Special Education Needs
St Bernard’s Catholic Grammar School is committed to upholding its Mission in relation to students who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. The school has a number of students with a range of diagnosed conditions and a highly-effective SEND team which offers specialist individual and group support. In line with our school policy and the Children and Families Act 2014 (Code of Conduct), these students are supported in classrooms by their normal subject teachers, who are trained in appropriate strategies by the school’s SENCo. A small number of students have a Specialist SEN Teaching assistant as part of their Statement of Special Educational Need (soon to be Education, Health and Care Plan -EHCP).
The school is a selective state school, and as such is bound by its admissions arrangements to admit only those students who have achieved the eligibility score in the Slough Consortium 11+ examination. This means that the school can only consider for admission children who have achieved in the 11+ test, irrespective of whether the school is named on their Statement. Should a statemented (EHCP) student (whose statement names St Bernard’s Catholic Grammar School) achieve in the 11+ test, then their application will be given priority over all other students for admission.
The school is a Catholic school and its priority for all students is the Mission Statement:
At St Bernard’s School, students are educated in a nurturing community where each person is loved and valued. We aim to follow the example of the Bernadine Sisters in having prayer and worship at the centre of our lives. With God as our shelter, we strive to be of service to others and uphold the Christian values of love, forgiveness and compassion that Jesus taught us.
In keeping with our mission, we value all students equally, irrespective of whether they have additional needs or not. This is a key feature of our ethos, something which features in many assemblies, liturgies, tutorial lessons and throughout the daily operation of the school. We have a highly effective pastoral system and SENCo, which ensure that SEND students play a full and active role in all facets of school life.
In keeping with the Children and Families Act 2014 (Code of Conduct) students are supported in their normal lessons by their subject teachers. In addition, there is an SEN area with dedicated rooms and offices which students can access at break and lunch for support or advice. The SEN staff are freely accessible to students through our open door policy.
The accessibility plan in response to paragraph 3 of the schedule 10 to the Equality Act 2010 can be found here: St Bernard’s Accessibility Plan
The school’s SEND policy and details of the local offer can be found here: