Overview
Here at UTC South Durham we value the abilities and achievements of all our students, and we are committed to providing the best possible learning environment for each student.
UTC South Durham aims to:
- Ensure that all students have access to a broad and balanced curriculum
- Provide a differentiated curriculum appropriate to the individual’s needs and ability
- Ensure the rapid identification of all students requiring SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) provision as early as possible
- Ensure that SEND students take a full part in all academy activities
- Ensure that parents of SEND students are kept as fully informed of their child’s progress and attainment via regular reports, in line with the academy’s reporting policy
- Ensure that SEND students are involved in decisions affecting their future SEND provision
We recognise that many students will require additional support at some time during their school life. Whilst many factors create such difficulties, we believe that they can be overcome in collaboration with parents, teachers and students working together.
Additional help is sought for individual students who may need specialist equipment to enable them to make full use of the curriculum opportunities available to them e.g. the provision of laptop computers, sloping writing tables etc. Students with special educational needs and disabilities are entered for public examinations in the same way as all other students in the school and special arrangements are made in accordance with examination board guidelines.
The building has ramped access for wheelchairs, and has been designed to allow for full disabled access. There is a lift to all floors accessible to students. All other rooms have appropriate facilities to enable them to be used by everyone.
We aim to prepare each student to play a full and satisfying role as an adult in our rapidly changing society. Guidance is given to students without any restriction with regards to gender, culture, disability or religion. The academy has considered its curriculum materials, resources, staffing structure and administrative practices so that none of these reinforce unhelpful stereotypes, which could adversely affect the educational or career aspirations of students or staff.
Contact
Jak Heslop is SENco with Nicola Martin as our Deputy SENco. If you have any questions for our SENco team please do not hesitate to contact us on:
01325 430 250
Jak.heslop@utcsouthdurham.org
nicola.martin@utcsouthdurham.org
Transition
Once students have made their application to join UTC South Durham, they are invited to a 1 to 1 meeting in which they are able to share their SEN needs and the provision that can be made to help support their learning and wellbeing. This information is collated into a draft SEN passport which is shared with parents and key support staff in order that we have a good understanding of the individual student when they join us in September.
For those students who have significant SEND need, or are particularly anxious about starting at a new school, we facilitate additional small group transition sessions, both towards the end of the summer term and within the summer holidays. Parents of all SEND students are invited to a ‘Coffee and Cake’ event which allows them to meet key members of the SEND team and to share any worries, concerns or additional information.
Feedback
We are very proud of our SEND provision at UTC South Durham and the progress that our students make with us, whether that be academically, socially and/ or emotionally. We are always seeking to improve our practice and welcome your comments and feedback, which you can leave here https://forms.office.com/e/kq3YWmE15a
We hope that you do not have reason to make a complaint about our processes, but should you feel that is necessary you may follow the procedures outlined in our Complaints Policy which you can find here.