APS Accessibility Plan

Aims

Schools are required under the Equality Act 2010 to have an accessibility plan. The purpose of this plan is to:

 • Increase the extent to which pupils with disabilities can participate in the curriculum

 • Improve the physical environment of the school to enable pupils with disabilities to take better advantage of education, benefits, facilities and services provided

 • Improve the availability of accessible information to pupils with disabilities

Our school is also committed to ensuring staff are trained in equality issues with reference to the Equality Act 2010, including understanding disability issues.

Our school’s complaints procedure covers the accessibility plan. If you have any concerns relating to accessibility in school, the complaints procedure sets out the process for raising these concerns.

Legislation and guidance

This document meets the requirements of schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010 and the Department for Education (DfE) guidance for schools on the Equality Act 2010.

Introduction

This policy has been created in consultation with staff, governors, parents/carers and pupils.

At Ashurst CE Aided Primary School, we are committed to giving all of our children every opportunity to achieve the highest of standards.

We strive to ensure that Ashurst CE Aided Primary School is an inclusive school. We actively seek to remove barriers to learning and participation that can hinder or exclude individual children, or groups of children.

This means that equality of opportunity must be a reality for our children.

We understand that all of our children have different needs and can make different contributions to the life of our school. The responsibility for making this a reality lies with all of us; teachers, support staff, governors, families, carers and the children themselves.

Every Ashurst CE Aided child can expect to:

• Feel secure and safe in school

• Know their contribution is valued

• Have their culture, faith, gender, disability or impairment treated positively and with respect

• Have opportunities to appreciate and value differences in others

• Have their voice heard and learn about inclusive principles through the School Council

• Experience success and achieve targets

• Take a full part in the daily life of our school including the ‘wider curriculum’ regardless of disability or medical needs

We do this by taking account of children’s varied life experiences and needs. We offer a broad and balanced curriculum and have high expectations for all children.

The Governing Body

The Governing Body has three key duties towards disabled pupils, under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995:

1. Not to treat disabled pupils less favourably for a reason related to their disability

2. To make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for disabled pupils, so that they are not at a substantial disadvantage

3. To plan strategically (via the Accessibility Plan) to increase, where possible, access to school premises and the curriculum.

The Governors are committed to the National Curriculum Inclusion Statement, ‘Providing effective learning opportunities for all,’ through school practice and policy that reflects the principles of Inclusion:

- Setting suitable learning challenges

- Responding to pupils’ diverse learning needs

- Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils

Part of the Governors role is to:

• Regularly check and update school policies including, Positive Behaviour Policy and Accessibility

• Have named governors for Children with Special Educational Needs, Pupil Premium, Children Looked After and Safeguarding

• Attend relevant e.g. West Sussex County Council (WSCC) / Diocesan training

Definition of Special Educational Needs

In this policy, ‘special educational needs’ refers to a learning difficulty that requires special educational provision.

The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practise 0 – 25 Years (DFE, 2014) says children have a learning difficulty or disability if they:

•          Have significantly greater difficulty in learning that the majority of children of the same age; or

•          Have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in mainstream schools or post-16 institutions; and
•          are under compulsory school age and are likely to fail within either of the definitions above when they reach compulsory school age or would do so if special educational provision was not made for them.

The Equality Act 2010 defines an individual as disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ adverse effect on their ability to undertake normal day to day activities.

Under the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice, ‘long-term’ is defined as ‘a year or more’ and ‘substantial’ is defined as ‘more than minor or trivial’. The definition includes sensory impairments, such as those affecting sight or hearing, and long-term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy and cancer.

Schools are required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for pupils with disabilities under the Equality Act 2010, to alleviate any substantial disadvantage that a pupil with disabilities faces in comparison with a pupil without disabilities. This can include, for example, the provision of an auxiliary aid or adjustments to premises.

Children must not be regarded as having a learning disability solely because of language or if the language of their home is different from the language in which they will be taught.

Our Commitment to individual pupils

When an individual with a disability is known to be coming to Ashurst CE Aided Primary School, we will aim to implement a plan that will:

• assess their needs and any adaptations that can be made to the environment within the context of the listing of the building

• establish what resources would need to be purchased

• assess if we have the required skills and expertise amongst the existing staff to support that individual pupil

• assess any medical requirements.

• discuss if specific training is required.

We will carefully consider the availability of the school budget to meet any identified provision against how it will impact on the ability of the school to meet its wider obligations to all individuals in the school.

The School Context

Ashurst CE Aided Primary is a rural, village school built in 1873. The school currently has an average of 14% of children on the SEND register with varied needs. The Special Educational Needs of the children include Speech and Language and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Currently, the school does not have any child, parent/carer or staff member who uses a wheelchair.

Curriculum

The Headteacher, Senior Leadership team and the SENCO, have a responsibility for the strategic direction of the school which includes leading effective curriculum and professional development of all staff.

All teachers including subject leaders and support staff make sure that the principles of inclusion underpin the planning and delivery of the Curriculum.

Together they:

• Treat each other and all children equally and with respect

• Ensure that suitable learning challenges are set, underpinned by high expectations

• Are sensitive to the children’s diverse learning needs and learning styles with appropriate timetabling and grouping of children including peer support

• Work towards overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of children by appropriate deployment of learning support

• Question any differences in the achievement of different groups of children

• Look for ways to support children who might not be achieving their best

• Review the effectiveness of their actions

 •Attend courses and share good practice, both across and within school referring to principles of inclusion when planning lessons and reviewing policy

• Work with external agencies to seek advice and support

• Use ICT to facilitate and enable access

Continually improving teaching and learning, lies at the heart of the school’s work. Through self-review and Continuous Professional Development (CPD), we aim to enhance staff knowledge, skills and understanding to promote excellent teaching and learning for all children. We aim, through Quality First and adaptive teaching, to meet every child’s need within our classes.

All children, including those with SEND, have access to a range of after school clubs, cultural activities and educational visits.

Monitoring arrangements

This document will be reviewed every 3 years, but may be reviewed and updated more frequently if necessary.

It will be reviewed by the SENDCo and Lead Governor for SEND/ SEND champion.

It will be approved by the Children and Learning subcommittee.

Links with other policies

This accessibility plan is linked to the following policies and documents:

          Risk Assessment policy

          Health and Safety policy

          Special educational needs (SEN) information report

          SEND policy

          Positive Behaviour Policy

          Medicines in School Policy

          Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy

          Equality and Diversity Policy

          Online Safety Policy

          Complaints Policy

          Curriculum Policies