Accessibility Plan

Aims
Schools are required under the Equality Act 2010 to have an accessibility plan. The purpose of the plan is to:

Increase the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the curriculum.
Improve the physical environment of the school to enable disabled pupils to take better advantage of education, benefits, facilities and services provided.
Improve the availability of accessible information to disabled pupils.

Our school aims to treat all its pupils fairly and with respect. This involves providing access and opportunities for all pupils without discrimination of any kind.
Our school is also committed to ensuring staff are trained in equality issues with reference to the Equality Act 2010, including understanding disability issues.

If you have any concerns relating to accessibility in school, the complaints procedure sets out the process for raising these concerns.

Key Objective
To reduce and eliminate barriers of access to the curriculum and to ensure full participation in the school community for pupils and prospective pupils with a disability.

Legislation and guidance
This document meets the requirements of schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010 and the Department for Education (DfE) guidance for schools on the Equality Act 2010.

The Equality Act 2010 defines an individual as disabled if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ adverse effect on his or her ability to undertake normal day-to-day activities.

Under the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice, ‘long-term’ is defined as ‘a year or more’ and ‘substantial’ is defined as ‘more than minor or trivial’. The definition includes sensory impairments such as those affecting sight or hearing, and long-term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy and cancer.

Schools are required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for pupils with disabilities under the Equality Act 2010, to alleviate any substantial disadvantage that a disabled pupil faces in comparison with non-disabled pupils. This can include, for example, the provision of an auxiliary aid or adjustments to premises.

Principles
Compliance with the Equality Act 2010 is consistent with the school’s aims and Equal Opportunities Policy and within the operation of the school’s SEN policy and has regard to the new SEN Code of Practice (2015);
The school provides all pupils with an inclusive and differentiated curriculum which is adjusted to meet the needs of individual pupils and endorses the key principles within the National Curriculum.

The school will continue to seek and follow the advice of Local Authority services such as specialist teacher advisors and appropriate health professionals from local NHS trusts.

The school will take account of the needs of the pupils and visitors with physical difficulties and sensory impairments when planning and undertaking future improvements and refurbishments of the site and premises.

Mengham Junior School Accessibility Action Plan 2018-2021

Objective	What will happen? When will it happen and who is responsible?	Success Criteria
To ensure information is communicated effectively to parents.	The SENCo will: Update the SEN/D report each year and add to the school website. Inform parents of children on the SEN/D register and why. Meet with parents as needed. Inform parents which interventions are taking place, what the purpose is and the impact. Teachers will: Discuss individual children’s needs at parents’ evenings. Ensure individual needs are referenced in school reports. Meet with parents on an informal basis as needed.	All parents will have access to information regarding the provision their child is receiving at school to support additional needs and the progress they are making.
Ensure that children with SEN/D are given appropriate support.	Teachers in conjunction with Teaching Assistants, SENCo and external agencies where enlisted: Identify children with SEN/D Research needs if required Discuss needs with parents Create a pupil passport with the child and parent outlining strengths, interests, areas of need and ways to support Ensure targets and provision are selected to develop identified needs Monitor the impact of interventions and progress for individual children Review targets at least termly in order to measure the impact of provision and identify next steps.	Children with SEN/D make progress with their identified need and that progress is in-line with that of the national average (unless there are significant complex needs).
To maintain access to and around the physical and learning environment	Teachers in conjunction with Teaching Assistants, SENCo and external agencies where enlisted: Identify actual and potential barriers to the learning environment. Make reasonable adaptations to the layout of the classroom environment to ensure accessibility for children with a range of learning/ behavioural / physical needs Provide resources that may support a child in accessing their learning (e.g. screens, pencil grips etc.) Maintain the upkeep of the physical environment Paint door frames that enable the visually impaired to identify doors and doorways. The SENCo will create Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans for children who may not be able to reach an ultimate place of safety unaided or within a satisfactory period of time in the event of any emergency to ensure safe, assisted evacuation in the event of an emergency incident.	Children and visitors will be able to safely access the physical environment and children will be supported in accessing their learning environments thus enabling them to fully engage with school life.
Improve the availability of accessible information to disabled pupils.	Teachers in conjunction with Teaching Assistants, SENCo and external agencies where enlisted: Ensure that visual symbols are used for visual timetables and success criteria where appropriate to support children in understand information.	Children with visual or language difficulties will be able to access written information.
Ensure medical needs of all pupils are met fully within the capability of the school.	Teachers, teaching assistants and support/office staff will: Ensure they have necessary understanding of the medical needs of the pupils in their care. Liaise with the parents of children with medical needs to ensure both parties are sharing relevant medical information. Ensure they have read and are implementing actions stated on educational health care plans for the children in their care.	Children with medical conditions will have their needs fully met with capability of the school.

Accessibility plan (Review Aut 2021)