SEND

Our Collaborative Approach: Empowering Every Student

At Chorlton High School, our dedicated 'Access and Achievement' team ensures that all students' individual learning needs are met and celebrated. This specialist, knowledgeable, and experienced team works alongside students, parents, carers, and staff to help every student access what they need to achieve their full potential.

Within our inclusive environment, we are committed to ensuring every student can succeed. Students working with the SEND Department receive clear, achievable progress targets. These targets are regularly reviewed and shared with parents/carers/guardians and all staff, ensuring everyone actively supports each student's journey.

We design and monitor specific interventions to ensure that each student's needs are met effectively. This collaborative approach embodies our commitment to holistic development, ensuring every student can achieve their best and become a Successful, Creative, and Happy individual.

 

Understanding Support for Your Child: Our SEND Register

We track students who have, or may have, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) on our school register. This helps us ensure every child receives the right support tailored to their needs. There are three main ways a child can be on the register:

  • SEND Monitoring These students receive attentive observation to determine if they require additional help. We review this monitoring group regularly. Your child will either move up to SEND Support or be taken off the list if no additional provision is needed.

  • SEND Support These students have been formally identified as needing specific help that is additional to, or different from, the standard support all children their age receive. We work hard to provide this tailored provision.

  • SEND Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) Students with an EHCP have specific, carefully planned outcomes and support defined by the local authority. These students benefit from a key worker who regularly checks on their wellbeing, and their progress is reviewed annually by our dedicated SEND team.

 Our Graduated Approach to Supporting SEND

At Chorlton High School, the work of our 'Access and Achievement' team is guided by the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice (2015). This framework advises all schools to use a Graduated Approach to supporting students with SEND.

This means that barriers to learning are addressed gradually, starting with excellent, inclusive practice in the classroom and building toward more personalised support as needed. This ensures every student has the opportunity to achieve their best and become a Successful, Creative, and Happy individual.

This support is sometimes described as a Waves approach:

  • Wave 1: High-Quality Teaching for All

    This is the essential foundation: high-quality teaching where staff adapt their lessons to address and support a wide range of needs within the classroom.

  • Wave 2: Targeted Interventions

    This involves specific, targeted interventions based on developing particular skills. These are usually delivered by our dedicated 'Access and Achievement' team or Pastoral Teams as part of a small group.

  • Wave 3: Personalised Assessment and Intervention

    This is highly specialised support, often delivered by external specialists such as an Educational Psychologist or Speech and Language Specialist, following a personalised assessment.

Supporting SEND: Our Research-Driven Approach

The first step in supporting all students with SEND is providing High Quality Teaching, which must be underpinned by evidence-based research.

We look to organisations like the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to lead the way in gathering this evidence and sharing best practice with schools. The EEF recommends that all our teachers use their SEND "Five a Day" strategies, which are:

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Targeted Support: Our Wave 2 Interventions

Students who need additional help move to Wave 2 support. This involves targeted interventions, delivered either in small groups or 1-to-1 sessions. These sessions are carefully scheduled to support students with a range of needs, helping them build skills and confidence as part of our inclusive approach.

We offer specific interventions in four key areas:

  • Cognition and Learning Support: Programs like Lexia and Lexonic, designed to boost understanding and academic skills.

  • Communication and Interaction Support: Includes Social Skills groups, SaLT (Speech and Language Therapy), and Lego Therapy.

  • Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Support (SEMH): Focused sessions like Art Wellness, Music Wellness, Zones of Regulation, Life Skills, Fresh Start, Th.inc, and Superflex.

  • Physical/Sensory Support: Focused activities for developing Motor Skills and clear Handwriting.

The impact of every intervention is carefully reviewed at the end of each cycle. We then identify clear next steps for your child, ensuring continuous progress and holistic development.

Highly Personalised Support: Our Wave 3 Interventions

Wave 3 represents our highest level of support. At this stage, highly personalised interventions add to both high-quality teaching (Wave 1) and targeted support (Wave 2).

Students receiving Wave 3 support are typically working toward highly specialised targets. These goals are often set by external professionals, such as a speech and language therapist or an educational psychologist. This level of support may also include a modified curriculum designed specifically to meet their unique needs.

To ensure consistency and clear communication, students on Wave 3 are often assigned a key worker. Their progress is closely tracked through termly reviews.

 

Contacting Our Team for Specialist Support

Please don't hesitate to contact our team if you have any questions or concerns about specialist provision for your child.

Our team comprises expert teaching staff and up to 20 highly skilled Teaching Assistants.

Together, they provide crucial support to students who require additional help accessing the curriculum, both in lessons and throughout the school day. The Access and Achievement team diligently identifies individual student needs, providing specialised and targeted support to ensure every student flourishes.

Whether a student has a Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND), English as an Additional Language (EAL), or faces any challenge in accessing the curriculum, our team works to put the most appropriate support and provision in place.

This comprehensive support can take many forms, including:

  • Literacy & Numeracy tuition
  • In-class support
  • Small group work
  • One-to-one sessions for Dyslexia with a specialist teacher
  • One-to-one support for other learning difficulties
  • Access to specialist equipment or programmes
  • Dedicated time in our THINC room

Students working with the Access and Achievement Team are provided with clear, personalised targets for progress, which are regularly reviewed and shared with all key stakeholders. Specific interventions and bespoke programmes are carefully orchestrated and closely monitored to meet the individual needs of each student, ensuring that there are no barriers to success. Furthermore, the department offers an invite-only break, lunchtime, and homework club, providing a welcoming space for identified students to meet, study, complete homework, and socialise.

We encourage you to reach out directly to the Curriculum Leader, the SENDCO, or the Access and Achievement Coordinators.

You can also find detailed information about our provision, resources, and complaints procedure in our comprehensive SEN Policy, available below.

Key Contacts:

SEND Policy and Information

 

Further Information, Guidance and Support

Collaborative Support for SEND

The 'Access and Achievement' team is delighted to work alongside Manchester SENDIASS to further support our young people and their families.

Manchester SENDIASS is a free, dedicated, confidential, and impartial service commissioned by Manchester City Council. Their staff are independently trained in Special Educational Needs and Disability, with training verified by the Law Society.

SENDIASS offers vital information, advice, and support to children, young people, and parents/carers on all matters related to SEND. This comprehensive support also includes guidance on related health and social care matters.

Parents and carers can also subscribe to a monthly SEND newsletter from SENDIASS, alongside many other Manchester City Council e-bulletins, by clicking here.

Manchester Local Offer

Chorlton High School works closely with the Manchester Local Offer, a vital resource designed to help children and young people with SEND (up to the age of 25) and their parents/carers in the Manchester City Council area. It provides clear information about the services and support they can expect locally.

Beyond its informative website, the Manchester Local Offer hosts regular drop-ins and issues a newsletter. Critically, they actively collaborate with families to continually improve services and the support available.

Click the link below to explore their comprehensive range of support, services, and activities.

Manchester City Council - Manchester Local Offer

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