Accessibility Plan

Approved by: Jane Barker

Aims

Schools are required under the Equality Act 2010 to have an accessibility plan. The purpose of the plan is to:

Increase the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the curriculum
Improve the physical environment of the school to enable disabled pupils to take better advantage of education, benefits, facilities and services provided
Improve the availability of accessible information to disabled pupils

Our school aims to treat all its pupils fairly and with respect. This involves providing access and opportunities for all pupils without discrimination of any kind.

Gomersal St Mary’s CE Primary School is committed to providing an environment that enables full curriculum access that values and includes all pupils, staff, parents and visitors regardless of their education, physical, sensory, social, spiritual, emotional and cultural needs. We are committed to taking positive action in the spirit of the Equality Act 2010 with regard to disability and to developing a culture of inclusion, support and awareness within the school.

The school recognises and values parent’s knowledge of their child’s disability and its effect on their ability to carry out everyday activities and respects the parent’s and child’s right to confidentiality.

The Accessibility Plan shows how access is to be improved for disabled pupils, staff and visitors to the school within a given timeframe and anticipating the need to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate their needs where practicable.

The plan will be made available online on the school website, and paper copies are available upon request.

Our school is also committed to ensuring staff are trained in equality issues with reference to the Equality Act 2010, including understanding disability issues.

The school supports any available partnerships to develop and implement the plan.

Our school’s complaints procedure covers the accessibility plan. If you have any concerns relating to accessibility in school, this procedure sets out the process for raising these concerns.

We have included a range of stakeholders in the development of this accessibility plan, including pupils, parents, staff and governors of the school.

Legislation and guidance

This document meets the requirements of schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010 and the Department for Education (DfE) guidance for schools on the Equality Act 2010.

The Equality Act 2010 defines an individual as disabled if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ adverse effect on his or her ability to undertake normal day to day activities.

Under the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice, ‘long-term’ is defined as ‘a year or more’ and ‘substantial’ is defined as ‘more than minor or trivial’. The definition includes sensory impairments such as those affecting sight or hearing, and long-term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy and cancer.

Schools are required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for pupils with disabilities under the Equality Act 2010, to alleviate any substantial disadvantage that a disabled pupil faces in comparison with non-disabled pupils. This can include, for example, the provision of an auxiliary aid or adjustments to premises.

This policy complies with our funding agreement and articles of association.

Action Plan

This action plan sets out the aims of our accessibility plan in accordance with the Equality Act 2010.

Aim	Current good practice	Objectives	Actions to be taken	Person responsible	Date to complete actions by	Success criteria
Increase access to the curriculum for pupils with a disability.	Our school’s approach: Our school offers a differentiated curriculum for all pupils. We use resources tailored to the needs of pupils who require support to access the curriculum. Curriculum resources include examples of people with disabilities. Curriculum progress is tracked for all pupils, including those with a disability. Targets are set effectively and are appropriate for pupils with additional needs. The curriculum is reviewed to ensure it meets the needs of all pupils.	Medium term: Review the current curriculum to check that all aspects of the curriculum can be accessed by all pupils.	Via assessment data and engagement (including assertive mentoring forms) check that all pupils are achieving their full potential, regardless of their disability.	Miss Barker Miss Joyce Mrs Hemingway Mrs Barker	Regularly checked and updated accordingly.	Our school’s curriculum can be accessed by all children including all those with a recognised disability. This ensures that all pupils achieve their full potential.
Improve and maintain access to the physical environment.	Our school’s approach: The environment is adapted to the needs of pupils as required. This includes ramps, corridor width, disabled parking bays, disabled toilets and changing facilities and library shelves at wheelchair-accessible height.	Fire exits from all modulars should include ramps and not just steps from classes 3, 4 and 5.	Contact Kirklees and Portakabin to investigate options to implement ramps at the fire exit points.	Miss Barker Mrs Earnshaw	Instigated April 2018.	Fire exits are accessible to all pupils including those with disabilities. Actioned: Kirklees improved the condition of the steps and felt that this was adequate. There are ramps out of the front entrance of each portakabin.
Improve the delivery of information to pupils with a disability.	Our school’s approach: Our school uses a range of communication methods to ensure information is accessible. This includes large print resources and pictorial or symbolic representations.	To ensure that all pupils have the communication tools that will help them access essential information. This may include pupils with sight and hearing issues.	Review that current pupils with sight/hearing issues have the resources required to aid communication.	Miss Barker Miss Joyce Mrs Hemingway Class teacher/class support	With each SEND review.	If required we can implement signage, braille and induction loops.

Monitoring arrangements

This document will be reviewed every 3 years, but may be reviewed and updated more frequently if necessary.

It will be approved by the governing body.

Links with other policies

This accessibility plan is linked to the following policies and documents:

Risk assessment policy
Health and safety policy
Equality information and objectives (public sector equality duty) statement for publication
Special educational needs (SEN) information report
Supporting pupils with medical conditions policy

Appendix 1: Accessibility Audit

Feature	Description	Actions to be taken	Person Responsible	Date to complete actions by
Number of storeys	1	There are no actions required for this area.
Corridor access	These are wide enough for wheel chair access although some doorways will require support to access for children in wheelchairs.	Staff to be aware that wheelchair uses may need support to gain access through all doors.	Miss Barker	As required
Lifts	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Parking bays	A disabled space is available in the car park.	No further action needed.	N/A	N/A
Entrances	All buildings can be accessed via a flat entrance way or ramps.	No further action needed.	N/A	N/A
Ramps	Ramps are in place to the KS2 modulars.	No further action needed at this time although should a child with severe mobility issues a ramp will need to be added to the front of Nursery. However there is a path down the side of the modular which could provide access to the EYFS outside area.	N/A	N/A
Toilets	Disabled toilets are available in all separate buildings.	No further action needed.	N/A	N/A
Reception area	The reception area is spacious and doors wide enough for disabled access.	No further action needed. Reception staff to be aware of the potential needs of disabled visitors.	N/A	N/A
Internal signage	All signs are clear.	Are all pupils able to access the signs around school?	Miss Barker Mrs Hemingway	Sept 21 There are no current issues.
Emergency escape routes	Year 6 modular – level ground exit. Year 5 modular – step exit. Year 3/4 modular – steps exit. Nursery – level ground exit. Main school building – level ground exit.	Investigate whether the Year 3/4 and Year 5 modular fire escapes can have ramp access.	Miss Barker Mrs Earnshaw	Investigations to start April 2018 Kirklees improved the condition of the steps and felt that this was adequate. There are ramps out of the front entrance of each portakabin