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Parents have been welcomed into school to learn more about how children with special educational needs and disabilities are being supported.

Mark Hall Academy invited families to meet the SENCO – the special educational needs co-ordinator – and take a look around the facilities, as well as ask any questions they had about their children.

During the event, parents were able to find out more about the ways in which the school supports children with special educational needs, including –

• The sensory space – where students can relax, unwind, reconvene and self-regulate
• Zones of regulation – where students build skills in emotional and sensory regulation
• Lego therapy – promoting social interaction, turn-taking, sharing and collaborative problem-solving
• Handwriting haven – a dedicated session to support students with specific learning difficulties with handwriting skills
• Speech and language support
• Numeracy support – for basic numeracy and maths catch-up
• Literacy support – using Lexia Power-Up to help struggling and nearly-proficient readers to become confident learners
• Phonics – using Freshstart to help struggling readers to become confident learners

SENCO and assistant principal Victoria Butler gave a presentation on how and why students are referred, the screening process, how SEND manifests itself in young people and where parents can go for further support.

She said: “It is important for us to share with parents the ways in which we can support young people with special educational needs and disabilities. This was an opportunity for us to share ideas and good practice, to demonstrate the resources, facilities and interventions we have on offer and to invite our parents along on our journey.”

Parents were given another opportunity to take a look around the school during a coffee morning with the pastoral and safeguarding team and MIND in West Essex.

The charity works with Mark Hall each week, offering support and advice to young people suffering with low mood and anxiety.

One parent who attended said: “I went along hoping for advice on helping my daughter, but ended up chatting to another parent who has very similar issues with her child. It was lovely to have someone who understood how it feels.

“I also got to chat with the people from MIND when I got upset.

“It was a really useful thing.”

Marios Solomonides, director of SEND for the BMAT family of schools, said: “Mark Hall Academy is opening up to families and being completely transparent.

“We are not hiding away. We want parents to come and speak with us and to see that we are proactive in supporting our students.

“We know how important it is to work closely with families because parents know their children better than anyone.

“This is very much in line with the BMAT SEND strategy in terms of co-producing provision and targets for our pupils, as well as identifying SEND accurately, as early as possible."