The Acorns Accessibility Plan

The Acorns Primary and Nursery School
ACCESSIBILITY PLAN

Introduction

Schools’ duties around accessibility for disabled pupils

Schools and LAs need to carry out accessibility planning for disabled pupils. These are the same duties as previously existed under the Disability Discrimination Act and have been replicated in the Equality Act 2010 Part 5A of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) requires the governing body to:

Ø  promote equality of opportunity for disabled people: pupils, staff, parents, carers and other people who use the school or may wish to; and

Ø  prepare and publish a Disability Equality Scheme to show how they will meet these duties.

This Accessibility Plan forms part of the Disability Equality Scheme and sets out how the governing body will improve equality of opportunity for disabled people. The SEN and Disability Act 2001 extended the DDA to cover education, so since 2002 the Governing Body has had three key duties towards disabled pupils under part 4 of the DDA.

Ø  Not to treat disabled pupils less favourably for reasons related to their disability

Ø  To make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils, so that they are not at a substantial disadvantage including potential adjustments which may be needed in the future.

Ø  To plan to increase access to education for disabled pupils.

This plan sets out the proposals of the Governing Body of the school to increase access to
education for disabled pupils in the three areas required by the planning duties in the DDA.

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

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

Ø  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. In drawing up the Accessibility Plan the school has set the following priorities:

Ø  To provide safe access throughout the school for all school users, irrespective of their disability.

Ø  To ensure that the teaching and learning environment and the resources used are suitable for all staff and pupils, tailoring the requirements to suit individual needs.

At The Acorns Primary and Nursery School we are committed to providing a fully accessible environment which 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 challenging negative attitudes about disability and accessibility and to developing a culture of awareness, tolerance and inclusion. The Acorns Primary and Nursery School plan, over time, to maintain / increase the accessibility of provision for all pupils, staff and visitors to the school.

The Accessibility Audit and Plan will contain relevant actions for the following areas: physical environment, curriculum, written information. This will be reviewed and adjusted on an annual basis. We acknowledge that there is a need for ongoing awareness raising and training for staff and governors in the matter of disability discrimination and the need to inform attitudes on this matter.

The Accessibility Plan should be read in conjunction with the following policies and documents:

Ø  Equal Opportunities and Diversity

Ø  Health & Safety

Ø  Inclusion

Ø  Special Needs

Ø  Behaviour

Ø  Strategic School Development Plan

Ø  School Prospectus and Mission Statement

Ø  Teaching and Learning Policy

The Plan will be monitored through the Finance, Personnel and Premises Committee of the Governors.

The Plan will be monitored by Ofsted as part of their inspection cycle.

NOTE: - Since December 2007 primary schools use their existing mechanisms to demonstrate how they are meeting the requirement to have a Disability Equality Scheme and Action Plan, by: -

Ø  assessing the impact of their activities on equality for disabled people

Ø  improving outcomes for disabled people

Ø  monitoring whether outcomes are improving for disabled people

Ø  using the results of their monitoring

Adopted by Governors                                                                            

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