Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
King’s Academy Bay House School & Sixth Form is committed to securing improvement through developing and embedding an inclusive culture within which all learners, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), can be valued equally, treated with respect and provided with the opportunities and experiences to ensure they thrive and are successful.
Key Documents
The Code of Practice (2014) considers a young person to have SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special education provision to be made. This may be due to the pupil showing a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others the same age, or having a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of the facilities that are generally provided for others of the same age.
Our learners are identified as having SEND through a variety of ways including:
● Working with the student’s previous school
● Monitoring of progress within the curriculum
● Concerns raised by learners, teachers, parents and or carers
● Whole school screening assessments for reading, numeracy, Speech and Language and well being
● Specialist assessments to identify specific areas of weakness
● Liaison with external agencies, e.g. Health and Educational Psychology
We use a wide range of assessment tools to determine specific barriers to learning, including academic, emotional well being and how connected the young person feels to their own educational setting and self view. This ensures an evidenced informed approach is consistently used when planning the most appropriate provision for a learner.
The needs of learners with a Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND) fall into four broad areas of need:
● Communication and Interaction
● Cognition and Learning
● Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties
● Sensory and / or Physical needs
Learners who are identified with SEND will be recorded on the SEND register. Staff will be informed of their needs and will be provided with guidance to support their learning in the classroom. A number of interventions are also available to help young people with their particular barriers to learning.
Who do I contact if I have a concern about my child’s educational needs?
Parents and carers are welcome any time to make an appointment to meet with either the Head of Year or the Inclusion Leaders or the subject leaders to discuss their child’s progress.
Specific School Leaders have different areas of responsibility linked to SEND:
- SENCo: Mr Mike Bowen
- Exam Access Specialist Assessor: Mrs Gemma Patterson
- Associate Assistant Headteacher: Miss Sam Smithbone
- Deputy Headteacher with responsibility for Behaviour and Inclusion: Mrs Alice Harlan
- Sara Heasyman is the Governor linked to SEND.
If you have a concern about the school’s SEND provision, please contact either the SENCo, Inclusion Leaders, Head of Year or Subject Leader who will investigate and endeavour to reach a satisfactory outcome. If you are not satisfied, we invite you to follow the School’s complaint procedure. This can be found on the school website, under the policies section.