Introduction
At Hexham Middle School, we aim to uphold the right of all pupils to have access to a broad and balanced curriculum. Here, every child is equal and unique and we aim to provide a safe and supportive environment where all pupils can flourish.
We are very proud of all we do to support pupils who attend Hexham Middle School who have additional needs. Pupils have access to a full range of educational and pastoral support to ensure they feel happy, fulfilled and supported at school. We are very ambitious for what our SEND pupils can achieve and we are resolute in ensuring they receive an ambitious curriculum and the support they need to maximise their potential.
This overview is intended to give you specific information regarding the ways in which we ensure we support all of our pupils with SEND, in order that they can realise their potential. It may not list every skill, resource and technique we use to achieve this as these are continually developed and we try to modify our provision to meet the needs of individual pupils.
The Team
We have a wonderfully committed and supportive SEND team in school who work as a cohesive unit to ensure that each child gets the highest quality provision throughout their time in school.
| Name | Role in School |
|---|---|
| Mr Mark Stephenson | Assistant Headteacher – Strategic Inclusion Leadership, Designated Safeguarding Lead |
| Mr Duncan Scott | Head of KS3 and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead |
| Mr Stu Rutherford-Orrock | Head of KS2 |
| Mr H Morgan | SENDCo |
| Mrs Jen Ballantyne | Assistant SENDCo |
| Mrs Laura Dodds | Pupil Support Worker |
| Mrs Nicky Richards | Pupil Support Worker |
| Mrs Bridget Toor | Academic Support Coordinator |
| Miss Freya Huttton | Academic Mentor |
| Mrs Elizabeth Box | Learning Support Assistant |
| Ms Sonia Watkinson | Learning Support Assistant |
| Ms Tara Barrick | Learning Support Assistant |
| Mr Alex Drummond | Learning Support Assistant |
| Ms Angela Read | Learning Support Assistant |
| Ms Katy Taylor | Learning Support Assistant |
| Ms Lyndsey Smith | Learning Support Assistant |
Key Workers
Within school, every pupil who is on our SEND register will be allocated a Key Worker. This key worker will meet with you and your child termly to review their progress, profile and need for additional support.
The Key Worker will work with your child from year 5 through to year 8 and will be a constant figure of support for them when they need it. The Key Worker will also liaise with teaching staff to ensure that all of the correct aspects of support are in place across the curriculum (and this is monitored by the SENDCo in all subjects).
The Key Worker is a parent/carer’s first point of call with any SEND queries and they will liaise with the SEND team to ensure all needs are met.
The Base
At Hexham Middle School, we have a fantastic SEND support area – we call this The Base. The Base is accessible for all SEND pupils over lunchtime and acts as a safe space where they can play games, enjoy quiet time or speak to a member of the SEND team. This is also a space pupils can access to do their homework or to have some fun during social times.
The Base also acts as an intervention space where small group interventions will take place with a member of the team. The environment is warm and welcoming and is very much at the heart of the school for our pupils.
Ambition for SEND learners
At Hexham Middle School, we pride ourselves on our inclusive practice. We believe that every pupil who attends our school will aspire to achieve their best no matter their background or individual needs. Our curriculum is fully accessible to all pupils, and all staff empower pupils with additional needs to thrive across the school curriculum. Our teachers ensure each learner is at the heart of their own journey and we strive to provide them with the skills and tools to achieve their personal goals.
Our curriculum is ambitious and we have high expectations of all of our pupils regardless of their starting points. Ambition is taught through the PSHE curriculum with constant links to careers and personal targets. We have a vast range of different extra-curricular activities in which pupils can take part on a daily basis. SEND pupils will work with their Key Worker throughout their time at Hexham Middle School and they will help guide each pupil towards opportunities both in and outside of school.
We want all of our SEND pupils to dream big and to aspire to achieve their personal best each and every day.
To ensure that our curriculum is accessible for children with special educational needs and disabilities, we have a dedicated team led by Mr Harry Morgan (SENDCo) and Ms Jen Ballantyne (Assistant SENDCo). The needs of all learners are understood through robust transitional arrangements as children join the school and through regular, ongoing assessment and communication between pupil, home, school and other external agencies.
