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TKA’s approach to meeting the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disability are supported by the Local Authority to ensure that all pupils, regardless of their specific needs, make the best possible progress in school.
Information about how Kingston and Richmond supports children with SEN can be found on the following links-
Further information on how The Kingston Academy supports young people can be found in our Special Educational Needs and Disability Policy which is available on the policy page of this website and on request from the school office or in the ‘Questions and Answers for Parents / Carers about SEN’ button below.
TKA is a non-selective, non-faith mixed Free School for pupils aged 11 – 18 years. We have a Specialist Resourced Provision for children whose primary need is Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) or associated social communication difficulties and who are in receipt of an EHC plan. Places to this provision are allocated by the Local Authority in partnership with the school and the offer is for three places per academic year.
What are Special Educational Needs?
Children with Special Educational Needs have learning difficulties that make it harder for them to learn than most children of the same age. These children may need extra or different help from that given to others.
Special Educational Needs are broadly defined by the following four areas of need:
Communication and Interaction
Cognition and learning
Social, emotional and mental health
Sensory and / or physical needs
Who can I contact at The Kingston Academy to talk about my child's difficulties with learning, special educational needs or disability?
The first point of call should be your child's form teacher.
Your child's form teacher will discuss your concerns with the relevant phase SENCo - either Ms Malik Kates for KS3 or Ms Briggs for KS4 and 5.
You may wish to arrange a meeting with them. You can do this via email (inclusioninfo@thekingstonacademy.org) or by contacting the school office (T: 0208 465 6200).
How will the school contact me if they have any concerns about my child's learning, special educational needs or disability?
Your child's form teacher may call you or email you to arrange a time for you to come in and discuss the concerns.
The SENCo may contact you by phone or email to arrange a time for you to come in and discuss potential ways of supporting your child and helping them to reach their full potential.
Will the school take into account my views and those of my child when planning how best to support us?
We believe it is very important for parents / carers to be actively engaged in their child's learning and we encourage dialogue between teachers and parents / carers. Don't hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any concerns.
It is also of paramount importance for us to understand your child's perspective on any difficulties they may experience with their learning.
If your child has an EHCP you and your child will be able to air your views termly and at an annual review meeting and your child will be allocated a key worker who can be a point of contact during the year.
If your child appears on our SEND register as requiring support above and beyond that which can be delivered via quality first teaching, they may also be supported by a key worker and you will be contacted regularly by the relevant phase SENCo.
Are the teachers appropriately trained to support my child's special educational needs / disability?
At TKA we believe that the success of the school is largely dependent on the quality of the teaching staff and we have invested heavily in excellent teachers.
We believe in on-going professional development and are constantly seeking out appropriate training opportunities for our teaching staff and Inclusion team.
Processes are embedded within TKA to ensure that learning is shared across the whole teaching body.
What type of support is available for children at The Kingston Academy?
In consultation with you, your child will have been identified by the Class Teacher or Inclusion Team as needing extra specialist support in school instead of, or in addition to quality first teaching and intervention groups.
You will be asked to come to a meeting to discuss your child’s progress and help plan the focused support for your child through writing a SEND support plan.
We will deliver personalised support to your child through a programme designed by our SENCo in consultation with any other professionals who may have assessed your child.
The majority of support for your child will be delivered in the classroom setting.
How is the progress of my child measured?
Your child’s progress is continually monitored by his/her class teacher and subject teachers. Your child will be formally assessed twice a year by their subject teacher and you will have an opportunity to discuss their results at a subject teacher/parent/carer evening.
Information is shared with you every term via a school report and/or meeting with your child's teacher.
In addition:
For children who have an EHC plan and who are SEN Support who have a SEND support plan, this will be reviewed with your involvement each term.
The effectiveness of the school’s provision for pupils with SEN is evaluated through the schools on-going monitoring cycle by the Senior Leadership Team. This includes:
Termly pupil progress meetings
Weekly learning walks
Weekly Book share amongst the SLT
Termly Provision Management audit.
Is The Kingston Academy accessible to children with SEN?
At The Kingston Academy we strongly believe in fulfilling our statutory requirement to be an inclusive school.
The school site is accessible to children with physical disabilities. We have specialist equipment (hoists/changing beds) and stair walkers for evacuation purposes.
We ensure that equipment used is accessible to all children regardless of their needs.
After school provision is accessible to all children including those with SEN.
Extra-curricular activities are accessible for children with SEN.
Support is provided for children with SEN who require it at lunchtimes and breaks.
What support does The Kingston Academy offer to parents of a child with SEN?
Your form teacher is available to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns you may have and to share information about what is working well at home and school so similar strategies can be used. You can contact them via email or by making an appointment via the school office.
Our Inclusion team is available to meet with you to discuss your child’s progress or any concerns or worries you may have, particularly if you feel there are undiagnosed needs and you need advice on how to proceed with assessing these.
All information from outside professionals will be discussed with you with the person involved directly, or where this is not possible, in a report.
Homework will be adjusted as needed to your child’s individual needs. The relevant phase SENCo will coordinate and agree this with subject teachers.
