SEND vision

To have high aspirations and expectations for all pupils, and to focus on positive outcomes for all students.

Inclusion at The Park Academies Trust

What is successful inclusion? Deploying established, effective intervention strategies and techniques, combined with research-led innovations, to enable a holistic view of student progress. This should incorporate all aspects of a student’s education and well-being, with a long-term outlook from the point of entry (contextualised with information about previous schooling/care) through to school-leaving age, and beyond.

We aim to build an ethos of emotional awareness and understanding (emotional quotient /EQ). This ensures a student is in a position to develop their intellectual quotient, in order to promote relevant and sustained development of the ‘whole child’. This facilitates the growth of a community of nurtured, valued, and productive individuals.

We create an environment that promotes a feeling of belonging, of being connected to others, and of ‘relatedness’. Staff build and model secure, healthy relationships from which pupils can learn, and which they can recreate in their lives after, and beyond, school. Both our academic and emotional curricula are designed to support motivation, engagement, and meta-cognition, in order to promote learning and progress.

Curriculum Intent - Inclusion

To have high aspirations and expectations for all pupils, and to focus on positive outcomes for all children. All teachers are teachers of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and teaching such children is therefore a whole school responsibility. Every pupil has their own unique educational needs, and at The Park Academies Trust we are committed to providing a tailored curriculum where adaptations and support are provided without limiting the breadth of students’ curricular experience. The Park Academies Trust is ambitious for all pupils, and we believe that appropriate assessment of need and then suitable planning with parents and carers leads to effective support and interventions for: Communication and Interaction; Cognition and Learning; Physical Health and Development; and Social, Emotional and Mental Health. Regular review and re-assessment mean that we are able to ensure there is a focus on preparedness for the next stage of pupils’ lives, and this drives high aspirations for the future, which in turn ensure that all students make exceptional progress when they leave the Trust in year 13 or year 11.

Implementation - Inclusion

Our Approach to Teaching Learners in an Inclusive Way

We are fully committed to the inclusion of all pupils. We seek to ensure that the individual needs of pupils are fully met. We value high quality teaching for all learners and actively monitor both emotional and academic learning at a Trust and school level.

We aim to create learning environments which are flexible enough to meet the needs of all members, and to ensure that students always feel they belong to our community from Nursery through to sixth form. We monitor progress of all learners, and staff are supported to enable continual assessment to ensure that sustained progress is being made.

How we Identify Need

At different times in their school career, a child or young person may have one or more Special Educational Need or Disabilities. The Code of Practice defines SEND as follows:

“A child or young person has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they:

(a) have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age: or

(b) have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.”

If a learner is identified as having SEND, we will provide support that is ‘additional to or different from’ the normal differentiated curriculum intended to overcome the barrier(s) to their learning.

Impact - Inclusion

Progress is monitored using quantifiable measures including Readiness for Learning scores to monitor well-being and Standardised Scores to measure academic progress. For example, over a six-month period, if a student has made 6 months’ progress, they would have a Standard Score increase of 0. Any Standard Score increase above 0 shows that the student has made more than 6 months’ progress in that 6-month period. We are striving for above age-expected progress enabling the gap to narrow for these students.

Inclusion Curriculum Objectives:

• To identify as early as possible, and then monitor, the needs of pupils so that appropriate provision can be made for their readiness to learn in order to raise attainment.
• To enable students who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities to reach their full potential through the identification and provision of successful interventions.

• To work within the guidance provided in the SEND Code of Practice (2015).
• To work towards successful outcomes, through a whole Trust approach to the management and provision of inclusive practice.
• To provide advice and support for all staff to enable successful inclusion.

• To provide a broad, balanced, and relevant curriculum, and ensure access to extra-curricular activities and school trips.
• To involve children and their parents/carers in the identification, planning, and reviewing of objectives and outcomes.
• To work in a co-operative and productive partnership, where appropriate, with outside agencies.
• To involve and listen to each student’s voice in all matters concerning them.

• To record, monitor, and assess outcomes that inform the ‘Assess, Plan, Do and Review’ cycle for each individual student, and those that inform the planning of the School Development Plan and Trust Development Plan.
• To provide an education that enables all children and young people to make progress so that they achieve the best possible outcomes, become confident individuals living fulfilling lives, and make a successful transition into adulthood, whether into employment, further or higher education, or training.

• To ensure all pupils are able to make exceptional progress across the board, that is at least similar to that of non-SEND counterparts, that matches or betters the child’s previous rate of progress, and that closes the attainment gap between the child and their peers. All students can and should achieve their very best. 
• To ensure that all students are able to share in all aspects of the life of the school.
• To enable the enhancement of pupils’ self–perception as learners.
• To ensure that all students are inspired and motivated, fostering a curiosity to learn.

Graduated Response to Needs (See inclusion triangle)

During the academic year students are supported through a graduated response. Wave One students have needs that can be met through classroom differentiation and Quality First Teaching. Wave Two students have additional support. For Wave Three students the school liaises with outside agencies and puts individualised interventions in place where appropriate.

Some students with disabilities and medical needs are entitled to access arrangements for statutory tests. Most commonly this is the use of a reader, additional time, or the use of a scribe/word processor. Students with these arrangements use them as part of their normal provision in school as far as it is practically possible. Students choose to take advantage of these arrangements with guidance from the school and their parents or carers.  

Where appropriate students with an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) attend their annual reviews, for which their views are sought both as written contributions prepared in advance, and as verbal contributions during the meeting.

Arrangements are made for all students with disabilities and medical needs to attend the full range of extra-curricular activities and school trips.

Categories of Students at Wave 3

• Students who are supported by significant interventions or targeted programmes designed to meet their needs.
• Some students who are receiving regular support from outside agencies.
• Students who are educated at an alternative educational provision but remain on the school roll.
• Students with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
• Students who have suffered significant Trauma which is impacting on their education.

Categories of Students at Wave 2

• Students who attend interventions.
• Students who require support with social skills.
• Students who require additional support with English or Maths.
• Some students for whom the school has sought educational advice and support from outside agencies such as the Educational Psychologist, the Speech and Language Therapist and other advisory services.
• Students who require support to address issues with self-esteem.

Categories of Students at Wave 1

• Students who are able to make good progress supported by Quality First Teaching in lessons.

If you are concerned about your child or would like some advice, our SENDCO is Mrs Helen Willcox.

Mrs Willcox can be contacted via email (SEND@orchidvale.org.uk) or by phone (01793 745006).