Accessibility Plan

Reviewed and approved by Governing Body - March 2024

Due for Review - Spring Term 2025

This plan will be reviewed annually.

Member of staff responsible: Business Manager and SENDCo

Bishop Luffa School strives to ensure that the culture and ethos of the school are such that, whatever the abilities and needs of members of the school community, everyone is equally valued and treats one another with respect. Students should be provided with the opportunity to experience, understand and value diversity.

Specifically, under the Equality Act 2010, schools should have a plan that:

• Increases the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the curriculum
• Improves the physical environment of the school to enable disabled pupils to take better advantage of education, benefit facilities and services provided
• Improves the availability of accessible information to disabled pupils

At school we aim to treat all students fairly and with respect. This involves providing access and opportunities for all students without discrimination of any kind. We are also committed to staff training in equality issues with reference to the Equality Act 2010, including understanding disability issues.

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 they have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ adverse effect on their 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 students with disabilities under the Equality Act 2010, to alleviate any substantial disadvantage that a disabled student faces in comparison with non-disabled students. This can include, for example, the provision of an auxiliary aid or adjustments to premises.

Physical or mental impairments can include sensory impairments (such as those affecting sight and hearing) and learning difficulties. The definition also covers certain medical conditions when they have a long-term and substantial effect on students' everyday lives.

Aim of the plan

The aims of the Accessibility Plan are to ensure that Bishop Luffa School continues to work towards increasing the accessibility of provision for all students, staff and visitors to the school. The Accessibility Plan will contain relevant actions to:

• improve access to the physical environment of the school, adding specialist facilities as necessary. This covers improvements to the physical environment of the school and physical aids to access education.
• increase access to the curriculum for students with a disability, expanding the curriculum as necessary to ensure that students with a disability are as, equally, prepared for life as are the able‐bodied students. This covers teaching and learning and the wider curriculum of the school such as participation in after‐school clubs, leisure and cultural activities or school visits. It also covers the provision of specialist aids and equipment, which may assist these students in accessing the curriculum.
• improve the delivery of written and electronic information to students, staff, parents/carers and visitors with disabilities. Examples might include handouts, timetables, textbooks and information about the school and school events. The information should be made available in various preferred formats within a reasonable time frame.

Action Plans are maintained, relating to these key aspects of accessibility and showing how the School will address the priorities identified. These plans will be reviewed and adjusted on an annual basis. New plans will be drawn up every three years.

action plans