SEN

Faculty: ASPIRE (Special Educational Needs, Emotional, Social, Literacy and Numeracy difficulties)

Assistant Vice Principal – Student Welfare: Mr Gavin Kumar

SENDCo – Mrs Fiona Hunter

Key Stage 3 – Curriculum Support

Partnerships are formed with our feeder primary schools to ensure we have the best information available about our students. Students with additional educational needs are then provided with the opportunity to access a transition project to make sure they are confident in transferring to Vale of York.

This project begins after Christmas in year 6 and it is supported by other students in the school. All students have their reading comprehension tested upon entry to Vale of York Academy and then they are tested every year they are with us. This is to give an accurate picture of reading ability and to ensure that lessons are accessible for all students.

All students in KS3 have the opportunity to access paired reading which takes places 3 mornings a week in the library. Our Year 11 prefects listen to the KS3 students read and support them to choose books and develop their understanding of texts.

Students that fall below a standardised score of 89 will be tested every 6 months and will also be tested for single word reading ability and spelling.

For those that fall below a standardised score of 85 will be placed upon intervention programmes such as Literacy Catch up, Phonics support, Literacy Progress units and others. It is based on the needs of the individual and all students access a variety of programmes to ensure that they make accelerated progress.

Some students may be supported in class however there is opportunity to access after school support by our dedicated Inclusion team. The focus will be on pre teaching vocabulary and key concepts as well as literacy and numeracy catch up programmes.

Students may be withdrawn from their non-core lessons in KS3 to accelerate their progress in Maths and English.

Key Stage 4 – Curriculum

All students have their reading comprehension tested upon entry to Vale of York Academy and then they are tested every year they are with us. This is to give an accurate picture of reading ability and to ensure that lessons are accessible for all students.

Students that fall below a standardised score of 89 will be tested every 6 months and will also be tested for single word reading ability and spelling.

Students who are below 85 standardised score will be tested for exam access arrangements. The outcome of these tests will identify whether they need extra time, a reader or a scribe in their GCSE exams. These arrangements are not suitable for all students.

Students may be supported in class however there is opportunity to access after school support by our dedicated Inclusion team. The focus will be on pre teaching vocabulary and key concepts as well as literacy and numeracy catch up programmes.

Course work support is available after school with our inclusion team for students who are identified as having an additional educational need.

View our SEN policy and SEND report.