The Inclusion team will share information with you about local support groups, courses for parents and holiday activities that are relevant to your child’s needs.
This policy is written in line with the requirements of:
Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014
SEN Code of Practice 2014
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014
The Special Educational Needs (Personal Budgets and Direct Payments) Regulations, Section 49
The Order setting out transitional arrangements, Section 137
The Equality Act 2010
This policy should also be read in conjunction with the following policies: Admissions Policy, Anti Bullying Policy, Behaviour Discipline Exclusions Restraints and Searches Policy, Health and Safety Policy, Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy, Complaints Policy and Accessibility plan.
This policy was developed by the SEND Co-ordinator with the Head teacher and representatives from the Kingston Educational Trust Board and will be reviewed annually to include the views of parents of children with Special Educational Needs and Disability.
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 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 them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.
The Kingston Academy is a mainstream secondary school with a specialist resource provision which offers 15 places for children with an EHCP and Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) or associated Social Communication difficulties. We firmly believe that every pupil should be given equality of opportunity to achieve their full potential – academically and socially. Each pupil is entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum that is relevant to his/her educational needs.
At The Kingston Academy we can make provision for every kind of frequently occurring special educational needs without an Education, Health and Care Plan, for instance, dyslexia, dyspraxia and speech and language needs. There are other kinds of special educational needs which do not occur as frequently and with which the school is less familiar, but we can access training and advice so that these kinds of needs can be met if the child’s needs can be met in a mainstream environment.
The school currently meets the needs of pupils with an Education, Health and Care plan with the following kinds of special educational need: Autistic Spectrum Condition, Speech and Language Needs, Specific Learning Difficulties, Social and Mental Health, Physical Disabilities.
Decisions on the admission of pupils with an Education, Health and Care plan are made in conjunction with the Local Authority during the consultation process. The admission arrangements for pupils without an Education, Health and Care plan will follow the usual school admissions procedures. Out-of-borough consultation should be sent to Kingston and Richmond AFC for triaging.
At The Kingston Academy subject teachers monitor and regularly review the academic progress of all pupils and the pastoral team monitor and regularly review the overall progress of all pupils. We also use a range of assessments with all the pupils at various points such as GL assessments which measure cognitive ability.
The principle of early identification and intervention underpins our approach to identifying those pupils who need extra help. This is often put in place, even if special educational need has not been identified. This extra support should enable the pupil to catch up and make progress. Despite targeted quality first teaching, some pupils may continue to make insufficient progress.
Where progress is not sufficient, even if a special educational need has not been identified, we work with subject teachers to ensure support can be made available.
Despite high quality targeted teaching some pupils may continue to make insufficient progress. For these pupils, and in consultation with parents, we will use a range of assessment tools to determine the learning strengths and learning difficulties of pupils. The purpose of this more detailed assessment is to understand what additional resources and different approaches are required to enable the pupil to make better progress.
In many cases these underlying needs often explain inadequate progress or challenging behaviour. At times it may be necessary to consult with outside agencies to receive more specialised expertise. The school follows the Code of Practice with regard to identifying a pupil with SEN. The school will follow the graduated approach outlined in the Code of Practice. This draws on identification through assessment and, where a need is identified, planning of appropriate support will take place with the parent then support is implemented and reviewed. The parent is consulted throughout the process.
The purpose of this more detailed assessment and review is to understand what additional resources and different approaches are required to enable the student to make better progress. These will be shared with parents, put into a SEN support plan and reviewed regularly, and refined / revised if necessary. At this point because the student requires additional and extra provision we will have identified that the pupil has a special educational need. Some pupils will need specialist support and resources above and beyond those normally provided at school. In these cases, the school/parents may request a Statutory Assessment for an EHCP.
If the pupil is able to make good progress using this additional and different resource (but would not be able to maintain this good progress without it) we will continue to identify the pupil as having a special educational need. If the pupil is able to maintain good progress without the additional and different resources he or she will not be identified with special educational needs. However, these pupils may still be identified at a school level as requiring adapted teaching through quality first teaching. We will ensure that all teachers and support staff who work with the pupil are aware of the support to be provided and the teaching approaches to be used.
Each review of the support plan will be informed by the views of the pupil, parents and class/subject teachers (where appropriate) and the assessment information from teachers which will show whether adequate progress is being made.
The SEN Code of Practice (2014) describes adequate progress thus:
Is similar to that of children of the same age who had the same starting point
Matches or improves on the pupil’s previous rate of progress
Which allows the attainment gap to close between the pupil and children of the same age
For pupils with or without an Education, Health and Care Plan this year there will be a review of the provision made for the child, at the end of the spring and summer terms which will enable an evaluation of the effectiveness of the special provision to be made. In the future provision arrangements should be monitored and reviewed and adapted each term. The collation of all review evaluations of effectiveness will be reported at least annually to the Trust Board.
Every pupil in the school has their academic progress tracked two times per year. In addition to this, pupils with special educational needs may have more frequent and detailed assessments to inform targets and to measure small steps of progress both personally and academically. If these assessments do not show adequate progress is being made, the support plan and detailed outcomes will be reviewed and adjusted accordingly.
‘Special educational provision is underpinned by high quality teaching and is compromised by anything less’ (SEN CoP, 2014)
We will work to ensure that our approach to teaching and learning is of high quality and personalised to meet the individual needs of the majority of children/young people. Some children/young people need educational provision that is additional to or different from this. This is special educational provision.
At The Kingston Academy we follow the advice in The National Curriculum Framework on how to adapt the curriculum and the learning environment for pupils with special educational needs. We also incorporate the advice provided as a result of assessments, both internal and external, and the strategies described in Education, Health and Care Plans.
As part of our requirement to keep the appropriateness of our curriculum and learning environment under review the Trust will seek advice on how practice and provision may be improved which may relate to one or more of the following aspects: the school building and development of the school site, the curriculum offer and training of staff.
As part of our budget we receive ‘notional SEN funding’. This funding is used to ensure that the quality of teaching is good in the school and that there are sufficient resources to deploy additional and adapted teaching for pupils requiring special educational provision. The amount of support required for each pupil to make good progress will be different in each case. In very few cases a very high level of resource is required.
The funding arrangements require schools to provide up to £6000 per year of resource for pupils with high needs, and above that amount the Local Authority should provide additional top up funding to the school.
Most clubs, trips and activities offered to pupils at The Kingston Academy are available to pupils with special educational needs either with or without an Education, Health and Care Plan. Where it is necessary, the school will use the resources available to it to provide additional adult support to enable the safe participation of the pupil in the activity.
At The Kingston Academy we understand that an important feature of the school is to enable all pupils to develop emotional resilience and social skills, both through direct teaching. For instance all pupils participate in weekly pastoral sessions which enables them to broaden their understanding in a range of skills including academic, social and personal. Pupils have the opportunity to meet and discuss their progress with teachers daily and can also consult with their tutor and head of year.
For some pupils with the most need for help in this area we also can provide the following: a school based mentor, access to the school nurse, referral to Child and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHs) and support from the pastoral team.
Pupils in the early stages of emotional and social development because of their special educational needs will be supported to enable them to develop and mature appropriately. This will usually require additional and different resources, beyond that required by pupils who do not need this support.
The Assistant Headteacher in Charge of Inclusion and SENCo is Carly Briggs , who is a qualified teacher and holds the following qualifications: National Award for SEN Coordination, Mental Health First Aid, a Master’s Degree in Professional Studies and Education.
The Key Stage 3 SENCo is Rana Malik-Kates- she is responsible for pupils in Years 7, 8, 9 and holds the following qualifications: BA Hons in Special Educational Needs and Inclusion, Masters in Positive Emotional well being and NASENCO.
The leader of the Specialist Resource Provision for pupils with ASC is David Stenning, who holds the following qualifications: Higher Learning Teaching Assistant Qualification, Mental Health First Aid trained, TEACCH trained.
The Inclusion Team and SRP are both line-managed and overseen at a strategic level by Mr Tom Brook who holds the following qualifications: Master of Research (MRes), National Professional Qualification for Headteachers (NPQH), Bachelor of Arts - Education (BA Hons.) and the National Award for SEN Coordination.#
The inclusion team is made up of a number of specialists including,
Grace Cameron: HLTA level 4 QT qualification who oversees speech and language provision and delivers our ELSA program.
Sam Walters: HLTA level 4 RQF qualification who is our Physical Disabilities Coordinator.
Allison Martin- HLTA Level 4 who is our careers and pathway coordinator.
Kirsty Allan: HLTA who coordinates and reviews progress of pupils with SpLD.
Kerstin Mackay- EAL coordinator- qualified languages teacher responsible for providing EAL support and intervention to pupils.
The team consists of a further 12 TA’s who are deployed to support learning in the classroom setting.
In the last two years teachers have had the following training:
The inclusion team has received extensive training opportunities to strengthen team members' practice or to develop particular areas of expertise.
We are required by the Department of Education to publicise the profile of our SEN intake.
The profile of our current 2023-24 intake (Year 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,12 and 13) is as follows:
52 pupils have an Education Health Care Plan
123 pupils are on KSEN – SEND Support – Interventions and a support plan in place
144 pupils are on Quality First Teaching – Needs are met by quality teaching in the classroom or pupils who have been identified as having a Special Educational Need but either without a formal diagnosis or need for interventions.
The range of SEN includes Communication and Interaction, Cognition and Learning, Social, Emotional and Mental Health and Sensory and/or Physical.
This is made up of the following groups:
37% of pupils with SEND have needs linked to Cognition and Learning including maths, reading, writing and a range of specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia.
25% of pupils with SEND have needs linked to Communication and Interaction including speech, language and social communication and interaction disorders such as Asperger’s and Autism.
28% of pupils with SEND have needs linked to Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties including ADHD and ADD
4% of pupils with SEND have needs linked to Physical and/or Sensory difficulties including disabilities affecting vision, hearing and mobility and Medical.
6% of pupils are currently identified as NSA (no specialist assessment).