Accessibility Statement for The Garden Suburb Schools 

Our school is a warm, welcoming place with a caring ethos. We promote an environment and ethos where adults and children feel valued, respected, safe and secure, both physically and emotionally. Every child is an individual, who is valued and respected.  All children are given the opportunity to develop their potential regardless of their abilities or disabilities within the school environment.

We aim to:

• Provide a supportive and happy learning environment where all children can achieve their best.
• Develop fully children’s abilities and talents within the framework of a broad and challenging curriculum.
• Develop an inclusive culture which meets individual needs and provides equality for all members of our community.
• Encourage children to respect and value other members of the school and to interact positively with the wider community.
• Provide a safe and secure environment which includes a clear framework for appropriate behaviour.
• Foster spiritual and moral values and a sense of responsibility for the community and the environment.
• Create an awareness of the need for a healthy lifestyle.
• Work in partnership with all members of the school and wider communities
• Value the contribution of all members of the staff and to support their professional development. 

The Governing Body will ensure that education, in its entirety, is available for disabled children at Garden Suburb Junior and Garden Suburb Infant School.

Our plan incorporates a commitment to continually;

• Increase the access to the curriculum for pupils with a disability 
• Improve and maintain access to the physical environment of the school
• Improve the delivery of written information to pupils, staff, parents and visitors with disabilities.

We will make all reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled pupils (or prospective pupils) are not placed at a substantial disadvantage when compared to those who are not disabled. No disabled pupil would be subject to inconvenience, indignity or discomfort or lose educational opportunities when compared to those who are not disabled.

We provide for disabled children through our policies and practices.

• P.E lessons are adjusted and staff trained to cater for disabled children, so they are able to participate.
• When making educational visits outside school, provision is made to ensure that facilities exist for physically disabled pupils.
• Appropriate staff are trained to administer medicine to pupils.

• We give careful thought and consideration to every challenge that comes our way and make strenuous efforts to include disabled pupils fully in the life of the school, before determining that something is not possible.

• We are committed to providing an environment that enables full curriculum access that values and includes all pupils, staff, parents and visitors regardless of their educational, physical, sensory, social, spiritual, emotional or cultural needs. 

Definition of a disability

Under the Equality Act 2010 schools should have an Accessibility Plan. The Equality Act 2010 replaced all existing equality legislation, including the Disability Discrimination Act. The effect of the law is the same meaning that “schools cannot unlawfully discriminate against pupils because of sex, race, disability, religion or belief and sexual orientation.”  According to the Equality Act a person has a disability if a person (child or adult) is someone who has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

This could be :

• A physical or mental impairment includes sensory impairments; impairments relating to mental functioning, including learning disabilities; and long-term health conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy, HIV infection, cancer or multiple sclerosis.
• Substantial means more than minor or trivial.
• Long term means an impairment that has lasted at least 12 months or is likely to last 12 months or for the rest of the person’s life.
• Normal day-to-day activities must come within one of the following categories: manual dexterity; physical co-ordination; continence; ability to lift, carry or move everyday objects; speech, hearing or eyesight; memory or ability to concentrate, learn or understand; perception of the risk of physical danger. 

The accessibility plan is included in the SEND Information Report and aims to:

1. Increase the access to the curriculum for pupils with a disability, expanding the curriculum as necessary to ensure that pupils with a disability are as equally prepared for life as are able bodied pupils. This covers teaching and learning and the wider curriculum such as participation in after school clubs, leisure and cultural activities or school visits – it also covers the provision of specialist or auxiliary aids and equipment, which may assist these pupils in accessing the curriculum within a reasonable timeframe.

2. Improve and maintain access to the physical environment of the school, adding specialist facilities as necessary – this covers improvements to the physical environment of the school and physical aids to access education within a reasonable timeframe.

3. Improve the delivery of written information to pupils, staff, parents and visitors with disabilities; examples might include handouts, timetables, textbooks and information about the school events; the information should be made available in various preferred formats within a reasonable timeframe.

The Accessibility Plan should be read in conjunction with the following policies:

• SEN and Inclusion Policy
• SEN Information Report
• Anti-Bullying Policy
• Healthy and Safety Policy
• Safeguarding Policy