SEND Provision

Hummersknott Academy is proud to be described as a ‘happy and inclusive school’ where ‘pupils with SEND receive excellent pastoral care’ and ‘teachers are well informed about how to best support pupils with SEND’. (Ofsted 2021)

All pupils with special educational needs and disabilities are part of the mainstream school. Teachers and support staff set high expectations for every pupil, including those with special educational needs or disabilities. Staff set targets which are ambitious. Lessons are planned to address potential areas of difficulty and to remove barriers to learning. Students with SEND access a broad and balanced curriculum and receive additional support as required. In all but exceptional cases, careful planning ensures that pupils with special educational needs and disabilities are able to study the full school curriculum.

Students with identified SEND need access additional support via the ‘Waves of Intervention’ model:

Wave 1 – the expectation of ‘Quality First’ teaching, where high quality adaptive teaching ensures that all students make good progress. SEND portraits will be used to inform practice and ensure all teaching staff have a good understanding of individual student need.

Wave 2 – targeted at pupils with SEND specifically. Wave 2 SEND plans may detail access to specialist resources within the school (e.g. nurture group; Drawing and Talking therapy; identified interventions; additional adult support).

Wave 3 –  external specialists are asked to advise on more specialised support, generally where a student has not progressed as well as expected with current additional Wave 2 intervention.