We are a highly inclusive school in which the needs of all pupils are taken seriously and supported in an individualised way. Staff are sensitive to the needs of every child and through working with the SENCO and external professionals aim to deliver the highest standard of education for all children regardless of need.
Inclusive education means supporting all pupils to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of school life alongside their peers. Our curriculum includes, not only the formal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum / National Curriculum, but also a range of additional opportunities to enrich the experiences of all pupils. Our curriculum also included the social aspects that are essential for lifelong learning, personal growth and development of independence.
The needs of all children on the SEN register are reviewed regularly in collaboration with families and relevant professionals. We believe in Early Intervention and aim to address any emerging need as soon as possible.
All children are seen as individuals and staff have high expectations for every child. All children, including those with SEND, are encouraged to be independent, confident and motivated lifelong learners.
Approaches to teaching are routed in research on cognitive load theory, considering the impact of intrinsic and extraneous load on SEND learners. Intrinsic load refers to the difficulty of the work whilst extraneous load considers how instructions and information are conveyed.
Strategies used to help manage intrinsic and extraneous load include:
- Repeating key information.
- Filtering out unnecessary details to allow students to focus on the relevant information.
- Chunking information into meaningful sections to reduce the number of pieces of information students need to hold in their working memory at once.
- Providing worked examples so students can focus on solving a problem rather than the steps they need to take to solve it.
- Connecting topics between each other and to real-world scenarios.
- Frequently checking for understanding and taking breaks to allow time to process the information.
- Providing explicit instruction so your students don’t need to use as much of their working memory capacity on understanding the task, so they can spend it on processing new information.
Where appropriate, the curriculum will be adapted or personalised to ensure it is accessible for all learners.
