SEND Enhanced Provision

Forest Hall School supports and provides provision for students with special educational needs and/or disabilities (often referred to as SEND). Every school has an appointed co-ordinator of SEND (known as the SENCO) who ensures that students are supported within the school and who liaises with parents and external agencies. The SENCO is Mr Ray Coe. 

Forest Hall School has one of only two provisions for students with severe and persistent literacy difficulties, in Essex and serves students from across a wide area. This provision is not available to all pupils at Forest Hall School. Each year there are up to five students who are offered a place in the provision, who must have an Education Health & Care Plan (EHCP) which states Severe and Persistent Literacy Difficulties as the priority reason for the Education Health & Care Plan. They have a place at the school and then receive focused support in addition to their normal curriculum.

This is done through specific withdrawal lessons taught by specialist staff and with additional support in some lessons from Teaching Assistants/Academic Mentors. Students are taught and given strategies to enable them to access the curriculum, work to overcome their difficulties and match their potential with real success. Students' Admission to the provision is through the Psychology and Assessment Service within the child’s Local Education Authority, not through the school, although successful students become fully involved members of the school in the same way as every other student.  

Typically, provision will include:

• -up to 10 hours of small group or one-to-one teaching time with a named and designated specialist teacher 
• -a tailored programme of support built around the outcomes from the student’s EHCP 
• -termly Individual Provision Plans (IPPs) which detail their support and progress 
• -access to a variety of technologies and activities to meet their specific needs 
• -annual meetings with the “Preparing for Adulthood Adviser” from Year 9 to Year 11 to discuss possible routes through Further Education and Training post-16 
• -support with applications to College or Apprenticeships and Employment 
• -visits from past students to be inspired and recognise that SEND is not a barrier to success 
• -possible placement in the Nurture Group for lessons in Years 7-9 if this is deemed appropriate. 

-a range of strategies are used by staff working in the provision to support students and teachers across the school are supported to use these in lessons.

Some of these may include: 

1. Link new learning to what pupil already knows, for example, start a lesson with a class mind-map of what they already know about a subject; Specific activities are differentiated appropriately, e.g. words for spelling practice, times tables practice, methods of recording; Opportunities for practical and interactive, as well as paper and pencil tasks; 

• Thinking time or opportunities to work with talk partners before answering a question, or say “I’m going to come back to you in a minute for your idea”; A range of lesson activities to take account of different learning strengths, and practical activities offered where possible, e.g. learning from pictures, diagrams, mind-maps, using practical equipment, handling objects, moving and doing rather than sitting; Mastery Learning/learning to automaticity through repetition and practice in different ways. Interleaved or cumulative learning to improve retention (a small amount of material is learnt to fluency, then a small amount of new material to learn is added and practised alongside the previous material – new material is always combined with the old); Alternatives to writing as a method of recording - typing, speech-to-text, video/audio recording. Handouts with learning points rather than asking pupils to copy text from the board.Access to assistive technology for those who find it difficult to read large amounts of text or to write quickly enough.

Additionally, staff who are new to the school and may be unfamiliar with the needs presented by students with severe and persistent literacy difficulties are supported by the experienced teachers in the provision. We operate an open-door policy where staff can visit at any time to “see what we do” and ask more detailed questions they may have about students who are part of the provision. We also support the Forest Hall School SEND department and the school SENCo with advice about Literacy Difficulties. 

The leader for the provision is Ms Judith Harrington.

 

Please note that the provision is undergoing a change of name and there may still be references to the DSU on our website. 

 

Parent Comments about the provision:

“Fantastic success reached in early attainment in 3 GCSEs aged 14”.

“Very pleased with progress – gained confidence in all areas”.

“Works more independently”.

Student Comments about the provision:

“Improved on my Maths and English skills thanks to the DSU”.

“I have confidence now and think that comes from being in the DSU."

“My reading and writing is much better and I am more confident”.