SEND

At The Fermain Academy, we regularly monitor and assess our students. In order to identify any special educational needs as early as possible we look at our student’s attainment, attendance, social, emotional and mental health and behaviour. The ways in which we identify our students needs may include:

• Evidence supplied by the student’s previous education setting(s)
• Student Assessment (including any assessment or testing in a previous school)
• Sharing of information from all staff via the SEND referral process
• Direction from the SEND team
• Parent concerns
• Student voice
• Seeking advice and liaising with other professionals

If you have any concerns regarding a particular subject, please contact the form tutor in the first instance.  If your concerns are more widespread, you may wish to speak to a member of the SEND team or the SENDCo.

Support will be provided to your child in line with the schools graduated approach (as pictured below):

To summarise, each stage of the graduated approach identifies the level of support needed to support your child, support at each stage is differentiated to align with the level of need that your child has. This support can include but is not limited to:

• Adaptive strategies to support your child e.g. rest/movement breaks
• In lesson support from a member of support staff
• Pastoral support
• Specific, targeted interventions such as:
  • Lexia intervention (Literacy)
  • Pastoral intervention (Social, Emotional and Mental Health)
  • Maths intervention
  • Talkabout intervention (Communication and Interaction)
  • Targeted SEND intervention

We believe that all students, including those with Special Educational Needs, should be offered a broad and balanced curriculum and should have access to all subjects and areas of learning. Through high quality teaching all students will be taught in small classes (no larger than eight) with a class teacher and possibly a Teaching Assistant or member of support staff. Lessons will be differentiated to meet the student’s needs and to ensure that all of our students have full access to the curriculum.   In some instances, students may be withdrawn on occasion to follow intervention programmes and some 1:1 support based teaching.

All of our students are assessed and monitored regularly.  Parents and carers will be able to monitor their child’s behaviour on a daily basis through the Arbor parent portal and rewards for attainment and effort and are issued to student’s weekly via the weekly praise assembly, additionally, form tutors make weekly phone calls with home to discuss your child’s week with you.

Teachers will closely monitor grades against target grades to assess student progress.

Alongside these assessments we also have parents evening sessions where parents and carers can come into the school, view their child’s class work and discuss progress and next steps with class teachers.

Students work will be checked and monitored regularly.  The SENDCo will also closely monitor all of our SEND student’s progress and meet to review targets and progress, this may also be supported by any outside agencies working with the student.

All of our staff are part of a large support system for all students; our staff team are well informed on ways to support the students that join us at The Fermain Academy and are frequently upskilled through Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

We have a team of Pastoral Support assistants lead by the Pastoral Lead who will work closely with students addressing any pastoral issues that they may have, our pastoral team also work closely with parents to ensure that the best possible strategies are in place.

Students will be encouraged to develop their Social Skills and The Fermain Academy will offer a range of social activities. With the support of all members of staff there will be a range of activities during social times as we understand that a student with SEND may face more challenging social situations and will need the extra support to help them overcome these.

Our school has a highly qualified experienced team to support all of our students including those with SEND:

• All our teachers regularly attend training on how best to support our students with SEND e.g. ADHD, ASC etc.
• Our Safeguarding team ensure they safeguard and promote the wellbeing of all our students
• Our Pastoral team consists of a team of pastoral support officers led by the Pastoral Lead, all of whom are highly experienced when dealing with the nurturing and well-being of our students
• Our SEND team consists of a team of support staff who are led by the SENDCo. The team and SENDCo are highly knowledgeable about SEND and are skilled in supporting students with SEND needs.

We also work very closely with outside agencies/professionals and may seek advice from them, this may include:

• Education Welfare Service
• Educational Psychologist
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
• Medical Needs Team
• Speech and Language Therapy Team
• Social Care
• Sensory Service (hearing and vision impaired students)

All of our students will have full access to extra-curricular activities and school trips.  At The Fermain Academy we believe that extra-curricular opportunities enrich the learning of all of our students.

In some instances we may need to differentiate the opportunity for our students with SEND this may mean that a teaching assistant or another adult will support them during these activities.

If a student with SEND wishes to engage in such activities/trips we will endeavour to ensure that this is possible.

During transition to a post 16 destination, we ensure that we attend the annual reviews and that any changes reflect the well-being and success of the child when transferring to a new destination. Every effort will be made to support students leaving The Fermain Academy and this will include visiting new destinations with students.

Our transition process for students with SEND is completely individual and this will be planned carefully with our staff, parents and carers and the student.

Throughout your child’s journey at The Fermain Academy there will be regular reviews, meetings and monitoring to ensure your child is achieving their maximum potential.  Any transitions throughout the Key stages will be supported by our staff, SENCo and parents and carers.

We have a careers team who support all of our students, including students with SEND needs, with working towards achieving their chosen post-16 destination. Our careers team are fully informed of our students SEND needs and liaise with post-16 destinations about these to ensure that they are fully informed of and able to meet our student’s needs.

The Fermain Academy site can be accessed by wheelchairs; we have wide corridors and a lift to the first floor.  We have several disabled toilets and there is disabled parking at the front of the building.

We encourage parents/carers to be actively involved in the school. This can be through sharing views during Friday phone calls, attending parent’s evenings, attending meetings and annual reviews and speaking to relevant members of staff where you feel it’s necessary.

We also encourage parents to keep informed about the latest SEND updates by accessing our SEND newsletter, which is issued on a half-termly basis. The newsletter aims to support parents by signposting to relevant agencies that can provide further support/advice, share further information of SEND at school and have a SEND spotlight to highlight different types of needs, how they can present and ways to support them.

Please contact your child’s form tutor, the school SENDCo or the Pastoral Lead for further assistance.

For further information, please refer to our SEN Policy