SEND

Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

Our SEN co-ordinator is Steve Holland.

You can contact him at hollands@hamsteadhall.com or ring the Academy on 0121 386 7510 and ask to speak to Mr Holland.

Please note: We recently ran a meeting for parents of SEN pupils to discuss their ideas for the new website. Mr Holland and Mr Cochrane are currently using those ideas to create a brand new look for the SEN section but it's not ready quite yet.
We hope to launch this new look by the end of the academic year.

Inclusion Policy

Rationale:

Hamstead Hall Academy is committed to providing an appropriate and high quality education for all young people living in our local area.

We believe that all young people, including those identified as having special educational needs (SEN), have a common entitlement to a broad and balanced academic and social curriculum, which is accessible to them, and to be fully included in all aspects of academy life.

We believe that all young people should be equally valued in school. We will strive to eliminate prejudice and discrimination and to develop an environment where all young people can flourish and feel safe.

Hamstead Hall Academy is committed to Inclusion. Part of the academy strategic planning for improvement is to develop cultures, policies and practice that include all learners. We aim to engender a sense of community and belonging and to offer new opportunities to learners who may have experienced previous difficulties.

This policy describes the way we meet the needs of young people who experience barriers to their learning, which may relate to sensory or physical impairment, learning difficulties or emotional or social development, or may relate to factors in their environment, including the learning environment they experience whilst at Hamstead Hall Academy. We recognise that pupils learn at different rates and that there are many factors affecting achievement, including ability, emotional state, age and maturity. We believe that many pupils, at some time in their academy career, may experience difficulties which affect their learning, and we recognise that these may be long or short term.

We believe that ‘Inclusion’ is about providing appropriate opportunities for all pupils, whatever their age, gender, ethnicity, impairment, attainment and background.

We pay particular attention to the provision for and the achievement of different groups of pupils:

• girls and boys, men and women
• minority ethnic and faith groups, travelers, asylum seekers and refugees
• pupils who need support to learn English as an additional language (EAL)
• pupils with special educational needs
• pupils who are disabled
• those who are gifted and talented
• those who are looked after by the local authority
• others such as those who are sick; those who are young carers; those who are in families under stress; pregnant school girls and teenage mothers
• pupils who are at risk of disaffection and exclusion
• pupils who are entitled to pupil premium (disadvantaged pupils)

At Hamstead Hall Academy we aim to identify these needs as they arise and provide teaching and learning contexts which enable every child to achieve his or her full potential.

Hamstead Hall sees the inclusion of young people identified as having special educational needs as an equal opportunities issue and we will also aim to model Inclusion in our staffing policies, relationships with parents/guardians/carers and the community. We are committed to an approach that looks at what additional provision we need to make for specific children.

The strategic development and monitoring of the school work on Inclusion will be undertaken by the Deputy Head of School – Learning and Well Being. The yearly audit and action plan used to implement Birmingham Standards for Inclusion will allow close monitoring of the academy policy and its actions.

Deputy Head of School | Learning and Well Being | Miss K Emson

SEN Governor | Mrs R Burroughs

Objectives

1. To ensure the SEN and Disability Act 2001, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, 2005, and the Disability Equality Duty 2006 and new SEND Code of Practice 2014 are implemented effectively across the academy.

2. To have a current and effective Accessibility Plan which shows how, over time, access for disabled young people and adults will be increased to the Curriculum, the physical environment and to ensure written information is available in a format accessible to all.

3. To ensure appropriate opportunities for, and to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against, children with special educational needs and/or a disability.

4. To continually monitor the progress of all pupils, to identify needs as they arise and to provide support as early as possible.

5. To provide full access to the curriculum* through differentiated planning by class teachers, the SENCo, and support staff as appropriate. (*Except where disapplication, arising from a Statement/ EHCP occurs, disapplication is very rare, and we aim to offer the full curriculum to all our pupils.)

6. To provide a Support Plan detailing individual needs, and the support to be provided for pupils to meet those needs.

7. To ensure that all pupils are perceived positively by all members of Hamstead Hall Academy and that inclusive provision is positively valued and accessed by staff and parents/carers.

8. To ensure that we are able to meet the needs of as wide a range as possible of children who live in our catchment area. To encourage participation by disabled people in public life.

9. To enable our young people to move on from us well equipped in the basic skills of literacy, numeracy and social independence to meet the demands of further education and independent living.

10. To involve parents/carers at every stage in plans to meet their child’s additional needs.

11. To involve the children themselves in planning and in any decision making that affects them.

12. To understand that the term Special Education Need covers all of the young people listed above.

Miss K Emson | Deputy Head of School | Learning and Well Being

More information available to download below:

• Inclusion Policy 2018
• Information on SEN
• Local Offer SEND