Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
A member of our Senior Leadership Team, who is a qualified and experienced Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCO), oversees the strategic leadership of our SEND provision.
Our experienced and professional team of teaching assistants work directly under our SENDCO and Deputy SENDCO at the Olney Campus, and two Assistant SENDCOs at the Newport Pagnell Campus; they provide a comprehensive package of support to cater for a wide range of needs. The support for your child is personalised to fit their needs, in consultation with our specialist TAs, teaching staff, parents and outside agencies. We believe that the key to effective support is engaging the student and allowing them to target the areas in which they need support. Together with the school’s pastoral team, we assess, plan, do and review the support in place to ensure we provide for your child at every Key Stage, academically and socially.
Special Needs Co-ordinator: Helen Bacon - helen.bacon@ousedale.org.uk
We have a range of Teaching Assistants working with students with special needs across the dual campus. These include HLTAs specialising in Maths or English, specialist sensory, behaviour, BTEC & vocational, autism and sixth form TAs. The team offers a range of 1:1 and small group interventions, as well as support within the classroom.
New queries must be submitted to SENDtriage@ousedale.org.uk which will then be directed to the appropriate member of the SEND management team and an initial telephone appointment with them will be made within 5 working days. The telephone call may well lead to additional meetings in school as necessary, although we hope to resolve any concerns as quickly and early as possible; any further communication regarding the same query/issue will be directly with the allocated member of staff. New SEND queries sent directly to members of staff will not be monitored.
We hold various meet & greet sessions for parents/carers of current pupils. The dates of these are advertised here and on our social media pages. Dates for the next academic year will be released in due course.
Our SEND team run various clubs across both campuses. See below for details:
SEND Clubs at Newport Pagnell campus
SEND Clubs at Olney Campus
Our next SEND team meet and greet dates are coming up. Please see details below:
MK Council New Initiative - SEND Youth Council
Resources for Parents/Carers
Policies
SEND Information
Useful Information
Milton Keynes Council's local offer of services outside of education available to students with SEND can be accessed via the links below. This also gives information about how students' needs are assessed on requesting an Education, Health and Care Plan.
- https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/schools-and-lifelong-learning/SEND
- https://www.mksendlocaloffer.co.uk/programmes-and-workshops
In Milton Keynes, as well as nationally, we are seeing an increase in children and young people experiencing difficulty in attending school due to emotional reasons like anxiety. Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) is a broad umbrella term used to describe this. EBSA can present differently across individuals, but can often involve fear and anxiety, misery, complaints of feeling ill without an obvious cause, and/or reluctance to leave home. For more information and practical support click the link below:
https://www.mksendlocaloffer.co.uk/emotionally-based-school-avoidance-ebsa