At Coleridge, we are passionate about ensuring all our students can play a full and active role within the school. We do not discriminate against students due to their Special Educational Need or Disability. We will endeavour to make appropriate access arrangements or adaptations depending upon the individual need, and ensure that all students can partake in the daily life of the school. We identify the needs of students in a range of ways. We use data sources from primary schools and school assessment. Teacher feedback as well as information from parents and external professionals is also paramount in understanding the needs of our students. When a student is identified we use the graduated approach - assess, plan, do and review - to support the provision we offer.

Students are identified through regular monitoring by class teachers, support staff and pastoral teams. They will report any concerns to the SENDCo, the Assistant SENDCo or relevant TAs through our Barriers to Learning online form. Further assessment or investigation, if required, can be carried out by staff or relevant outside agencies. Staff can raise concerns directly with the SENDCo or Assistant SENDCo at any time. 

Tests available to us include: Access Reading Test, Access Maths Test, Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), The Blackwell Spelling test, NGRT, LUCID and Exam Access Arrangement (EAA) test. Further assessment can be given by the local authority through an Early Help Assessment (EHA) requested by the school and supported by the parent/carer.

Parents can also raise any concerns they have with the school at any time through the pastoral systems, teaching staff or directly with the SENDCo or Assistant SENDCo. If a student is receiving support, they and their parents/carer have the right for that child to be on the SEND register. This will be in agreement with the SENDCo and a letter to confirm that all are happy with this process.

Students identified with SEND that need support over and above that which is normally available to students in the classroom through high quality teaching and differentiation, are termed 'SEND Support'. Students with additional SEND needs that are effectively supported within the classroom and require no additional intervention will continue to be monitored on the Additional Needs register. Parents will be informed if their child or young person is being monitored for SEND.

Special Educational Needs are grouped into 4 main categories of need;

• Communication and interaction (e.g.: Autism, Aspergers or speech and language needs)
• Cognition and learning (e.g.: Moderate and Severe learning difficulties, Profound and Multiple learning difficulties, and specific needs such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia)
• Social, emotional and mental health difficulties (e.g.: Mental health difficulties such as anxiety and depression, or ADD, ADHD or attachment disorder)
• Sensory and/or physical (e.g.: Disabilities that hinders or prevents them from using the facilities normally provided, for example: Visual Impairment, Hearing Impairment, a Multi-sensory impairment or specific physical disability)

We currently have students with a range of SEND needs including autism (ASD/ASC); attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); specific learning difficulties (including dyslexia) (SpLD); moderate learning difficulty (MLD); social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs; speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN); visual impairment (VI); hearing impairment (HI); global development delay (GDD) and learning delay (LD). We also support students with Gilbert’s Syndrome, Hypermobility, Osgood Schlatter disease, Coeliac, chronic Ulcerative colitis, Hickman Lines, Hirschsprung's Disease and Kartagener syndrome.