Editorial 28.04.2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

Some time ago, I commissioned an independent review of our provision for students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) with the aim of improving this area to ensure that we are prioritising the needs of students with SEND and are a fully inclusive institution.

To fully abide by our ethos of Torah im Derech Eretz, we need to be a fully inclusive school that considers the quality of the children with SEND’s experiences across all areas of their school life and supports them to the extent that they need it. To become the best that we can be in this area we need to undergo transformational change, for example in regard to how we allocate funding and resources, the quality and breadth of our provision, our learning and teaching and, most importantly, our attitudes and values and our partnership with parents.

I’d like to thank Dr Alexander-Passe for his work as SENDCo up until this point and wish him well with his future endeavours. He has now left Hasmonean for what he hopes will be a better home-work balance and we are grateful to him for everything he has given to the SSU.

We will soon be advertising a new enhanced role that will incorporate the role of SENDCo, Inclusion and Inspiration to ensure that SEND is given the status it deserves in the MAT and that children with SEND have an ambassador at a more senior level. We will be inviting in the person who undertook the independent review to be part of the interview process for this new role, alongside a representative from Barnet Local Authority and a panel of parents who have children with SEND. The person who undertook the independent review will be assisting with their induction and will be supporting them to review the staffing structure and the action points from the review.

One very important part of this process of transformational change will be to ensure that we are getting regular feedback from children with SEND and from their parents to ensure that our ambitious plans for this area are having demonstrable impact on our students’ opportunities, happiness, wellbeing and progress. I look forward to sharing with you the impact of those changes over the coming months.

With kind regards,

Mr A McClusky
CEO, Hasmonean MAT