SEND

At Horizon Primary Academy, we aim to provide an appropriate and high quality education for all children. We take pride in creating an effective and supportive learning environment allowing each of the children to achieve. 

You can find further details about this in our SEND Information Report:

Click here to view the Horizon School Information Report

Click here to view the Horizon SEND Policy

Key People

  • Mrs L Glassock – Inclusion Leader and SENCo
  • Mrs L Long - Assistant SENCo
  • Miss P Broster - Lead ACE Tutor and Pastoral Lead

SEND profile of the School

There are currently 197 children (Reception to Year 6) on roll at our school. 28 of these children are on the SEND Register, representing 14.2% of the total number of children.

There are 10 children with Educational Health Care Plans, representing 5.07% of the total number of children.

Horizon Provision statement

Governors have a duty under s317 of the Education Act 1996 to do their best to ensure that the necessary provision is made for pupils with SEND. The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 requires governors to conduct the school with a view to promoting high standards. These high standards relate to all the pupils in the school including those with SEND.

In collaboration with the SENDCo, our Link SEND Governor ensures that:

  • they are fully involved in developing and monitoring the schools SEND policy
  • all governors are up to date and knowledgeable about the schools SEND provision, including how funding, equipment and personnel resources are deployed
  • SEND provision is an integral part of the school development plan
  • the quality of SEND provision is continually monitored.

Kent Local Offer

Kent's Local offer is all about making it easier for people to find out about services available to 0-25 year olds with special educational needs and disabilities.  The Local Offer is one of the ways in which Kent is delivering the changes introduced by the Children and Families Act, which became law in September 2014.

Click the links below to find out about:

  •  Information outlining the different types of SEND. Click here to access.
  • What to do if you think your child has Special Educational Needs. Click here to access.
  • Support for families with SEND children. Click here to access.
  • Sources of support, advice and information. Click here to access.

How do we provide support at Horizon?

  • Additional support in class and differentiation of work
  • Intervention Groups
  • There are ‘safe spaces’ that act as a safe haven for SEND children​
  • Speech and language intervention (reviewed and monitored by a Speech and Language Therapist)
  • Homework Clubs
  • 1-1 support with personalised plans and targets
  • School funded Educational Psychologist and Speech and Language Therapist services
  • Interventions to build self-esteem and resilience

We want to work in partnership with you to help your child and we know and understand that all children at some time struggle with their work or find school difficult. So if you have any worries about your child’s specific needs please talk to your child’s class teacher in the first instance.

If you have a problem or worry that cannot be resolved by your child’s class teacher you are welcome to come and speak to Mrs Glassock or Mrs Long, who will do their best to help. She is happy to meet with you and can often help you to find the right service in the community to help with particular issues. 

Curriculum Accessibility and SEND

At Horizon Primary Academy, we strive to be as inclusive as a mainstream school can be.

Our whole-school inclusive ethos means that we put SEND at the centre of our overall approach to school. This includes:

  • The school day structure
  • The learning environment
  • The teaching and learning techniques and strategies used
  • The scaffolding of learning so all children can reach a similar outcome
  • The use and planning of resources to maximise access to school and learning
  • The whole-school approach to managing behaviour

This is all underpinned by the mindset of leaders and teachers that high-quality provision for SEND is high-quality provision for all.

As an inclusive school, we do all that we can to ensure that children with special education needs and disabilities can access the curriculum fully.

In order to achieve this, any of the following strategies may be used:

A multi-media approach – videos and images are used as stimulus in lessons so that children can access the learning, regardless of reading ability. If a child has EAL, translations are used where possible.

  • Visuals – we use visuals where appropriate to ensure that children can access the learning, particularly if vocabulary is a barrier
  • Pre-teaching of vocabulary – where new vocabulary is introduced, children with SEND may be introduced to this prior to the lesson to increase their opportunity of understanding at the point of the main teaching.
  • Flexible Groupings – children will learn in mixed-ability pairs or groups, allowing children to support each other. Research identifies that children can deepen their own understanding by explaining to someone else.
  • Recording of learning – this can often be a barrier to SEND children’s learning – we therefore adapt the recording methods to mitigate this barrier. This may include, using more pictoral representations when recording, using cloze procedures or using technology, such as ‘Clicker’ for those with significant writing barriers.
  • Paired and group discussion – this is used to allow children to learn from each other and to share understanding in a less challenging way – often children with SEND, lack confidence to share to a whole-class.
  • Differentiating texts – when texts are used, children with SEND sometimes find it challenging to access age-appropriate texts. Staff therefore may produce simplified texts for SEND children to read.
  • Additional use of technology – other technology, such as iPads or sound buttons may be used to hold questions and ideas for the children before recording.
  • SEMH support  - children with SEMH may find it challenging to access learning content in some subjects, due to personal difficulties they may be having that relate to the lesson being taught. In these circumstances the teacher can liaise with the school’s pastoral lead to run sessions with these children to emotionally prepare them before the lesson takes place.

Many of these strategies will be used at a whole-class level and some may be used on a more targeted basis to further support and increase access to the curriculum.