At Ormiston Horizon Academy (OHA) we have a dedicated Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) department which is called the Success Centre. The department is located in the yellow wing of the academy, with a team of experienced, well qualified, supportive and caring Success Centre staff, led by Mrs Julie Marsh, the SENCO/Assistant Principal for Inclusion.
The SENCo is supported by a strong SEND management team, comprising of:
Mrs D Bloor; Mrs J Johnson; Mrs A Balderson; Mrs J Harris; Miss L Thomas; Mrs Donna Hackney; Miss D Keskin, Mrs A Smith, Miss E Williams, Miss T Wood, Mrs M Black, Mr D Richardson.
This team helps students with SEND to thrive each day, both in lessons and during unstructured time through high-quality intervention and bespoke support programmes.
Our ambition statement is:
‘Working together to provide an inclusive environment, so students develop resilience, self-regulation, and become responsible members of the community, enjoying learning and having the confidence to achieve their ambitions.’
We are committed to ensuring that all of our students feel included and leave our academy confidently equipped with the necessary skills and qualifications required in order to become successful and happy young adults. By upholding the academy values: Resilience, Respect and Responsibility, at OHA we believe in ambition for all, irrespective of need, impairment or disability. At OHA we aim to support students with SEND and their parents to overcome potential barriers to learning, enabling access and participation to every aspect of school life.
At OHA we are passionate about teaching and learning. Regular opportunities for continual professional development led by the Success Centre or external agencies means all staff are regularly kept up to date with new legislations and examples of outstanding practice. We believe this is crucial to ensure the best possible progress for all of our students with SEND.
All teachers at OHA are teachers of SEND and share the responsibility in providing high quality teaching and support to remove any barriers to learning for our students with SEND. To support with the identification of learning needs, we use a range of testing to effectively determine appropriate next steps. By working alongside students, parents, members of staff, pastoral leads and external agencies we are committed in ensuring that students receive the most appropriate and personalised support depending on their need. From this, we will regularly review and measure progress made and keep parents and students updated every step of the way.
At Key Stage 3, OHA has introduced teaching smaller groups of students, designed to offer targeted support for students with SEND and particularly for those students with Educational Health Care Plans (EHCPs). A Learning Support Practitioner (LSP) is timetabled in every lesson to work with each of these Horizon groups, offering support with literacy, numeracy, social and emotional needs. These groups follow the scheduled curriculum, with lessons adapted accordingly. Success Centre staff regularly assess the students in these groups to determine progress and the need for any additional intervention. If students are progressing well they may move out of the Horizon group to allow others the opportunity to join.
Nurture Support is offered for extra emotional support and encouragement. Nurture intervention is based around developing students’ social and emotional learning and includes Forest Schools and a range of gun games and activities to develop communication. This is led by Ms Douglas our Nurture Practitioner and Mrs Ackley Assistant SENCO and Forest Schools Lead.
OHA’s Forest School is led by the Assistant SENCo Mrs Lisa Ackley. Forest School is offered to students with SEND as part of the Nurture curriculum, providing students with regular opportunities to develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees. Students build dens, work with wood, develop team-building skills, make bird feeders, go bird watching, observe wild-life activity using the night camera, learn about ropes and knots and develop their ability to recognise different trees and wildlife.
The Success Centre team supports the academy behaviour and standards team with a Thrive intervention, helping students to self-regulate and manage their emotions to avoid escalation and aiming to prevent suspension from the academy.
We welcome all parents and carers into our academy, so if you have any queries, concerns or would just like to contact us for more information, our door is always open!
Contact details for the Success Centre are:
Below are links to documents that outline in greater detail the support that we offer here at Ormiston Horizon Academy: