SEN and Disability

The school SENCO is Mrs Gemma Clarke and our SEND Academy Committee members are Sacha Merritt and Alexis Roy.

At Westwood Academy, we are proud of our inclusive environment that values the unique potential of each individual. Our goal is to equip every child with the knowledge and skills essential for navigating the curriculum, establishing a foundation for continuous learning, and empowering all children to actively participate in society.

Whether facing intellectual, physical, or emotional challenges, some children may require additional assistance to acquire the fundamental skills. This support may be temporary or extend throughout their entire journey at our school.

Our focus extends beyond academics; we prioritise nurturing the self-esteem of every child. We firmly believe that a positive attitude is the key to unlocking their full potential across all aspects of learning.

Please follow the link below to view the school’s relevant policies:

Westwood Academy Policies and Documents

Paper copies of information and policies are available on request, for free, from the school office.

SEND Support

We have a comprehensive SEND support programme to ensure the needs of all learners are met. Across the school, our teachers and teaching assistants are trained to provide quality first teaching and interventions, where necessary, covering various curriculum areas. These may include:

  • Additional Maths and English Support
  • Speech, Language and Communication Support
  • Social and Emotional Literacy Support
  • Gross and Fine Motor Support
  • Pastoral and SEMH support interventions

Throughout the year, we will provide coffee mornings for all parents on how to support their children with their learning. These can include phonics, maths and language and communication sessions.

As part of the Local Offer, we have support from our Educational Psychologist, Speech and Language Therapist, Occupational Therapist, CAHMs Support Worker and School Nurse.

The links below provide further information from the local authority as well as parent support and information:

SEND Code of Practice

Essex SEND Local offer

SEND Information, Advice and Support Service

How we assess our children with SEND at SEAT

Westwood Academy SEN School Information Report September 2025-26

Westwood Accessibility plan and policy 2024 -27

Public Sector Equality Duty 

Aims

Our school aims to meet its obligations under the public sector equality duty by having due regard for the need to:

  • Eliminate discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
  • Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
  • Foster good relations across all characteristics – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it

What is the Public Sector Equality Duty (the PSED)?

The Equality Act 2010 introduced a single, general duty for public bodies, including schools, and which extends to all ‘protected characteristics’

Legislation and guidance

This document meets the requirements under the following legislation:

This document is also based on the Department for Education (DfE) guidance: The Equality Act 2010 and schools.

 How does Westwood Academy comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty?

South Essex Academy Trust has a range of policies which make explicit the school’s commitment to actively promoting equality of opportunity for all. The main policies that deal with equality of opportunity are:

  • Accessibility policy
  • Equality policy
  • SEND policy
  • Behaviour policy

Westwood Academy prides itself on being an inclusive school that cares for every individual child. In doing so, we promote and deliver a range of strategies to ensure that we comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Objective 1: To analyse statistical data (admissions, attendance, attainment) to ensure that there are not any trends that could be the cause of discriminatory behaviour or actions.

Objective 2: To raise awareness of the protected characteristics within the school through ‘No Outsiders: Everyone is welcome’; thus developing an awareness and understanding of diversity in the UK.

Objective 3: To close gaps in attainment and achievement between pupils and all groups of pupils; especially boys and girls, pupils eligible for free-school meals, pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, and looked-after children.

Equality Act 2010 Guide

 

SEN Accessibility Statement

This website is run by Westwood Academy and this statement applies to www.westwoodacademy.org. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver)

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

Accessibility Features

  • Responsive Design: Our website is designed to work on various devices and screen sizes, including desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones.
  • Keyboard Navigation: The website is navigable via keyboard to accommodate users who cannot use a mouse.
  • Text Readability: We use clear and legible fonts, sufficient colour contrast, and adjustable text size to enhance readability.
  • Parents evening: Our parents’ evening platform is fully keyboard-navigable, screen reader compatible, and designed to meet visual accessibility standards, ensuring compliance with colour contrast and text readability guidelines.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

School exemption

  • primary and secondary schools or nurseries – except for the content people need in order to use their services, for example a form that lets you outline school meal preferences.

Non-compliant content

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
  • embedded Google Maps are not accessible within the site
  • any forms with bespoke styling on the site may not be accessible
  • Video: We endeavour to ensure that, where needed, settings allow for frame titles, captioning and transcriptions for any videos. If any videos do not have a frame title, captions or transcriptions, so people using assistive technology cannot access the information, we will rectify this if notified.
  • Links: We endeavour to ensure that, where needed, we include appropriate use of links and ensure that links are descriptive. If any links are not descriptive, so people using a screen reader cannot access the information, we will rectify this if notified.
  • Brand colours: We endeavour to ensure that, our brand colours meeting the contrast ratio for the corresponding text size. If any text does not meet the contrast ration, so people with visual impairments cannot access the information, we will rectify this if notified.

Ongoing Efforts

We are continually working to improve the accessibility of our website by:

  • Screen reader compatibility: whilst our website has been built include functionality that works with screen readers, we may need to make some improvements by working with our website provider.
  • User feedback: We will incorporate feedback from users to enhance accessibility.
  • Keeping up-to-date: We will endeavour to keep up to date with evolving accessibility standards and best practices.

Third-Party Content

While we aim to ensure all content on our website is accessible, some third-party materials or linked resources may not fully meet accessibility standards. We encourage you to contact us if you have difficulties accessing external content.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Westwood Academy is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

The website is partially exempt with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard due to the exemptions and non compliances listed above.

Need Assistance?

If you encounter any accessibility barriers or have suggestions to improve your experience, please contact us:

  • Email: admin@westwoodacademy.org
  • Phone: 01702 559467

When reporting an issue, please include:

  • The webpage or feature you experienced difficulties with.
  • Your contact information (optional, if you would like a response).

Commitment to Improvement

Westwood Academy values diversity and inclusion and is committed to providing an accessible online experience for all members of our community. Your feedback is essential in helping us achieve this goal.