1. Aims

Swanmore College aims to treat all its pupils fairly and with respect. This involves providing access and opportunities for all pupils without discrimination of any kind. At Swanmore College we are committed to giving all of our pupils every opportunity to achieve the highest of standards and become ‘excellent in all they do’ by taking account of pupils’ varied life experiences and needs.  We offer a broad and balanced curriculum and have high expectations for all pupils, reminding them that ‘learning never stops’. We strive to be a fully inclusive school, and actively seek to remove the barriers to learning and participation that can hinder or exclude pupils. The achievements, attitudes and wellbeing of all our pupils matter.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published advice on the Equality Act (2010) for schools, which explains that schools must have an accessibility plan aimed at:

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

The Equality Act (2010) defines disability as “…a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative affect on your ability to do normal daily activities”.

This accessibility plan incorporates aspects of the Swanmore College Improvement Plan and pays due regard to the government lay and Hampshire County Council directives, including the Equality Act (2010), The Children and Families Act (2014) Part 3, which links in to the SEN Code of Practice (2015), and to previous legislation including the SEN and Disability Act (2001) and The Disability Discrimination Act (1995). Since September 2002, the Governing Body has had three key duties towards disabled pupils under Part 4 of the DDA:

1. Not to treat disabled pupils less favourably for a reason related to their disability;
2. To make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils, so that they are not at a substantial disadvantage;
3. To plan to increase access to education for disabled pupils.

The purpose of this accessibility plan is to set out the school’s priorities and proposals to increase access to school education for pupils with disabilities.

The plan will be made available online on the school website, and paper copies are available upon request.

Our school’s complaints procedure covers the accessibility plan. If you have any concerns relating to accessibility in school, this procedure sets out the process for raising these concerns.

We have included a range of stakeholders in the development of this accessibility plan, including pupils, parents, staff and governors of the school.

2. 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 he or she has a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ adverse effect on his or her ability to undertake normal day to day activities.

Under the Special Education 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 pupils with disabilities under the Equality Act (2010), to alleviate any substantial disadvantage that a disabled pupil faces in comparison with non-disabled pupils. This can include, for example, the provision of an auxiliary aid or adjustments to premises.

3. Current Good Practice