SEND Curriculum Statement

All teachers at the UCS are teachers of SEND. We aim to meet the needs of all children through “Quality First Teaching” (QFT) of a responsive, adaptive and cohesive curriculum, designed to unlock learning and forge strong cross-curricular links. Sequencing and interleaving are carefully considered to allow pupils to build and strengthen useful and increasingly complex schematic links.

We foster and promote a culture of inclusion where every student has an equal opportunity to succeed and become the best that they can be, interrupting patterns and cycles of disadvantage to ensure equity of opportunity. Our goal is to produce graduates with both the knowledge and skills to make a positive contribution to society following their education.

Lessons are planned to provide aspiration and support when appropriate, with identified need responsively considered.  Adaptation and differentiation of content is a non-negotiable and is evident in all lessons through task, questioning and support.  This is personalised to individual need using our SEND Matrix.  Withdrawal from lesson time is avoided wherever possible, but where necessary it is used to deliver high-quality targeted intervention based around identified need.

How will the curriculum be matched to my child’s needs?

• Every child completes differentiated tasks that are responsively adapted by their class teacher, enabling them to access the curriculum at a level appropriate to their learning.

• If a child has been identified with SEND, a member of staff may be allocated to work with the child on a 1:1 basis or in a small focus group to target their specific needs.

• Where required, specialist equipment will be identified and provided to support children with specific needs.

Formative assessment techniques are used alongside summative assessments to identify gaps in students’ learning which can be speedily addressed through our programme of targeted intervention.  In addition to this, we provide students with opportunities to extend or consolidate their knowledge in specific subject areas through enrichment activities that are mapped to the curriculum in order to extend our provision beyond the classroom environment.  These may include educational visits that further interrupt patterns and cycles of disadvantage, including social disadvantage, which we aim to address through increased exposure to rich text and reading as a core curriculum offer.

Students identified as having special educational needs and/or disabilities will be provided with a ‘Personal Support Plan.’   This document is designed to provide personalised strategies and approaches to support the child.  We work with an elite team of external agencies to secure specialist input from outreach staff, the educational psychology team and support hubs.

If your child has complex special educational needs and/or disability they may have an Education Health and Care Plan.  This will be reviewed annually through a formal meeting of education and health care professionals, crucially with input from parents and the student themselves to ensure effective support practices are reviewed and planned for moving forward.