The Independent Grammar School: Durham

ACCESSIBILITY POLICY

 Under SEN and Disability legislation schools have a three-fold responsibility towards pupils with disabilities.  These are: 

·                 not to treat disabled pupils less favourably for a reason related to their disability; 

·                 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils, so that they are not at a substantial disadvantage;

·                 to plan to increase access to education for disabled pupils.

 This plan sets out the proposals of the school to increase access to education for disabled pupils in the three areas required by the planning duties in Disability Discrimination legislation:  

·                 increasing the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the school curriculum;

·                 improving the environment of the school to increase the extent to which disabled pupils can take advantage of education and associated services; 

·                 improving the delivery to disabled pupils of information, which is provided in writing for pupils who are not disabled.  

It is a requirement that the school’s accessibility plan is resourced, implemented, reviewed and revised as necessary and reported on annually. The School Board will review this policy accordingly. 

We are committed to doing all we reasonably can to facilitate the above aims.  We want to be a school which welcomes children of all abilities and encourages and enables them to do their very best.

 The Building

 The school occupies a single, two-storey church building which was thoroughly refurbished approximately 10 years ago.

 Access to the building is via a level approach to the front door. 

The building has a modern lift between ground and first floors which was designed for wheelchair access and is accessible from all points on both floors without any doorways causing an unreasonable obstruction. 

There is a disabled toilet on the first floor (which will also be available to others when not in use by a disabled person).

For any child in a wheelchair, a personal emergency plan will be drawn up to ensure safe egress from the building in case of fire.

The Curriculum

We believe that our curriculum is accessible to most types of disability.  We do, however, recognise that were we to have, for example, a child with a visual or hearing disability we could not claim to have the correct levels of signage, audio facilities, colour-coding, braille materials etc. in place.  We are, however, committed to consult with parents of such children, draw on best practice, learn from other school settings and generally do all we reasonably can to help such children access school life as fully as possible. 

 Summary

Our approach will be to review the needs of any disabled child in our care at the earliest opportunity and work with parents and others to ensure we respond in the most helpful way so that no child is disadvantaged because of his/her disability.

IGS: Durham

Policy Reviewed         May 2023

Next Review               May 2024