Supporting pupils with special educational needs

At Bedford Free School we want to ensure all pupils are able to flourish and thrive.  We know that some pupils may need different or additional support at specific points during their education to achieve this goal.  Our school SENCo works closely with teachers to identify pupils’ needs and assess which interventions or specialist support may be required.  We monitor pupils’ progress using the “assess, plan, do, review” model which ensures support remains pitched at the current needs of the child.

We want pupils with additional needs to receive the high-quality teaching input from a class teacher as their peers. Therefore, our first priority is to aim for excellent classroom teaching that enables pupils with SEND to achieve success alongside their peers.  Our classroom expectations and routines are designed to reduce distractions, maximise learning time, and break learning down into small steps, all of which enable pupils with SEND to focus and make progress. 

Our teachers are supported to understand how best to teach responsively and will adapt explanations and resources to support the learning of individual pupils as necessary.  We know sometimes pupils may need additional intervention to support them to keep up or catch up with their peers.  We manage this carefully to ensure pupils have maximum contact with skilled teaching staff and minimise time away from the classroom, which can cause them to fall behind in other areas of the curriculum or feel a disconnect from their peers.

Our school provision is designed to educate the whole child.  This means that alongside academic intervention and support, we offer an enrichment curriculum and take a strong focus on developing social and emotional skills, emotional regulation, resilience, self-esteem, life skills (such as organisation, self-care and time management) and wellbeing.

SEND Information Report 2025/26

For more information on Bedford Borough Council's Local Offer please click here

SENCo - Zoey Diemer

01234 332299

 

“We begin with the obvious fact that the children we work with are perfectly capable of learning anything that we have to teach. We know that the intellectual crippling of children is caused overwhelmingly by faulty instruction – not by faulty children”

Engelmann, 1991

At Advantage Schools, we believe all schools should welcome and teach pupils with a wide range of needs. Education should be inclusive by design, ensuring that all children, including those who find learning difficult, receive the high-quality input they need — whether or not they have a formal diagnosis.

Our curriculum and teaching are designed with these learners in mind. Since everyone struggles with learning at times, this approach benefits all pupils and harms none. By embedding quality provision into everyday teaching, we aim to reduce the need for separate systems and segregation for pupils with SEND.

Learning difficulties and Special Educational Needs (SEN)

A learning difficulty means a child has:

  • Significantly greater difficulty in learning than most children of the same age, or
  • A disability that prevents them from accessing the usual school facilities.

A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.

Even when a pupil has a learning difficulty, if their needs can be met through a school’s standard teaching approach (known as universal provision), they may not require formal SEN identification. Because the Advantage Schools education offer is designed to support vulnerable learners from the start, fewer pupils may need significant adaptations or placement on the SEN register. Our goal is not to reduce numbers on the SEN register, but to create a truly inclusive learning environment in which a diverse range of pupils can thrive.