Winchcombe School provides for students with a wide range of special educational needs including those with:

Communication and interaction needs; this includes children who have speech language and communication difficulties including autistic spectrum conditions.
Cognition and Learning needs; this includes children who have learning difficulties and specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia.
Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs.
Sensory and/or Physical needs; this includes children who have visual or hearing needs, or a physical disability that affects their learning.

How do we identify and give extra help to students with SEND?

The school uses Gloucestershire County Council’s guidance booklet ‘Additional Needs including Special Educational Needs and Disabilities’.

The guidance sets out:

How we identify if a student has a special educational need.
How we assess students and plan for their special educational needs, and how we adapt our teaching.
Ways in which we can adapt our school environment to meet each student’s needs
How we review progress and agree outcomes and involve you and your child in this.

How do we work with parents and students?

We will always contact parents if we have a concern that a student may have a special educational need. We work closely with students with SEND and their parents to agree outcomes and how we will all work towards these, and then to review progress. We do this by holding regular meetings, at parent evenings and reviews.

There are also opportunities for parents and students to contribute to and be consulted on our policies on SEND and Equality. We do this through Governors / Parent Governors, parent forums and from within the tutoring system.

Adapting the curriculum

We offer a broad and balanced curriculum for all students including those with SEND. The way we adapt this for students with SEND and disabled students is set out in the School Accessibility Plan
We have highly targeted teaching groups in Maths, English, Science, Humanities and MFL based on prior attainment across all year groups.
We have an SEND Register for personalised and small group provision to maintain SEND students in a mainstream setting and to achieve their target grades.
We have a Vulnerable Pupils Register for personalised and small group provision to maintain vulnerable students in a mainstream setting and to achieve their target grades.
We have subject specific Teaching Assistants who run interventions and in class support to enable accelerated progress.
We have Teaching Assistants to support pupils in making accelerated progress in class across the curriculum.
We have dedicated time allocated for Teachers and TAs to work collaboratively.

What expertise can we offer?

All staff have training in safeguarding.
Key staff have received training in the adoption of the new SEND Code of Practice.
Teaching assistants are trained to support the particular needs of the students they work with.
Access to a School Health Nurse.
Access to a School Counsellor.
Access to Learning Mentors.
We buy in time from an Educational Psychologist.

We also have access to a range of specialist support services including:

SENSS, who support students with communication and language, sensory needs and physical needs.
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
Children and Young People Services (CYPS)
Therapy Services
Children’s Social Care

Information about these services and what they offer can be found on the Gloucestershire County Council SEN web pages: Services to support children’s learning

We always discuss the involvement of specialist SEN services with parents first.
We also work with other services and organisations that are involved with a family, with the family’s permission.

How do we know if SEND provision is effective?

The progress of all students is tracked throughout with regular data reports, updated pen portraits and provision mapping.

In addition for students with SEND we regularly review progress towards agreed outcomes assessing whether the support that’s been in place has made a difference and what we need to do next. We evaluate this progress against age related expectations.

When we run special intervention programmes for groups of students we assess how successful they have been and use that information to decide on how best to run them in the future.

Information about how the governing body evaluates the success of the education that is provided for pupils with SEND is contained within the annual report to the Curriculum and Staff committee of the Governors.

How are students with SEND helped to access activities outside of the classroom?

All students are included in activities and trips following risk assessments where needed and in accordance with duties under the Equalities Act 2010. We talk to parents and young people when planning trips so that everyone is clear about what will happen.

There is information about activities and events for disabled students and those with SEND in the Gloucestershire Family Directory.

What do we do to support the wellbeing of students with SEND?

We listen to the views of students with SEND by providing a robust pastoral support system which includes tutors and Heads of Phase who liaise with the Learning Support team, class teachers, Heads of Department and the Senior Leadership Team.

We take bullying very seriously. We help to prevent bullying of all students including those with SEND by the application of the Behaviour Management Policy, Equality Plan and the Anti-Bullying Policy.

Joining the school and moving on

We encourage all new students to visit the school before starting. We offer open mornings, open evenings and all primary schools are visited by Winchcombe School’s Transition Team as part of the transition process There is a 3 day induction in the Summer Term and additional Summer School for some students. For students with SEND we offer extra bespoke visits and 1:1 support and liaison.

We begin to prepare young people for transition into the next stage of their education or training through a tight system of liaison and information sharing with our partner Primaries, KS3 and KS4 teachers. This is supported by dedicated Heads of Phase.

Whom to contact

If you are concerned about your child, please contact Mr Waller

If you would like to feedback, including compliments and complaints about SEN provision, we aim to respond within 48 hours.

If you would like impartial advice please contact SENDIASS Gloucestershire.

If you would like to know more about opportunities for students with SEND and their families, support groups or information about SEND, these are listed in the Gloucestershire Family Directory

Gloucestershire’s Local Offer contains lots of information for parents. Winchcombe School has contributed to the County’s Local Offer through attendance at a training workshop and through adopting new guidance and systems. GCC has also produced a Parent Guide.

A Parent Guide to the new SEN Code of Practice produced by the Department for Education. A comprehensive guide but quite a long read at 59 pages. If you don’t want to read this long guide, try these helpful flowcharts from: Special Needs Jungle Parent-led information, resources and informed opinion about children and young people with SEN, special needs, disability, health conditions and rare diseases.