Act ensures that there is provision of adequate facilities for disabled pupils

including ramps; lifts; toilets and ensures that they are included.

4.2

Data Protection Act

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 all schools processing personal data must comply with the eight

enforceable principles of good practice.

One of the five main elements of my school’s safeguarding children policy is to “Develop and

implement procedures for identifying and reporting cases or suspected cases of abuse”.

To do this they need to keep data, information and record. So, in the school’s safeguarding children’s

policy, I found the following procedures relevant to data protection:

“Keep an individual Significant Event Record of concerns about individual children even

where it is considered that there is not an immediate need to refer”.

Children’s record clearly meets the criteria ‘sensitive data’ as it is needed to protect the

safety of the child so it is fairly and lawfully processed.

“Ensure that all records are kept securely, separate from any other school information

relating to the child’s progress and in a locked location”.

This complies with one of the principles of good practice “secure”. The information is

kept safe. This also includes data being backed up on computers and away from any

unauthorised access.

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“Ensure that where a child on the child protection register leaves, their information is

immediately transferred to their new school and that the child’s social worker is

informed”.

This complies with one of the principles of good practice: “Data must not be kept longer

than necessary for the registered purpose”. It is very good to keep information for

certain period of time but not indefinitely.

Children Act 2004

Being Healthy:

In my School children are encouraged to bring healthy, balanced dinner to school which must

include their fruits and vegetable and discouraged from unhealthy food and snacks (crisps, chocolate

bar, jelly etc.). There is a leaflet about healthy lunch box which is usually on display in the reception

so parents who need help making healthy sandwiches can easily pick one and learn.

They are also encouraged to bring healthy drinks rather than carbonated water or fizzy drinks.

There is drinking water for the children as drinking water helps learning.

Classes have wake and shake every morning to encourage exercise. We have an annual sports day

which the children always look forward to.

Staying Safe:

All practitioners within school have to be CRB checked in my setting and they have to follow school

procedure on safeguarding in the case of an allegation or disclosure.

The school operates a zero tolerance policy on bullying/harassment and children are protected from

maltreatment, discrimination and neglect.

Year 2 children attend the Kerb Kraft (A National Strategy for Child Pedestrian Safety Financed by the

Welsh Assembly Government) where they learn how to be safer pedestrians by going onto real

roads and learning how the right decision-making and behaviour can really help them to keep safe.

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We have accident forms and folder and incidents are reviewed in order to minimise future

occurrence.

Whenever children are leaving school premises may be for school trip, we do a proper risk

assessment and take into account the possibility of an accident or incident. It’s always 6 children to

an adult.

Enjoying and Achieving:

The whole class has an assembly on Friday when the ‘star of the week’ is announced so the children

always try their best during the week to achieve this and look forward to it. The star of the week

always gets a special prize from the teacher and becomes the teacher’s helper for the week.

When they work hard in class, they put marbles into a jar. If they have enough marbles then they

have enough ‘golden time’ as a class to enjoy whatever they choose from different fun activities in

class.

Children get stickers for different aspects of their learning that they’ve worked hard on. They are

always very proud of themselves when they are decorated in at these stickers.

If they show exemplary attendance and punctuality, exceptional performance, they get the head

teachers award also.

Their work is always displayed on the wall to celebrate their achievement.

Making a positive contribution:

The school has a gardening club and children grow their own food which they harvest and make

some recipe to take home.

The whole school participates in fund-raising for charities like the recent Children in Need and the

Shoe Box for Christmas by Samaritans Purse. This makes the children feel that they are a making a

difference to another child’s life thereby making a positive contribution.

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Achieving Economic Wellbeing:

During our school celebrations the children sometimes sell craft which they’ve made.

In my year 2 class, the children learn independent living skills like time-keeping, shopping/budgeting

and travelling independently.

4.3

Health and Safety Executive

The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for enforcing Health and Safety Laws in schools.

The responsibilities derive from the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of

Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999

Schools are required by this legislation to assess and manage risks and the Health and Safety

Executive usually enforces this. In my placement school for instance, when children are to go on a

school trip, a risk assessment is usually done and all accompanying adults must be aware and sign

the risk assessment documents.

Schools must have an up to date Health and Safety Policy and all staff must be familiar with it.

They must have all related paperwork (including accident forms) recorded and filed for future

reference and plan.

Under the Act the Health and Safety Executive would consider legal action against a school if

something goes wrong as a result of neglect.

ESTYN

ESTYN is Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales. Though it is

independent, it is funded by the Welsh Ministers under section 104 of the Government of

Wales Act 1998.

Inspectors report on:

The educational standards achieved by the school.

The quality of education provided by the school.

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How far education meets the needs of the range of pupils at the school.

The quality of leadership and management of the school, including whether the

financial resources are managed efficiently.

The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils at the school; and

The contribution of the school to the well-being of pupils.

They inspect the following categories of schools:

Community schools

Foundation schools

Voluntary aided schools

Voluntary controlled schools

Maintained nursery schools

Foundation specialist schools

Community specialist schools and

Pupil referral units

Independent schools are regulated and inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate.

Local Education Authority(LEA) Advisory Service

The LEA employs specialist teachers in all curriculum subject areas who provide information

and training for schools.

The LEA Advisory Services provide consultancy work made available on an individual

school/cluster of schools basis.

They provide the practical guidance to support and promote staff development.

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5.1

Schools have policies and procedures to help staff, parents and governors and others who work with

the school know how to handle different situations that may arise and to know how to deal with

these situations while maintaining the law. Policies provide a structure which ensures that consistent

principles are applied to similar situations across the school.

