Co-op Academy Walkden

Accessibility Policy and Plan

2024-2027

Approved by: Governing Council

Date: Pending approval: May 2024

Next review due by: May 2027

Policy Information

Responsibility for Access

Vision and Values

Co-op Academy Walkden is an inclusive school where all students are made to feel welcome and valued. Our Academy vision sets out to ensure that all students enjoy high quality learning experiences through which they are able to achieve their full potential, irrelevant of their needs.

At Co-op Academy Walkden, we have high aspirations for all our students. We aim for the highest standards of educational achievement. We respect and value every student and support each to reach their full potential.

Co-op Academy Walkden currently has 1,490 students on roll with 268 on the SEND register.

Consultation to inform Audit/Action Plan: School staff, governors and support services

Consultation with stakeholders is an ongoing process, involving both formal and informal procedures. Regular reviews take place with support services to evaluate needs and provisions.

    Views of Parents

Parents are encouraged to contact or see staff if they have particular concerns about their child. EHCP review meetings formally gather parental views and the SENDCO is always available to meet parents at our parents’ evenings. Students who are on SEND Support or have an EHCP will be invited to contribute their views termly when Pupil Passports are updated.

Views of Children and Young People

Students are regularly consulted, including through reviews, informal conversations and the PASS survey. We support students in speaking to teachers directly if they wish to raise an issue or concern. A Student Council is also available and active for students who would like their concerns/ideas raised to senior staff. The SEND department is available before and after the academy day to review with students where necessary and support them in raising their views.

Who contributed to this Plan?

This plan was put together in consultation with staff who provide additional support, including the SEND Team, and specialist services. Wider consultation with parents and students will happen on an ongoing basis. Co-op Academy Walkden is committed to providing a fully accessible environment which values and includes all students, staff, parents and visitors, regardless of their education, physical, sensory, social, spiritual, emotional and cultural needs. We are committed to challenging negative attitudes about disability and accessibility, and to developing a  culture of awareness, tolerance and inclusion.

We aim to as far as possible to remove those barriers which make it hard for a person who has difficulties with:

• Physical coordination
• Mobility
• Continence
• Ability to lift, carry or move everyday objects
• Speech, hearing or eyesight
• Memory or ability to learn, concentrate or understand
• Perceiving risk or physical danger
• Social, emotional or mental health difficulties

All students should be able to take part in the day-to-day life of the school and benefit from the learning experiences we provide.

Overall, the Accessibility Plan will contain relevant actions to:

Improve access to the physical environment of the academy, adding specialist facilities as necessary. This covers improvements to the physical environment of the academy and physical aids to access education.

Increase access to the curriculum for students with a disability, expanding the curriculum as necessary to ensure that students with a disability are as equally prepared for life as students without a disability; (If the academy fails to do this they are in breach of the Equality Act). This covers teaching and learning and the wider curriculum of the academy such as participation in after-school clubs, leisure and cultural activities or school visits. It also covers the provision of specialist aids and equipment, which may assist these students in accessing the curriculum.

Improve the delivery of written information to students, staff, parents and visitors with disabilities. Examples might include hand-outs, timetables, textbooks and information about the academy and academy events. The information should be made available in various preferred formats within a reasonable time frame.

We acknowledge that it is necessary to raise awareness of issues related to accessibility and to provide appropriate training for staff and governors in the matter of disability discrimination.

This Accessibility Plan should be read in conjunction with the following policies, strategies and documents:

Curriculum

• Teaching and Learning
• Health & Safety Policy
• Special Educational Needs Policy
• Behaviour Management Policy

Increasing the extent to which disabled students can participate in the school curriculum

Co-op Academy Walkden will endeavor to provide suitable access to a range of curriculum opportunities.

• The academy will endeavor to provide suitable access to a range of curriculum

opportunities

• Where necessary, guidance and support will be given by the SENDCO, Mrs King..
• Co-op Academy Walkden has a range of Teaching Assistants who are deployed by the school’s SENDCO to ensure the needs of students with an Education, Health and Care Plan are being met in line with funding received from the Local Authority
• Co-op Academy Walkden to facilitate services from a range of agencies for all students and their families.

