How we make sure that children with SEND enjoy a broad and balanced curriculum

We want our exciting curriculum to be one of the many reasons our children love coming to school. We therefore work hard to ensure all our children achieve in lots of different ways as well as through academic learning – for example, we have specialist music teachers, PE teachers and art teachers. We also hold after-school and lunchtime clubs and ensure that all children who apply will attend at least one club. We make adjustments to include children with SEND in these clubs wherever possible.

We encourage children with SEND to play a full part in the life of our School. We arrange many educational visits and journeys around London, to museums, art galleries and theatres for example, and we make sure that all of our children can take part through special planning around an individual child’s needs.

We also plan a number of overnight stays to enrich our curriculum and give the children a sense of adventure and independence. Year 5 take a 3 day trip to The Mill, and Year 6 enjoy a 5 day team-building stay at Osmington Bay. We do a risk assessment and when necessary make reasonable adjustments to plans and arrangements. You can see additional information about this process in our Medical Policy.

Our Intervention Menu (appendix to SEN/D Policy) shows some of our additional specialist sessions which we use to accelerate children’s progress in, for example, reading, writing and mathematics. Our specialist interventions are always selected based on evidential research and in-school monitoring. Each class has a Provision Map (see SEN/D Policy) to show what interventions children are receiving, have previously received, and what options are still available.

These interventions comprise of regular sessions that run for a limited time, are frequent (for example, four sessions a week) and short (for example, 20 minutes). They are guided by a Teacher or Teaching Assistant who has received specialised training and overseen by class teachers and the SENDCo.  All of these interventions involve assessing the child’s levels at the beginning and at the end to see if they have made progress.

If a child is not making sufficient progress and/or is falling short of age-related expectations, we will consider other forms of support in discussion with the parent/carer and their child.

We also adapt the curriculum to include children with SEND, for example:

·         Providing quiet time out for a student with emotional needs

·         Providing a timetable  with pictures and clear explanations of tasks for a child with autistic spectrum disorder

·         Providing a ‘work station’ in class to help a child to focus on the learning tasks with fewer distractions

·         Providing assistive technology to ensure effective communication

Additional staff provide support for learning in the classroom and sometimes away from the main part of the lesson for a short period of time. These staff include: