SEND Information

Ms Brammer, SENDCo, is available to discuss your child’s needs further; please do not hesitate to contact her with information you wish to share or matters you wish to discuss.

At the Academy, we recognise that provision for pupils with additional needs and disabilities is a whole school responsibility. Our SEND policy and provision is guided by the SEND Code of Practice, 2014.

• Principal: Paul Masher
• Trust SENDCo: Lisa Thierry
• Strategic Lead for SEND: Deborah Carpenter
  
• SENDCo: Lynn Brammer

We recognise all pupils are mainstream pupils with an entitlement to access a full curriculum. We do this by ensuring that we a have a middle leader (SENDCO) who supports the wider staff community to advise, guide and support in this area so that teachers are able to differentiate and modify the needs of all learners.

We are committed to embedding inclusive practice, ensuring that barriers to learning are removed and pupils make at least expected progress from their starting points in line with their ability. A fully inclusive school, at BHA we recognise that provision for pupils with additional needs and disabilities is a whole school responsibility: all teachers are teachers of pupils with additional needs and quality first teaching, supported by adaptation and modification according to need underpins all we do as part of our Excellence in Education Framework.

Our SEND policy aims are:

• to ensure barriers to learning are identified and addressed
• to offer a graduated and thoughtful response to identifying, assessing and meeting needs in line with the assess, do, plan, review cycle
• to facilitate access to a broad, balanced and knowledge rich curriculum for all pupils
• to enable pupils with additional needs to achieve academically, commensurate with ability and to be set aspirational targets
• to take into account the views of pupils with additional needs
• to encourage meaningful and regular communication with parents and carers of pupils with additional needs
• to offer appropriate support and modification, according to advice and need

What is SEND?

The term “Special Educational Needs and Disability” has a legal definition. Pupils with special educational needs all have learning differences or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn or access education than most pupils of the same age.

Who is responsible for pupils with SEND?

Our SEND Team ensures that staff have the information, guidance and support to meet needs successfully within the mainstream classroom.

However, “The SEND Code of Practice makes it clear that class and/or subject teachers are directly responsible and accountable for all pupils in their class(es), even when pupils are receiving support from a teaching assistant or other specialist staff, within or outside the classroom. The responsibility and accountability for the progress and development of pupils with SEN lies with the class or subject teacher, not with the SENCO or the learning support department. This is not a new concept. It is firmly embedded in the Teachers’ Standards (2012) and the Ofsted framework.”- National Association for Special Educational Needs

We share SEND information with staff via our SENDCAR- our Special Educational Needs Care and Action Register. Pupils may be coded E which means they have an EHCP (Education Health Care Plan), K which means they have a formally observed or diagnosed special educational need and also I, for information. Whilst children with an I code do not have a formally observed need the information shared supports quality first teaching including the use reasonable modifications and adaptations. The SENDCAR is updated in Pastoral Additional Intervention Meetings which take place in week 6 and 7 of our MFA Cycle. Alongside this, SEND pupil progress is monitored by whole school assessments and with Guidance and Support Meetings that take place in week 1 and 4 of the MFA Cycle.

The Aspire Centre

Our Aspire Centre is central to the offer of additional support at BHA. Pupils are offered support within the Aspire Centre if agreed at AIM or GAS meetings. The provision is not full- time but an additional intervention. Our aim is always that all pupils attend their mainstream lessons with subject specialists. However, as part of a reasonable adjustment, pupils in Aspire may access lessons via Synergy for an agreed period of time. The onus is on teachers to ensure that work is set in a timely fashion as co-ordinated by their Heads of Department. Wider interventions, supporting our most complex pupils also take place in Aspire, co-ordinated by our SENDCo, Mrs Lynn Brammer with Mr Lee Colclough, our Aspire Centre Manager responsible for the day-to-day running of the provision.

Teaching Assistants

Teaching Assistants help pupils develop and manage the independent learning skills associated with improved outcomes. Teaching Assistants add value to what teachers do but do not replace them.

Research shows us that targeted interventions for small groups or on a 1:1 are a more effective use of TA time than the more informal, instructional role of in-class support. Some pupils may still require classroom based TA support due to complex needs. These pupils will have a pupil-centred plan which will inform the support provided. All of our Teaching Assistants work alongside The Education Endowment Foundation’s: MAKING BEST USE OF TEACHING ASSISTANTS: Scaffolding framework for teaching assistant-pupil interactions, a copy of which is in the Guidance and Support Folder.

Referring pupils for further support

If you have any questions about supporting pupils with additional needs, these should, in the first instance be discussed with your subject area line manager who will then seek further advice from the SEND team as needed.