Special Educational Needs, Disability & Equality

Dorothy Barley Junior Academy is committed to providing an appropriate and high quality education to all the children who attend. The school has an Additionally Resourced Provision for pupils with moderate and severe learning difficulties.

We believe that educational inclusion is about equal opportunities for all learners whatever their age, gender, ethnicity, need, disability, attainment or background. We pay particular attention to the provision for and achievement of, different groups of learners.

Please download our information reports and policies below.

PDF Downloads

Special Educational Needs and Disability Policy September 2023-2025

DBJA Accessibility Plan September 2023-2025

Web Links

London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Local Offer for support and Advice for Parents & Carers of children with Special Educational Needs & Disabilities.

https://www.lbbd.gov.uk/local-offer

Dorothy Barley Junior Academy Equality Duties Framework

REAch2 & DBJA Equality-Duties-framework

Additional Resourced Provision – Cherry Class

We are proud of our Additional Resource Provision (ARP) for children with complex and multiple learning difficulties.

Known as our Learning Centre, or Cherry Class, it is a specialist, 12 placement resource centre on which our own staff can draw ideas from for their mainstream classes. The 12-place resource base meets the needs of pupils from Year 3 through to Year 6 and is staffed by specialist teachers and a range of support staff.

All the children in our ARP have statements of special educational needs/ Education Health Care Plans and places are allocated by the local education authority. Usually parents of a child who may be suitable for a place are referred to us for an initial discussion about suitability from either an educational psychologist or school special needs co-ordinator.

Inclusion and integration are core principles in our school so all of our ARP children are registered in a mainstream class and depending on their level of need, their timetables will be divided between the mainstream class and the ARP classroom.

Our ARP children also mix with mainstream peers every break and lunch time; they attend whole school celebrations and year six children can attend residential trips where appropriate. The children can also attend any clubs and lunchtime activities.

We actively encourage our ARP children to maximise their full access to the exciting life of our school whilst having the specialist support to meet their individual needs.

Additional support that can be offered in our ARP includes:

  • Adapted environments which support the learning needs of each child.
  • Robust systems to track small – step progress.
  • Additional Educational Psychologist and specialist health input as necessary.
  • Daily focus on individual targets.
  • Support for communication and social skills including a Speech and Language Therapist supporting the class every 2 weeks.
  • Modified Maths and English curriculum dependent on needs and development.
  • Pre-learning of vocabulary or lesson content for class based activities.
  • Use of visual materials and cues including Communication In Print, Colourful Semantics, Numicon and signing where necessary.
  • Development of fine and gross motor skills.
  • Social and emotional support.

Learning in our ARP is always fun and stimulating. All ARP children are encouraged to participate in various sporting activities. The children also represent the school at Panathalon Competitions.

Our ARP is a real strength of the school. It has a very positive influence on all children and the entire school community. The relationships which have developed have enabled all of our children to better understand each other’s needs. This has been a significant factor in establishing the caring ethos which is evident in our school.

Our ARP offers an open door policy; we are always on hand to help and support in whatever way we can.