The Woodland Federation is committed to providing an appropriate and high-quality education to all the children living in our local area and further afield. We believe that all children, including those identified as having special educational needs, have a common entitlement to a broad and balanced academic and social curriculum, which is accessible to them, and to be fully included in all aspects of school life.

We ensure that all children should be equally valued in school and strive to eliminate prejudice and discrimination, and to develop an environment where all children can flourish and feel safe.

The Woodland Federation is committed to inclusion. We aim to engender a sense of community and belonging, and to offer new opportunities to learners who come from many varied backgrounds, developing SMILERS who are healthy, happy and hungry to learn.

This does not mean that we will treat all learners in the same way, but that we will respond to learners in ways which take account of their varied life experiences and needs.

We believe that educational inclusion is about equal opportunities for all learners, whatever their age, gender, ethnicity, individual need, prior attainment and background.

This policy describes the way we meet the needs of children who experience barriers to their learning, which may relate to sensory or physical impairment, learning difficulties or emotional or social development, or may relate to factors in their environment, including the learning environment they experience in school.

We recognise that pupils learn at different rates and that there are many factors affecting achievement, including ability, emotional state, age and maturity. We are particularly aware of the needs of our Key Stage 1 pupils, for whom maturity is a crucial factor in terms of readiness to learn. We believe that many pupils, at some time in their school career, may experience difficulties which affect their learning, and we recognise that these may be long or short term.

At The Woodland Federation we aim to work together and communicate closely with parents to identify these needs as they arise and provide teaching and learning contexts which enable every child to achieve to his or her full potential.

The Woodland Federation sees the inclusion of children identified as having special educational needs as an equal opportunities issue, and we will also aim to model inclusion in our staffing policies, relationships with parents/carers and the community. We are trying to move from an SEN approach that locates a problem with the child to looking at what additional provision we need to make for specific children.

SEND and Inclusion