St. Mary's C.E. Middle School aims to be a fully inclusive school. The pages below give details of how the school supports specific groups of pupils with additional needs, aiming to ensure that all pupils are able to achieve their full potential. Where relevant, these pages contain a detailed breakdown of how additional funding is used by the school.

Our SEND (Special Educational Needs & Disability) department is led by Natasha Sibley (Assistant Head/SENDCo).

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please speak with your child's tutor in the first instance, who will request further support, if needed. 

If you do not have a student on roll with us, but would like to know more about our SEND provision, please contact Miss Sibley via the school office on 01305 848293.

The department comprises a team of specialist staff and teaching assistants who support students across the school.

Mrs Becca Ross - Wellbeing Lead / Designated Safeguarding Lead

• Mrs Lisa Povey - Specialist SEND Administrator
• Ms Georgina Moorhouse - Complex Communication Hub Tutor
• Dr Tim Ennion (Head of School) - Equality and Accessibility

The SEND Department is located throughout the school and provides students with easy access to pastoral and academic support. The TLC Room ( Teaching & Learning Centre) is permanently staffed by Mrs Edwards and Mrs Orr and offers a quiet, nurturing environment in which to learn and receive pastoral support.

There is also a Complex Communication Needs hub where places are allocated by Dorset Council. We refer to this as The Bridge.

At St. Mary's, we believe that all teachers are teachers of SEND, and we pride ourselves in being fully inclusive. All our students attend mainstream lessons with their peers to ensure that they gain the high quality curriculum and specialist subject knowledge from their teachers. In line with the DfE Code of Practice, we invest heavily in our Quality First Teaching, our combination of teaching methods and activities. We also invest in CPD (Continuing Professional Development) for all staff around SEND and how best we can meet the needs of all of our students within the classroom.

Interventions include, but are not limited to:

• 1:1 reading
• Numeracy support
• Small group phonics
• Touch typing
• Quiet room for pastoral support
• Small group maths intervention
• SALT (Speech & Language Therapy)
• Homework club
• ELSA (Emotional Literacy)
• Nurture groups
• 1:1 Counselling

We work closely with a range of external agencies who provide specialist support and advice for individual students depending on their needs.

These agencies include:

• SALT (Speech & Language Therapy)
• Educational Psychologist
• Paediatrician
• Auditory & Visual Support Services
• CAMHS (Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services)
• Specialist teachers in Specific Learning Difficulties, Sensory Processing and SEMH ( Social, Emotional & Mental Health)
• Family Workers
• Local Authority SEN/ Inclusion Team

Please click this link for the school's SEND Policy

Please see the links at the bottom of this page for the St. Mary's SEND Department Provision Outline and Graduated Approach documents.

Find further information on Dorset's Local Offer for children and young people from 0 to 25 years with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

The link for this is www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/dorsets-local-offer