Special Educational Needs & Disabilities

Strategic SENDCo: Miss L Murphy lisa.murphy@swale.at

Deputy SENDCo: Mr L Richardson luke.richardson@swale.at

SENDCo Administrator: Mrs C Tabony claire.tabony@swale.at

Exam Access Coordinator: Mrs A Standen angela.standen@swale.at

At The Whitstable School, we believe all students are entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum, which is appropriately differentiated to meet individual needs. Early identification and intervention of those needs ensures every student makes progress and experiences success. The staff and students at TWS work together to unlock potential and embrace school experiences by putting learning first.

Many students, at some time in their school career require short-term or long-term support in order to make progress in line with their academic ability or to overcome barriers to learning. The skills and expertise of staff means that a wide range and variety of support and interventions can be employed in order to address these needs and difficulties.

We value a working partnership with parents and external agencies that helps ensure a sharing of information, consistency of approach and the best use of professional advice.

The Whitstable School believes that parents should be fully involved in the decision-making process, understand the purpose of any intervention or programme of action and be informed when individual student needs are identified. This triangulated support is crucial in meeting the needs of, and unlocking the potential of our pupils.

The School has disabled access via ramps, lifts and additional equipment. Staff have been trained to use these facilities and are only too happy to help.

SEND Policies and Procedures

The following Policies and Procedures can be found on our Policies page.

Accessibility Plan
SEND Policy
Trust SEND and Inclusion Principles
SEND Information Report

If you would like these in printed format please contact the school office.

Aims

To enable all students to reach their potential
To allow access to the curriculum for all students
To work in a manner that supports and enables inclusion
To provide individual educational programmes with resources appropriate to the needs of the child
To facilitate independent learning
To ensure early identification of needs
To monitor and assess regularly the progress of each child
To carry out an annual review of policy and practice to ensure continuing development of teaching and learning
To ensure that the Governing Body, staff and parents are aware of and endorse the school’s policy
To encourage a shared responsibility and partnership between school, parents, pupils and external agencies
To encourage and develop staff awareness of types of individual need at all levels

Procedural Statement

The Governing Body has appointed a SEND Governor (Chair of Governors) to represent the Governors with special responsibility for Special Educational Needs. The Chair of Governors can be contacted through the school office. The 2014 Code of Practice states that 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 him or her. Special educational provision or training provision that is additional to or different from that made generally for other children or young people of the same age.”

The SENDCO undertakes the following duties:

Responsibility for the day-to-day operation of Special Educational Needs & Disability support in the school
Maintain an up-to-date profile of individual needs
Liaise with and advise other staff members to enable early identification of individual needs
Liaise with external support services
Maintain the school’s SEND Profile and Policy
Liaise with parents / carers
Facilitate and implement in-service training
Review equipment and resources
To plan and chair review meetings
Supervision of Teaching Assistant support
Advising colleagues of strategies/materials/resources to facilitate learning for individual children
Reporting to governors
Applying a graduated response to the assessment of children with SEND
Apply for Higher Needs Funding to support SEND students

Contact Details of Support Services for Parents of Students with SEND

Kent Parent Partnership Service (KPPS) provides free, impartial, confidential, advice, support and options around educational issues for parents who have children with Special Educational Needs or Disability. They empower parents to play an active and informed role in their child's education.

They can be contacted on:

Helpline: 0300 041300
Office: 0300 3336478
Email: kentparentpartnershipservice@kent.gov.uk

Kent SEND Information Hub gives children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities and their families information about what support services are available in their area.

To access the KCC local offer please follow this link: Kent Local Offer (SEND Hub)