2. What criteria must be satisfied before children and young people can access this provision/service?

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1 Education Provider Provider: Combe Pafford School 1. What special education provision is available at our setting? What do we do here to meet your needs? We are a school that caters for pupils who have moderate learning difficulties, physical difficulties and autism. Pupils are aged between 8-19 and are taught in small classes usually up to 12 pupils. We have designed our curriculum to develop the academic, personal and social and work-related learning needs of pupils. All staff have made a positive choice to work with SEN pupils and besides teaching staff we have a pastoral support team, literacy and maths intervention teams and use a range of other professionals for support and advice. 2. What criteria must be satisfied before children and young people can access this provision/service? What sort of needs would you have for us to be able to help you? All pupils must have a statement of special educational needs, (shortly to be replaced by an Education and Health Care Plan, EHC). Admission to the school is through Torbay Local Authority who have written admissions criteria which they apply. New pupils would normally be admitted in September. 3. How do we identify the particular special educational needs of a child or young person? How do we work out what your needs are and how can we help?

2 All pupils have a statement of special educational needs and lots of information is included in that and subsequent Annual Reviews. We also collect a lot of information from parents and carers on entry and then we have frequent parents meetings to keep up to date. If we need anything specific, we ring. Our pastoral support team are there to ensure we support pupils needs to enable them to focus on learning. 4. How do we consult with parents and/or children and young people about their needs? How do we find out about what you and your parents think you need help with? All parents and carers and young people are invited into school to look around before the offer of a place is made. We organise regular parents evenings, one in late September to sort out any issues early in the new school year, one in the Spring Term which is a Celebration of Pupils Work and one in the Summer Term which is a report on progress through the year. We also hold annual reviews of the statement and are happy to arrange for parents to make an appointment to visit to discuss any issues. We constantly talk to pupils about school, progress, options and making good choices. 5. What is our approach to teaching children and young people with special educational needs? How will we teach you? We teach pupils in small class groups - each class has a teacher and at least one learning support assistant. We supplement this with additional support for English, Maths and behaviour where this is necessary. We try to ensure that lessons are interesting, often setting the topic up with a visit or visitor. Lessons are differentiated according to need and a wide variety of strategies are employed to ensure all pupils are engaged and progress. 6. How can we adapt our curriculum for children and young people with special educational needs? What sort of things will you learn here? Our curriculum is totally designed to meet the needs of our pupil population. We have specialist facilities for all curriculum subjects and have outstanding vocational facilities which can be used by all classes. We offer every child a residential opportunity every year in year 3 this might be one night away somewhere locally, in year 10 this might be a trip to China or South America (heavily subsidised by the school). We offer sports events, interschool matches and opportunities to enjoy music and dance.

3 7. How will we ensure we get the services, provision and equipment that children and young people need? How will we make sure that you get all of the help that you need from different people? We want every child to be as successful as they can be. This means if we don t have it, we will make every reasonable effort to get it. We want all our pupils to experience all we offer, we have taken wheelchairs around the Great Wall, purchased specialist equipment and we subsidise trips and visits. Our pastoral support team will chase to ensure needs are not forgotten or overlooked. 8. How is this provision funded? Who pays for this? As an academy we are funded by the DfE. We also receive top-up funding from Torbay LA. We have also developed several of our own income streams and we use these to develop the school and the pupils, to provide the best possible educational offer. 9. What additional learning support is available for children and young people with special educational needs and how do they access it? What else will we do to help you learn and how will this happen? We have intervention teams in school to provide additional support and we also have other visiting professionals such as an Educational Psychologist, Speech Therapist, School Doctor, Careers Advisers etc. All additional requests can be made through the school. 10. How do we support and improve the emotional and social development of children and young people with special educational needs? How can we help you learn about your feelings and relationships?

4 Each class of 12 pupils has a teacher and at least one Learning Support Assistant; they get to know their class really well as they teach them for about half of the week and they also deliver the Personal, Social and Health Education lessons. We also have a Thrive specialist who promotes a Thrive approach across the school and also offers small group and individual sessions. This person is part of the Pastoral Support Team which is managed by an Assistant Head Teacher. 11. How do we support children and young people with special educational needs moving between phases of education and preparing for adulthood? How can we help you to get ready to change to a different place or to leave here? This is a strength of our school. One of our main aims is to prepare pupils for adult life and hopefully the world of work. We have developed programmes on Life-Skills and vocational skills from the age of 11, have a wide choice of quality vocational options from 14 and have recently opened a sixth form with the specific aim of helping students to maximise their employment chances. We have good links with many employers and local businesses, we employ our own careers adviser and an experienced staff team of teachers and job coaches. 12. What other support is available for children and young people with special educational needs and how can they access it? What other help can we give you or help you to get? Outside of the school offer, other services are listed in the Torbay Directory available from the Council Office. 13. What extra-curricular activities are available for children and young people with special educational needs? What other activities can you do here? After school activities are difficult due to the transport network, which takes pupils home at 3.30pm. We offer a free early morning breakfast club, a full programme of lunchtime clubs and we have a full residential visits programme. We also enter three teams in the annual Ten Tors event, visit theatres both locally and in London, visit the World Skills event at the NEC and many vocational events such as the Hair Show, café exhibition, motor show etc.

5 14. How do we assess and review progress towards agreed outcomes, and how are parents, children and young people involved in this process? How do we know that the help we are giving you is working? How can you and your family tell us what you think? Through regular parents evenings, the annual review process, by telephone and other meetings to discuss any issue involving a pupil. Our pastoral support team will do home visits and can collect and return parents if there are transport difficulties. 15. How do we assess the effectiveness of our special needs provision and how are parents, children and young people involved in this assessment? How do we make sure that we are being the best that we can be? How can you and your family tell us what you think? We regularly review our work and we are subject to OFSTED inspection. We collect information from parents and pupils through an annual survey and are happy to receive advice and feedback at any time. 16. How do we ensure that teaching staff and other staff have the expertise needed to support children and young people with special educational needs? How do we make sure that everyone that works with you has the right skills and can do the right things to help you? We have a good record of staff training, often helping to fund staff wishing to undertake additional qualifications (eg degrees). We are mindful that as staff gain promotion elsewhere we need to be preparing the next group to help lead and manage the school. We enable teachers to receive specialist subject training and updates by attendance at local groups and visits to other schools. We provide a wide range of in-school training opportunities.

6 17. How do we keep parents informed where children and young people have special educational provision but do not have an Education Health and Care Plan? N/A How do we make sure that your parents know how we can help them? 18. How can parents, children and young people make a complaint about our provision? What can you do if you are not happy about something that has happened here? Our complaints procedure is available on our website or a paper copy can be obtained from the school office on request. 19. How can parents, children and young people get more information about the setting? How can you find out more about us? Look at the website first if possible, then ring and make an appointment to visit!