Admission Arrangements
Our school acts in accordance with Staffordshire County Council policy on school admissions which is in compliance with the Children and Families Act 2014, the SEND regulations 2014 and the Equality Act 2010. We welcome all pupils and we strive to ensure that all reasonable adjustments are made to our premises and/or necessary equipment/resources are available so that their needs are fully provided for. This includes making adaptions to meet particular needs and enhance learning to ensure they are provided with the opportunities to meet their potential.
Accessibility Plan
At St Gabriel’s, we consider our environment to be generally accessible to all pupils. The main building is all on one, flat level allowing access to the school hall, offices, classrooms, staff room, community room, ICT suite and toilets. We have a disabled toilet situated in one of our outer buildings which can be accessed via a ramp. Currently, our year two classrooms have a small number of steps to access them along with a handrail on either side. We are vigilant about making reasonable adjustments, where possible and continually review the needs of children; making bespoke arrangements for access for individual children should the need arise. Our policy and practice adheres to The Equality Act 2010. We value and respect diversity in our setting and do our very best to meet the needs of all our learners.
Medical Needs
Governors at St. Gabriel’s School fully accept that children with medical conditions need to be, and will be, fully supported to ensure that they have full access to education - including school trips and P.E. We consult fully with health & social care professionals, parents and where appropriate the child to achieve this. Where required, an individual health care plan will be drawn up to outline the day to day care requirements for a child with medical needs.
Local Offer
The Local Offer is a Local Authority’s publication of all the provision “they expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people in their area who have SEN or are disabled, including those who do not have Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans.” (Section 4.1 SEND Code of Practice, January 2015)
Staffordshire’s local offer provides information and services for children and young people aged 0-25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families.
The Local Offer website aims to help families by gathering the information that they need to know in order to make informed choices about the support they receive.
https://www.staffordshireconnects.info/kb5/staffordshire/directory/home.page
Evaluating effectiveness
SEN pupils’ attainment and progress is tracked and monitored through termly assessments. Book trawls evaluate how effectively SEN children are accessing the curriculum.
When programmes are implemented with groups of SEND pupils, impact is measured by assessing pupils before and after the programme where appropriate. This ensures provision is effective and only used if it results in pupil progress.
Parents and pupils are free to voice any issues they may have regarding SEND provision which are then acted on accordingly.
Handling complaints
If a parent or carer has any concerns or complaints regarding the care or welfare of their child, an appointment can be made by them to speak to the Headteacher or SENCO, who will be able to give advice on formal procedures for complaint.
Our complaints procedure follows the LA guidelines. Such is our partnership with the children and parents; we would hope that all concerns would be dealt with at the earliest opportunity.