​

 Accessibility Policy

Click here to download the Accessibility Policy

Definition of Disability

Disability is defined by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA): ‘A person has a disability if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day to day activities.’

Key Objective

To reduce and eliminate barriers to access to the curriculum and to full participation in the school community for pupils, and prospective pupils, staff, volunteers and visitors with a disability.

Principles

Compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act is consistent with the school’s aims and single equalities, and the operation of the schools’ SEND Policy.

The school recognises its duty under the DDA:

Not to discriminate against disabled pupils in their admissions and exclusions, and provision of education and associated services
Not to treat disabled pupils less favourably
To take reasonable steps to avoid putting disabled pupils at a substantial disadvantage
To publish an Accessibility Plan

The school recognises and values parents’ knowledge of their child’s disability and its effect on his/her ability to carry out normal activities, and respect the parents’ and child’s right to confidentiality;

The school provides all pupils with a broad and balanced curriculum, differentiated and adjusted to meet the needs of individual pupils and their preferred learning styles; and endorses the key principles in the New National Curriculum 2014 which underpin the development of a more inclusive curriculum;

Setting suitable learning challenges
Responding to pupils’ diverse needs
Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of  pupils

Activity

Education and related activities

The school will continue to seek and follow the advice of LA services, such as specialist teacher advisers and SEN advisers and appropriate health professionals from the local NHS trusts.
The school’s SENCO, in conjunction with class teachers, has the day-to-day responsibility for monitoring the progress and attainment of pupils with disabilities, and ensuring reasonable adjustments are made to enable them to access the curriculum, and wider school activities. This may include the deployment of teaching assistants appropriate to facilitate participation.
Staff will be provided with appropriate training to enable them to devise a curriculum which seeks to remove potential barriers to learning and addresses the needs of all pupils. The curriculum will also include opportunities to raise awareness of disability in order to promote understanding.

Physical environment

The school design is suited to providing wheelchair access as all learning environments are on one level with no internal steps.
The school will take account of needs of pupils and visitors with physical difficulties and sensory impairments when planning and undertaking future improvements and refurbishments of the site and premises.

 Provision of information

The school will make itself aware of local services, including those provided through the LA, for providing information in alternative formats when required or requested.