If you would like further information about what we offer here at Hexham Middle School for students with SEND, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Morgan (01434 610300) or Ms Jen Ballantyne (01434 610300) or email send@hexhammiddle.org.uk
Our full ‘Accessibility Plan’ is available in the policies section of our website and from the school office. The plan details (in line with the Equality Act 2010) how the school ensures that disabled children can access the curriculum, how the physical environment enables disabled children to take better advantage of learning, facilities and other services and how information accessibility is improved.
The curriculum can, where necessary, be adapted accordingly to ensure that all learners can make strong progress and be enabled to excel. We instil high-quality first teaching for all learners and have high expectations of achievement for all children in our school. At Hexham Middle School, all pupils access a broad, balanced and rich curriculum which empowers them to thrive. The school offers a wide range of targeted and bespoke support/interventions focused on both academic and social/emotional development as well as skills for life. Staff access development and training opportunities throughout the year to ensure the highest quality teaching and learning for all learners.
All learners with additional needs access a broad and rich classroom experience with a well-planned curriculum both within and beyond the classroom. Pupils with additional needs are enabled to achieve well by:
- High quality planning, teaching and learning across the curriculum.
- Adaptations made in teaching and learning to ensure all pupils succeed and learn well.
- Responding to learners’ needs and adapting teaching as a result.
- Planning and delivering a wide range of high-quality interventions and support sessions.
- High quality ‘Pupil Profiles’ which ensure staff know each child as an individual, including how to support their learning.
- Where appropriate, an ‘Individual Education Plan’ with bespoke and individualised targets is implemented, and regularly reviewed.
- For learners with an ‘Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)’, a wide range of individualised targets and support strategies are implemented in a multi-agency approach.
- Coordinating our ambitious support in school alongside a multi-agency approach to ensure that all pupils achieve their full potential.
As part of our implementation model – the ’10 Elements of Great Teaching’, our teaching and support staff will enable pupils with additional needs to thrive by:
- Planning well-sequenced lessons which build progressively in small steps.
- Implementing the school’s lesson design principles so that teachers gradually handover the learning through guided and independent practice.
- Maintaining a calm, focused, inclusive and positive environment for learning in all classrooms.
- Implementing a wide range of strategies to empower pupils to remember more over time and to check that this is the case.
- Using metacognitive strategies to encourage self-regulation and to plan, monitor and evaluate learning.
- Delivering expectations and instructions clearly in small steps.
- Teaching subject-specific vocabulary (tier 3), alongside tier 2 vocabulary, and ensuring that it is used and retained.
- Using a wide range of teaching resources and materials to support all learners including visual and audio resources.
- Using high-quality modelling in lessons through the ‘I do, we do, you do’ approach.
- Using a wide range of scaffolds to support learning including writing frames, planning structures, word processing.
- Providing high-quality worked examples which narrate the learning, steps and processes so that pupils develop their independence of learning.
- Using organisers such as ‘Knowledge Organisers’, diagrams, planning structures and writing frames to support pupils’ learning.
- Allowing pupils to record their ideas in a range of ways including, where necessary, by using online resources and visual/audio support.
- Providing word lists/vocabulary banks to support pupils’ access to learning.
- Using sentence stems to promote positive talk and discussion.
- Using flexible groupings in the classroom so that pupils can learn alongside and from each other.
- Implementing dyslexia-friendly approach to reading and writing tasks.
- Modelling thinking out loud strategies across the curriculum.
- Using a wide range of technologies including online resources, voice recording and visualisers to model worked examples.
Our ‘Key Worker’ model means that communication between home and school is more regular with time allowed for frequent assessment and review sessions (at least termly). We also use software which means that information about pupils with additional needs is easily accessible by all teaching staff. This also allows for very close tracking of progress and development so that the approach to pupil support can be regularly reviewed and adapted so that children access the curriculum fully and feel confident to progress in their learning. We strive to ensure that our teachers and support staff are equipped to support children with diverse learning needs and have an open-door policy to allow for the sharing of good practice across the school. We empower our pupils to be heard through regular review sessions, and work closely with parents/carers to review our provision in school.