Learning Support

Special Education Needs and Disabilities at Droylsden Academy

Curriculum Leader of Learning Support/SENCO – Ms E Preston

This page will help you understand how provision is made at Droylsden Academy for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Children learn at different speeds and in a variety of ways. There will be a wide range of ability within your child’s year group. Some of them will need some extra support or provision to help them meet their targets and be happy with us at Droylsden Academy.

You are welcome to contact us at any point to discuss your son or daughter’s progress. Please feel free to make the most of parents’ evenings and other events to talk to us.

“Our aim is to work in partnership with you to support your child.”

How does Droylsden Academy help every student?

Every child is an individual. They all develop and learn at different rates. This means that different teaching styles will be used in the classroom to support individual children with their learning.

We provide a cycle of planning, teaching, assessment and evaluation that takes account of the wide range of abilities, aptitudes and interests of children.

Most children will benefit from these different approaches and will make appropriate progress, but some children may need more support.

What if your child needs more support?

If you or the school are concerned that your child is not making adequate progress, it is possible that they may have special educational needs. This will be referred to the SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) and the Learning Support team.

What will we do?

Assess your child’s particular strengths and areas of concern to decide if they have Special Educational Needs and then:
Plan appropriate support for your child
Advise and support other members of staff in the Academy with regard to supporting your child
Ensure that appropriate records are kept of progress
Ensure that you are kept up to date with developments.

What might happen then?

If needed, we will put in place appropriate provision to support your child to make progress and access the curriculum. This could include one or some of the following:

Teaching staff having information to support your child (eg size and font of texts, differentiated work, colour of overlay, seating arrangements)
Additional Key Skills lessons in small groups
Catch up Literacy and Numeracy as a lesson 7 provision
Thinking Reading Access
Targeted withdrawal from lessons to work on specific areas, (eg Dyslexia support)
In class support in specific lessons
Access Arrangements for internal and external exams (these include extra time, the use of a dictionary or a reader)
Social and Communication groups
Time out cards.

If your child needs support to physically access the curriculum, the support could include some of the following:

Lift passes
Learning Support lunch and break passes
Use of a laptop/chromebook to allow easier recording and presentation of work
Buddies to support access throughout the building
Care plans and fire evacuation plans
Sloping boards, pen grips, sloping seats, coloured overlays
Toilet passes.

What if more support is needed?

If there are concerns over the progress your child is making even with this support, we will ask your permission to seek further advice from external support services.

We may want to ask for help from, for example;

a specialist teacher
an educational psychologist
a speech and language therapist
other health professional

You will continue to be involved, and your child’s progress will be regularly recorded and reviewed in the same way. The support will continue until either your child no longer needs this additional support to make progress, or it is decided that a request for a statutory assessment may be appropriate.