SEND

At the Fordway Centre (FWC), we are committed to ensuring that our pupils feel safe and happy in school so that they can build positive relationships and have the ability to approach their learning confidently and successfully. However, we recognise that, for some of our pupils, their educational journey that has led them to the FWC may have been challenging, and they may find the demands of a busy school environment difficult to manage, leaving them struggling to cope with their emotions and anxieties. We acknowledge that behaviour is a form of communication, that we have a duty to discover what the behaviour is telling us, and to support our pupils to develop the skills to communicate effectively.

For the majority of our pupils, good, inclusive classroom practice and positive behaviour management strategies will provide the support needed. But for others, a more tailored approach and additional intervention may be needed. We aim to provide our most vulnerable pupils with safe, calm spaces and skilled, experienced staff. We strive to offer an inclusive education that caters to the needs of all pupils. All staff demonstrate inclusive practice, implementing strategies and methods that ensure all learners can access education. We endeavour to ensure that all learners feel valued and supported, and their individual needs are recognised and met. Our personalised provision has been deliberately designed to support the needs of our pupils, whether or not additional needs have been identified. A stable and predictable daily routine, which focuses on developmentally appropriate activities, helps them to recognise, communicate, and regulate their emotions. Through this carefully targeted and sensitive support, we enable children and young people to build trusting and secure relationships with adults and a sense of self-worth. We also work in constant partnership with both the Local Authority and our network of schools in order to establish the best outcomes for our pupils, both when they join us and also when they transition on to their next provision, in order to make this a successful and positive experience for them. The aim is that this allows them to experience success in the classroom and beyond, avoiding the potential long-term consequences of educational disengagement.

Some of our pupils may need more than the inclusive strategies implemented daily in our classrooms. At the FWC, we therefore use the Graduated Approach to support our pupils. An effective Graduated Approach draws on more detailed approaches, more frequent review, and more specialist expertise in successive cycles in order to match interventions to an individual child or young person's needs. The SEND Code of Practice states that, for these learners, teachers are required to remove barriers to learning and put effective special educational provision in place through SEN support. This SEN support takes the form of a four-part cycle (assess, plan, do, review). Through this cycle, actions are reviewed and refined as understanding of a student’s needs and the support required to help them secure good outcomes increases. Pupils who continue to face challenges in their learning, despite receiving high-quality teaching, are likely to need additional strategies or different provision in order to meet their needs. In these circumstances, the Graduated Approach will be used to request a statutory assessment to see if a student requires an Education, Health and Care Plan.