Consultation on additional provision for children with special needs at Friern Barnet School

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Consultation has concluded

Background

The council’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Strategy (2021 – 2024) sets out ambitious and realistic objectives to ensure Barnet’s provision is the first choice for children and young people with high needs and their families.

A priority of the SEND Strategy is the need to ensure that there is sufficient high-quality provision in Barnet for children with special educational needs who need access to specialist educational provision. We are also committed to ensuring that children and young people with SEND benefit from inclusion in their local community by ensuring that they can access the right provision as

Background

The council’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Strategy (2021 – 2024) sets out ambitious and realistic objectives to ensure Barnet’s provision is the first choice for children and young people with high needs and their families.

A priority of the SEND Strategy is the need to ensure that there is sufficient high-quality provision in Barnet for children with special educational needs who need access to specialist educational provision. We are also committed to ensuring that children and young people with SEND benefit from inclusion in their local community by ensuring that they can access the right provision as close to their home as possible, and therefore reducing the need for them to have to travel long distances to access out of borough or independent provision due to a lack of suitable in-borough provision.

The SEND Strategy also recognises that children with learning needs are increasing in numbers and will require specialist intervention supported in specialist provision, including mainstream Additional Resource Provisions (ARPs).

What we are seeking your views on

In 2021 Barnet opened a Learning and Cognition ARP at Broadfields Primary School. This provision has been very well received by parents whose children have significant learning needs but who benefit from the opportunities to have social interactions and some learning experiences within a mainstream peer group. As a result of the success of this provision, Barnet is now proposing to open a similar ARP for children of secondary age pupils at Friern Barnet School. This will allow these students to receive literacy and numeracy lessons in a small class group with the learning suitably differentiated for pace and content but also to attend subject specific lessons with their mainstream cohort.

Give us your views

We want to hear your views on our proposals, in particular we want to hear from parent carers of children attending Friern Barnet school, parent carers of prospective pupils to be placed at the ARP, staff at the school and other stakeholders.

To find out more, please take the time to read our consultation document and then give us your views on our proposals by completing the online questionnaire.

For any further information, or to request a questionnaire in an alternative format, please email nick.burr@barnet.gov.uk or telephone 020 8359 7288.


What happens after the consultation closes

Subject to the outcome of the consultation, the council intends to make a final decision on the proposal in September.

Consultation has concluded

  • We asked, you said, we did

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    We asked

    We asked for your views on our proposals to expand SEN provision in Barnet through the opening of an Additional Resourced Provision (ARP) for secondary aged children with learning and cognition needs at Friern Barnet School.

    You said

    We received four responses to the online questionnaire. All of the respondents said they either agree with the proposal or did not disagree. Respondents agreed on the basis of the following:

    • acknowledged the need for additional SEND specialist places in Barnet and the benefit to Barnet children
    • acknowledged the need for additional secondary specialist places in Barnet
    • Acknowledged the need for greater choice of specialist provision

    Additionally, you asked would the provision be teacher led and will there be appropriately qualified specialist teachers?


    We did

    The school has recruited a qualified teacher to lead the ARP provision, who will work alongside the school Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo). Support for meeting the needs of the students will be matched to the different needs of the students admitted. All mainstream schools are able to meet the needs of children with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia. The pupils who will be admitted to the ARP provision will have more complex learning and cognition needs. Oak Lodge special school have provided buddying support in assisting the school in preparing to meet the needs of the students admitted.

    We decided to proceed with the opening of the Friern Barnet ARP provision and the first cohort of children were admitted into Year 7 in September 2022. Cohorts will be introduced at the start of each new academic year until 2026 when the ARP will be able to take its full capacity.