SEND

Our school is part of The Kemnal Academies Trust and our purpose is to work together as a community of schools to ensure that every child, whatever their background, receives a high quality education.

Our vision and ambition is for a community of learners who share the mindset of success and are driven by the prospect of opportunity for all.  An environment of aspiration, respect and openness, enabling staff and students to thrive.

Our values are a Shared Voice, Shared belief and Shared Success.

Our overriding aim is that children who are most in need will have barriers removed and needs fully supported. Our objective is to provide an education to  all pupils, that is appropriate to their needs, maximises their educational development and enables them to make progress so that they:

  • Achieve their best
  • Become confident individuals living fulfilling lives
  • Make a successful transition into adulthood, whether into employment, further or higher education or training

In this regard we will do our best to secure the necessary provision for any pupil who has a Special Educational Need and/or disability, within the limitations of our resources. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice January 2015 states that:

“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 him or her. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.” 

To view our SEND policy, please visit our policies page.

Director of Inclusion & SEND - Ms H Loughlin

 

Assistant SENCO - Ms Chloe Boult

 

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) - Ms H Loughlin

What is TKAT ACE?

At Welling, we strive to create an environment that allows students to BE the very best version of themselves and for us to provide the opportunities for them to BE their own future. The TKAT ACE (A Champion for Every Child) Programme is a pastoral programme that does just this, it gives children their own tutor, an adult who will work with them and their families to help overcome any financial/social/academic barriers they may face to become confident, successful, resilient and happy learners. 

An ACE Tutor’s role is to provide support to the child and the family. They will form trusting relationships and be that pupil’s ‘go to’ person. It is founded in our strong belief that no child should be educationally disadvantaged because of their socioeconomic status. The TKAT ACE Programme supports our Pupil Premium children and families.

What does an ACE tutor do?

Our ACE Tutors meet with our Pupil Premium children on a 1:1 basis or in groups. ACE time is child-centred time, which is tailored to meet the specific needs of the individual child. Together, each child and their ACE Tutor can identify areas of focus and from this will create an action plan. This could include:

  • Identifying barriers to learning and finding strategies to support the child and their  family with improving learning outcomes
  • Work on improving attendance and punctuality
  • Supporting the children with their friendships, emotions, self esteem or ambitions
  • Celebrating successes, individuality, resilience
  • Working with families 

They may be able to find support with other agencies and also offer extra opportunities in supporting the child with an ambition or aspiration they may have. ACE Tutors will try and help with any barriers that might get in the way of your child becoming the best they can be.

ACE Tutors will listen, support and seek additional help if needed. Our ACE Tutors will also contact parents/carers to talk about their child, offer support and guidance, or just be a person to chat to.

Read, Write, Inc

Read, Write Inc is a valuable addition to the support students at Welling as it enables reading ages to increase which, in turn, allows our students to access texts across the curriculum. Both Kay and Sally are excellent practitioners who, through their teaching, improve students' self esteem and build confidence in reading a variety of texts. This programme is designed to increase the reading age of students and has proven itself time and time again.

Testimonial - Miss T Hodges
English Teacher/Lead Practitioner of SEND

Read, write, inc is one of the best programmes I have seen in schools!  When delivered right it completely changes students’ lives.  So many students have benefited from this.  Students that were mute are able to speak.  Students that were unable to write a full sentence are writing novels.  Students that could not read aloud are now reading to mass audiences.  I am so grateful, as are students, parents and all staff of the positive impact this has had on their lives.

Read, Write Inc. – Fresh Start Modules

“The Fresh Start modules are specially written to help students to catch up on and develop their reading and writing skills. Each module contains a fiction or non-fiction text and a range of comprehension and writing activities which provide practice in the sounds and graphemes taught in the phonics lessons. Writing activities include progressive tasks to improve grammar, spelling and proofreading skills. The repetitive routine of each lesson can also aid memory.”

RWI has many of the factors that literacy specialists recommend.

  • Pre-teaches unfamiliar vocabulary before reading the text 
  • Students repeatedly read the text to improve fluency and understanding and confidence.
  • Phonic knowledge is progressively taught throughout the modules and constantly repeated to aid memory recall.
  • Frequent/sight words are constantly repeated to reinforce memory and spelling 
  • Oral questioning sessions precede written questions and answers to check knowledge and understanding.
  • Students are given time to write accurately, and to understand and correct errors.
  • Written tasks increase in difficulty starting with re-writing the text with pictures as memory aids.
  • Written tasks include writing instructions, diaries, leaflets, adverts, newspaper articles and letters in the programme’s later modules.

RWI sessions provide a space to learn in a safe, unpressured environment. Improved reading skills and having the strategies to read better everywhere, improves self confidence in reading and self-esteem in general. Depending on need students may need to be in the programme for anything from a few months to over a year.

Miss Hyslop and Mrs Kirkpatrick have been teaching Read, Write Inc for over 15 years, having training to update their skills as the programme has progressed. The programme has worked well for all SEND students as well as EAL. It also boosts the reading skills, fluency and understanding of struggling readers of all ages. 

Students have told us:

“I love coming to intervention”

“This is the only place I feel comfortable reading”

“Read, Write Inc has changed my life”