Accessibility Plan

Minerva School vision

To deliver quality first teaching, through an engaging and relevant curriculum with high expectations for all, that enables children to succeed and raise their aspirations

To provide a nurturing and stimulating environment that supports and celebrates learning – Nurture, stimulate, celebrate

To be a learning community which encompasses creativity, independence, resilience, diversity and a passion for learning

To enable our children to develop the essential skills for a safe, happy, emotionally and economically secure life

To be at the heart of our locality by working in partnership with families and the wider community.

Policy Statement

At Minerva School we are committed to ensuring equal treatment for all, including those with any form of disability. By ‘all’ we mean anyone involved in the school community including employees, pupils, parents, carers and governors.

We will reduce and eliminate the barriers to accessing the curriculum and will ensure full participation in the school community for pupils, and prospective pupils, with a disability. We will reduce and eliminate barriers to adults with a disability, be they staff, parents, carers, governors and all prospective individuals to ensure their full participation in the life of the school.

We aim to develop a culture of inclusion and diversity in which people feel confident about disclosing their disabilities in the certain knowledge that they will receive a positive and supportive response which facilitates their full participation in the full range of activities offered by our school.

We seek to foster a positive response to disability among all members in our school community and to eliminate bullying, harassment or the less favourable treatment of people with disabilities wherever and whenever it is likely to occur.

The school recognises and values parents’ knowledge of their child’s disability and its effect on their ability to carry out normal activities, and respects the parents’ and child’s right to confidentiality.

The school provides all pupils with a broad and balanced curriculum, differentiated and adjusted to meet the needs of individual pupils and their preferred learning styles, and endorses the key principles in the National Curriculum 2014 Framework:

• Promoting the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the at the school and of society
• Preparing pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Although this plan is a requirement for pupils, the school also has duty to staff and visitors, who will benefit from any amendments, in particular in relation to the building access.

Statutory Context

The SEN and Disability Act 2001 extended the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) to cover education. The Trust 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

This plan sets out the proposals of the Proprietor/Governing Body of the school to increase access to education for disabled pupils in the three areas required by the planning duties in the DDA:

1. increasing the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the school curriculum;
2. improving the environment of the school to increase the extent to which disabled pupils can take advantage of education and associated services;
3. improving the delivery to disabled pupils of information, which is provided in writing for pupils who are not disabled.

It is a requirement that the school’s accessibility plan is resourced, implemented, reviewed and revised as necessary and reported on annually. Attached is a set of action plans showing how the school will address the priorities identified in the plan.

School Context

Minerva is a mainstream school for children aged 2-11years. The school compromises of one main building plus an annexe; both are single storey. Originally built as an infant school the buildings have been extended and adapted over the last fifty years. There are different levels within the school with steps to different parts of the building. Access for those using a wheelchair is often difficult and certain parts of the building are currently in accessible. A building project is due to be completed during the 2020/21 academic year which will improve accessibility in the ETYFS part of the building.

Current practice

We aim to ask about any disability or health condition in early communications with new parents and carers as part of our school admission procedure.

Many entrances to the school are either flat or ramped and have wide doors. There are a number of automatic doors within the school. There are disabled toilet facilities available fitted with a handrail and a pull emergency cord. The school has internal emergency signage and escape routes are clearly marked.

There are only four rooms disabled pupils have no access to and these are used by older pupils

We support pupils with both physical disabilities and learning needs to access areas of the curriculum they find difficult. Where PE is a challenge for physically impaired pupils we seek expert advice for identified individual needs.

We consult with experts when new situations regarding pupils with disabilities are experienced.

Our key aims are to provide:

• Full access to the curriculum
• Full access to the physical environment
• Full access to information

Minerva Primary Accessibility Plan 2020 – 2022

Table 1: Full access to the curriculum

Table 2: Full access to the physical environment 

Table 3 Full access to information