The earlier that students are identified as having additional needs, the earlier that we can work to support those needs, therefore we have a SENDCo who maintains links with our partner primary schools, working with the teachers of primary students who have expressed a wish to join us in Year 7. We engage in a lot of transition work which means that we have a very good understanding of all students coming to us, even before they start in September; this allows us to put in some intervention work before the start of term.

Upon entry to Colne Valley High School, the abilities of each student are assessed and we continue to monitor these as the child progresses through the school. Assessment data will include records from primary schools and discussions with primary school teachers, information from parents, performance in KS2 SATS, cognitive ability tests taken at the start of Year 7, reading and spelling age tests, reports from external agencies such as Speech and Language, evidence from form tutors and subject teacher observations and assessments.

High quality teaching, scaffolded for individual students, is the first step in responding to students who have or may have SEND. Additional intervention and support cannot compensate for a lack of good quality teaching so we regularly check our standards of teaching within the classroom. In addition to this we have a deputy SENDCO and HLTA who provide small group intervention outside the classroom and Support for Learning Assistants (SFL’s) who are deployed in a variety of ways to support SEND. This may involve working with individual students or small groups in the classroom or as part of an intervention programme. Students are screened for examination arrangements so that we can apply for additional support, for example: extra time, use of a scribe, or use of a reader or laptop. Most of our students follow a traditional curriculum, however a small number of learners have access to a bespoke curriculum to match their individual needs, interests and abilities. This group of students still follow a mainstream timetable, but this may include accessing the Aspire to Learn Unit, for additional reading, writing, literacy comprehension, numeracy, intervention SULP groups (social use of language programme) and emotional literacy programme. The school’s dedicated wellbeing team and full-time qualified counsellors provide high quality and skilled personalised emotional support for students, parents and staff. The school has a dedicated Aspire Hub which provides a safe space and emotional support for students who need to catch up on missed work or need to learn in a smaller space at times when needed. Staff within the Hub work closely with subject teachers to enable students to integrate back into class quickly, minimising any lost learning time. In addition, the school have two qualified Emotional Literacy Support Assistants who help and support students with their emotional resilience and literacy. School also accesses outside agency support from the Educational Psychologist, Social and Emotional Outreach Team, Hearing Impaired Services, Complex Communications and Interaction Outreach team, Cognition and Learning Outreach Team, CAMHS, CHEWS, Targeted Youth Support, EAL Support (English as an additional language), Occupational Therapist and Sensory Services.