Welcoming each and every child.

At St Nicholas Priory we are committed to promoting first local inclusion, welcoming every child whatever their additional needs. We see each child as unique and special and believe that wherever possible children need to stay within their own community and in their own school. We strive to  ensure that the children in our setting have the best possible opportunities to be a part of everything we offer, irrespective of need. We are aspirational about being a truly inclusive school. 

Over the course of the last few years we have been proactive in reaching out to our colleagues in the specialist sector in order to be able to broaden our offer as a mainstream setting and have created our own specialist class.

Our ‘Pod’ is a highly staffed unit, catering for more complex needs children, some of whom will be on a pathway to reintegrate fully into a  mainstream class and some for whom we will support to find pathways to specialist school placements.

We have the highest of expectations for the pastoral, social and emotional and curriculum development of this group of children who already receive for example specialist provision for music and sport.  

As a school we have a tiered approach to SEND. Most children will be on a ‘Formal’ pathway of support in mainstream class. Some children may be on a ‘Semi-Formal’ pathway which may consist of support from ‘The Snug’ for those children in KS2 needing an extra input which might be only temporary or a ‘Specialist Resource Base’ (SRB) placement for a short amount of time. Our final pathway is ‘Pre-Formal’ which includes our ‘Pod’ provision. 

We recognise that children with SEND often take longer to secure  their learning through repetition , recall and an intense focus on core skills in order to impact long term memory. Children  might also  require emotional support with self-regulation and resilience. 

The most important focus for us at St Nicholas Priory  is to offer a wide range of provision in order to ensure that our children are both happy and successful and have their needs met including those who are high functioning.  We are continuing to develop our practice in order to best meet the needs of our children.

Our Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Coordinators are Miss. Hannah Lawrence (KS1) and  Mr. Daniel Rust (KS2)