Our Approach to SEND at Nova Hreod academy takes 3 pathways:
Phase 1 - Wh
ole school
The whole school approach has a relentless drive to seek the highest of quality first teaching from all teaching staff at Nova Hreod Academy. Quality first teaching is the method of delivery from every member of the teaching staff within Nova Hreod Academy. There is a clear expectation that teachers “know their students,” are able to make minor adaptations to the classroom delivery to suit the students’ needs and make clear observations and regular feedback on progress.
Phase 2 - Graduated and targeted response
It may be more suitable to consider making additional short term adaptations to the provision. This provision will be graduated and aim to reduce or even remove the barriers the young person is facing. This will include:
- a screening process to identify the child’s needs
- planning the appropriate course of additional intervention
- providing the intervention over a specific timeframe
- reviewing the impact of the intervention
Where possible the intervention will be carried out in class, however in some cases the intervention will be delivered by SEND support staff outside of the classroom.
Phase 3 - Specialist
It may be necessary to seek the support of specialist provision. If the first 2 pathways have proven unsuccessful and the young person is still not able to cope it would trigger our response to seek support from specifically trained professionals to aid with the student’s needs. This support could include:
- Speech and Language
- TAMHS/CAMHS
- Educational Psychologists
- Occupational Therapists or Sensory Advisors
- And specific teams such as the Swindon ASC team
The school’s graduated response
Nova Hreod Academy takes a graduated response, following the stages below:
- Quality first teaching describes the high quality teaching provided by subject specialists. The provision starts with each classroom teacher knowing their classes and individual students, for this is where subject teachers will deliver well differentiated lessons that support all learners in the class. The subject teacher remains responsible for the students on their class list and will make reasonable adjustments under the guidance of the SEND team.
The SEND team, under the leadership of the SENCo will be provided with the relevant information to support the differentiations. Teachers are expected to work closely with the SEND team, the students and parents to provide the highest quality teaching. In spite of all the efforts it may be apparent that in some circumstances an individual student may need something additional to the reasonable adjustments made by the subject teachers.
- Increased levels of provision and support. If the student is not making progress after a period of quality first teaching and reasonable adjustments, the classroom teachers are responsible for reporting the difficulties to the SEND team. At this point the next level of support can be applied. After a rigorous screening process the SEND identification may be made. If this is the case, students, parents/carers and staff will be informed and records will be adjusted. The appropriate support will be decided by the SENCo and the provision will be applied for a minimum of 6 weeks (subject to level of identified need).
- Review of provision and support. The provision applied is then reviewed by re-testing and where appropriate the effectiveness of the support/intervention will be assessed. Once the impact has been considered, the SENCo will decide the best response; in some cases this may have been effective, but where there is still cause for concern the level or type of support will be adjusted. If there is little or no impact being made the school may decide to include specialist support from external agencies.
Throughout the graduated response parents, students and staff are kept well informed through verbal and/or written correspondence. The support available throughout the graduated response is made available on the Nova Hreod Academy Provision map which is available from the SEND department.