Contact details and information

SEN Coordinator: Miss S Croft
Telephone: 01772 335033

SEN Governor: Mrs R Smith

Accessibility Plan linked to paragraph 3 of schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010

Accessibility Strategic Planning 2020-23

Improving access to the curriculum

•          Increase staff knowledge and confidence to support children with SEND.

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•          Review S.E.N.D. policy and the local offer.

•          Review curriculum to ensure diversity and equality are fully promoted.

Improving access to the physical environment

•          Develop outdoor play equipment on the yard.

•          Develop outdoor learning areas ensuring full accessibility for all pupils.

•          Review accessibility of the EYFS play area to ensure best use of the space for all pupils.

Improving access to information

•          Full review of school website.

•          Review the effectiveness of electronic communication between school and home, including families with additional language needs.

•          Review the needs of the pupils/ families and ensure information is available in relevant formats e.g. braille, pictorial form, large print.

Special Educational Needs

Cuerden Church School is an inclusive school, which offers a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum for all  of its pupils. Some children have a special educational need, which means special provision is made to accommodate their needs. This may be because of a learning difficulty, a health issue, a disability or emotional and behavioural difficulties.

At Cuerden Church School we:

• work hard to ensure that a child with SEN gets the support they need.
• designate a teacher to be responsible for co-ordinating SEN provision – the SEN co-ordinator, or SENDO. Our SENCO is currently Mrs Sara Taylor.  The member of our governing body with specific oversight of the school’s arrangements for SEN and disability is currently shared between Mr Graham Halsall and Mrs Ruth Smith.
• liaise with parents/carers when school are making special educational provision for a child.
• work in partnership with parents/carers, outside agencies and the SEN team at County Hall to ensure the best provision for our SEN children.

There have been significant changes to the 2001 SEN code of practice.

The main changes from the SEN Code of Practice (2001) reflect the changes introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014. This new approach joins up the system across education, health and care, from birth to 25. Our school, like all others is required to provide help at the earliest possible point, with children and young people with SEN and their parents fully involved in decisions about their support and what they want to achieve. It is anticipated that this will lead to better outcomes, and more efficient ways of working.

The government have listened to what parents say their experience of services is like and have put in place a number of things to bring about improvements. One of these is the Local Offer.

The local offer provides information on what services children, young people and their families can expect from a range of local agencies, including education, health and social care. Knowing what is out there gives you more choice and therefore more control over what support is right for your child.

The local offer provides information on a number of things, including:

• special educational provision;
• health provision;
• social care provision;
• other educational provision;
• training provision;
• travel arrangements for children and young people to schools, colleges and early years education; and
• preparing for adulthood, including housing, employment and leisure opportunities.

Links to these are at the top of this page.

EHC Plans

For children with more complex needs, a co-ordinated assessment process and the new 0-25 Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan) will replace statements. We have worked alongside families of children with statements in our school to draw up ‘All about me’ documents. These pupils will eventually have their statements replaced by EHC plans.

SEN support at Cuerden Church School

Children on the SEN register who do not qualify for a EHC plan are now deemed to be requiring 'SEN support'; the terms 'School Action' and 'School Action Plus' are no longer required. Instead, Cuerden Church School use IEPs to closely match work with children's ability levels. These are used on a day-to-day basis in class and monitored with the SENCO half-termly. These are shared with parents regularly. Our IEPs mean that we can track children with the most need and deliver tailored intervention strategies and work collaboratively with speech services, the educational psychologist, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, IDSS and the school nurse.

Disability Access

Cuerden Church School is 15 year old, one-level building. Our school has 7 classes; intake number 30. 

• All doorways and entrances to the school are on a single level and wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair if necessary to ensure full access for pupils and parents with disabilities.
• A before (from 7.45am) and after-school club (to 6pm) is available for all pupils. Parents pay for the sessions attended.
• The school offers a phased entry into school each morning. Doors are opened at 8.50am (school starting time being 9:00am). This avoids congestion in the morning.
• The school has one disabled toilet for wheelchair users and disabled people to use if required.
• School has a disabled shower room and changing facilities.
• The school's website front page is kept up-to-date with information in the "what’s on" section.
• Electronic copies of the weekly newsletters are emailed to parents weekly and uploaded onto the school website.
• Weekly detailed newsletters are sent home to parents and uploaded to the website.
• Where and when required, paper copies of all letters are sent home with pupils.
• School uses a text service to keep parents/carers informed and updated.
• All relevant policies are uploaded to the school‟s website.
• Furniture is modern and of a suitable height appropriate to the age group of children being taught in each classroom.
• The school has a range of ICT programmes for pupils with SEN in addition to interactive whiteboards installed in every classroom. There is a class set of laptops and a small group of iPads which are used by all children.
• Classrooms are "child friendly" with resources labelled clearly.
• Visual timetables are used in many classrooms.