Happisburgh CE VA Primary School Accessibility Policy
The Equality Act of 2010 aims to protect disabled people and prevent disability discrimination. It provides legal rights for disabled people in all areas of life including education. It is unlawful for a school to treat disabled people unfavourably. Under this act a person has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment which has substantial and long term adverse effect on their ability to perform normal day-to-day tasks or activities. Unfavourable treatment could include direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, discrimination arising from a disability and harassment. The Act contains further guidance on the meaning of these definitions.
In addition, the SEND Code of Practice gives practical guidance on how to identify and assess children with SEND.
Happisburgh Primary and Early Years School comprises of a two level building, half of it dates from 1861 and the other half was built in 2006 and our Early Years classroom was built in 2015.
There are stairs and a lift which separate the top level from the lower level of the school. There is an access slope to the front office and the top classrooms, hand rails are fitted to these. There is a fully equipped disabled toilet in both the main school building and in the Early Years classroom. Light switches, stair edges and all doorways are outlined in navy to make them clearly visible against the cream walls.
Happisburgh Primary and Early Years School is committed to providing all children with every opportunity to achieve their potential in every aspect of school life. When a request is received from parents or the LA, for a pupil to attend the school, professional advice from support services will be sought when necessary to enable an assessment of the individual’s needs to be made. This will include access to the various parts of the school and the requirements of the National Curriculum.
Parents and Carers of pupils with disabilities will be consulted to identify and where possible remove any obstacles to learning. Such obstacles could include physical, sensory learning difficulties or emotional or social development as well as the learning environment experienced within the school.
The staff at Happisburgh Primary and Early Years School value pupils of different abilities. The curriculum is implemented to meet the specific needs of individuals and groups of children by:
- Setting suitable learning challenges, including individual Pupil Profiles
- Responding to children’s diverse learning needs
- Overcoming potential barriers to learning for individuals and groups of pupils, by accessing adult support, intervention programmes, tailored speech and language programmes, use of ICT and visual aids, physical aids.
- Ensuring that individuals are able to access other curricular opportunities outside of the curriculum e.g. school trips, sports days etc..
- When planning work, staff take account of the abilities and needs of all the children and provide work differentiated accordingly. This may involve modifying learning objectives, teaching styles and access strategies.
Monitoring of progress is carried out by class teachers, the Head of School, SENDCo and Advisers as appropriate and is used to inform future planning of provisions to meet each individual’s needs. This could include applying for examination concessions when appropriate.
Most written information is presented in different formats to make it accessible.
- Differentiation of class work and homework tasks
- Visual presentation of information and timetables
- Use of appropriate fonts/ font sizes.
- Matt laminating pouches to reduce glare
The Accessibility Policy will be:
- Reviewed annually by the Health and Safety and Premises committee which will make appropriate recommendations to the Governing Body and the Head of School
- Be incorporated into the School Development Plan
- Shared with staff
- Available from the school office