SEND

All teachers are teachers of students with Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND Code of Practice 2014) and, as such, take full responsibility for all their students’ learning, progress and well-being.

The teachers at John Taylor High School are trained to support students with SEND. They personalise their lessons by knowing the student’s strengths and areas for development and differentiating any work accordingly, the SEND Department provides advice and guidance to teachers to allow them to do this effectively. For the majority of students this allows them to make good progress and to meet their full potential.

However, a small number of students require something more; something distinct and different. This may take the form of in-class support from a teaching assistant, physical support, adjustments to the learning environment or additional tuition or intervention. The SEND Department then work in partnership with the student, their family, the teachers and support staff to develop a tailored package of support to deliver and achieve this.

To this aim, the SEND Department at John Taylor offers a wide range of bespoke intervention; from light touch paired reading to touch typing, reading, spelling and handwriting workshops through to individual specialist teacher lead multi-sensory literacy and numeracy acquisition programmes. We also have a dedicated specialist teams to support our students with diabetes and those with Autism.

Again, in partnership with teachers, the SEND team are also responsible for arranging for students to receive access arrangements for external examinations. The process for this begins in year 9 when evidence of need is collected evidence from teachers followed by rigorous assessment and subsequent application to the examination boards where this is found to be appropriate.

The SEND team is made up of the SENDCo, Mr A Smith, a Student Support Officer, a team of twenty support assistants and an administrator. All of whom are experienced and well qualified.  If you would like to meet with Mr A Smith to discuss your son or daughter’s needs and how they may be met, please do not hesitate to contact her by ringing the school reception or by e-mail:  [email protected]

Further details of our provision in this area can be found in the SEND information report:

The JTMAT SEND Policy can also be viewed here: