SEND & EAL Support at RVHS

The transition to secondary school can be exhilarating and offer new opportunities for developing independence, friends, interests and experiences. Most children start have some initial trepidation, but with the support of a routine, they soon find their feet. This includes children with special educational needs. All teachers are teachers of SEND and fully conversant with a range of strategies for every need in every classroom.


Some children with significant needs can supported in a smaller, progress class with LSA support and a subject specialist teacher. A full curriculum is delivered in a differentiated way so that children are not limited in their future choices at key stage 4.


Parents are encouraged to talk to the SENDCo, to the Year Progress Leaders and to their child’s form tutor. Children will generally get pastoral support to help them find friends, interests and to make the most of their extracurricular time. In addition, we offer to the below to help children with SEND on a weekly basis.

  • Literacy – practice of sight words, reading comprehension, tricky spellings

  • Numeracy - practice of number bonds, multiplication tables, basic equations, time, money and other topics

  • Lexia (on-line) – practice of phonics, decoding, exception words and high frequency words

  • Dyslexia Reading Group and Mentoring – all abilities; focuses on recognising strengths, using strategies and improving reading comprehension

  • Social Communication Group – all abilities; practises awareness of self and others, developing friendship skills

  • Speech and Language Group – all abilities; focuses on word webs and semantic fields, meaning, and strategies for learning. Cued articulation is available, if needed.

  • Working Memory Group – focuses on increasing the ability to hold visual or auditory information

  • Extracurricular clubs for friendship support, home learning and games (when allowed!)

If your child is already on the SEND Register at Primary:

    1. The primary and secondary SENDCos will make contact, share One Plans and pertinent information.

    2. You and your child will be invited to a One Plan meeting during the Autumn Term.

    3. A support package will be agreed with you and your child and reviewed regularly.

    4. Any diagnostic paperwork you hold on your child is useful and should be shared with us.

If your child has an EHC Plan in process or agreed:

  1. The primary SENDCo will invite the Secondary SENDCo to the final annual review or one plan.

  2. All paperwork will be forwarded to the secondary SENDCo.

  3. An initial meeting to discuss a needs profile and support package will be arranged with you and your child.

  4. A One Plan meeting will follow and will review support regularly, leading to the Annual Review.

  5. You will be encouraged to have an on-going dialogue with the SENDCo to bring up issues and share successes.

English as an Additional Language

If your child is still learning English, but does not have a learning need, they will be supported to improve their basic English, while learning in mainstream classes. We encourage bilingual parents to help their child read, write and speak their home language. This may help them achieve a language qualification later on. They will be given extra work to learn both basic English and new vocabulary in each subject.