Welcome to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities at Featherstone Academy

Featherstone Academy places great importance to meet the needs of ALL children and young people in our school.

Featherstone Academy provides an inclusive, broad and balanced curriculum for all children including those with special educational needs. Some children will require additional help and support to access the curriculum and fully participate in learning either throughout or at any time during their school life. In implementing this policy, the learning needs of each child will be met.

Our Vision

At Featherstone Academy we will meet the individual needs of all children entering our school. We will set suitable learning challenges for different groups of pupils and respond to pupil’s adverse needs and overcome potential barriers to learning.

Continued professional development amongst teachers, learning support assistants and other relevant school staff will be ongoing in order to ensure they have the required skills and understanding to meet the needs and raise the standards of achievement of all children.

Partnership with parents plays a key role in enabling children with special educational needs to achieve their full potential. The school recognises that parents hold key information and have knowledge and experience to contribute to the shared view of a child’s needs and the best ways of supporting them.

Children with special educational needs will be encouraged to participate in the decision making process and contribute to the assessment of their needs, the review and transition process.

Our Aims:

• To identify all children who may have an educational, social, emotional or behavioural concerns or indeed a combination of some or all of these concerns as early as possible in their school development.
• To ensure that all children are given appropriate support to allow a full access and entitlement to the whole school curriculum, by providing a differentiated curriculum appropriate to individual needs and ability.
• To ensure that children with Special Educational Needs are fully integrated within the everyday school environment through individual support for teaching and learning.
• That children, parents, teaching and non-teaching staff and governors all work together in order to develop a partnership of support for children with special educational needs.
• All school staff fully support the principle of inclusion.

Please contact Mrs Steatham- School SENDCo on 01902 734167

email: information@fea.greenheartlearning.org

For pupils who are new to English, we provide a personalised pupil support plan that identifies their particular needs and details the additional support they will receive to help them improve their English and make progress in their studies. The plan is drawn up in partnership with the pupil and their parents. It highlights the key strategies that the Academy will use to help the pupil to learn, any additional activities (and programmes) the pupil should engage in at home and the way their progress will be monitored.

In drawing up plans for pupils with English as an additional language (EAL), we draw on the proven approaches we have used and refined over the years and on best practice from other academies and schools.

Our staff receive training on the best approaches to support pupils with EAL and incorporate this learning into their lessons. Some pupils with EAL benefit from one to one tuition or small group work to help them to make more rapid progress in their English language development. If this is needed, we consult with the pupil and parents to make sure it is well planned with clear objectives and timescales. The partnership with the pupil and parents is essential in helping pupils with EAL make the progress we want them to make so that, like all our pupils, they achieve their full potential.

We have very high expectations of all our pupils, staff and parents. We set ambitious progress and attainment targets for all our pupils based on their ability and prior attainment. We ensure that Gifted and Talented pupils are challenged and supported to excel, with stretching personalised targets in the classroom and tailored enrichment activities. Our approach enables Gifted and Talented pupils to play a full and active part in the life in of the Academy, taking on leadership roles and experiencing special activities that will excite and challenge them. A member of the Senior Leadership Team takes specific responsibility for Gifted and Talented provision, which is delivered by a class teacher.

From time to time, pupils may need access to additional support because of specific short-term issues. For example, if a pupil has had to deal with the bereavement of a close family member or friend, then they will need special emotional support. In these circumstances, we will work closely with the family and other agencies to make sure that we provide the support the pupil needs to help them deal with their emotions and to enable them to continue to make progress in their studies.

For some pupils, issues in the home or other external matters can affect their attendance or behaviour at the Academy. In these circumstances, the Academy provides intensive support to make sure they get the help and support they need to improve in these areas and to continue to succeed in their learning.

The Academy’s Pastoral Manager and SENDCO provide specialised, individual guidance for any young person in need. Sometimes the pupil and family need access to more specialist help. In these cases, we work in partnership with other agencies (the Local Authority, Health Services, voluntary organisations) to plan and provide this specialist support.