Special Education Needs & Disabilities
Richmond School welcomes and values students of all abilities and backgrounds. We are committed to supporting young people to achieve their full potential, regardless of any barriers to learning they may face. Our Learning Support department is an important resource within school and works in close partnership with students, parents, staff and outside professionals to share information and coordinate interventions.
Students are supported in a wide variety of different ways, depending on their individual needs and circumstances. Our overall aim is for students to feel confident, respected and safe and to have access to all aspects of school life during their time here.
Our department has extensive experience of working with students with a wide range of learning differences. These include sensory/physical issues, cognition and learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health concerns and communication and interaction issues (including autism).
The school has a large and well-resourced Learning Support department consisting of a team of well-qualified and highly-motivated teaching assistants, a specialist Literacy teacher and a Special Educational Needs co-ordinator. The department has a designated base at a central point of the school. We use a wide range of resources including assistive technology to support the students who access the department.
Having a thorough knowledge of each individual student is very important to us and support for students begins before they start at the school, with information being gathered from their previous school as well as from parents/carers, who are always extremely welcome to make an appointment to discuss their son’s or daughter’s needs. We also run targeted assessments to identify students’ strengths and any areas of need and we work in close partnership with subject teachers, parents/carers and the students themselves to follow up any concerns that might arise at any point in students’ school career.
Support for students takes a wide variety of forms, including:
- High-quality teaching
- A curriculum to match students’ individual needs
- In-class support from teaching assistants
- One-to-one or small group teaching in literacy and numeracy
- Regular review meetings with students and parents
- Mentoring
- Additional access to IT and assistive technology
- Small group intervention programmes
- Provision of access arrangements in assessments and exams
- Lunch club
- Access to help from other services
The Learning Support department works closely with YES @Areté Learning Trust
YES @Areté Learning Trust promotes an understanding of specific learning differences to support students, parents and professionals.
For more information on our SEND provision, please look at the following links:
SEN policy
SEN Information Form
https://www.yesataretelearningtrust.net/