SEN & Disabilities

At Hornsey School we believe high-quality teaching, differentiated for individual students, is the first step in responding to students who have or may have SEN.

Teachers are responsible and accountable for the progress and development of the students in their class, even where students access support from teaching assistants or specialist staff. Where a pupil is not making adequate progress, teachers and SENCOs and parents should collaborate on problem-solving, planning support and teaching strategies for individual students". 

Class teachers are given information on any of their students with SEND and with a statement. They use contextual information to plan lessons, differentiate and plan work with learning support assistants to put in place strategies to ensure the lesson is matched to the students needs.

A personalised timetable of support is devised, with as much time as possible in mainstream class depending on the needs and capabilities of the child. 1:1 support and small group intervention work is provided where necessary.      

Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) work within the classroom under the direction of the teacher to support students’ learning and engagement in learning. They may work with individual students for the entire lesson or divide their time between several students or small groups. Once per term the LSA/HLTA (Higher Level Teaching Assistant) provides feedback on the progress of students’ with SEND.


Strategies an LSA may use for in class support may include:

  • Prepare differentiated resources following guidance from the teacher
  • Prompting and encouraging a student to focus
  • Prompting and encouraging students to work collaboratively in pairs and groups
  • Providing ongoing feedback to students including marking for literacy and numeracy.
  • Guided reading
  • Adapting the  teacher’s instructions to suit a student’s understanding
  • Scribing
  • Individual questioning
  • Supporting organisation and study skills
  • Reminding students of targets and individual learning strategies
  • Communicating a students’ needs to the class teacher at any given time during the lesson
  • Supporting use of specialist equipment
  • Promoting and supporting independence and independent work

Hornsey School for Girls provides packages of support for students with SEND.  We offer a range of support programmes within Hornsey School dependent on the needs of the cohort of students. These programmes are reviewed and evaluated regularly to ensure they are meeting the needs of all students with SEND within the school.

Each support programme e.g. social skills group, LSA led Speech and Language therapy programme, homework support, peer mentoring, counselling, numeracy and literacy intervention clubs, Iread, Year 7 Chatterbox club etc. is clearly outlined with aims, outcomes, targets and how impact is assessed. A provision map identifies all the interventions that the school offers. The school has a successful structure to support young people with special educational needs.


Additonal informatioin can be found in our curriculum section /2090/special-educational-needs-information