    Key Objectives

The academy recognises that many of its students, visitors and staff, whether disabled or otherwise, have individual needs when using academy facilities. We recognise that for all students, the nature of their disabilities may mean that they experience specific difficulties related to accessing education, and the physical environment. As part of the on-going commitment to the delivery of an inclusive educational service, we will endeavour to ensure that all our students receive as high a standard of education as their counterparts in mainstream schools. In order to ensure that the educational services it provides effectively meet the needs of disabled students the academy will:

• Inform all staff of this access policy so that the provision of educational services ensures the inclusion of all of our students. Such communications will address the legal obligation of staff, and the academy
• Make all prospective employees aware of the disabilities of the students in the academy. Any applicant for a new position will be made aware of their role in delivering the curriculum, personal care, therapy programmes and maintaining the health and safety of the students at all times
• Provide appropriate training for staff which will explain the academy access policy and ensure the effective implementation and monitoring of it
• Encourage all visitors to school including suppliers and contractors, to adopt similar policies towards disabled students
• Consult with disabled students, parents, staff and disability organisations
• Regularly review whether its education (and other) services are both accessible and effective, and take appropriate action
• Monitor the implementation and effectiveness of this plan on a regular basis
• Operate an accessible complaints procedure whereby disabled people can make improvement suggestions and request assistance
• Ensure that information about the Accessibility Plan is published on the academy’s website.

Access to the Curriculum

Co-op Academy Walkden offers a broad and balanced curriculum for all students and provides additional specialist provision to enable all students with learning difficulties to access the curriculum and aid their educational development. The teaching environment/ facilities include:

• Teachers and learning support staff have the necessary training to teach and support disabled students through regular INSET days, individual courses and network training days
• Staff work closely with colleagues from the SEND Department to ensure that students are enabled to access all curriculum opportunities, have appropriate means of communication and to devise and review targets for inclusion on students’ One Stop Shop profile.
• Individual targets are set to allow all students to achieve to the best of their ability in all lessons.
• All students take part in music, drama and physical activities as part of the access to the curriculum. Where this is not possible, an alternative plan will be devised with   the pupil and parents, drawing on advice from relevant professionals. 
• Staff recognise and allow for the additional time required by our students to use equipment in practical sessions
• Students have access to computers in class where needed
• Academy visits are accessible to all students irrespective of attainment or impairment
• There are high expectations of all students
• Staff constantly seek to remove all barriers to learning and participation.

Flexibility of Teaching

Co-op Academy Walkden teachers and support staff are flexible enough to adapt their teaching approaches to enable our pupils to learn effectively in their classrooms.

• Staff present work in many different ways using a variety of equipment. Work can be carried out individually, in small groups or as a whole class
• Staff enable the students to show their interest, knowledge and skills despite their difficulties, for example:

• communication through visual or kinesthetic  means
• Visual timetables are given where appropriate to ensure students are aware of the routines required throughout the day
• Reward systems are in place to support the children with positive strategies
• Detailed student information is given to all relevant staff to help with planning lessons
• Specific resources are used to differentiate the curriculum to enable all students to feel secure and make progress
• Access arrangements are in place for students taking part in exams e.g. rest breaks, 25% extra time, adult readers, oral language modifiers and scribes are provided if appropriate

Arranging the Classroom

Each classroom is set out to provide the most positive environment to work in, to ensure the student learns effectively.

• Classrooms have sufficient space for all the children and young people
• Toilet facilities are available close to each classroom. Signage is in place to signpost users of all abilities to the facilities
• A variety of resources are used to ensure that the student learns effectively
• IT support is invaluable in providing access to the curriculum and assistive technology is used where appropriate throughout school to support the learning of disabled students.

    Access to Education

Co-op Academy Walkden recognises that all disabled children should have access to education in accordance with the Equality Act and adheres to the code of practice which advises on the statutory responsibilities of education bodies in the preparation of accessibility strategies and seeks to:

• Improve access to the physical environment of the school, adding specialist facilities as necessary. This covers improvements to the physical environment of the school and physical aids to access education as identified in the School Development Plan.
• Increase access to the curriculum for students with a disability, expanding the curriculum as necessary to ensure that students are as equally prepared for life as are able-bodied students in mainstream schools; this covers teaching and learning and the wider curriculum of the school such as participation in school clubs, leisure and cultural activities or school visits. It also covers the provision of specialist aids and assistive technology, which may assist these students in accessing the curriculum.
• Improve the delivery of written information to students, staff, parents and visitors with disabilities. Examples might include handouts, timetables, textbooks and information about the academy and academy events. The information should be made available in various preferred formats within a reasonable time frame.

Making adjustments

The Equality Act states that schools are not expected to change their premises. They are, however, expected to make long-term proactive plans for improving access to their buildings through their planning duties and this document should be read in conjunction with the School Development Plan.

Co-op Academy Walkden will continue to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to ensure that disabled students, parents or visitors attending the school are not discriminated against. Making reasonable adjustments could include:

• changes to practices or procedures
• changes to physical features
• changes to how learners are assessed
• providing extra support and aids (such as specialist teachers or equipment).