SEND - Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Miss Louise Hunt - Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo).  

Miss Hunt can be contacted via the school's office

Committed to inclusivity 

Newcroft Primary Academy is both welcoming and inclusive. One of our core values is inclusivity and we welcome everybody into our school family. Our aims for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities are the same as for all our pupils; to provide access to a broad and balanced curriculum, to fully participate in school life and to have access to the highest quality of education. At Newcroft we understand that some children will need adjustments and individual planning in order to help them to meet these aims. We endeavour to do this through listening to pupils and their parents and building a picture based on the whole child.  

For some children, their additional needs may have been recognised before starting with us at Newcroft, and for some these needs may become apparent over their time with us. We are committed to supporting children and their families through this journey in a sensitive and professional manner. 

Our Autism Inclusion Mark

We are proud to be one of only 2 schools in Leicestershire to have been awarded the Autism Accreditation Inclusion Award from the National Autistic Society. Our School demonstrates the key principles of Good Autism Practice in including autistic pupils in our mainstream educational setting, identified by the Autism Education Trust (AET). These principles emerged from an examination of the current evidence from research and practice, as well as key policies and the perspectives and insights of autistic individuals (Guldberg et al., 2019). In order to be considered for an award, our school completed :

• A report of the AET Standards, relevant to our setting
• Case-studies describing the targeted support given to autistic children/young people and outcomes achieved
• Information on reasonable adjustments made to support the social and academic inclusion of autistic children/young people
• Information on the training and professional development staff receive in supporting autistic children/young people

The school was noted as having particular strengths in:

• Working closely with parents and carers
• Involving our pupils in the processes of assessment and information gathering
• Transitioning pupils to the next year group and/ or new school which includes modeling, sharing and cascading knowledge and strategies about a pupil 
• Our vision for inclusion: autistic pupils are fully involved in school life. Our staff share with pride that our autistic learners are involved in extra - curricular clubs and activities, residential trips and community activities. 
• Embracing neurodiversity as a difference rather than a disability or disorder

Putting the child and family at the heart of our SEND processes 

We have established a genuine culture of school, family, community and services working together. We actively encourage partnerships with parents through a welcoming ‘open door’ policy and parent forums. Our aim is to inform and involve parents as much as possible in school decision making and provide them with support, advice and access to services.  

We believe in person centered learning and pupils are enabled to be active participants - expressing opinions, making choices and being involved in setting their targets. We are lucky to have a very dedicated staff team, all of whom view themselves as teachers of all pupils, including those with SEND. 

Policies and key documents about our provision

We update our SEND policy and local offer annually, in September each year. We ask for parents to share their views about our SEND provision and ways that it may be improved during this period, so that we can review and action possible changes to improve outcomes for our children. All parents, not just those whose children are on the SEND register, are welcome to comment. Our consultation for this academic year is now closed. We do however welcome feedback at any time. Please contact our SENCo. 

You will find our SEND Policy under our statutory policies area of the website. We consult parents on this policy annually, during September of each year. This year, we have added a short audio summary of the key points on the policy to improve the policy's accessibility. 

Each year, we write a SEND Local Offer Report which tells parents and stakeholders all about our provision and outcomes for pupils. This is a more personalised offer for our school. Here you will find our Trust SEND offer. 

We also have an Accessibility Policy, which outlines how we adapt our learning environment, provision and curriculum to suit the needs of all learners. 

You may also find it useful to view the Leicestershire Local Offer here or watch a short subtitled film about the local offer. 

Support for Parents

To find out more, visit our dedicated parent page here.