Learning Support

Chauncy strives to be an inclusive school offering a broad and balanced curriculum for all our students from our local community. During their school career, some students may require additional provision to achieve their potential, and the SEN team work alongside our teaching staff to offer appropriate support – guided by our transition process, professional advice, observations or diagnostic assessment. Parents are informed of the provision in place for their child and have opportunities to discuss this with the SENCO or the most appropriate member of the SEN team throughout the year. Information on each child’s specific needs and appropriate strategies to support their learning is shared with teaching staff to ensure a coordinated approach.

Our statement of SEN support is below, and further information is available in the school SEN Information Report / SEN Policy, which can be accessed via the website here.

Chauncy is a large mainstream secondary school. Whilst we welcome students with a range of additional needs, our provision is designed for students who are able to access a mainstream secondary curriculum and environment with appropriate reasonable adjustments and additional support where required.

High-quality teaching within the classroom is the starting point for all students. Every teacher is responsible for the progress and development of students within their lessons, including those with SEND. Teachers will make reasonable adjustments and adapt teaching, resources and strategies where appropriate. Where students require provision that is additional to or different from that ordinarily available within the classroom, further support or targeted intervention may be considered through the school’s graduated approach.

Our SEND provision is arranged according to identified need and within the staffing, resources and funding available to the school. We have a significant number of students with EHCPs (approximately 75) and more than 250 students identified on our SEN Register. Additional adult support is therefore carefully deployed across the school and cannot be provided simply because it is requested or preferred.

Students with an EHCP may receive additional Higher Needs Funding from the Local Authority. The Local Authority is responsible for securing the provision identified within Section F of an EHCP and the school will deploy the resources made available to support that provision.

There is no automatic entitlement to 1:1 support. Teaching Assistants may support students individually, in small groups or within the classroom according to identified need. Students should not expect to have a Teaching Assistant allocated to them throughout the school day, nor should parents assume that an adult will accompany their child between lessons or provide continuous individual support.

Chauncy has approximately 1,500 students and is situated across a large site with a number of different buildings. Movement between lessons is busy and students are expected to move independently between classrooms and manage the normal demands of a large secondary school environment.

Students are grouped by ability in some subjects from Year 7.

Additional adult support is available within some classes where there is a higher level of identified need. Teaching Assistant support is not available in every class or lesson and the majority of students with SEND are supported through high-quality teaching, reasonable adjustments and appropriate classroom strategies.

There is no dedicated nurture provision. We may provide targeted social, emotional or wellbeing support for identified students, but Chauncy is not able to offer a separate low-demand environment or alternative curriculum for students who are unable to access mainstream lessons for significant parts of the school day.

All students are expected to follow our Behaviour Policy. Where a student has SEND, their individual needs, reasonable adjustments and the circumstances surrounding an incident will be considered. These considerations do not remove expectations around safe and respectful behaviour.

Swearing at staff, threatening behaviour, aggression and other serious breaches of the Behaviour Policy may result in suspension.

Physical aggression or violence towards staff or other students is treated extremely seriously and may result in suspension or, in the most serious or repeated circumstances, permanent exclusion. SEND may provide context for behaviour, but it does not mean that unsafe behaviour can be accepted or that other students and staff should be expected to tolerate it.

The school has a pastoral support system alongside the SEND team. Counselling and targeted wellbeing support are available for identified students, but these are shared resources and are not available on demand. Chauncy is an educational setting and does not provide specialist therapeutic, clinical or intensive emotional regulation support.

All students are expected to attend school regularly. Where SEND, medical needs or other circumstances create barriers to attendance, the school will consider appropriate support and reasonable adjustments. However, the school cannot provide an effective educational programme for a student who is unable to attend or access the mainstream school environment on a regular basis.

Chauncy is able to provide reasonable adjustments, targeted interventions and additional support for students with SEND within the context of a large mainstream secondary school. We do not provide the staffing levels, class sizes, therapeutic provision, continuous adult supervision or highly individualised environment that would ordinarily be associated with specialist provision.

Parents considering Chauncy should therefore carefully consider whether a large, busy mainstream secondary environment is appropriate for their child and whether the provision available is sufficient to meet their needs.

Please email senco@chauncy.org.uk if you require further information on our SEND provision.