SEND & Inclusion

Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)

How do TVED academies meet additional needs?

At TVED we fully endorse the belief that ‘Every teacher is a teacher of Special Educational Needs’ (SEND code of practice, June 2014), so CPD is available for all teaching and learning staff, focused on teaching approaches and pedagogy, that helps them ensure all learners can access the curriculum effectively. We have grown slowly and thoughtfully to become a family of academies who work together to blend the best educational and therapeutic practice.

Our universal provision in mainstream academies provides high-quality, differentiated teaching and class-based targeted support, with appropriately scaffolded learning for all children. Ensuring access to education, regardless of any learning difference or disability, and facilitating learning by overcoming any potential barriers.

However, where a need is identified that requires additional or different support, our academies will provide support and intervention in a graduated approach following an ASSESS-PLAN-DO-REVIEW cycle. We have a highly skilled workforce and we also enlist the support of experts, usually through our commissioned services model, so that targeted interventions are made available to those children who need it, at the earliest opportunity.

Our specialist provision, provided in some of our mainstream academies with a unit or base, and our Special Academy, is a fundamental aspect to the ethos of TVED. We realize the value of partnerships in delivering our core Trust aims – improving outcomes for all young people, but especially children with SEND and other vulnerabilities. We do this by supporting each other, and a variety of educational settings across the Tees Valley region, at the same time influencing and shaping SEND practice, provision and outcomes nationally.