West Park School

West Park School is a mainstream secondary school (Academy) for students aged 11 - 16. The school has 1280 pupils on roll. The school is in Spondon, set on a large hillside. The school site consists of four building clusters, which vary in levels from single story to three levels. Lifts and stair lifts are available for pupils when they need them. The site has playing fields and during the academic year of 2016 - 17 there will be building work being carried out on what were the basketball courts. There are footpaths, which include steps and slopes that link the buildings. As a secondary school classrooms are set up for subjects, with specialist equipment in them. Pupils move between classrooms. We have a sports hall, library and gym. School places are allocated through the central Admissions Team at Derby City Council. Our school Senco has passed the National Senco Award and coordinates support for children with additional needs in school. In addition to this a number of teaching assistants have had training on supporting pupils with additional needs. This includes whole staff Autism Awareness training. Our school also has five designated Autism Champions. We have a pastoral team who support pupil welfare. All staff have had safeguarding training, this training is kept up to date. Our Senco is also the transition coordinator who leads on supporting children when they start school, this includes visits by the staff and pupils, including extra visits for those who require them as well as sharing information between schools. We are an inclusive school and will aim to make any arrangements needed for pupils living in our catchment area to be fully included in our school. We encourage all our pupils to treat each other with respect and we reinforce this in lessons and assemblies. We are a large school with 73 teachers, therefore communication is vital. We ensure all teachers are made aware of the needs of those pupils they teach at the start of each year. We have an electronic filing system to ensure confidential information is secure and can be accessed by those with permissions to do so. Risk assessments will be written and shared with parents when they are needed and we can write a personal emergency evacuation plan if required. We successfully support pupils with additional needs at West Park School and ensure they are included in extracurricular activities such as clubs. We work closely with Local Authority Specialist Teachers from STePS where a child has a specific need such as a Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment or Autism; we also work with the Educational Psychologists when their advice is needed. Pupils, parents and staff are striving to: Enjoy the challenge and achievement of learning. Develop the strengths of the individual. Experience academic, social and personal success. Develop consideration and co-operation. Create a stimulating and supportive environment. Children are identified as having Special Educational Needs if their progress has slowed or stopped and the interventions and resources put in place do not enable improvement. Once this occurs, we have specific target setting plans which help support their development and accelerate progress. At this point the pupil is listed on an 'SEND register'. Parents will be invited to discuss and review targets with the form tutor and will be sent copies. West Park School provides a graduated response to supporting the needs of pupils with SEND, which means that we will provide different levels and types of support as appropriate to the individual pupil. You can find full details of how we support children with additional needs in our School SEND Information Report below.