It is a legal requirement (usually based on Legislation/Acts) so staff, parents, governors and other

practitioners work to a comprehensible set of guidelines which is usually given by the local authority.

Policies also enable staff, parents, governors, LEA officers and ESTYN inspectors to see what

principles are in practice in the school.

There are usually a large number of policies for each school. They may be titled differently but they

all need to outline the school’s purpose, aims and responsibilities of everyone involved.

Staff can familiarise themselves with the policies and know where to find them. In my school,

policies can be found in the head teacher’s office and on the school website.

5.2

a) Staff Policies:

Pay Policies

Performance Management Policy

Grievance Policy

b.) Pupil Welfare:

Safeguarding Policy

Health and Safety Policy

Behaviour Management Policy

c.) Teaching and Learning Policies:

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Curriculum Policies (a policy for each subject)

Planning and Assessment Policy

Marking Policy

d.) Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

Race Equality and Cultural Diversity Policy

Special Educational Needs (or inclusion) Policy

Gifted and Talented Policy

e.) Parental Engagement:

Homework Policy

Attendance Policy

Home-school Agreement

5.3

Staff linked to those policies usually get together and carry out assessment which can be in the form

of questions they have to ask themselves, surveys they carry out to find out whether the strategies

they have used in the policy/procedures have been effective, whether or not targets have been met.

If there is an outcome (positive or negative), they will feed back to the head teacher who feeds back

to the governors.

Policies always have dates on them and are constantly reviewed especially policies which involve

targets to be met either by school or pupils.

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6.1

The National government sets the Framework for Early Years and Foundation Phase while the local

authorities will make guidelines for curriculum subjects and support schools by providing specialist

subject teachers.

The National government makes laws relating to different aspects of Education like the Education

Act, Disability Act 2001, Special Education Needs and it’s related Special Education Needs Code of

Practice which are all related to Special Education Needs. The local Authority then has the

responsibility to assess and identify children’s special education needs and make provisions.

The local Authorities help schools to create policies which are in line with National Laws/Legislations

by creating guidelines like the Health and Safety Policy Guidelines for schools in Caerphilly Council.

The National government makes the actual Health and Safety Laws.

The local authority usually has specialist in different aspects of children’s development including

psychologist and behaviour therapists. Where schools have pupils with challenging behaviour, the

local authority can provide support on how the school can handle behavioural problems. The

National government will be more concerned with funding research into education based projects

which have to deal with children and young people.

6.2

UNCRC

Article 3:

Schools must work at the best interest of the child:

This is why a child centred approach is often used. Children are able to set their own targets and

make an input to the system. Schools have school councils and the children’s views are taken into

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consideration in every aspect. All structures put in place in schools is for promotion of the welfare

and development of the child.

Article 29:

Education should develop each child’s personality and talents to full:

Schools have to look at providing education in a holistic way, considering every aspect of the child’s

development so that if there are talents, they can be stimulated and developed further.

Article 23:

Disabled children should be cared for and supported so that they can lead full and independent lives.

Education Act

Under the Education Act 2011 teachers have a statutory authority to discipline pupils for

bad behaviour in school. This authority applies to other paid staff with responsibility for

pupils including learning support assistants unless the head teacher says otherwise.

The school governors and head must work together to develop a behaviour policy to

support staff in managing behaviour and this policy should include rewards and sanctions

but in all, the governors should do this with a view of safeguarding and promoting the

welfare of the child.

6.3

Social Service:

They link with schools in cases where they need to share information for court hearings.

They also liaise with the schools’ family work or have meetings with the teachers.

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They provide professionals including: social workers; specialist social worker for sensory

disabilities, physical disabilities, mental health or children and families.

NHS:

They provide different professionals who work with schools including speech therapists,

physiotherapists, occupational therapist, child psychiatrist, paediatrician, school nurse,

health visitor, general practitioner (GP).

They work with different charities and communities including: The children’s Trust and ‘My

Child Has Cancer Trust’ to support children and their families who have disabilities or are

suffering from certain illnesses.

The child’s GP is the child’s personal physician who knows the child’s medical history and

can diagnose illnesses, prescribe medication or give referral to specialists. They may notify

the school of the child’s medical condition if required.

The Child Psychiatrist makes diagnosis of children’s mental illnesses which affect children’s

behaviour including attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), Oppositional defiant

disorder, autism and aspergers syndrome.

The Police

Although there is usually a child abuse investigation unit in police departments, all police

officers have a legal duty to safeguard children from harm and abuse.

They have emergency powers to enter premises and provide immediate protection for

children suffering or likely to suffer significant harm and they investigate all criminal

offences.

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REFERENCES

Burnham, L and Baker, B (2010) Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools (Primary) Essex: Heinemann Educational Publishers

Karmen, T (2011) Teaching Assistant’s Handbook Level 3 Oxon: Hodder

Welsh Assembly Government Knowledge and understanding of the world (2008) Cardiff: Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and skills

BBC GCSE Bitesize – Data Protection Act available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/ict/legal/0dataprotectionactrev1.shtml [date accessed:27/12/12]

Every Child Matters available at http://archive.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=167914

[accessed:12/12/12]

A school Governors Guide to the Law available at http://www.governorswales.org.uk/law/

[accessed: 03/12/12]

Education Act 2011/Governors Agenda available at http://www.governorsagenda.co.uk/?=525

[accessed:10/12/12]

Welsh Government’s Flying Start available at http://wales.gov.uk/topics/childrenyoungpeople/parenting/help/flyingstart/?lang=en [accessed:18/12/12] Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults available at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/police/pcc/national-policy-and-strategy/safeguarding-children?view=Binary [accessed:27/12/2012]