Retford Oaks Academy aims to support students with special educational needs by seeking to remove barriers to learning and participation, ensuring all students have access to an appropriate education that affords them the opportunity to achieve their personal potential.

Our SEND aims

  • To ensure that all students have access to a broad and balanced curriculum.
  • To provide a differentiated curriculum appropriate to the individual’s needs and ability.
  • To ensure the identification of all students requiring SEND provision as early as possible in their academy career.
  • To ensure that SEND students take as full a part as possible in all academy activities.
  • To ensure that parents of SEND students are kept fully informed of their child’s progress and attainment.
  • To ensure that SEND students are involved, where practicable, in decisions affecting their future.

We work collaboratively with outside agencies ensuring specialist advice and provision supports effective teaching and learning.

Our personalised learning team works with students to develop appropriate plans to engage them fully in learning. Some students who require more targeted support will be placed in our nurture group. This small group of students has a dedicated teaching space for a proportion of their lessons with specific teacher and classroom support.

The academy is situated in a purpose-built modern building, ensuring that any students with disabilities are able to fully access all areas of the school. This includes lift access to first floor classrooms, welfare facilities and disabled parking.

What is the Local Offer?

In September 2014 the government made a lot of changes to the way that children and young people aged 0 to 25, with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are supported. This included making Local Authorities produce a ‘ SEND Local Offer’.

The SEND Local Offer aims to bring together helpful and useful information for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families. It is a comprehensive guide to services and support all in one place. Please watch the video at the bottom of this page to find out more.

You can find Nottinghamshire’s Local Offer here.

You can find our Extended Local Offer Response here.

Other local authorities:

Lincolnshire County Council Local Offer

Policies and reports

We follow the Diverse Academies SEND policy which can be found here.

We recognise that many students will have special needs at some time during their academy life. In implementing this policy, we believe students will be helped to overcome their difficulties. Whilst many factors contribute to the range of difficulties experienced by some children, we believe that much can be done to overcome them by parents, teachers and students working together.

SEND information report 2023

Key contacts

For further information about what we do, or for any support, please contact our SENDCO and designated senior person for child protection – Suzy Whitaker, swhitaker@diverse-ac.org.uk

Find out more about the SEND Local Offer in the short video below