At Sir Henry Cooper School all staff share with parents the desire for pupils to achieve their full potential in a caring and supportive environment. All pupils deserve to be given the help they need to recognise their own strengths and weaknesses. By providing a balanced and appropriate curriculum, by recognising that there is a wide range of abilities and aptitudes and with the support of staff and parents all pupils should achieve appropriate levels of success.
All pupils have educational needs and we are committed to meeting these needs. However, we do recognise that a number of pupils have special educational needs, which need to be addressed if they are to achieve success. These may be short-term needs, which can be met quickly, or they may need to be addressed over a longer period of time. We have made sign cant commitment at Sir Henry Cooper School both in terms of staffing and resources to meet the needs of such pupils.
These needs are commonly found in the areas of literacy and numeracy where children require extra support with reading and number work. The need may be emotional or behavioural or be the result of physical disability. Wherever a need has been identified we, as a school, have a professional and statutory duty to put in place support programmes to meet the needs of individual pupils. After a time should a pupil fail to make significant progress a formal assessment may be instigated by the school and the Local Education Authority which in many cases results in the issuing of A Statement of Educational Need with a cash value which enables the school to provide appropriate and enhanced levels of support to that pupil.
Wherever possible this support will be given within the normal curriculum and pupils with special educational needs are fully integrated with other pupils. In some cases, where appropriate, pupils are withdrawn for short periods to receive extra individual support especially with reading.
To help the school meet the needs of pupils we have a Special Educational Needs Director whose duty it is to ensure that once a pupil has been identified as needing support appropriate programmes are put in place. Each Faculty has a designated senior member of staff who is responsible for co-ordinating Special Educational Needs within subject areas. To further assist our pupils we are unique among Hull secondary schools in having sixteen Child Support Assistants whose sole role is to provide support both within and without the classroom to pupils with special educational needs.
We work closely with the Educational Psychology Service, the Special Educational Needs Support Service, Social Services and our Partner Primary Schools in ensuring that our pupils are offered a continuing and a quality level of support. Most importantly we work in close partnership with parents when considering how best to meet the needs of their children. We understand and recognise the concerns parents have about the education of their children and especially those children with special educational needs, as they embark on a career in Secondary School. Together we will face and meet those needs as best we can in a way that values and nurtures the quality which all young people possess.
A Department of Education publication, Special Educational Needs Guide for Parents, is available.