Learning Support

Special Education Needs and Disabilities Mossley Hollins High School

This page will help you understand how provision is made at Mossley Hollins High School for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

At Mossley Hollins High School we very much pride ourselves in providing disadvantaged students the opportunity to progress academically and holistically.

Children learn at different speeds and in a variety of ways. There will be a wide range of ability within your child’s year group. Some of them will need some extra support or provision to help them meet their targets and be happy with us at Mossley Hollins High School.

You are welcome to contact us at any point to discuss your son or daughter’s progress. Please feel free to make the most of parents’ evenings and other events to talk to us.

At Mossley Hollins High School, the Curriculum is never narrowed for students with special educational needs and disabilities. All teachers plan their lessons to ensure that all students can access their learning; we take pride in knowing each individual student to enable their success, ‘scaffolding up’ to provide the best support and challenge in every lesson.

“Every child deserves a fair start in life, with the very best opportunity to succeed. At Mossley Hollins High School we aim to be as inclusive as possible and wherever are able to remove barriers to learning”

How does Mossley Hollins High School help every student?

Every child is an individual. They all develop and learn at different rates. This means that different teaching styles will be used in the classroom to support individual children with their learning.

We provide a cycle of planning, teaching, assessment and evaluation that takes account of the wide range of abilities, aptitudes and interests of children.

Most children will benefit from these different approaches and will make appropriate progress, but some children may need more support.

What if your child needs more support?

If you or the school are concerned that your child is not making adequate progress, it is possible that they may have special educational needs. This will be referred to the SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) and the Learning Support team.

What will we do?

• Assess your child’s particular strengths and areas of concern to decide if they have Special Educational Needs and then:
• Plan appropriate support for your child
• Advise and support other members of staff in the School with regard to supporting your child
• Ensure that appropriate records are kept of progress
• Ensure that you are kept up to date with developments.

What might happen then?

• If needed, we will put in place appropriate provision to support your child to make progress and access the curriculum. This could include one or some of the following:
• Teaching staff having information to support your child  (eg size and font of texts, differentiated work, colour of overlay, seating arrangements)
• Additional Key Skills lessons in small groups
• Catch up Literacy and Numeracy as a lesson 7 provision
• Targeted withdrawal from lessons to work on specific areas, (eg self-esteem support)
• In class support in specific lessons
• Access Arrangements for internal and external exams (these include extra time, the use of a dictionary or a reader)
• Social and Communication groups
• Time out cards.

On board centre support to assist our more academically vulnerable students.

If your child needs support to physically access the curriculum, the support could include some of the following:

• Lift passes
• Learning Support lunch and break passes
• Use of a laptops to allow easier recording and presentation of work
• Buddies to support access throughout the building
• Care plans and fire evacuation plans
• Sloping boards, pen grips, coloured overlays
• Medical passes.

What if more support is needed?

If there are concerns over the progress your child is making even with this support, we will ask your permission to seek further advice from external support services.

We may want to ask for help from, for example;

• a specialist teacher
• an educational psychologist
• a speech and language therapist
• other health professional

You will continue to be involved, and your child’s progress will be regularly recorded and reviewed in the same way. The support will continue until either your child no longer needs this additional support to make progress, or it is decided that a request for a statutory assessment may be appropriate.

Tameside Council: Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Local Offer)

A Local Offer gives children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities and their families information about services available in their local area.

Pupil Premium

The Government has introduced a new area of funding called Pupil Premium which is aimed at ensuring students from lower income families have access to educational opportunities to help them to achieve their full potential. Each year the school receives a sum of money for all eligible students who are registered for free school meals, in Local Authority Care or is the child of Service personnel.

For more information on the Pupil Premium, please visit the page below: