SEN

Special Educational Needs & Disability (SEND)

Higham Lane School is a fully inclusive mainstream school and we truly believe in our ethos of: Work Hard, Be Kind, Take Responsibility. We endeavour to ensure that all students achieve their potential personally, socially, emotionally and academically whilst ensuring they have access to a broad and balanced curriculum through high-quality teaching adapted to suit the diverse needs of all learners.

Higham Lane School’s approach is grounded in five evidence-based pillars, including trauma-informed teaching, holistic assessment, high-quality classroom instruction, targeted interventions, and effective deployment of teaching assistants. The SEND Teaching and Learning Principles guide every lesson, ensuring accessibility, clarity, and support for all learners. Additionally, to support learning further, we offer a wide range of Wave 2 and 3 interventions tailored to individual student profiles and this is based on a graduated four-part cycle (assess, plan, do, review). Through this cycle, actions are reviewed and refined as understanding of a student's needs and the support required to help them secure good outcomes increases.

Higham Lane School focuses on the child-centred approach which puts the child’s unique needs, voice, and perspective at the heart of their education and care. The individualised planning, valuing the child's insights alongside parental views all drive our graduated four-part cycle of “assess, plan, do, review" that ensures highly personalised support. Secondary education presents unique hurdles like navigating multiple classrooms, managing self-directed study, and coping with peer dynamics, making the student's active participation in their own support plan vital which highlights further the importance of the team around the child.

All students are thoughtfully placed into form groups, so that their form tutor can be their direct and first point of contact, just like they can be a parents first point of contact should any queries need addressing. The relationships formed with a form tutor are paramount for every child’s success whilst on their secondary journey as tutors see them every morning and can ensure all students are set up for their day and acts as a go-to support person in school.

To further enthuse our child-centred approach, the Support 4 Learning Team works closely with primary schools (in advance of starting with Higham Lane School) to provide a smooth transition for all students, including SEND students, from the beginning of their journey with us at Higham Lane School.

The Support 4 Learning Team along with our experienced teaching team work collaboratively to enable all students to learn effectively. As a whole staff body, we work closely with specialist SEND teachers, speech and language therapists, educational psychologists, occupational therapists, physios and other professionals. Parent and student view is always important to us in planning our provision and support for our students. Forming those strong relationships with form tutors as both students and parents, will ensure that our child-centred approach will allow all students to be successful at Higham Lane School

Email: support4learning@highamlaneschool.co.uk

Mrs German – SENDCo

Mrs Smedley – Deputy SENDCo

Mrs Bassett – Support 4 Learning Admin