At The Axis Academy, we regularly monitor and assess our students as a whole school team.  We will look at the child’s achievement in learning, social, mental and emotional health and any changes in a student’s behaviour. It is our aim to identify any special education needs as early as possible.   There are many ways of identifying a student’s needs which may include:

• Previous child’s history
• Student Assessment (including any assessment or testing in a previous school)
• Sharing of information from all staff
• Direction from the SENCo
• Listening to Parents
• Listening to the Students
• Seeking advice and liaising with other professionals

If you have any concerns regarding a particular subject, please contact the subject teacher in the first instance.  If your concerns are more wide spread, you may wish to speak to your child’s Form Tutor or the SENCo.

Once an additional need has been identified there are various ways in which your child may be supported. Students will have a One-Page profile which are accessible to all members of staff. Teaching staff may provide additional work to support the students learning, and the class material will always be differentiated to ensure that the needs of all children are met.   Some students may be involved with subject specific intervention work, which will be in small groups or on a 1:1 basis.

The progress of our students with SEND is monitored by Teachers, the SENCo, Senior Leadership Team and School LSB.

We believe that all students including those with Special Educational Needs should be offered a broad and balanced curriculum and should have access to all subjects and areas of learning. Through high quality teaching all students will be taught in small classes (no larger than eight) with a class teacher and possibly a Teaching Assistant. Lessons will be differentiated to meet the student’s needs and to ensure that all of our students have full access to the curriculum.   In some instances, students may be withdrawn on occasion to follow intervention programmes with specialist skills staff and some 1:1 support based teaching.

All of our students are assessed and monitored regularly.  Parents and carers will be able to monitor their child’s progress and behaviour on a daily basis through Class Do-Jo and rewards for attainment and effort and are issued to student’s weekly via the weekly praise assembly.

Teachers will closely monitor grades against target grades to assess student progress.

Alongside these assessments we also have parents evening/drop in sessions once a year where parents and carers can come into the school, view their chil’d class work and discuss progress and next steps with class teachers.

For all year groups there are also 6 Assessment weeks… every half term with one week of catch up following this.

Students work will be checked and monitored regularly.  The SENCo will also closely monitor all of our SEND student’s progress and meet to review targets and progress, this may also be supported by any outside agencies working with the student.

All of our staff are part of a pastoral support system and this begins with the student’s form tutor. We have a team of Pastoral Support assistants lead by the Pastoral Lead who will work closely with students addressing any pastoral issues that they may have, our pastoral team also work closely with parents to ensure that the best possible strategies are in place.

All students with SEND may need extra support and will be assigned a keyworker, this person will work closely with the student, parents and carers and staff, to ensure that the students individual needs are addressed.

We will have a trained counsellor on site who will work with our students on a 1:1 basis, addressing any mental health issues that a child may have. The length and frequency of these sessions will be determined by the counsellor.

Students will be encouraged to develop their Social Skills and The Axis Academy will offer a wide range of social activities. With the support of all members of staff there will be a range of activities during social times as we understand that a student with SEND may face more challenging social situations and will need the extra support to help them overcome these.

We are also extremely proud that our students take on the roles of Peer Mentors and Buddies and are excellent when supporting other more vulnerable students in school.

Our school has a highly qualified experienced team to support all of our students including those with SEND:

• All our teachers hold qualified teacher status and regularly attend training on how best to support our students with SEND e.g. Dyslexia
• Our Safeguarding team ensure the safeguard and promote the wellbeing of all our students
• Our Pastoral team consists of a team of pastoral managers led by the Pastoral manager, who are highly experienced when dealing with nurturing and well-being of our students
• Our pastoral team are highly experienced when dealing with nurturing and wellbeing of our students.
• We also have a highly qualified literacy and dyslexia team within school
• A school counsellor is also available on site to speak to students
• School Nurse

We also work very closely with outside agencies/professionals; these include:

• Education Welfare Service
• Educational Psychologist who meets regularly with the school SENCO, parents and students
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
• Medical Needs Team
• Speech and Language Therapy Team
• Social Care
• Sensory Service (hearing and vision impaired students)

Useful Link: https://www.camhs-resources.co.uk/apps-1?msclkid=e7834681cf8711ecb5b15e54b4fbecc5

All of our students will have full access to extra-curricular activities and school trips.  At The Axis Academy we believe that extra-curricular opportunities enrich the learning of all of our students.

In some instance we may need to differentiate the opportunity for our students with SEND this may mean that a teaching assistant or another adult will support them during these activities.

If a student with SEND wishes to engage in such activities/trips wherever possible we will endeavour to ensure that this is possible.

During transition to a post 16 destination, we will ensure that we attend the annual reviews and that any changes reflect the well-being and success of the child when transferring to a new destination. Every effort will be made to support students leaving The Axis Academy and this will include visiting new destinations with students.

We work closely with parents and invite parents to the high school for open evenings where there is additional opportunity to speak with our SENCo.

Our transition process for students with SEND is completely individual and this will be planned carefully with our staff, parents and carers and the student.

Throughout your child’s journey at The Axis Academy there will be regular reviews, meetings and monitoring to ensure your child is achieving their maximum potential.  Any transitions throughout the Key stages will be supported by our staff, SENCo and parents and carers.

When a student is first identified as needing additional support parents will be invited in to meet with the SENCo.

During this meeting your child’s learning progress will be discussed and all will agree appropriate targets and actions which will be put into place to support your child’s needs.  Your child will also then be involved in the meeting and their thoughts and opinions will be taken into account.

Outside agencies may also be invited into school and will input into the process of supplying additional support/ resources.

The school will then document your child’s target in a One-Page profile which identifies your child’s targets, what staff can do to help and what the child wishes to tell staff about their learning, this document is then made accessible to all staff.

At The Axis Academy we ensure that this does not affect the accessibility for our SEN students.  We have ramps to all of our external doors.  There is a lift to the second floor for students who are unable to use the stairs. We have a fully accessible disabled toilet.

We encourage parents to be actively involved in the school.

There are opportunities for parents to become involved in the Parent Teacher Association and we also have Parent Associates on our LSB.

There will be social occasions running throughout the school year to encourage our parent and carers and The Axis Academy staff to come together.

Please contact your child’s form tutor, the school SENCo or the Pastoral Lead for further assistance.

For further information, please refer to our SEN Policy