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Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

Aletheia Academies Trust upholds its commitment to supporting all our pupils to achieve educational excellence and progress within a fully inclusive and supportive school environment. We work to ensure that all our pupils’ needs are identified at an early stage, and will be met through appropriate intervention and support, including an inclusive classroom learning environment that can be accessed by all learners. Support for SEND is monitored and reviewed regularly, in order to ensure that all pupils can access a broad and balanced curriculum and be successful.  

Through high-quality teaching and learning opportunities in our schools, a personalised approach, where required, is taken to meet a pupil’s specific needs.  

Our schools’ SEND teams work closely with external agencies and local authorities to ensure the needs are met of those pupils requiring more specialist support and intervention to meet their needs are provided.   

What we offer as a Trust

We have experienced SENDCos across the Trust who support the development of school provision for pupils with special educational needs in our schools.  

The Trust is committed to ensuring everyone in our schools is responsible for the provision of high-quality learning opportunities and pastoral support for pupils with SEND. The Kent and Medway Mainstream Core standards are the key guide used in our schools to improve the quality of education for this group of learners in the mainstream classroom 

Our Trust runs a Best Practice Team for our school SENDCos. Our termly Best Practice Team meetings are led by an experienced headteacher and one of our Senior School Improvement Officers, both having a professional background in SEND support, SEND leadership and a wider advisory role. This Best Practice Team works collaboratively to improve provision and support for pupils with SEND in our Trust. 

Our schools' admission arrangements for pupils with SEND without an Educational Health Care Plan do not discriminate against or disadvantage disabled children or those with special educational needs. 

 

book about wellbeing to accompany send page on aletheia academies trust

 

Definition of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

The Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years (January 2015) outlines the following definitions in relation to SEND:

Special Educational Needs (SEN)

A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they:

  • have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or 
  • have a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions

For children aged two or more, special educational provision is educational or training provision that is additional to or different from that made generally for other children or young people of the same age by mainstream schools, maintained nursery schools, mainstream post-16 institutions or by relevant early years providers. - SEND Code of Practice 2015 p. 15-16

Disabled Children and Young People

Many children and young people who have SEN may have a disability under the Equality Act 2010 – that is ‘…a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. This definition provides a relatively low threshold and includes more children than many realise: ‘long-term’ is defined as ‘a year or more’ and ‘substantial’ is defined as ‘more than minor or trivial’. This definition includes sensory impairments such as those affecting sight or hearing, and long-term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and cancer. Children and young people with such conditions do not necessarily have SEN, but there is a significant overlap between disabled children and young people and those with SEN. Where a disabled child or young person requires special educational provision they will also be covered by the SEN definition. - SEND Code of Practice 2015 p.16

Key Contacts

Please see the key contacts of our SEND coordinators across the Trust in the table below;

Name of School Name of SENDco SENDco Email Address
Saint George's C of E School Laura Carey SEND@saintgeorgescofe.kent.sch.uk
Shorne C of E Primary School Kate Doerr sendco@shorne.kent.sch.uk
St. Botolph's C of E Primary School Janet Harding senco@st-botolphs.kent.sch.uk
Stone St. Mary's C of E Primary School Jayne Field SEND@stone.kent.sch.uk
Sutton-at-Hone C of E Primary School Maggie Young SEND@sutton-at-hone.kent.sch.uk
Horton Kirby C of E Primary School Brittany Harper SEND@hortonkirby.kent.sch.uk
Rosherville C of E Primary Academy Tracy Macfarlane SEND@rosherville.kent.sch.uk
Holy Trinity C of E Primary School Rachel Galea-Baker (Interim) sendco@holytrinity-gravesend.kent.sch.uk
Cliffe Woods Primary School Rachel Galea-Baker SEND@cliffewoods.medway.sch.uk
Halling Primary School Shona Eakins SEND@halling.medway.sch.uk
Sedley's C of E Primary School Nikki Sands SEND@sedleys.kent.sch.uk
Ditton C of E Junior School Kelli Moon senco@ditton-jun.kent.sch.uk

More Information

If you have any concerns about your child, the best place to start is by talking to their class teacher as they will know your child well and will be able to directly advise on how to provide the best support. If you continue to have concerns, please contact the SEND representative in your child’s school. 

For more information regarding the Kent SEND strategies and the local offer, please click on the following links: 

View Kent's Strategy for Children and Young People with SEND here

View our KCC SEND Local Offer here

 

Resources

For more information regarding the Medway SEND Strategy and local offer click on the following links: