This Accessibility Plan has been composed based on the EHCP needs of students, in consultation with staff, parents, and students of The Sky Academy, and covers the period from September 2024 – September 2025.
The plan takes account of The Sky Academy’s public sector equality duty set out in Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.
We are committed to providing an environment which values and includes all students, staff, parents and visitors, regardless of their educational, physical, sensory, social, spiritual, emotional, and cultural needs. We are further committed to challenging attitudes about disability and accessibility, and to developing a culture of awareness, tolerance, and inclusion.
The Sky Academy’s layout and facilities:
The Sky Academy is committed to making reasonable adjustments to allow disabled students to access educational provision at the Academy. Currently, 95% of the buildings at The Sky Academy are accessible to wheelchair users. Adaptations to the rest of the buildings or for other disabilities (e.g., hearing, vision) will be maid on an individual case / needs-led basis, as determined by admissions.
We plan, over time, to increase the accessibility of provision for all students, staff, and visitors to the Academy in the following areas:
- Increase the extent to which disabled students can participate in the Academy curriculum.
- Improve the physical environment of the Academy to increase access to education by disabled students.
- Improve the delivery of information to students, staff, parents, and visitors with disabilities.
Please see Appendices for the three action plans relating to the above. These will be reviewed as and when necessary. It is acknowledged that there will be need for ongoing awareness training for all staff in the matter of disability discrimination and the potential need to inform attitudes on this matter.
The Accessibility Plan should be read in conjunction with the following policies, strategies, and documents:
- Disability Equality Scheme
- Equality Information and Objectives Statement for Publication
- Health and Safety Policy
- SEND Policy & Report
Welcoming and preparing for disabled students:
Where it is practicable to make reasonable adjustments to enable a prospective student to take up a place at The Sky Academy, and to satisfy the current admissions criteria, the Academy is committed to providing those reasonable adjustments.
In order to meet the needs of disabled students, the Academy requires full information. All students will have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP); the Academy will work with the Local Authority (LA), who creates and maintains the EHCP, to ensure the identified provision is delivered in an appropriate manner.
The Accessibility Plan will be monitored through SLT and the Academy Council. There will be a full review of the Plan in 2027, when a new Plan will be produced to cover the next three years.
Objective 1: Increasing the extent to which disabled students can participate in the School’s Curriculum.
Key points to consider when completing this table:
- Do teachers have the necessary training to teach and support disabled students?
- Are classrooms optimally organised for disabled students?
- Are lessons responsive to student diversity?
- Do lessons involve work to be done by individuals, pairs, groups, whole class?
- Do staff recognise and allow for additional time required by some disabled students to use equipment in practical work?
- Do staff recognise and allow for the mental effort expended by some disabled students, e.g. lip reading?
- Do you provide access to computer technology appropriate for students with disabilities?
- Are there realistic expectations of all students?
- Do staff seek to remove all barriers to learning and participation?
- Are students encouraged to take part in music, drama and physical activities?
- Do staff provide alternative ways of giving access to experience or understanding for disabled students who cannot engage in particular activities, e.g. some form of exercise in physical education?
Objective 2: Improving the physical environment of the Academy to increase access to education by disabled students.
Key points to consider when completing this table:
- Does the size and layout of areas, including all academic and social facilities, classrooms, canteen, library and common areas allow access for all students?
- Can students who use wheelchairs move around the Academy without experiencing barriers to access such as those caused by doorways, steps and stairs, and toilet facilities?
- Are pathways of travel around the Academy site and parking arrangements safe, routes logical and well signed?
- Are emergency and evacuation systems set up to inform all students, including students with SEN and disability; including alarms with both visual and auditory components?
- Are non-visual guides used, to assist people to use buildings?
- Could any of the décor or signage be considered to be confusing or disorientating for disabled students with visual impairment, autism or epilepsy?
- Are areas to which students should have access well lit?
- Are steps taken to reduce background noise for hearing impaired students such as considering a room’s acoustics, noisy equipment?
- Is furniture and equipment selected, adjusted and located appropriately?
Objective 3: Improving the delivery of information to disabled students.
Key points to consider when completing this table:
- Do you provide information in simple language, symbols, large print, on audiotape or in Braille for students and prospective students who may have difficulty with standard forms of printed information?
- Do you ensure that information is presented to groups in a way which is user friendly for people with disabilities e.g. by reading aloud overhead projections and describing diagrams?
- Do you have the facilities such as ICT to produce written information in different formats?
- Do you ensure that staff are familiar with technology and practices developed to assist people with disabilities?
