Our school is part of an exciting initiative by Croydon Council to improve support for children with special needs or disabilities (SEND) who live in Croydon.

We are working with a cluster of local schools, who together have been given funding to provide early intervention and better targeted help to support children and young people with SEND. This work covers children from nursery to year 11 and will enable our special needs staff to work closely with our partner schools and nurseries to quickly get the necessary support and help for pupils who are beginning to demonstrate that they have additional needs which cannot be met through our own school SEND resources.

This early help may be in the form of advice, school to school support, referral to specialist services, or additional resources, including early years special needs funding (SENIF). The support can be put in place rapidly without unnecessary delay. This is because our group of schools manage the funding between us, so we can direct this to the most suitable children in an efficient targeted way. If, despite this rapid support, it is thought that a child would still benefit from an Education and Health Care Plan, the local group will work together to ensure that the application to assess is appropriate, submitted promptly with all the relevant information including from outside professionals.

The initiative is called “Croydon Locality SEND Support” and will continue throughout this academic year. We will of course monitor the outcomes closely and we will always involve parents and carers in any decisions made and review the support regularly. Presently the scheme is only for Croydon residents and will not impact on students who already have an Education & Health Care Plan or those in Enhanced Learning Provisions or special schools.

If you want to learn more about this scheme, please see the links below or contact Mrs Shilling, our SENDCo, and she will be happy to provide you with further details.