Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Mrs Stafford is our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo). She ensures that all children, regardless of their needs, receives the same high-quality education as every other student within our academy.
If you have any questions or concerns that you would like to discuss with Mrs Stafford please contact the main office to arrange an appointment.
Our telephone number is 01422 246610
Our email address is [email protected]
Our Offer
At Abbey Park Academy, our vision is ‘Outcomes Focused, Child Centred.’
This ensures all children within our academy, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), have the best start to life. This is achieved through the delivery of our high quality, inclusive educational provision which provides a common entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum for all – especially those students who are most in need of support and SEND.
Meaningful access to learning and the curriculum and realising personal potential, is at the centre of what we do. Alongside this, we aim to develop personal worth, respect for others, resilience, the skills to overcome barriers and independence.
The voice of the student is important and it sits at the heart of all provision – this is captured in assessments and SEND support plans.
SEND provision in action
How can my child get help? What are the different types of support?
Our teachers have the highest expectations for every student in their class, with a particular focus on students most in need of support, including those with additional needs.
Help for your child – general
All teaching is based upon building on what your child already knows, can do and can understand. Your child’s teacher will carefully consider next steps in learning and will ensure this is broken down into smaller steps, providing resources to support practical understanding and or tools to help your child succeed. Specific strategies may also be in place to support your child, depending on need.
These systems are in place for every single student in our academy.
Help for your child – additional needs
Where a student has additional needs, support will be specific to their individual needs. An individual learning plan is created based upon the assessment information, knowledge of professionals and also information shared by the student and parents. On some occasions, the support may all be provided by the class teacher, or it may involve:
- Other staff from the academy
- Other professionals from the local authority, such as the Educational Psychologist, Portage or specialist support services, such as ASD Team, Hearing Impairment Team and Visual Impairment Team
- Professionals from the NHS, such as Health Visitors, School Nursing Team or Speech and Language Therapy
Support for your child’s needs will always be in place in every lesson. For some individual needs, this may also include the following:
- Small group work outside of the classroom focusing on a particular target identified by the class teacher
- Specialist support groups led by outside agencies, for example speech therapy sessions, sign language lessons, braille lessons etc.
If you have a concern and feel that your child requires further support or help with their learning, please speak to your child’s class teacher or our SENDCo.
For a more detailed explanation of the steps we take to identify needs, please see the link: How we Identify Need
Reviews of our provision as quoted by Ofsted in our most recent inspection
Here is a snapshot of Ofsted’s evaluation of the impact we have for all students, including those with special educational needs:
“Pupils are thriving at Abbey Park.
Pupils have positive attitudes to their learning. They behave well in lessons. Staff have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and learning.
The special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) has expert specialist knowledge. Leaders have trained teaching assistants to use diagnostic tests. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) take the test that is relevant to their specific learning difficulty. For example, the working memory test identifies whether pupils with SEND have difficulties with visual, sequential or numerical memory. Leaders give teachers ideas about how they can adapt their lessons to meet pupils’ specific learning needs. Teachers present information in the way that is most helpful for each pupil with SEND. This is helping pupils with SEND to make good progress in English and mathematics.”
Ofsted, 2022
Code of Practice and the Equality Act
The Code of Practice and the Equality Act are at the centre of our decision making. We have included some information here to show our duties for students with special educational needs and disabilities:
Further information
If you would like some further in-depth information about our offer, please explore the links below: