SEND and Inclusion
SEN SUPPORT IN SCHOOL
At the Sir John Colfox Academy we passionately believe that all our students should be given the opportunity to aim high and be successful.
We are fortunate to have a team of highly trained Teaching Assistants that work closely with our SEN students, both in the classroom and running interventions. The team runs personalised learning interventions to support those with SEND in areas of the school that have been specifically designed for them.
STUDENTS WITH SEND – WHAT WE OFFER:
- Quality first teaching – all teaching at the Sir John Colfox school will take into account the specific learning needs of students
- Students with SEND are offered small group literacy and/ or maths support where it is identified there is a need
- We have a fully-resourced Forest School available for sessions aimed to support students with emotional wellbeing, behaviour strategies and additional support.
- For students that find managing behaviour expectations tricky, we have a dedicated behaviour specialist who will work with students 1:1 and in small groups to teach them strategies that work for them to enable them to be successful.
- Students that find building relationships with peers difficult, we have a ‘Friendship group’ that runs every lunchtime, where activities are specifically designed to foster trust, positive behaviours and friendships.
- We run a Lego Therapy group once a week.
- All our EHCP students and those with a high level of SEN needs are allocated a Key Adult who they can check in with daily.
- We have a dedicated SEN room where students can go if they need somewhere more closely supported during non-demand times such as break and lunch.
- We have a specialist EAL teaching assistant who supports our EAL students in their acquisition of the language, with a particular focus on subject-specific language that they meet in the curriculum.
- There are two specialist Speech and Language-trained teaching assistants working with students under the speech and language team.
- Students have access to our therapy dog and other animals at certain times of the week.
- We also offer sensory boxes, keyrings, lanyard timetables, noise-cancelling headphones, laptops, social stories and comic strip conversations as needed.
THE DORSET LOCAL OFFER
As part of The Sir John Colfox Academy commitment to SEND we form part of Dorset’s Local Offer which highlights all of the SEND information, advice and provision available to parents in the County. You can also access the Dorset Family Information Directory where you can search for other family support and activities available to you in Dorset.
Please see the Policies part of the website for our SEND Policy.