Special Educational Needs & Disabilities Provision
Our Inclusion Lead is Mrs. Katie Willis
Staff at Echelford are committed to equality of opportunity and access to all areas of school life. We aim to promote inclusion by ensuring all lessons are accessible to all children regardless of ability, physical difficulty or sensory impairment. We are committed to providing appropriate provision for all children regardless of need. Children with learning needs, speech and language needs, social and emotional needs and sensory and physical needs are all catered for in our school.
On allocation of a place in our school, the needs of a child with disabilities will be carefully assessed and advice taken as to how we can best fulfil our commitment to inclusion.
Whilst our school is on a large site with classrooms on three floors, we will endeavour to make changes to the physical environment as far as possible, within the resources available, to meet the requirements of each individual child with special needs.
At Echelford, we pay attention to the 4 principles of Inclusion:
- We welcome all children regardless of race, gender, physical need or learning ability
- We set suitable learning challenges
- We respond to pupils' diverse learning needs
- We aim to overcome potential barriers to learning
We have a clearly-defined process to enable us to identify children who may need either additional support or further extension and ensure suitable provision is put in place to enable them to progress and meet potential. To support this process, we have our own very experienced Special Needs & Gifted-Talented Coordinator in school who is able to call on the expertise of a range of professionals from different areas of both health and education services.
Children at The Echelford Primary School are also taught to help one another and respect each other's differences.
English as an additional language (EAL)
We are delighted that our school represents a rich cultural diversity, with children that speak many different languages as well as English.
We use REMA Ethnic & Language Minority Support services where necessary which focuses on supporting identified pupils. The type and extent of intervention is negotiated and agreed to reflect the specific requirements of our school and the learning needs of our pupils.
The team also provides language assessments and advises a school on working with parents from minority ethnic/language communities, with asylum seekers and refugees, and with bilingual pupils who also have Special Educational Needs. Direct teaching support may be provided to enhance bilingual learners’ English language acquisition and access to the curriculum.
If you or your child need help with any aspect of English as it is not your home language, please come and speak to us. The class teacher will be pleased to offer advice and refer to our Inclusion Manager who oversees our EAL provision.
Within this section of the website practical information can be found to aid parents in supporting children with an additional need, both in school and out. This includes links to useful websites, resources and local events taking place within the community.
More information about our SEND provision can be found in the School Policies section.
